Revisiting great 2025 releases by Grey Causeway and Ripped to Shreds
Dandy Boy Records is on a poppy post-punk hot streak, a great live recording from San Jose death metal band Ripped to Shreds, plus our weekly show recs
Thanks to everyone who joined us at the Bay Beats show last weekend!
More exciting updates to come :)
— White Crate
POPPY POST-PUNK
Released at the start of the summer, the self-titled debut album by Grey Causeway merges the lyrical simplicity and catchy melodies of pop punk with the gritty, minimalist edge of post-punk.
The poppiness emerges most obviously on “I-580,” “Quiet Girl,” and “The Raft,” with tunes one could happily bop along to. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the album’s penultimate track “Sick Day,” which sounds particularly wicked in its entrancing disquietude. (One may wonder if it’s an obviously sarcastic shrug at capitalism but, with such meager lyrical content to work with, listeners must decide on their own.) With years of experience playing in Bay Area bands—including Smokers, The Peechees, Papercuts, and The Jim Yoshii Pile Up—Grey Causeway presents familiar sounds in a riveting new package.
Grey Causeway is just one of several recent releases by Oakland’s Dandy Boy Records. For more local alternative rock, indie pop, and punk, check out new releases from the likes of Rhymies, Autos, Whitney’s Playland, Ryli, and The Wind-Ups.
CHINESE DEATH METAL
"Gotta make connections with real people." — Andrew Lee
Remember when Bandcamp was independent? Remember when they regularly hosted intimate shows at their office and record store in downtown Oakland? That was sick.
Two years after their live performance there, Ripped to Shreds released the recordings on No Glory Here to Be Found, capturing a blistering half hour of their grinding death metal. Though they have since released a new album entitled Sanshi (2024)—exploring the themes of death and the afterlife in the context of traditional Chinese folklore—at Bandcamp the group played songs from Luan (2020) and Jubian (2022).
With Jubian, the first Ripped to Shreds album on Relapse Records, Lee said that a key driving force of the band was increasing the "visibility of ABCs [American-born Chinese] in extreme metal by being very blatantly Chinese.” Whether you're familiar with the cultural context or not, the music is a rapid, megalithic, relentless pummeling of demonic noise from its "Opening Salvo" to the final "Peregrination."
Ripped to Shreds tours Taiwan and Japan in November, but you can see them in Berkeley with Master, Laceration, and Molten at 924 Gilman on Friday, October 10.
SHOW RECS
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[traditional] Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto — July 10 at Yerba Buena Gardens
[rock] The Revelator, Michael Michael Motorcycle, Tin Can Talker — July 10 at the 4 Star Theater
[rock] Van Goat, John Brothers Piano Company, Cave Clove — July 10 at Rickshaw Stop
[rock] The Mummies, Juicebumps, Wife, Buzzed Lightbeer, DJ Big Nate — July 11 at the Knockout
[eclectic] SONIC ARTIFACT ft. closegood, Lizzy Dutton, Canal Kn!ght — July 11 at Eternal Now
[rock] Mike Huguenor (record release), Star99, Pacing — July 11 at Art Boutiki
[club] NO BIAS ft. WTCHCRFT b2b ARCHANGEL, Yuca Frita, Kimosabe b2b RITCHRD — July 11 at Underground SF
[techno] DIRECT TO EARTH ft. Matrixxman, Max Gardner, Adra — July 11 at DM organizers
[rock] Orchestra Gold — July 12 at Yerba Buena Gardens
[experimental] Peaces (record release), Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Joel St Julien, The Urxed — July 12 at 1201 Minnesota St
[experimental] Aine Nakamura / Jacob Felix-Heule — July 12 at the Lab
[jazz] Ben Esposito (record release), Lucy Wijnands — July 10/13 at the Black Cat
[fest] NOISE POP FERRY FEST ft. Big Blu Soul Revue, Liv Belda, Prophet Martian, Astralogik, Dead Nettle, Mae Powell, Magic School Busk, Maya Elise, Rory Lynch, Three Flower Jam — July 13 at the SF Ferry Building
[metal] Three Towers (record release), Phantasmal Abyss, Speak for the Dead, and more — July 13 at Pussy Palace
[experimental] The Forcefields, Mia Pixley — July 15 at the Lost Church
[jazz] "Sounds of the Tenderloin" ft. Howard Wiley — July 16 at Great American Music Hall
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