7 posts tagged “san francisco”

 10/17/2008 08:43:38  ♥ written by vu ()

Loquat - Harder Hit Loquat 2 comments Tour Dates 10/17/08 The Hideout, Chicago, IL 10/18/08 Illini Union Courtyrd, Champaign, IL 10/20/08 The Gypsy Hut, Cincinnati, OH 10/21/08 Annabell's, Akron, OH 10/22/08 Red & Black, Washington DC 10/23/08 The Fire, Philly, PA 10/24/08 Ace of Clubs (CMJ), NY 11/04/08 Bottom of the Hill, SF,CA Read More Loquat http://weheartmus... I actually really love San Francisco's Loquat, so imagine my surprise to find that I have an adva... Loquat kicked off their tour last night at the non - profit / community - run The Cedar in Minneapolis. I've only ever been to this venue once before, and things seem to be looking up for this historic theater. The audience seems to be somewhat a mix of NPR patrons, couples with children, and artsy college students. Loquat was the first of three bands for this Greycoats' CD release party. What's interesting about the Greycoats' set is that they had movies projected as they play. Although it's interesting, I found myself distracted by the moving picture. Each movie is timed exactly to the music, most of it went pretty well, except for the 50s "Day the Earth Stood Still" which ended early because they had cello sound problems. It looks like, according to their official and myspace, that they are going to be tour mates with Loquat... And of course, Loquat played an hour earlier. They started playing shortly after 7:30pm, which is kind of early, so I reckon a lot of latecomers missed them... However, it did look like there were a lot of Loquat fans (and families) in the audience. Loquat - Swingset Chain Kylee was pretty talkative inbetween songs, adding that "Swingset Chain" was about her friend and it was emotional being back in Minneapolis. I later found out that she grew up in Minneapolis, and have "always wanted to play here". She was quite friendly after her show too, lots of fans stood in line to get a chance to get her autograph and to talk to her. The main act was Chris Koza (chriskoza.com/myspace), who I was told that I've seen him before, opening up for Jeff Hanson. He had a keyboardist, violinist and the standard guitarist/bass/drums, and I seriously don't remember that many band members at the Hanson show. Koza was easy-going, relaxed even, and the best part was they had carved this Halloween pumpkins the night before and had put them on stage. He named one of them "Luis" or "T___" I couldn't make out the second name over people's laughter at the ridiculous name. So check out Loquat and Greycoats on tour. PS, apology for the white text for RSS readers!

Links: www.loquatmusic.com myspace.com/loquat

 10/15/2008 00:04:46  ♥ written by vu ()

Loquat - Harder Hit Loquat 2 comments Tour Dates 10/16/08 Live TV on KARE 11, Minneapolis, MN 10/16/08 The Cedar, Minneapolis, MN 10/17/08 The Hideout, Chicago, IL 10/18/08 Illini Union Courtyard Cafe, Champaign, IL 10/20/08 Gypsy Hut, Cincinnati, OH 10/21/08 Annabell's, Akron, OH 10/22/08 Red and the Black, Washington DC 10/23/08 The Fire, Philly, PA 10/24/08 Ace of Clubs (CMJ), NY 11/04/08 Bottom of the Hill, SF, CA Read More Loquat http://weheartmus... I actually really love San Francisco's Loquat, so imagine my surprise to find that I have an adva...

Loquat, a band based out of San Francisco, are as sweet and delicious as the Chinese fruit that they are named after. Their brand new album, Secrets of the Sea, came out yesterday, October 14^th.

Loquat - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

3 comments

If you remember, the last time I mentioned Loquat, I was telling you that I discovered them through their wonderful Smiths cover, "There is a Light That Never Goes Out".

Singer Kylee confessed that she was quite hungover when they recorded the song:

Kylee Swenson wrote: Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 1:41 PM

If you only knew how hungover I was when I sang that Smiths cover. Oh man, it hurt so bad. Thanks for the kind words, We Heart Music. See you guys October 16 when we play in Minneapolis, finally....

I don't know what the big deal is, but they really, really, want to play in Minneapolis! The weather here is getting a little chilly, I recommend a heavy sweater when going out at night.

The cool thing is that they will be appearing on KARE 11, our local station here. I'll have to find the listing hopefully try and tape it.

Anyroad, the album is still somewhat dreampop, with electronica. Swenson's vocals is still sugar sweet here. It's all good though, if you've ever liked female-fronted bands, Loquat should be right up your alley.

Loquat - Swingset Chain

Compared to their first album, It's Yours To Keep, the new album, Secrets of the Sea, sounds just a little more aggressive, but overall both album sounds pretty much has the same tone and music style.

Some of the strong tracks includes the first song, "Harder Hit". I'm glad to see that the band also love this song as it is also their promotional music video. The video is based, no, more like inspired, by the French film "Le Ballon Rouge" (The Red Balloon).

Other songs I thought was very strong: "Sit Sideways", which has a funky feel to it at the beginning, but the electronic and piano keys brings it back to a nice rhythmic beat. I mildly smiled at the line "I'm rubber and you are the glue" on "Clearly Now".

Also, check out "These Kinds Of Friends" too. Listen to the first few bars of the song - does it remind you of Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang"? Maybe it's just me.

Secrets of the Sea is out now on Talking House Records, where you can purchase the album directly for an even-steven $10. Look for them on the rest of the tour through the midwest and eventually at the monster that is CMJ (they take the stage at 11pm).

Enjoy their video:

Links: www.loquatmusic.com myspace.com/loquat 

 07/26/2008 04:38:40  ♥ written by vu ()

Skybombers - It Goes Off

Here's a quicky, just because there are some news & notes. Since, you may have noticed, I like doing these theme posts, this theme are one-song submissions.

They are very easy to write about (hey, it's just three minutes of your life!) but because they're based on one song, there's really not much I can write about.

First up, if you have a need to get all the latest music news, check out our announcement page. It's updated nearly every few hours, so news junkies will love this.

Some interesting news to note: watch DIG for free, Skybombers Announces new US Tour Dates, download Jeff Hanson music, and if you're in New York - you guys are so lucky. You could be attending Spiegelworld Festival!

That's just a few items from the nearly 100 post I've made since its birth a few days ago!

LOQUAT loquatmusic.com ♥ myspace.com Loquat - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out 3 comments I actually really love San Francisco's Loquat, so imagine my surprise to find that I have an advance copy of their brand new album, Secrets of the Sea - which is not out until the third quarter of this year. I'm probably not even supposed to talk about it until October, but what I can tell you is that it's very, very good. Just keep your eyes here, or site.w♥m for the latest news. Since I can't unveil any music from the new album, I will tell you that I first discovered her a few years ago when Loquat covered The Smiths' classic "There is a Light That Never Goes Out". Since I was already a huge Morrissey/Smiths fan, it's easy to fall in love with her version... which is a safe and very faithful cover. You can download the song from their flash official website. Kylee Swenson wrote: Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 1:41 PM If you only knew how hungover I was when I sang that Smiths cover. Oh man, it hurt so bad. Thanks for the kind words, We Heart Music. See you guys October 16 when we play in Minneapolis, finally....

THERESA ANDERSSON theresaandersson.com ♥ myspace.com Theresa Andersson - Birds Fly Away 1 comment Since I am in love with all-things Swedish, here's a handsome girl called Theresa Andersson. Looking over her press release about her tour dates and the dazzling 700k youtube views. The weird thing is that the press release doesn't indicate any link to the actual video, but if you were curious, it is her playing in her kitchen (in New Orleans?). I was given one of her song, "Birds Fly Away", from her upcoming album Hummingbird, Go! (is that a nod to Thunderbirds Are Go!?) on September 2nd, and I thought it was very 60s pop girl-sounding, but with weird percussion instruments. I was happy to see that Mr Tobias Fröberg is producing her album. Theresa Andersson - 'Na Na Na' 1 comment Trust me, this is a girl worth keeping an eye on.

THE DARES thedares.com ♥ myspace.com The Dares - Love Me When I Leave 1 comment Speaking of keeping an eye... Here's The Dares, an up-and-coming power pop trio from California, by the way of Vermont. Maybe I'm just old, but usually this kind of high-energy, on the verge of punk, type of music really isn't my cup of tea. However, I would have to admit this "Love Me When I Leave" is pretty catchy. It's very short, I had to re-play it a few more time to hear how well produced it is. They're currently signed to Zomba Recordings, which is a division of Sony/BMG, so expect a push from them on popular radio this Summer. Even if they don't do much this year, youth is on their side, I'm sure you'll hear from them next year.

THE SPACE BETWEEN THINGS myspace.com/thespacebetweenthings The Space Between Things - Towel (More Vocals) 3 comments After three version of his "Towels" song, Chris Hobson, aka The Space Between Things finally settled for his perfect version of "Towels". The irony would be if I f-ed up and uploaded the wrong version :/ I'm not given a whole lot to work with here, just one song and no biography. Instead, he directs me to an interview he did at Daydream Generation, which showcase the awesomely snowy Toronto (which means, shock, he's Canadian). Daydream must really like him, as he's also on their Daydream Generation 5 free compilation (over 300mb of music!) So happy downloading and let me know what you think of his song?

Links: weheartmusic.com

Hardworlder 9 comments

Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians 8 comments

  I was once watching Henry Rollins talk about meeting William Shatner for the recording of “I Can't Get Behind That” from his album, Has Been. In the story, he recalls the Shat asking him, “Henry, do you hear a guitar?”

His reply: “No, but I hear a high pitched whine in my right ear since 1982.”

This quote kept replaying itself in my head as I watched The Sword and Slough Feg destroy the Neurolux in a way that would make Slayer proud, and now I'm hearing it loud and clear despite the high-pitched whine in my own right ear. While Children dropping off the bill was rather disappointing, it gave the other bands much longer sets to work with, making the $10 cover more than worth it. Both bands played for roughly an hour, and didn't let up for a second.

San Franciso's Slough Feg (formerly The Lord Weird Slough Feg) is a band that started life in 1990 in Pennsylvania. Their sound is a more traditional, hard rock style of metal with a doomy edge. Vocalist/guitarist Mike Scalzi spent as much time standing on the floor monitors as he did standing on the stage and the band ripped through their set with more energy than most bands half their age. Between songs, Mike asked trivia questions and threw records to the people who answered them correctly. He also seemed to be all about posing for pictures whenever he saw a camera. The band sounded tight, and were a lot of fun. Definitely worth catching on their own.

Slough Feg 5

Slough Feg 1

Slough Feg 2

Slough Feg 3

Slough Feg 4

The Sword 6 3 comments

The Sword 1

The Sword 2

The Sword 3

The Sword 4

Both of these bands are still on tour. Unfortunately, Slough Feg will only be playing with The Sword for two more shows, in Salt Lake and Denver. The Sword is touring through July, including an east coast tour with Torche and Stinking Lizaveta, and then a European tour with Metallica! I can't emphasize enough that this band is about to be inconceivably huge, so catch them in a tiny club while you still can!

The Sword 5

More info:

The Sword's official site

Boneless Children Foundation - Stars For Anyone

If indie bands were rated on their names, San Francisco's three-piece Boneless Children Foundation would be an instantaneous hit. You know you thought the same thing. It's got the look-twice factor.

Beyond the name, though, they're purveyors of that thoroughly upbeat, happily sarcastic punk-pop noise defined as a genre by They Might Be Giants; think the soundtrack of a higher-caliber teen movie produced in the 90's and you might be getting close. Their press sheet compares them to The Talking Heads, The Who and The Unicorns, which is right in a roundabout sort of way- it's distinctly punk drumming, some enjoyable straight-out rock guitar riffs and witty/ironic lyrics thrown on top (one of their songs is called Carl Sagan, make of that what you will). David Sophia Siegel, the frontman, has a very east-coast whine, all languid and sneering, which really defines their sound.

Admission: when I come across new bands I tend to categorise their sound not as 'who they sound like' but as 'the exact scenario in which one would listen to them'. You'd listen to Boneless Children Foundation on big old headphones at an American laundromat in a cool inner-city neighbourhood, while wearing sneakers and op-shop clothes, dancing stupidly around the driers. It's that sort of ironic indie post-punk extravaganza, so it's fitting that they've been garnering buzz via college radio stations.

Whether this makes sense to anybody beside myself is, of course, another question. If you want a more specific pinpoint, think the Dead Milkmen with a bit of glam rock thrown in to make things interesting.

Boneless Children Foundation have no shows planned at the moment, but head over to their Myspace for their album, and check out the very silly webcomic on their official website if you're into that.

 12/03/2007 08:51:15  jennifer my♥posts bonelesschildren myspace

Satoru - Tell Me What you Feel

Satoru

1 comment

Satoru just released his CD, Ash Returns to Ash on September 18th, but according to his last news posting (dated August 3), he's already confirmed a second album Balancing in the Twilight to be released very soon in October! His myspace is probably more current, and lists the sophomore album to be released in November.

Before I begin telling you about Satoru, I should point out that he license his work as Creative Commons, which means anyone can copy, distribute and transmit the work, as long as you give credit and attribution for noncommercial usage. This is pretty awesome, I think more artists should release their music via Creative Commons.

So I found out that he's actually the singer of a San Francisco band called The Thunders. It would seem to me that the Thunders haven't released any CDs (I couldn't find any evidence of any) and that all the members are from Japan.

With the Japan thing, this is really obviously if you start to hear some of Satoru's songs. It's in English, but there is that really distinctive accent.

Most of the tracks off Ash seems to me to be instrumentals (tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 12, and 13). Most of these instrumentals guitar noodles and pluckings seems like Flamenco sounds, so if you enjoy that kind of thing...

The ones I did like are the ones with lyrics (which by all accounts are only 39% of the songs). Track two, "Tell Me What You Feel" is the best among all the songs. It has a good balance of music (especially at the 3:40 mark) and lyrics.

 10/06/2007 23:59:33  vu my♥posts vu@weheartmusic.com www.satorucolusa.com

The Lightning Bug Situation - The New Dad

The Lightning Bug Situation

The Lightning Bug Situation the stage name for Brian Miller, from San Francisco, California. He is also half of another band called The Speakers, who are Miller and Peter Musselman. They are childhood friends from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

A Leaf; A Stream is one of those albums that needs to be listened to in one entire sitting because each track flows into each other. Just keep that in mind when you listen to the audio track that I've picked out for you: "The New Dad".

This album came to me via, Brent, a massive fan, who's convinced that the A Leaf; A Stream (2007) album is the alternate soundtrack to Solaris (1972). He even went so far as to setup a myspace page for his theory.

Fortunately, in my 2,000 DVDs, I do have the Criterion Edition of Solaris and the first thing I did was compared the minutes: they obviously don't match up. Solaris is a very long movie, clocking in at two hours and forty-nine minutes, while the A Leaf album is only 51 minutes (you will have to repeat the album more than three times).

To test this theory, I followed the instructions by Brent and will include an excerpt on our Stage6 Video. Let me know if this theory holds up. The two songs featured in the Solaris video is "Under Your Jacket" and "Topher's Last Song".

Also, The Lightning Bug Situation and A Leaf; A Stream album was recently featured on NPR's Open Mic

I know lately I've been putting in a lot of videos, and especially Stage6 which requires you to download and install their web player. I personally prefer Stage6 because they offer high-definition content, but many people don't want to install additional software like the divx web player... but trust me, once you get a taste, you will not go back to the poor youtube quality.

 August 19, 2007 10:36 PM  vu my♥posts vu@weheartmusic.com thespeakers.info