White Crate — July 30, 2021
Lucifer-inspired doom metal from Oakland's King Woman, a free jazz epic from Filipino-American Karl Evangelista, a little gem from a 1966 folk classic, and more
Sore throat?
Fever?
Shortness of breath?
Loss of taste?
Check, check, check, check, and check. Yeah, I got delta’d, and it sucks. But it would be worse without the vaccine. Get vaccinated. Mask up. Take care.
Peace,
ronny
THAT NEW NEW
Eerie. Crushing. Ethereal. Massive, fiery, and full of doom. Oakland metal artist King Woman released Celestial Blues on Relapse Records today. The hotly anticipated album was featured as Bandcamp’s album of the day yesterday. Read more.
Bay Area rappers ALLBLACK and Nef the Pharoah appear on the new quick track “PANDEMIC” by Blessings.
Oakland pop punk group Blues Lawyer released the pleasant and sunny “Scenic Route”—perfect for your next California road trip—b/w “Crystal Ball.” You can even order the single as a playable postcard with a note from the band!
Brogan Bentley, who recently completed his master’s in electronic music and recording media at Oakland’s Mills College, released “The Work,” the third single from his upcoming album Diapason Rex, due out August 13 on Leaving Records.
Critically-acclaimed Oakland pedal steel guitarist Chuck Johnson opened up pre-orders for Precession, a 40-minute live meditation recorded in September 2018. The second half, “Axial,” can be heard at the link.
SF-based, Nicaraguan rapper Deuce Eclipse released sunny soul song “Just My Sun,” produced by El Juanio.
Jeff Parker, the experimental musician and guitarist from Chicago post-rock band Tortoise, performed as a session musician on Dougie Stu’s Familiar Future, which had been featured on KQED’s 10 Best Bay Area Albums of 2020. The collaboration continues with Parker’s new funky remix of “Joy Ride” (from the same album).
Longstanding SF rapper Equipto released “Days Go By” as a tribute to police victim Mario Woods, featuring Ka'Ra Kersey and Momma Woods with production by Monk HTS.
Following their positively received self-titled debut in March, Oakland band Fake Fruit just released poppy punk single “I Am the Car.”
HEADBOGGLE, the prolific experimental music alias of SF’s Derek Gedalecia, released “Ancient Trap,” the first single and leading track from Digital Digital Analog, due on Ratskin Records in September.
IDHAZ, a rising Bay Area beatmaker who appeared on LIGHT BEINGS #2 by SMARTBOMB and #ARMTHEGIRLS 2021 by WE ARE THE ONES WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR, released psychic behaviors on SF experimental label Left Hand Path.
Oakland artist Lexagon released brooding downtempo track “Hurricane,” the first single from Feminine Care, due on Ratskin Records in September.
Margaret in the Wild, the new album from Austin-born, Oakland-based musician Mia Pixley, was featured on Bandcamp’s New & Notable: “Cellist and vocalist Mia Pixley delivers a rich, emotive record with stirring vocal melodies and gorgeous strings for a riveting final product.”
SF rapper Ozer released Lost in Translation on Audio Vandals. The introspective, largely downtempo album features a bunch of fellow Bay Area artists, including the Jealous Guys, Professa Gabel, and Xiomara.
Continuing his weekly single releases, Berkeley rapper Rexx Life Raj dropped “Red Lobster Biscuits.” For more hella good freestyles, check out his recent releases: “Turn Her Up,” “Kimbo Slice,” “Alpharetta,” “Bodega Bay Freestyle,” and “Lockheed Martin.”
Magic Mind, the new album from SF psych rock band Sandy’s, was featured on Bandcamp’s New & Notable: “[They] tell a fantastical love story through soulful, sun-faded indie pop with distinct undertones of ’80s nostalgia.”
Sonny & the Sunsets released New Day With New Possibilities, a folk rock album they describe as “sixties teen country music that merged with sixties pop.”
Richmond rapper White Dave, whose track “Appraise” appeared on the soundtrack to Judas and the Black Messiah in February, released a new single called “Checks.”
Xiomara, who also appears on Ozer’s new album (above), released their self-produced album Sistas a couple weeks back, delivering over an hour of jazzy soul and R&B.
Zelma Stone, the SF-based indie pop project of Chloe Zelma Studebaker, released “Money Honey,” the second single from upcoming EP The Best, out August 20.
Russian deep house label Lisztomania Records released Feel It, a four-track EP by SF producer 3kelves.
Dark Entries Records released Mechanical Music for Brighter Days, featuring six tracks of hard-driving techno, electro, and acid house by Glaswegian producer Fear-E.
Sentient Ruin Laboratories released Malefic Obliteration by Portland, OR black metal group Disimperium. Because I can never get enough of their promotional language, here’s what you can expect from this EP: “a blinding assault of feral and merciless sonic devastation that will leave the listener crushed and disintegrated in its path.”
MAYBE MISSED
Filipino-American Karl Evangelista has revisited his free jazz suite Apura!—originally recorded in 2018 and released in 2020—with the help of storied jazz drummer Andrew Cyrille. Who is Karl Evangelista?
An Oakland guitarist and composer with a rigorously conceived and wide-open aesthetic, Evangelista is a creative force at the sonic frontiers where the Bay Area’s new music scene bleeds into jazz. Deeply informed by traditional music of the Philippines, he designed Apura by drawing on folkloric melodies, though the musical conversation unfurled with the roiling ebb and surge of a jazz colloquy.
Read more on East Bay Express and buy tickets to the online premiere of the performance featuring special guest Andrew Cyrille on Brown Paper Tickets.
CLASSICS
Of course, Simon & Garfunkel are from New York, but upon relistening to their classic album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, I found it fitting that the second verse on their track “Cloudy” name-drops the gray Bay Area:
Cloudy
My thoughts are scattered and they're cloudy
They have no borders, no boundaries
They echo and they swell
From Tolstoy to Tinker Bell
Down from Berkeley to Carmel
Got some pictures in my pocket and a lot of time to kill
Usually all the songs about California are about our sunshine and warmth, so you have to give the out-of-towner folk legends some credit for their poetic realism!
SHUFFLE ON
If you ever want to press play on the growing list of artists covered on White Crate, follow this Spotify playlist. Shuffle and crossfade recommended!