Posts Tagged ‘Oakland’

SPELLING – ” Mazy Fly “

Posted: November 13, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Mazy Fly

Mazy Fly, is the second full-length by the Bay Area artist Spelling, explores the tension between the thrill of exploring the unknown and the terror of imminent destruction. Chrystia Cabral spent the summer of 2018 in her Berkeley studio reflecting on the thresholds of human progress and longing for a new and better tomorrow. She was struck by the way the same technologies that have given humans the ability to achieve utopian dreams of discovery have also brought the world to the precipice of dystopic global devastation. Despite the darkness of this reality, Mazy Flyis defiantly optimistic. It is a celestial voyage into the unknown, piloted by Cabral.

Each song on Mazy Fly enshrines distinct sentiments within this imagined voyage, from the deeply personal (“Hard to Please Reprise”) to the cosmic (aliens travel to Earth to hear music on “Real Fun”). “Haunted Water” is an intensely heavy song about the memories of colonial violence that haunt the historical slave ship routes of the Middle Passage. “Under the Sun” is a cosmic prayer for good fortune that sees the potential for radical newness in our own lives in the births of stars.

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EMILY BROWN – ” Bee Eater “

Posted: September 17, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Emily Brown is a Californian singer-songwriter and poet. Drawing comparisons to Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell, her clear voice, and carefully crafted lyrics draw from personal experience and literature.

‘Unseen Girl’ possesses the type of chords and indie girl vocals that beat a path to our door on a daily basis. This time however it comes fitted with an urgency that suggests an artist up for the fight and in the process cuts a fine Sharon Van Etten dash. On this evidence Emily Brown could well be on her way, a soft edged juggernaut at full tilt where nobody but the bad guys get hurt. It grows and it blooms, if only falling in love with somebody was this easy. Emily Brown’s new album ‘Bee Eater’ is out at the end of August.

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Releases August 31st, 2018

All songs written and performed by Emily Brown 

Lindenfield: guitar, bass, upright bass, piano, Farfisa, drums, synths
Jaxon Williams: guitar
Aaron Hatch: clarinet
Stuart Wheeler: french horn, vocals
Alyssa Pyper, Mary Nielson, Anne Bennion: violin
Sophie Blair, Michele Gardiner: viola
Max Olivier, Paul Woodward: cello

LUMERIANS – ” Space Curse “

Posted: July 31, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Pre-Order: Lumerians - Call Of The Void,Vinyl,Fuzz Club - Fuzz Club

Lumerians long-overdue new LP, Call Of The Void, is officially unleashed into the world this Friday. Four years in the making it see’s the Oakland band return on top form, a face-melting combination of synth-heavy dancefloor grooves, oddball prog wig-outs and exploratory psych.

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Oakland, CA outfit Lumerians are a prodigious force in the extra-terrestrial realms of modern psychedelia. Since forming in San Francisco back in 2006, Lumerians have traversed their way through multiple different genres – offering mind-bending adventures into everything from space rock, kraut and noise to zamrock, free jazz, drone and dub. Drawing from a range of influences, both familiar and esoteric, past and present, Lumerians conjure up sounds from far into the future. In their twelve years as a band they’ve toured with everyone from My Bloody Valentine to Killing Joke and Black Moth Super Rainbow, putting out a number of critically-acclaimed releases including two ‘official’ albums and two collections of improvised compositions called Transmission from Tellos III & IV. On June 22nd the band will be returning with their third album, Call of the Void, on London-label Fuzz Club after four years under the radar. The album is dedicated to the memory of Barrett Clark, Lumerians’ long-time friend, sound engineer and collaborator who passed away in the tragic Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland 2016.

It may have taken the band four long years to put their latest album together but it was definitely worth the wait, their mystical exploratory soundscapes at their finest. Eclectic and vastly multifaceted, the album is further proof – if you needed it – that Lumerians are a singular force in contemporary psychedelia. Talking about Call of the Void, vocalist Jason Miller explains: “If ‘Transmalinnia’ represented the exploration of an alien world and ‘The High Frontier’ a voyage through space, ‘Call of the Void’ is a penetrative exploration of Earth through an alien gaze gone native – the weight of gravity, the build-up of pollution and sediment, experiences of ecstatic revelry and tragedy.”

JAY SOM – ” Hot Bread “

Posted: February 7, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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With Valentine’s Day coming up and whether you’re single or coupled the day can bring on complicated mixture of memories, regrets and desires. The latest from Oakland-based dream-pop artist Jay Som depicts a specific kind of romantic encounter in a bright, meandering tune.

“Hot Bread” is featured on Love Me Not, one of two playlists (the other is called Love Me) that Amazon Music has compiled in honor of Valentine’s Day. As the titles suggest, each playlist offers a different take on love. But Jay Som’s track isn’t a gushing ode to romance or a lamentation on lost love; instead, “Hot Bread” deals with tricky, blurry feelings that fall somewhere in between.

Jay Som, aka Melina Duterte, says the song is about having a one night stand with a former lover. In the first two lines, she sings, “Will you dance with me, Jen? You won’t have to see me leave again.”

Duterte’s pleading voice and pensive guitar give the tune a light, vintage feel with a tinge of sadness. About halfway through, whistling and trumpets interrupt the song with a cheery melody, jolting you out of the melancholy chorus. Duterte says that she enjoys making songs with themes or light guidelines and that this track was “insanely fun” to write and record.

“My new microphone arrived just in time to track the song,” she says. “The warm and dry ’70s tone inspired me to make a chill but optimistic arrangement with simple lyrics … I also named the song after one of my favorite things in the world.”

“Hot Bread” concludes with Duterte repeating the line, “You’re always gonna be here,” though it’s not clear whether this means her former lover will forever be the one who got away or if their relationship has been saved. Regardless of the outcome, her ex’s “powerful love” has sunken in once again, leaving the artist feeling as scattered as the piano notes at the end of her song.

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CLUB NIGHT – ” Shear “

Posted: January 11, 2018 in MUSIC
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Club Night are less a supergroup and more a logical coming together; the band consist of members of various Oakland DIY-bands, who went to each other’s shows, supported one another’s project and then almost inevitably formed a band. Members of various musical backgrounds and styles, thrown together by band-leader Josh Bertram, Club Night quietly produced something cohesive and intriguing, their debut EP, Hell Ya.

The band have recently shared the video to their latest single, “Shear”. The track is a frenetic blast of angst and energy, combining the impassioned yell of Wolf Parade with the expansive ambition of Broken Social Scene. Add a claymation video with ominous nods to the illuminati and Shear becomes an exciting triumph and a fitting send off to what has been an excellent year for Club Night.

Band Members
Josh Bertram, Rebecca Lukens, Ian Tatum, Josiah Majetich, Devin Trainer

Hell Ya is out now via Tiny Engines.

MADELINE TASQUIN – ” Future Telephone “

Posted: November 10, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Madeline Tasquin was born and raised in Quesnel, BC, Canada, on a diet of Maria Callas, Joni Mitchell and river water. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2006, she can often be found galavanting about Montreal. It was in Montreal that she wrote, recorded and mastered her upcoming debut EP, Future Telephone, which is out now. Her varied musical influences include Bjork, Feist, Animal Collective, Chopin, Mr.Bungle, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, and her mother. Singing in both English and French, Canadian-Californian songcrafter Madeline Tasquin weaves nimbly from jazz folk to odd-meter soul, and from sassy pyschpop ballad to delicately dark fairy-tale, delivering it all with a stage presence that radiates. With influences ranging from Primus and Mr.Bungle to Rachmaninoff and Chopin, it’s no surprise that her songs takes unexpected harmonic and rhythmic twists and turns, though she manages to pull this off without leaving anyone in the room behind.

The track is a study of long distance relationships and modern (mis)communications. Explaining the track, Madeline suggests, “The lyrics of this tune are paraphrased from actual lines and emotions spoken and felt by myself and my (now ex-) sweetheart in a long period in different timezones, when our words and intentions got lost in pixelation thanks to these future telephones we were trying to communicate complex emotions through”. Musically, Future Telephones is a delight; Madeline’s dulcet vocal tones, accompanied by flourishes of piano, jazzy guitar and even at its denouement some delightfully, smoky saxophone. The entire EP exists as an attempt to communicate with people, an attempt Madeline admits may get lost in “the radio silence of modern living”, it will be a great shame if it does as Future Telephone is a message the world could do with hearing.

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All lyrics & music written by Madeline Tasquin
Vocals, guitar, piano: Madeline Tasquin
Synth, sax, vocals: Félix Petit
Bass: Jeremi Roy
Drums, percussion: William Côté

 

ACTUAL WOLF – ” Faded Days “

Posted: September 11, 2017 in MUSIC
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Eric Pollard has an interesting musical career. played keyboards for Low, drumming for Retribution Gospel Choir and Sun Kil Moon and body and soul devoted to Actual Wolf, his country project. With an enviable back catalogue that covers the spectrum from home made demos to fully produced, crisp tracks, the music of Actual Wolf mixes classics like Merle Haggard, Johnny Paycheck, The Band and Red House Painters.

His music conveys that open country landscape with massive overcast skies, straight from America’s heart. Fading emotions, like freight trains howling away during the night, are spread all over Faded Days, his latest album. As the album gets a vinyl release on September 15th.

DAY WAVE – ” Untitled “

Posted: May 9, 2017 in MUSIC
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Image may contain: 1 person, guitar and outdoor

We have been fans of Day Wave since day one. Jackson Phillips (AKA Day Wave) debut LP The Days We Had, the albums is full of dream-pop, sunshine sound, emotional and honest,  Jackson Phillips has been making music for a long time, the Oakland based musician came to our attention in 2014 when his dream-pop sound captured our imaginations and made us a little queasy with idea of butterfly sunshine, and candy floss love. It felt like a first date in many a confusing way. Phillip’s displayed on several occasions with tracks such as ‘Drag’, ‘Total Zombie’ and ‘Come Home Now’ his incredible ability to write piercing hooks and simplistic, heartfelt pop songs. They all felt like love letters ‘To Jackson, From Jackson’. There was something special in the simplicity, but this debut LP, released via Fiction Records and out now, was his next big step.

The ethereal pop bliss he brings is what dreams are intricately sewn up with and the lyrics tend to paint the skies of them.

He has now released ‘Untitled’ another alt-pop gem and perfect for a beautiful day like today. The track is released alongside the new LP The Days We Had which is out now on Fiction Records.

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We were worried that Day Wave would never match up to their earlier efforts as they had a lo-fi veracity that is hard to do twice, but tracks such as ‘Gone’ and ‘Drag’ are now a golden memory, while ‘Untitled’ and ‘Something Here’ are the present. Phillips and co have made another powerful step into the limelight.

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JAY SOM – ” Live from WXPN “

Posted: April 17, 2017 in MUSIC
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Melina Duterte, the main brain behind Jay Som. The Oakland-based artist has been making music on her own for a few years, recently releasing her full-length debut on Polyvinyl, “Everybody Works”. Though all the parts on the album are played by Melina herself, she tours with a full band that features Oliver Pannell on guitar, Dylan Allard on bass and Zachary Elsasser on drums. Taking a short break before a show with The Courtneys, Jay Som dropped by to showcase how the meticulous studio tracks blossom in a live setting.

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Jay Som’s songs end to sneak up on you. Check out the slow-building intro on session opener “Baybee.” On the album, a light keyboard line floats through the R&B-inflected track, but it’s re-imagined as a slick guitar line from Pannell. The intertwining guitar work toward the song’s end betrays the band’s collective love for exploratory groups like Stereolab and Television. Next up is a fan favorite, “The Bus Song.” Again, the interplay between the band members raises the already dynamic track to new highs (and a few dramatic lows). It also marks what might be the very first fake-out ending on an IRHP session track. Closing the session is the meditative “One More Time, Please.” The song doesn’t feature very many lyrics, but it’s a sparse and arresting track nonetheless.

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HAZEL ENGLISH – ” Fix “

Posted: April 2, 2017 in MUSIC
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Up and coming dream-pop artist Hazel English is from Melbourne, Australia by way of Oakland, California, but her new music video for “Fix” is a fantasy of a perfect all-day date in summertime Los Angeles. “I want to feel alive,” English croons as her new beau pushes her in a shopping cart and feeds her mango with chili and lime. “Tell me you want / Me to stay the night,” she sings, and it’s hard to know if the video is supposed to represent real events, or the fantasy of the young woman who first appears alone with her copy of Tank Girl.

Hazel English’s newly announced double EP “Just Give In / Never Going Home” is out May 12th via Polyvinyl. The Never Going Home half was previously released;

Fix is the first single of my 2 x EP Just Give In / Never Going Home out May 12th

2 X EP NOW

1. Other Lives, 2. Fix, 3. Birthday, 4. Love is Dead, 5. More Like You

Includes Bonus Track – That Thing

6. Never Going Home, 7. Make It Better,8. Control,9. It’s Not Real, 10.I’m Fine

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