2011-12-21

Cruel Summer - 2011-12-04 - TKT004, Oakland CA


Cruel Summer
2011-12-04
TKT004 
Oakland CA

Equipment used:  Olympus LS-5 (w/built-ins)

Setlist 

As reproduced below, but for those who are sight-impaired.  Titles given were what the songs were called at the time.

Skinwalker
Venetian Blinds
Silent Star
untitled new song
White Flag
Carquinez

Recording (FLACs in a zipfile))

The lineup:  Josh Yule - guitar, Thea Chacamaty - voice & guitar, Chani Hawthorne - bass, Sean Mosley - drums

Here were my right-after-the-show impressions to my friends: 

"For me, the standout was the first band, Cruel Summer, who were from SF.  If you have heard of or liked Cold Showers or Dunes [look for some upcoming writeups!], these guys had the same sort of thing going.  

Apparently, it's a new band who have been around for several months...the bassist is gorgeous...and they sing about the Carquinez Bridge, so what's not to love?   A giddy mix of swirlcore and shoegaze, *definitely* worth keeping an eye out on.  As you can tell, I'm a sucker for this stuff, and I'm sure y'all the same way.  Yes, that's me being asked what was the name of the band, right before they play their new song they don't have a title.  [Of course, I answer wrongly with 'Manatee', who are the next group on, stay tuned!]  I had no clue, who do people think I look like I know anything?"

Okay, I better head this off at the pass...

"The bassist is gorgeous" comment is going to get me into trouble in certain quarters...like my wife, the bassist herself, any self-styled moralists agog at my objectification, etc., so at some point I should learn how to better self-edit, but I really can't go back on what I said without feeling deceitful, and it truly is symptomatic about how the deck is stacked when you're a female musician, so I left that in there to prove a point, which is...well...I'm not sure now.  Help?

Back to the music, and here's where I get myself in even more trouble.  I didn't want to mention certain bands, but 'Skinwalker' reminds me of a particular 90s UK group whose name rhymes with "mush", which is probably your brains at the point having to contend with all of my needless verbiage, the folks at Bay Bridged have a much more informed article which you can read instead of any further stupidity from me.

One of my fellow contributors has already made the band aware of this recording and has passed it along to them.  Which is good since I'm not sure if they'll want to hear from me now.

More photos in my Fickr set

Listen to their FREE EP on Bandcamp

2011-12-19

Weekend - 2011-12-03 - The Bay Brewed - Verdi Club SF


Weekend
2011-12-03
"The Bay Brewed"
Verdi Club SF

taper: tomzero



equipment: Sonic Studio mics -> Edirol R-09HR (24 bit / 48 kHz) -> Nero (level boost & downsample to 16 bit / 44.1k) -> cd wav -> flac level 8

setlist

Falling Away
Veil
End Times
Afterimage
The One You Want 
Untitled
Hazel
Coma Summer



"And finally Weekend, who were well worth the wait.  thehappyone points out that this setlist wasn't as good as that from the apartment show. Still a great show. Oddly enough, the hall had emptied out a little by the end, and it was over by 7pm. It might have had something to do with the fact they stopped serving beer just after Weekend took the stage. Then again, anyone who'd like the previous two bands..."

Note:  There were two other bands that played "The Bay Brewed", we have exercised our editorial perogative in choosing not to cover them here at this time.

If you're liking this, please do yourself a huge favor and visit the Slumberland Records site and BUY their releases:






2011-12-16

Terry Malts - 2011-12-03 - The Bay Brewed, Verdi Club SF


NOTE: Due to other commitments, I wasn't able to make this show.  Plus, if I had drank $45 worth of beer, I wouldn't have remembered anything!

Terry Malts - 2011-12-03 
Verdi Club, San Francisco
"The Bay Brewed"

Sonic Studio mics -> Edirol R-09HR (24 bit / 48 kHz) -> Nero (level boost & downsample to 16 bit / 44.1k) -> cd wav -> flac level 8

setlist


01 Nauseous
02 I Do
03 What Was It?
04 Waiting Room
05 Something About You
06 Not Far From It
07 Where Is The Weekend
08 Tumble Down
09 Mall Dream
10 I'm Neurotic
11 Can't Tell No One

Complete audio recording (FLACs in a zipfile)

Some exclusive video footage from the end of 'What Was It?' and 'In The Waiting Room'


Notes from my partner in crime...

"It's taken a while, but I'm finally able to present Bay Brewed for your listening and viewing pleasure.

First off...the Bay Brewed. The idea is pretty clever. $45 to see 4 bands and drink as much beer as you can. The price was a bit steep, but judging from the crowd, it seems like some came mostly for the beer.

[The Verdi Club is also] where we went to the next day for Thee Oh Sees.  It is reminiscent of a high school auditorium during a battle of the bands competition, but I actually don't mean that in a negative way. And if Terry Malts and Weekend went to my high school, I'd be pretty happy.     [Note:  All these shows are forthcoming!]

Terry Malts kicked off the show and once again were amazing.  Don't know what else to say. You've seen em by now and know just how good they are. Phil only dropped his pick once btw. (Corey dropped his twice!)"

More photos from The Bay Bridged...

2011-12-15

Thee Oh Sees - 2011-10-30 - Ukrainian Cultural Center LA



Thee Oh Sees live October 30, 2011 at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Presented by FYF as a halloween party! Absolutely insane crowd. Thought I was gonna die in the first 5 minutes. 

Includes the amazing Lars Finberg as second drummer!!

setlist: 

01 soundcheck
02 Contraption/Soul Desert
03 The Dream
04 Enemy Destruct
05 Meat Step Lively
06 Carrion Crawler
07 Robber Barons
08 Block Of Ice
09 Destroyed Fortress Reappears
10 ?
11 Dead Energy

encore:

12 Tidal Wave
13 I Was Denied


COMPLETE SHOW VIDEO (now gone, sadly)


AUDIO RECORDING (resuscitated!)

Thee Oh Sees Tour Diary (via The Wayback Machine)



Video and audio courtesy of bcingyou and Moko117.


2011-12-13

Total Control - 2011-10-30 - Ukrainian Cultural Center LA







Actual screencaps
Total Control opening for Thee Oh Sees at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Presented by FYF as a Halloween party. This was a KILLER show!!!!

01 See More Glass
02 Retiree
03 One More Tonight
04 AL Punk
05 Carpet Rash
06 Total Control
07 Stonehenge
08 Goth Plod
09 Love Performance
10 Meds



COMPLETE SHOW VIDEO


AUDIO ON DIME


(Courtesy of Moko117 and Bcingyou)

2011-12-08

Weekend and The Soft Moon - 2011-11-09 - Secret Show, Oakland CA

Durkan, Johnson, Pedroza

Weekend
2011-11-09
Secret Show
Oakland CA
Kevin J.

Setlist

Falling Away
End Times
Sweet Sixteen
Hazel
untitled new song
Veil
The One You Want
Age Class
Coma Summer



Incubation bittorrent (FLAC files in zipfile).


I've added in my compatriot's recording, which sadly, ends at the start of Sweet Sixteen.

Video (Falling Away/End Times/last half of Coma Summer)


Anastasi, Vasquez, Way

The Soft Moon
2011-11-09
Secret Show
All smiles all the Way
Oakland CA

Setlist

Joy Divsion - As You Said intro
We Are We (alt vid of end)
Breathe The Fire
Circles
Out Of Time
Dead Love
Parallels
Alive
Tiny Spiders

Incubation bittorrent (FLAC format)

I'm not sure what this was about...


Two things about the 'secret location' (in effect, a house show) that caused a bit of trepidation right off the bat:

(1) there was a lot of people crammed in the small space
(2) we were up on the 2nd floor, how much weight can the floor bear?

But there was really nothing (well, not much) to worry about, everything turned out great in the end, and you couldn't beat the price (free).  Both these three-pieces have been getting some seriously good (and deserved) press, so that they would even consider doing this is cool beyond words.  

The Soft Moon went on and played a really good set, though I had seen them a few days before and so I wanted to give others a chance to get up close, at least that's my excuse, the truth was it was so crowded I got pinned a bit further back than what I was hoping for.  Weekend's set was amazing, and for that I was down in front, the video footage I shot should give you some idea, Kevin could have easily brained me with the head of his guitar, and probably *should have* for my impudence.

Due to getting bumped, my compatriot only recorded the first two Weekend songs, so we only have mine to go from, heavily re-EQ'ed as the mics were under somebody's purse at one point.  The Soft Moon effort is the usual dual-source blend.


Some more pics:


The location

This was pinned on the wall

80's era boombox somebody had brought for tunes


For more photos, see my Flickr collection.