PicoBlog

Here’s a couple updates for the really hardcore music data nerds. If you didn’t know, we post all our reviews on the official White Crate website. Not only can you go back in time and see all our old reviews but also!

You can always respond to this email with feedback or leave us a comment. Much love, and scroll along for all the best in new Bay Area music.

— White Crate

Heavy, spiraling, entrancing—and utterly satisfying. New this year, SF band Chokecherry has only released two songs, but they’re both outstanding. We’re far from the first to realize it: Their debut single “Glass Jaw” has already racked up nearly a million plays on Spotify (TikTok viral??) and their newest single released last Friday “Around Around Around” keeps the catchy ethereal vibes flowing.

This band may be new but they know what they’re doing: Guitarist Izzie Clark also performs with Thank You Come Again, bassist Scarlett Levinson sings in Fauxes, and drummer Maryzelle Ungo operates sound healing events for The Center SF. And now the magic of the blend starts to make sense. This is healing music that fucking rocks.

— Ronny Kerr

“A lot of our friends are in such amazing local bands that we feel very lucky to be able to be part of a scene like this and be fans of our friends’ music. Plus, the Bay is a place that encourages open-mindedness, which has really helped to shape our music.”

Sun hats. Guitars. Smiles. Anything else we need for our trip to the waterfall? Oh! The perfect album to listen on the drive up. Just press play on The Breathing Room.

The super chill Berkeley psych rockers just released their full-length debut album and White Crate had the honor of premiering the music video from the album’s opening track, “Love Lost.” Filmed by the band’s drummer Tori Leonhardt, the vintage-styled video captures the band and friends frolicking in one of Earth’s beautiful places, conveying the sunshine ease of romance, platonic love, and sweet, carefree days. It reflects the personal nature of the full album, which the band says serves as an ode to the place where they first lived and made music together. And it’s only the opening to the rest of the album, just the thing for a drive to and from paradise.

Celebrate The Breathing Room’s record release at Rickshaw Stop tonight along with Juan Wayne, Mae Powell, and Sweet Lew.

Read our full interview with The Breathing Room →

— Ronny Kerr

I don’t remember what year it was.

I don’t remember who she was opening for.

But I remember the night I first saw Spellling live. Do I remember what she sang? No. Do I even really remember what it sounded like? No. All I remember is what I felt — light; like I had been lifted to another part of space. In reality, I was upstairs at Starline Social Club, but I felt like I had slipped into a trance.

Spellling’s newest record, Spellling & the Mystery School, will still take you places, but it will probably be somewhere a little heavier. What sets this one apart from previous work is that this seems a noisier, fuller affair – which makes sense, as she’s backed by a full band on this one. But it’s still the same old Spellling Oakland knows and loves.

Spellling & the Mystery School is made up of reinvigorated versions of old tracks, stretching back to Pantheon of Me, the full-length that put her on the local map. Everything’s just got a little more oomph this time around: “Haunted Water” from 2019’s Mazy Fly, beats a little faster, while “Under the Sun” sounds almost totally different, trading the original synths for live instruments in some spots. “Boys at School,” now packed tightly with more instrumental layers, becomes even bigger than before.

If you want to feel the way I felt that night at Starline, you can catch Spellling live with Sasami, Fat Tony, Laraaji, Sun Ra Arkestra (!!), and more at Children’s Fairyland for Atlas Obscura’s “Through the Looking Glass” on Saturday, September 16.

— Jody Amable

What’s steady rocking, modestly melodious, and perfectly representative of an Oakland indie rock record? It must be the latest release on Dandy Boy Records! After years of singles and EPs, Adam Widener and Bobby Martinez of the 1981 just dropped their debut full-length Move On. A concept album about the unraveling of a couple’s relationship, the music itself slots easily into the peg hole of East Bay power pop with the help of musicians from fellow Bay Area groups Neutrals, Chime School, and Yea-Ming and the Rumours. No revolutions here, just slack, marching snare and fuzzed out heartache.

— Ronny Kerr

“The connection between the San Francisco Bay Area and Japan’s hip-hop communities has been an intriguing subplot in the world of underground rap for decades, but only so many musical projects have taken the opportunity to celebrate it.” — Promo notes from Music for Indoor Cats

More than two years after Music for Indoor Cats, SF beatmaker Brycon rejoins Japanese producer iLL Sugi on Devastating! Forces of Nature! to celebrate their cross-Pacific musical kinship. As with the earlier album, Devastating! is a split cassette tape featuring Brycon’s dreamy, soul-tinged boom bap on side A and iLL Sugi’s mellow jazz cymbal and wind chime reverie on side B. They each get their own side but they’re also mutually influential, inspiring each other to dig deeper and manifest their own sonic styles more completely, delivering the chillest vibes end to end.

See Brycon and iLL Sugi play at Bottom of the Hill on August 29 alongside fellow Bay Area artists J.Lately, Rocky G, and Oddity.

— Ronny Kerr

Our top show recommendations for the coming week:

[rock] The Breathing Room (record release), Juan Wayne, Mae Powell, Sweet Lew — August 25 at Rickshaw Stop

[punk] Wifey, Unity, Shrugging, Planet Birthday — August 25 at 924 Gilman

[club] DJ Juanny, Kimosabe b2b Discnogirl, and more — August 25 at Mothership

[club] Squish x Garage Access → Pangaea (Hessle Audio) — August 25 at Monarch

[rock] Due South ft. Cherry Glazerr, Momma, King Isis — August 26 at Jerry Garcia Amphitheater

[rock] Whitney's Playland, Grace Sings Sludge and the Sluts, Ice Cream Head — August 26 at DM organizers for address

[rock] Spacemoth, Credit Electric, Beaunoise — August 26 at Thee Stork Club

[r&b] Afterthought, Miss Hits, Quid Rango, Funky Door — August 26 at Starry Plough

[club] Estoc, Ritchrd, Tom Marsi, Mothbot — August 26 at Underground SF

[club] LU2K, Introspekt, Snaq, DJs Who Kiss, Cherub420 — August 26 at secret Oakland location

[rock] Los Cogelones, Fauxes, Buzzed Lightbeer, Thank You Come Again, DJ La Huevona — August 27 at Kilowatt

[rock] Boris, Melvins, Mr. Phylzzz — August 27-28 at Great American Music Hall

[hip hop] J. Lately, Rocky G, ill Sugi & Brycon, Oddity — August 29 at Bottom of the Hill

[experimental] Ellen Arkbro, Sally Decker — August 31 at the Lab

[rock] AP Tobler, Ariel View, Miniluv — August 31 at Bottom of the Hill

ncG1vNJzZmivmJ7Bpq%2FRmqueZqOqr7TAwJyiZ5ufonyxe9OwpmarmaO0rbHSZquoZaOprrOwzqZknKCfoLKktMSrqbI%3D