Bay Area, Music

Bay Area Music Focus #1

With the world at a standstill, I figure a good way to keep projecting the sound of the Bay from where I’m standing, is with this little monthly feature that y’all can look forward to from here on out. Look for a few deeper track and artist highlights, along with newsletter style links to other music-related happenings in the Bay Area at the bottom.

Follow Everything Ecstatic on Twitter or Facebook and support the Bay Area music scene! Much love. — AS

Baybs – “Would You Dare”

Out today, “Would You Dare” is the lead single off of Baybs’ debut EP, Introvertigo. Fronted by SF’s Craig Jacobs, Baybs emerged last year and I was happy to have booked them on stage at Amnesia a couple of times. The EP is coming out June 11th on local faves Text Me Records, and I’m stoked to see Text Me staying committed to indie rock along with the loads of hip-hop that they’ve been churning out.

“Would You Dare” is polished slacker folk rock, backed by singers Melissa Russi and Chloe Zelma Studebaker (of Zelma Stone) and Jacobs’ hook is a real nice payoff. The track is produced by Timothy Vickers who’s sporting a golden touch on the boards as of late. Jacobs describes this music as a salve for fits of agoraphobia and social anxiety: “The times I felt like literally jumping out of my skin, the only thing that helped was picking up a guitar and creating a melody and building a composition from there.”

Waterstrider – “Liquid”

I’ve always half-joked that Oakland-based Waterstrider’s Nate Salman has an impossible voice. He registers eye-popping high notes and it’s even more otherworldly live. With a spectral electronica beat, “Liquid” sounds like it could be playing in a spaceship rave with Salman’s vocals ranging over a chaotic light show. Salman, who’s been exploring the building blocks of his existence and identity constructs as of late, has this to say: “The song describes a vision of hope rising out of fear. In this time of disconnection, uncertainty, and isolation I am aiming to reassure others (and myself) that we are not alone.”

Sour Widows – Twin Peaks Sessions

This third highlight comes from Oakland’s Sour Widows, who put out their stellar debut EP on February 28th. And now last week, the band released a stripped-down Twin Peaks Session featuring just singers Maia Sinaiko and Susanna Thomson on guitar on a rooftop overlooking San Francisco from Twin Peaks. They played renditions of songs “Whole Lotta Nothing” and “Low Doser,” which are memorable for the way they sound as they are for the way the Twin Peaks Sessions video series is produced; you feel the crisp fog overhead rolling parallel to the tunes.

I love what Twin Peaks Sessions have been doing in featuring Bay Area bands in this serene, birds-eye setting. It’s a super DIY operation, but the sound and video quality are top notch. Peep the Sour Widows session below and hit up the Twin Peaks YouTube channel here.

MORE FROM AROUND THE BAY

Oakland-based Bandcamp is waiving their revenue share again this Friday and every first Friday for the next three months. There’s also over 150 artists and labels doubling down with more offerings this Friday.

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down have a new album called Temple due out on Ribbon Music. Watch the all-ZOOM video for “Phenom.”

Producer Wax Roof has worked with some of Bay Area hip-hop’s best. Now, he’s released his own EP, Top Floor, featuring appearances from Caleborate, Ymtk, theMIND and more.

Peep the saucy new single from SF darkwave pop duo NRVS LVRS, “Prom Night Blues.”

Do-it-all producer, pianist and MC Kev Choice just released his album created primarily during shelter-in-place and yes, it’s called Social Distancing. Check out this piece on Choice by Emma Silvers in the SF Chronicle Datebook section. (Also, big shouts to Kev Choice’s daughter, Anya, a basketball star at Cardinal Newman HS who has committed to play ball next year at my dear UC Santa Barbara. Go Gauchos!)

Women’s Audio Mission is an incredibly important organization in the Bay that teaches young women and non-gender conforming individuals the ins and outs of audio engineering. Push back on a recording industry disproportionately dominated by men and school yourself with Zack Ruskin’s piece on WAM’s virtual music education efforts here in the SF Chronicle Datebook section.

The new P-Lo video for “Get Lit” features a collage of video footage from fans dancing to the jam. It’s dorky AF, but it’s a cool look at how multi-cultural the Bay Area hip-hop fanbase is and the man writes a hook with the best of ’em.

If you’re seeing this today (Thursday) before 4pm, Rickshaw Stop is selling their current beer stock, along with some merch from 12-4pm on Thursday only. You can also get your very own Rickshaw Stop shot glass for $5 (I will be) at 155 Fell St tomorrow only. Cheers!

Bay Area, Music

Everything About ‘Pamela’ is Mysterious.

Paris is the setting for Pamela, the new short film from astronauts, etc. frontman Tony Peppers, Chaz Bear of Toro Y Moi and the Berkeley-based Company Studio. Peppers is the film’s main character, shrouded in mystique as he courses through the city mindlessly breathing and exploring in a lovelorn state.

The film, which comes across like an elaborate mood builder for the eventual introduction of Peppers and Bear’s new track, “Metropolitan” is shot using a Super 8 camera and is riddled with modern impressionist nostalgia for the most Parisian minutiae: A top floor patio smoke, spooning the foam of a sidewalk cafe cappuccino, a stroll through an art museum, deep breaths over a red wine lunch and having a think seated on the edge of the Seine; all with the same sense of calm.

The cinematography (from Bear and Samantha Sartor) experiments with inside out distance captures. One shot focuses on Peppers walking out onto the street, then zooms out to reveal the building’s full imposing facade. Another begins focused on pages of a book, then pans out to show Peppers reading under a tree in a park. The intention is always to give more windows into the essence of the mind in Paris, from different vantage points.

All in all, Pamela serves as an artistic music video for “Metropolitan,” which plays through the film’s denouement as Peppers’ elegant “Pamela’s Theme” score fades down, into a newfound canvas laid down by cathedral bells. The first official track from Peppers and Bear delves deeper into the David Axelrod-esque psychedelia wormholes that Peppers started digging into on astronauts, etc’s 2018 LP Living In Symbol. With the voice of hypnotic waking life stitched through, “Metropolitan” represents an effective convergence of the enveloping keys of astronauts, etc. with a touch of the Toro y Moi groove and we’re left wanting more. Here’s hoping for it…

A limited run of Pamela on 7″ vinyl and a digital album drop on 4/20. Get it here on Bandcamp.

Music

Vision: A New Playlist For 2020

The time is now. I’ve been adding songs to Vision, the 2020 Everything Ecstatic playlist since the start of the year and it’s finally in presentable enough shape to start sharing it with the world while it keeps building. The COVID-19 pandemic is serious business and everyone’s affected. More than ever, we need music to help get us through these days. So here we are.

Today, there are 31 mostly new songs and just over two hours of music on Vision from Burna Boy and Four Tet to U.S. Girls and Seu Jorge. But I’ll be adding tracks to it as the year rolls along, just like I’ve done with my previous yearly continuous playlists (which you can also re-visit):

Vision is below and subscribe on Spotify here to keep vibing with the playlist as it builds into a musical picture of 2020. Be safe, be healthy and we’ll get through this together. Much love.

(Top Photo: Ocean Beach on 1/1/20)
Albums of the Year, Music

Playlist: Best Songs Of 2019

Closing the book on 2019 with EE’s favorite songs of the year. All 30 of them are in the Spotify playlist below and while unranked, I’ll say this: “Not” by Big Thief and the harmonious collab we never saw coming in “Studie” by Teebs & Panda Bear, are the two songs that’ll stay with me the longest from this year.

The playlist checks in at 121 minutes and it’s a journey through the songs that marked 2019 for me. From Flying Lotus putting a bow on Denzel Curry’s “Black Balloons” trilogy and Priests’ fierce “The Seduction of Kansas” to Spellling’s post-Castlevania vibes on “Under The Sun” and Pop Smoke’s Brooklyn drill pomp meets North London swagger on the “Welcome To The Party” Skepta remix. Press play, enjoy. Peace.

Check out Everything Ecstatic’s Top 60 Albums of 2019

Albums of the Year, Music

The Top 60 Albums of 2019

Ranking the best albums of the year shouldn’t have to be about consensus. Heck, I’ve been making this yearly list for over 12 years and while I’ve sometimes fallen victim to the pitfalls of slotting and naming certain albums on the list because of the prevailing critical belief about their greatness, that approach is now effectively out the window.

What you’ll find in Everything Ecstatic’s Top 60 Albums of 2019 list, is a direct reflection of the best music I listened to and enjoyed the most this year; whether it’s by a mainstream artist, or someone you may have never heard of before. The latter, is what I think has made EE’s Albums list great for so long. ‘Cause at the end of the day, this site is about discovery and enthusiasm for said discoveries (of course). Stylistically, it’s always gonna be all over the map, from jazz to hip-hop to indie, electronic and beyond…from all over the globe.

Lastly, I’ll say this: I’m glad that I waited until 12/23 to release these picks, because the more days we have to listen to the insane amount of tunes that are getting released throughout the year, then the less likely it is to miss something you absolutely needed in your life (Jamila Woods’ incredible Legacy! Legacy! for example, would not have made its way onto the list, let alone into the Top 10 if this list was finalized in early December. )

So with that, here’s Everything Ecstatic’s Top 60 Albums of the Year, along with a Spotify playlist of them all at the bottom of the post. Follow @EcstaticBlog us on Twitter and like the EE Facebook page to get music shouts on the regular and to stay up on the EE live events series.

AS

Click the Albums of the Year tab at the top of the web page to re-visit more than a decade of EE year-end lists.

Stellar Spins (60-51)

60. Arthur Russell – Iowa Dream

59. Kedr Livanskiy – Your Need

58. Rosie Tucker – Never Not Never Not Never Not

57. Hand Habits – placeholder

56. Hot Chip – A Bathful of Ecstasy

55. Skepta – Ignorance Is Bliss

54. San Fermin – The Cormorant 1

53. Bedouine – Bird Songs of a Killjoy

52. Nate Mercereau – Joy Techniques

51. Jordan Rakei – Origin

The Top 50

50. Black Belt Eagle Scout – At The Party With My Brown Friends

49. Mndsgn – Snaxx

48. Billie Eilish – WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

47. Kindness – Something Like A War

46. Salami Rose Joe Louis – Zdenka 2080


Continue reading The Top 60 Albums of 2019 →
Bay Area, EE Presents, Live Music

ZOLA Album Release Show at Cafe Du Nord

Hyped to announce the first Everything Ecstatic Presents show of 2020! We’re partnering up with the good peeps at Noise Pop for ZOLA’s album release party at Cafe Du Nord on Thursday, January 23rd.

ZOLA is the musical project of SF native Zola Johnson (not to be confused with Zola Jesus.) She has an elegant and powerful voice that guides her gorgeous indie R&B/pop songwriting in both English and French. Her debut LP, Don’t Eat, is out Friday, January 24th on KIDinaKORNER Records.

Joining the bill are fierce Bay Area stalwart rocker Emily Afton and SanduNdu, the solo project of EE faves Bells Atlas.

Get to know ZOLA on my Noise Pop Podcast Sound of the Bay LIVE episode and peep her gorgeous Twin Peaks Session atop the San Francisco fog bank below.

Tickets for the show are available here. Holler!

Top photo by Rianna Garrido

Bay Area, EE Presents, Live Music, Photography

VISION: Meernaa + Brijean + Waterstrider at Amnesia (Photos)

On Thursday, December 5th, we hosted three of our favorite Bay Area indie bands in an intimate evening at Amnesia. Better yet, it was a phone-free affair courtesy of our friends at Yondr and everyone felt well…present.

The music was beautiful and our pal Ginger Fierstein was there with her Holga camera to capture some of the show and crowd. I’ve always loved Ginger’s photography because she uniquely captures the magic of a moment. Peep the photos below, some words from Ginger and follow Everything Ecstatic on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on what’s next!

“I try to anticipate feeling and emotional moments when I’m shooting. I only have 12 shots on a roll, so I have to be careful not to waste them. The goal is to make each frame a worthwhile memory for whoever’s in the frame. I think I do a lot of double exposures to extend the life of the roll, but to also try and capture something a little less literal than a straight photograph could.” — (All photos by Ginger Fierstein)

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Bay Area, Drinks, Live Music

Analog Time Machine: Die Hard at the Roxie Theater

We’re presenting the second “Cult Classic Party” in the Analog Time Machine series with the best Christmas film of them all: Die Hard! Our first ATM party was back in May for the 40th Anniversary of the Warriors and now, we’re super hyped to present THE cult classic holiday movie!

Thursday, December 12th at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, it’ll be a Die Hard screening + themed beers from Local Brewing Co (Yippie-Ki-Yay IPA and Hans Gruber Lager!) and a pre-show DJ set called “Elevator Music” by Chad Salty!

Tickets can be purchased here and the music gets started at 8:30, with the film at 9:15. Welcome to the party pals!

Made it to the bottom of the post? Lucky you! Now enter for a chance to win a pair of tickets to Die Hard + a limited edition print + a hat from Local Brewing!

Bay Area, EE Presents, Live Music

A Digital Detox w/ Salami Rose Joe Louis, Foxtails Brigade & MPHD

On Thursday, August 1st, Everything Ecstatic is putting on another show and this time, we’ve teamed up with Yondr to make it phone free! That’s right folks…dude who puts his phone up the second the music starts and records the whole first song? Gone. Homegirl who scrolls through Instagram instead of watching the bands. See ya!

If you’ve gone to a Dave Chappelle or Jack White show recently, you’ve probs seen what Yondr does. They make these little sleeves to pop your phone into at a show so you can’t pull it out ’til it’s over. I know, I know…this is what it’s come to, to ween us away from our phones at live events, but damnit if we don’t need it sometimes. They’re also based out of the Mission and I’m stoked to collab with them on this show…And what I love about booking this showcase, is that it illustrates how it’s not just major acts that benefit from a phone-free experience, it’s local and emerging artists as well (and it’s also just $5 at the door at Amnesia on Valencia St; full details at this link)

With that, here’s a bit about the all-Bay Area lineup!

Salami Rose Joe Louis

Recently signed to Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder records, Salami Rose Joe Louis is the project of producer/multi-instrumentalist Lindsay Olsen. Her music is a trip into outer space for people who are standing on their own two feet. Dig it.

Foxtails Brigade

A total fucking staple in the Bay Area scene, Foxtails Brigade are a baroque-pop group helmed by singer Laura Weinbach. Collectively, they’ve been putting down one of the strongest live performances in the Bay for a minute.

MPHD

A tech-house producer at his core, MPHD is a shape-shifting DJ who’s a staple in SF. We premiered his Repetition EP last year and it’s a short, but steady slap.

Art, Travel

Montréal’s Impeccable Street Art

I took a walking tour on the morning of my first full day in Montréal this summer and the guide, Anne-Marie, clearly had a thing for street art. When I realized she was wearing a T-shirt from an art gallery she took us too, it all made sense why admiring murals and graffiti art in Le Plateau Mont-Royal was just as much a part of our tour as walking inside of Old Town’s Notre-Dame Basilica or navigating through Montréal’s underground walkway network.

With that, here’s a spread of some of the stand-out works that can be seen branching out and around from Saint-Laurent Blvd in the Plateau (with artist IG’s linked in the caption so you can go down your own street art rabbit holes.) Also, it should be noted that many of these went up as part of the yearly Montréal Mural Festival.

And shout out Spade & Palacio for a refreshing look at the city. Peace.

@pichiavo – Spain
@roneglishart – US
@dface_official – UK
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Ending awkward silences since 1983.

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