Ring in the new year by revisiting fantastically caustic DIY punk louder than a BART train
Acoustic piano and voice by Madeline Kenney, an anthology of Erica Mar's ambient techno, and a megamix of all our favorite Bay Area music from 2023
Happy 2024! We hope you all had a safe and joyous celebration to ring in the new year. Ready for one more look back?
From hip hop to R&B to rock to electronic to experimental to metal and beyond, please enjoy this megamix of our favorite music from the Bay Area in 2023.
— White Crate
CAUSTIC DIY PUNK
False Flag made headlines a year ago when the young punk band played a claustrophobic set on BART, winning the band coverage in local news. Hailing from the Tenderloin, the trio followed up their DIY powermove with Big Sleep, eight caustic tracks that’ll have you itching to open up a pit on those fancy new BART cars. The album’s Damaged-era Black Flag punk rock multiplies Henry Rollins-level disgruntlement with three screamers contributing to the mayhem. Opener “Cerebellum Obstruction” sets the vibe with chugging guitar and abrasive screaming, “I’m a slave to that train til’ the end of the line/Itching off my skin/Taking up my time/Our decaying city crumbles/Where’s your hope? Where’s mine?“ “Mind at Bay” oscillates between a caustic doubletime mosh and sludgy overdriven throbs, like Sabbath on quaaludes. The album’s high water mark is the five-minute epic, “My Golden Heart Will Never Bend” which blooms like an explosion from slinky guitar to bombastic sludge.
— David Gill
CLUB MUSIC FOR GHOSTS
Is this club music for ghosts? Compiling tracks made by the Oakland producer between 2016 and 2023, saint dissociation is a noteworthy introduction to the ambient techno world of Erica Mar. Moody, ethereal, eerie, many of the ambient pieces here could soundtrack a horror film set in lonely, distant reaches of the galaxy. But these slow-moving phantoms are perfectly counterpointed by techno tracks, setting the airy winds and clanging chimes to repeating, dancing rhythms. For choice examples of the two styles here, check out “shedding the accoutrements of the persona” and “bless.” The artists says the release is intended to help them “leave all of those years behind and MOVE forward with a new sound,” so we look forward to hearing what comes next.
— Ronny Kerr
RAW SPARSE EMOTION
What if I told you Madeline Kenney’s A New Reality Mind—the obvious star of last’s year’s crop of Bay Area albums—could get better? I tend to think sequels are superfluous and unnecessary, because why mess with a good thing? But The Same Again: ANRM (Tiny Telephone Session) is a welcome exception, the masterful album transposed entirely onto piano and nothing else (save some friends to sing backup).
In this new form, the album takes on a different, though not totally different, tenor. The Same Again spotlights Kenney’s songwriting first and foremost. And while the original packed a stark emotional punch to begin with, this version further highlights the feeling behind these songs. For example: I love the way she hits the word “wall” in “Superficial Conversations,” and with little else to surround it it’s just so effective here. Her delivery is so expressive, and the music frames it so well, that these sound like the middle-of-the-second-act wistful ballad from a well-loved musical.
— Jody Amable
SHOW RECS
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[experimental] The San Francisco Tape Music Festival — Jan 5-7 at Victoria Theatre
[indie] Dandy Boy Records presents The 1981, Sob Stories, Yea-Ming and the Rumours, The Goods, Funeral Cake — Jan 5 at 924 Gilman
[rock] French Cassettes, The She’s, Seablite, Preschool — Jan 5 at Rickshaw Stop
[hip hop] Kamaiyah, J. Espinosa, Party Ardi b2b Nunu — Jan 5 at 1015 Folsom
[club] Tricky FM (tape release), Sucker, Reality TV, DJ Candied — Jan 6 at Brick & Mortar Music Hall
[rock] ESG, Abracadabra, DJ Hot Goth GF — Jan 6 at Great American Music Hall
[rock] CHEEKFACE, Juicebumps, Combo — Jan 6 at Rickshaw Stop
[club] Enzyme Cultural Center fundraiser by bodyheat ft. Solar, Experimental Housewife, Tyrel Williams b2b suade — Jan 6 at F8
[punk] Figure Eight, Taciturn, Wife, Shuv — Jan 7 at Tamarack
[punk] Telephone Numbers, Mister Baby, Kitchenette — Jan 10 at the 4-Star Theater
[punk] Pardoner, Chokecherry, Spiral Dub, Armin — Jan 11 at Rickshaw Stop
[experimental] Lea Bertucci, Michelle Moeller — Jan 11 at the Lab