Music for aliens, grads, and people who've had their catalytic converters stolen
New reviews of spaced out electronic synthesis by Pale Blü Dot, bouncy house by Lu's Room, funky swift twisting bars by Casey Cope + our weekly show recs
Listen to White Crate’s newest episode from Lower Grand Radio, compiling some of our favorite new music from the Bay Area!
— White Crate
PLAY HOUSE
“I’m 23 but I don’t feel young
Don’t have a job and I can’t find one (that’s right)
Any day the world might end
So let us laugh and play pretend”
Fresh, bouncy dance music for the bedroom or the forest rave, Welcome is the debut EP by Lu’s Room, a project by nonbinary, Chilean-American artist Lu Agnew. A recent graduate from UC Berkeley, Agnew matches not just the particularly Gen Z-flavored idgaf attitude of Fcukers, but also their irresistible house productions.
Following the EP’s short intro, “23” stands out, stating in a matter-of-fact tone what most recent grads are likely thinking and feeling: Everything sucks, but we can still dance. Other highlights: “LUCY” plays with synthy glissandos and jumpy beats in the indietronica sphere while “on the roof / every time” rolls out funky bass and uplifting arpeggios for a rooftop party-ready banger. If this is just a starting point for Lu’s Room, we look forward to seeing what they release next.
— Ronny Kerr
MUSIC FOR ALIENS
“This album is dedicated to the brave explorers of the future, as well as the ones of the past crossing vast oceans. Never knowing if they would see humanity ever again.”
Literally spaced out electronic synthesis, Deep Space Blues by Pale Blü Dot is an unsettling study on the ever-circulating sci-fi concept of post-Earth humanity. From the album’s opening, hesitant questions—”Hello? Can anybody hear me?”—eerie unease pervades the album, each track an unstable setting of electronics and glitched out vocals expressing a poetics of communication, disconnection, and change.
Even the most otherworldly art pieces we fabricate always end up reflecting the realities of life on this planet, and that’s true here too, whether it’s emotional/relational disconnect cast as “Communication Delay” or interpersonal/social isolation so extreme that “Sometimes I Feel Like an Alien.” By exploring the concept of humans born in space (for whom “Earth Is a Story We Tell”), Pale Blü Dot ends up presenting the strange, disorienting feeling of being alive on this spaceship we call Earth.
Deep Space Blues is one of two new albums via Airlock Recordings, along with the club-ready junglism of 2025_I by UFO!
— Ronny Kerr
ARE WE??
“Okay, I’m praying to a god I ain’t never believed in
Guess that where your heart go when your hope get extinguished
Everybody a believer when they living in anguish
Wonder where your heart go when you’re rich and you’re thankless“— Casey Cope on “Lauds”
Life’s Never That Bad, says Casey Cope on his first album in five years, laying down funky rhythms and swift, twisting verses about the up-and-down realities of life. Album highlight is “Hoes Lovers Friends,” a track dissecting relationship status with bold bars delivered over soft and sweet time-warped jazz guitar.
Hailing from San Leandro, the rapper-producer-engineer can do it all, and he wants you to know it. Seeing him open up shows for Family Not a Group (as he recently did at the Independent and Great American Music Hall) is an experience in contrasts: Where the headliner comes out partying 17-people-strong, Casey Cope commands the stage solo with a microphone, backing track, and all-eyes-on-me attitude. He’s also a brilliant collaborator, as evidenced by his work with Qamp, where he and Marquito assemble a couple dozen Bay Area creatives to make an album in three days.
You will lose loved ones, you will lose jobs, you will lose catalytic converter after catalytic converter, and, eventually, you even have to say goodbye to life. Still: Maybe life’s never that bad.
— Ronny Kerr
SHOW RECS
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[latin] KQED x KEXP ft. Ritmos Tropicosmos, Bululú, Mare.E.Fresh + Sizzle Fantastic (DJ) — June 12 at Crybaby
[jazz] San Francisco Jazz Festival — June 13-15 at SFJAZZ
[experimental] Aine Nakamura: "hands on tape" — June 13 at the Lab
[alternative] J Camden / Jas Stade (double album release show), Saankofa, Channelle Ignant — June 13 at Santo Recording Studio
[latin] Magical Realism: Queer Caribbean Sounds ft. Esotérica Tropical — June 13 at SOMArts
[alternative] Sarah Coolidge (record release), Sonny & his Rhinestone Sunsets, Juicebumps — June 13 at Rickshaw Stop
[alternative] Tune-Yards, Madison McFerrin — June 13 at the UC Theatre
[house] Bored Lord, Jeremy Castillo — June 13 at 201 Octavia St
[alternative] Welcome Strawberry, Stab, Dusty Slims, Sacramento — June 13 at Kilowatt
[hip hop] RNJ & Bonnie Darco, WINDOW, Kerzy, Honest, KJ Focus, Gyst — June 13 at the Spice & Tea Exchange
[club] DIRTYBIRD ft. Justin Martin, Life on Planets, DJ Minx, Christian Martin — June 14 at the Embarcadero Plaza
[house] Bored Lord, Charles Hawthorne, FINISHHER, Freaky Emo, Pinche Queer — June 14 at El Rio
[fest] Native Contemporary Arts Festival — June 15 at Yerba Buena Gardens
[americana] The California Honeydrops, The Dip, Marcus Rosario & Wonway Posibul — June 15 at Stern Grove
[r&b] Dani Offline, Kahj + Versâam, Samplelov — June 15 at Cafe du Nord
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