Been Stellar Embrace Role as Gritty NYC Ambassadors

Photo Credit: Gabe Long

Been Stellar will play at the Warfield on Tuesday, September 24

We all know “(Theme From) New York, New York.” When we hear Frank Sinatra belt out that tune, America’s most famous city turns into a bountiful land of opportunity—a place where you can forget your small town worries and be embraced by a dazzling, electric new life.

Been Stellar, a great new post-punk band that formed in New York City, has a slightly different take on their adopted hometown.

Cheekily titling their debut new album, “Scream from New York, NY,” in reference to the classic showtune, the city haunts each track on the album, appearing not necessarily as a malicious entity, but one that informs every part of daily life. It’s a ghostly apparition, a looming presence in each tortured lyric, wiry guitar lick and crashing drumbeat. 

You can practically smell the freshly-poured tar, hear the blaring horns of traffic and see the wisps of vapors emanating from belowground when you put on this record. It’s a clangorous, dirty, sweaty New York—not exactly Old Blue Eyes version of the city.

“We wanted this album to be about New York, because we are all outsiders and this is the thing that drew us all together,” said guitarist Skyler Knapp. “It was always going to be our first statement to the world. But even beyond that, I find it incredibly difficult not to talk about New York when you’re living here. It’s a city that reinforces its own identity on you. Every experience is filtered through that lens.”

Knappy and vocalist Sam Slocum grew up together in the suburbs of Detroit before moving to New York to attend NYU in 2017. That’s where they met the other members of the band—guitarist Nando Dale, bassist Nico Brunstein and drummer Laila Wayans. (And yes, the band name is partially inspired by actor Ben Stiller, said Knapp, who added that he conceived of it when he was 14. “All of our songs are so serious. I thought it would be a nice contrast to add a little humor,” said Knapp.”)

Like their NYC forebears, Been Stellar are masters at creating atmospheric, lived-in moods— although their references are forgotten museums, vacant parks, grimy train stations and empty streets, as opposed to dank dive bars and seedy clubs. 

Despite those differences, Been Stellar still know how to capture the claustrophobic, loneliness-in-the-masses dissociation of urban life, encapsulated perfectly in “Start Again,” when Slocum drones “they don't complain about the noise from above/The neighbors hear the scream enough.”

Even though the band released its debut album just a few months ago, they have already become an established entity, attracting laudatory press from outlets like Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Stereogum while embarking on a series of lengthy tours. On September 24, Been Stellar will open up for Irish punkers Fontaines D.C. at the Warfield.

As a band that proudly declaims their New York bonafides, Been Stellar understand the legacy they’re entering—but they’re okay with the identity they’ve carved out for themselves.

“Being a rock band in New York—or being a creative person of any kind—is obviously very daunting,” said Knapp. “You’re definitely stepping into these very big shoes, and it’s something we think about all the time. But I don’t mind those comparisons or references, because I’m confident in how we sound right now.”

With their origin story and bristly, post-punk sound, the band inevitably carry comparisons to NYC royalty such as Interpol, the Walkmen, and the Strokes, but Slocum’s loquacious, rangy delivery hews more closely to Elias Bender Rønnenfelt of Danish rockers Iceage, and the group’s maximalist approach evokes the great Austin act …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. Been Stellar can also bw surprisingly melodic, particularly on the Britpop adjacent tune “Sweet”—an album standout.

Although they concede that their New York predecessors influenced their sound, the group cited some inspirations outside that familiar oeuvre. In particular, the band sought to emulate drum sounds found on hip-hop records while taking cues from shoegaze outfits that perfected washed-out moods and tones. 

“We are huge fans of [UK shogezae group] Ride and we love how they jam for like three or four minutes and then kind of coast from there,” said Slocum, who coined the punny album title for the group. “Laila, our drummer, really loves Ride. On that song “Sweet” in particular, the idea was to let the drums kind of wash over you, but without losing that frantic kind of nature of the song.”

“Sweet” gets the big ballad treatment on the album, but the songs that find Been Stellar at the height of their powers are the urgent, Street Fighting Man-esque tracks like “Start Again,” “Passing Judgment” and “All in One.” These are all indignant, visceral and direct tunes, where you can practically see the spittle flying from Slocum’s mouth.

“Some of those songs were really inspired by other bands in New York,” said Knapp. “We toured with our friends Catcher, and they just had this level of fury and aggression in their songs that I really envied. Again—that’s a reaction to living in New York City. If you have something that's bothering you, it seems like the city almost puts an amplifier to it and feeds it back to you. I think we tried to convey that same kind of frustration in our songs.”

That sentiment might have a distinctively New York feel, but it can also resonate with anyone familiar with the beautifully chaotic existence of city living. Been Stellar have been prolific purveyors of that message, too—this upcoming visit to San Francisco will be the fourth such time they’ve played in the city—a notable achievement for such a young band.

The group has additional ambitious touring plans in the near future and have already written a host of songs for their next album. 

As a result, they are poised to continue their role as ambassadors of New York City—an inescapable obligation that they are more than capable of handling.

Show Details:
Fontaines D.C. with Been Stellar
When: 8 p.m., Tuesday, September 24
Where: The Warfield
Tickets: $35 + fees, available here.

Occupying a Distinct Spot in SF Scene, Galore to Take Stage at Bottom of Hill Friday

Photo credit: Wunmi Onibudo

Every week, the members of Galore gather for band practice at an isolated warehouse on the edge of the city’s Bayview District. 

Located among a heap of industrial buildings, the site is a go-to spot for local bands looking to rehearse, as the sprawling complex is affordable, functional and convenient (parking is ample.) The warehouse offers a communal gathering spot—a place for bands to exchange gear and pleasantries while situated among salvage yards and empty streets.

The cozy-yet-remote confines of the warehouse offer an apt metaphor of sorts for Galore: while they are deeply enmeshed in the local music ecosystem, frequently sharing bills with their contemporaries, the band does not fit snugly within some of San Francisco’s existing niches.

They don’t practice the honed janglepop of their peers on Slumberland Records, nor do they embrace the sonorous, lo-fi musings of acts that gravitate around the Paisley Shirt Records or the fuzzed-out dreampop explorations of bands such as the Reds, Pinks and Purples and Seablite. Their influences are diffuse and disparate—one moment Galore is a manic reincarnation of the post-punk greats Wire, other times they embrace the vast sonic landscapes of shoegaze legends Mazzy Star and still other moments they sound like bands from California’s distant past, with their multi-part harmonies and brimming hooks. 

“I feel like with certain bands, you can point really quickly to their influences, which is great,” said Ainsley Wagoner, guitarist and newest member of the four-piece band. “But that’s not really the case with us.”

Since forming, the band has issued one full-length album, one EP and a demo tape, but they’re currently working on their next release, which they hope to release next spring. On Friday night, at Bottom of the Hill, they’ll be playing a host of those new songs while opening up for post-hardcore/power-pop practitioner Tony Molina and Oakland garage rock outfit Unity.

This latest batch of tunes should be the most assured, focused effort of the band’s career. While the foundation of Galore is based around the twin songwriting efforts of guitarist Griffin Jones and bassist Ava Rosen, the band is an egalitarian endeavor, with drummer Hannah Smith and Wagoner adding their own personal inflections into the mix.

Most significantly, the band is taking an increasingly more engaged role in the producing and recording process of their songs. While they’re working with prolific Bay Area producer Jason Kick on their upcoming album, they’ve been given the bandwidth to fully explore the studio for their latest effort—a freedom that wasn’t available in past sessions, due to scheduling and other constraints.

“Just having this dedicated time on a regular basis in the studio to be able come in with edits and execute on those changes has made this a completely different experience,” said Jones. “We will all listen together to a recording and come up with feedback and ideas, like, ‘oh, what if we tried this here, or add something else here?’ It’s been a great learning experience and got us all really excited to grow our studio skills.”

That creative approach has also engendered a growing familiarity and assurance among the band members, whose interactions in the studio have now become almost preternatural. 

“This has happened a few times now during recording, where I’ll look over at Ava and say like, ‘I want it to be like this’ and she’ll immediately respond, ‘that’s what I was going to say!’” said Jones. “We’ve definitely developed that unspoken thing together.”

Rosen said the band’s familiarity with one another has created a language for their creative impulses. 

“When we say we want to hear the sound of breaking glass, we all know what that means,” said Rosen. “Or if we want the tom to sound ‘boom-y.’ We’re all on the same wavelength, and that’s really because we’re all more confident in what we are doing now.”

The band has been working on their 10 latest songs for about a year now, refining and honing their unique, difficult-to-define style. The band’s earlier efforts embraced more of a punk ethos, with rapid pacing and brash, rollicking guitar work taking the forefront. For their 2022 EP, the band slowed down the tempo and further explored multi-part vocals, offering a more hushed, introspective alternative.

In addition to spending more time perfecting their craft, Galore’s sound is due for another evolution, now that Wagoner has joined the group (she replaces previous guitarist Britta Leijonflycht.) While Wagoner, who also records as a solo artist under the moniker Silverware, has taken more of a supporting role so far in Galore, her experience as a producer and songwriter offers tantalizing new possibilities for the band.

“With Ainsley in the band now, it almost feels like we can create this new version of Galore,” said Rosen. “We don’t have to do things exactly like we did in the past. It just makes me all the more excited to get back to the studio and work out new things with her. Plus, she shreds on guitar.”

While they prep for the release of their upcoming album, the band has plans to maintain their regular live presence in San Francisco. They’re also eager to embark on some mini-tours to promote the new album (they still haven’t performed outside the Bay Area.)

“We definitely want to tour,” said Smith, the drummer. “I think we’re committed to doing that—I mean that’s the dream. We just have to find the right time to do that.”

Until then, the band will continue to occupy their distinct space within the San Francisco scene. Apart, but not separate—here, but not quite there. Galore is a band that defines itself from within, not without.

Show Details:

Tony Molina with Unity and Galore
When: 8:30 p.m., Friday, September 6
Where: Bottom of the Hill
Tickets: $18/$22, available here.

Chime School To Celebrate New Album With Record Release Party Friday at the Make Out Room

Photo by Britta Leijonflycht

Andy Pastalaniec can write a pop song.

All it takes is one cycle through the self-titled debut album of Chime School—Pastalaniec’s creative vehicle—to see that he has an almost preternatural feel for the craft. A joyful tableau of breezy urban life, the album is a janglepop journey through San Francisco—a synthesis of the Kinks’ ability to uplift the minutiae of everyday life with the catchy sensibilities of Sarah Records’ bands.

For his much-anticipated sophomore album, “The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel,” Pastalaniec expands on those effortless pop ditties with a newfound pathos, incorporating emotive, vulnerable elements to his songwriting. It makes for an even more rewarding and enriching listening experience.

“The first record is so inspired by my love of pop music,” said Pastalaniec, who will celebrate the Friday release of the album with a show that night at the Make Out Room. “I was just so ecstatic to be writing those songs. I tried to stuff as many little tricks and fun things as I could to make those feel like pop songs. For this second album, I wasn’t trying to make a sad record or anything, but I just wanted to be more thoughtful.”

“The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel” features plenty of Pastalaniec’s penchant for buoyant earworm masterpieces, with singles such as “Give Your Heart Away” and “Wandering Song” feeling like lost B-sides to the debut album. There are familiar touchpoints for the record—80s UK rockers East Village and Glaswegian legends Teenage Fanclub, for example—but tracks such as “The End” and, in particular, album closer, “Points of Light,” offer a tantalizing new direction for Chime School, one imbued with melancholy and jagged dissonance.

Pastalaniec, who also drums for San Francisco shoegaze act Seablite and hushed folkers Flowertown, cites the influence of local musicians for his expanding aesthetic.

“I definitely have drawn from the cluster of musicians here,” said Pastalaniec. “I am inspired by artists like Mike Ramos from Tony Jay and Karina Gill of Cindy and Kevin Linn from Paisley Shirt Records. Right around the time the first Chime School album came out, I started playing in the live formulation of Flowertown, which is Mike and Karina’s band. I really respect how they kind of bring a pensive and thoughtful element to all the creative work they do. I think some of that rubbed off on me.”

Unlike most of the Chime School catalog, “Points of Lights” is deliberately paced and features feedback-laden guitar. Pastalaniec’s vocals on the take feel particularly exposed and forlorn. It recalls all the greatest Britpop balladry from the 90s, replete with a searing guitar solo midway through the track.

“I actually wrote the song originally back in 2020 and at first it had this tempo that’s more along the lines of ‘This Charming Man,’” said Pastalaniec. “But that just didn’t feel right for this record. I started listening to a bunch of stuff that was a little slower and had kind of a more baggy beat. I was sort of thinking in terms of the last song of Teenage Fanclub’s ‘Bandwagonesque,’ that track called ‘Is This Music,’ which has this crazy distorted guitar and is the last song on that album. So, I repurposed the original guitar, which was very clean and jangly and just made it as big and distorted as possible. I knew it was going to be the last song after that.”

From the track sequencing to the artwork to the album title, (an ode to Linn’s Paisley Shirt record label and Biff Bang Pow's "The Girl Who Runs the Beat Hotel," among other inspirations), everything about the record feels very deliberate and thoughtful, a reflection of Pastalaniec’s expansive creative vision. 

Although Chime School has now morphed from a one-man creative endeavor into a solid four-piece live band (Phil Lantz on drums, Josh Miller on bass and Garett Goddard on guitar) Pastalaniec still wrote all the songs and played all the instruments for the “Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel.” He also recorded the album from his apartment. 

“That wasn’t the result of me being some kind of control freak,” said Pastalaniec. “I put the band together in 2022 and we were playing a lot of shows and I thought it made more sense for us to really focus on honing that live sound. I thought it would be better to make the record again on my own and kind of just go creatively nuts, and not really worry about wasting other people’s time.”

For the past several months, Pastalaniec has been incorporating songs from the new album into the live Chime School experience, and on Friday night, the new tunes will likely comprise more than half the set. Later this year, Chime School will bring those tunes to an international audience, with the band slated to go on a tour of the UK in October, following an appearance at the Paris Pop Festival on September 27.

In addition to the band’s international tour—something Pastalaniec has made a primary goal of the group—Chime School has plans to embark on West Coast and East Coast jaunts in the future as well. This year will mark the most extensive live schedule yet for the band, which is also receiving a bevy of positive reviews from influential music blogs. In June and July, the band got a series of glowing write-ups in Stereogum, a national outlet with a sterling reputation for championing up-and-coming indie bands.

“The response has been amazing—I’m completely humbled by any attention we get,” said Pastalaniec. “But one of the things I’ve learned from this process is that it’s really important to focus on your priorities. We aren’t the least bit famous by any means, but once you start getting attention, you do get a little distracted and sidetracked. At the end of the day, what matters most is making art and being surrounded by people who are part of a community that you care about.”

Show Details: 

Chime School with Hits and The Telephone Numbers
When: 7 p.m., Friday, August 23 
Where: The Make Out Room 
Tickets: $12, available here.

Neo-Psychedelic Outfit Woods Returning to The Chapel on August 20

Photo by John Andrews

Though primarily known as a neo-psychedelic or folk outfit, the New York-based band Woods have never been afraid to indulge their pop tendencies over their 20-year career.

While vocalist Jeremy Earl’s wounded, warbly delivery will never be heard on the pop radio stations (if those still exist), Woods has shown a knack for crafting immediate earworms that contain plenty of catchy—if unconventional—hooks and inviting melodies. That talent first came through in the band’s 2009 breakout album, “Songs of Shame,” and it resurfaced again with 2021’s “Strange to Explain.”

The latter album showcased the band’s ever-improving production sound while containing a couple of songs (“Where Do Go You When You Dream” and the title track, in particular) that could have been outtakes from MGMT’s funhouse mirror pop masterpiece “Oracular Spectacular.”

Yet, ever wary of flying too close to the sun, Woods have shifted gears, retreating from their dalliance in accessibility with a follow-up album that is restless, boundless and unconcerned with classic pop norms. Last year’s “Perennial” was the latest example of the band’s tendency to shy away from their previous effort, a tactic that has made Woods an endlessly exciting and unpredictable group.

“We like to make albums that are reactions to what we did before,” said Woods’ multi-instrumentalist, producer and founding member Jarvis Taveniere, whose band will be playing at the Chapel on August 20. “I love “Strange to Explain”—I think it’s a solid record. During those sessions, we had a bunch of songs that were very loose and mostly just instrumentals, those would haven’t made much sense to put on that record. So, when we were done touring behind “Strange to Explain,” we decided to go that jammier route, to just keep things exciting for us.”

“Perennial” is full of loping, bucolic instrumental numbers, with guitars and drums fettered by woodwind instruments. Imagine if your local jazz outfit decided to play their tunes in a bedfull of moss and you get an idea of the atmosphere crafted by Woods. Each song feels deeply organic—instruments fusing and blending together in complementary and seamless manners.

That craftsmanship is the result of two decades of experience, as Earl and Taveniere have been playing together since founding the band in 2004. The two met as students at SUNY-Purchase in central New York, and while they were initially playing in separate bands, they quickly formed a kinship, driven in large part from their experiences traveling together.

“There was a pretty vibrant music scene back then, and it was interesting to go on tour and see people who couldn’t really hang out doing this full time,” said Taveniere. “Jeremy wasn’t like that—you could tell he was cut out for this life. He was somebody who I could not only envision collaborating creatively with, but also someone who I could just hang out with. We both were ready to forego the comforts of a normal life and make things fun.”

While the band is now split up between two coasts—two members, including Taveniere, live in Los Angeles while the other three members reside in the group’s home base of New York—Woods remain ever prolific. “Perennial” is the band’s 12th album, an impressive output for a band celebrating 20 years of existence. Because of that longevity, the creative process has become second nature for the band.

“A lot of these songs just came out of jams or writing on the fly,” said Taveniere. “We will be playing together, and Jeremy will run off to the corner with a pad and pen and just start writing lyrics. It’s pretty exciting when that happens. We tried to set it up where we kind of worked backwards, to turn those jams into proper songs. It can take a long time to really develop a certain type of language with other musicians where you have this unspoken thing. We have that in this band, and I really cherish that.”

Most of the album was recorded at a studio in Stinson Beach, the second straight Woods record to be crafted at the Marin County site, which doubles as an apartment and living space (as he has in past efforts, Taveniere led the production and engineering efforts of the album.) Woods has deep ties to Northern California—the music festival run by the band’s label Woodsist, started at Big Sur, and the group frequently partners with local production outfit, (((folkYEAH!))) and is a recurring guest at the Chapel.

“When we first started, we were really good friends with a bunch of San Francisco bands,” said Taveniere. “People actually thought we were from Northern California. We always felt a deep connection here. Whenever we come to San Francisco, there isn’t any pressure on us—we know we can be ourselves.”

For the Chapel show, Taveniere said the band is devising a setlist that is reflective of its deep catalog—and its penchant for change. 

“I’m already looking forward to our next album,” said Taveniere. “And this time, I want to do the opposite of what we did for “Perennial.” I’m excited about doing something more composed and rehearsed in pre-production.”

It would be the classic Woods maneuver—sticking to the script by ignoring the script completely.

Show Details:
Woods with Anastasia Coope
When: 8 p.m., Tuesday, August 20
Where: The Chapel
Tickets: $23 - $26, available here.

Peerless janglepop practitioners Ducks Ltd. playing at Rickshaw Stop on Monday

Photo Credit: Dylan Taylor

In 2003, when the Stokes released their sophomore album, “Room on Fire,” it was derided by many critics at the time as a duplicative, redundant effort too similar to the group’s seminal 2001 debut, “Is This It.”

However, as the years have passed, that second album has rightly been reassessed as a classic in its own right, a release that rivals its predecessor for greatness. “If it aint broke, don’t fix it,” is a salty old cliché, but it’s a cliché for a reason—sometimes it’s true.

That same adage applies to Ducks Ltd., a Toronto janglepop duo that turned considerable heads with the release of their 2021 debut album, “Modern Fiction,” a collection of shimmering, reverb-heavy guitar tracks. Three years later, much of that same winning formula was repeated for their dazzling sophomore album, “Harm’s Way.”

Tom McGreevy, the singer and guitarist for Ducks Ltd., who formed the band with lead guitarist Evan Lewis, said the band briefly considered a change in tone and tenor for its follow-up release, but abandoned that idea after feeling it would be disingenuous. 

“When we started working on the record, we were sort of like, ‘okay, are we going to take this in a different direction?’’” said McGreevy. “And then we quickly realized that that’s something you kind of just have to let it happen—you can’t force it. If we tried to self-consciously push something, we were not going to make something that’s honest.”

On Monday night, Ducks Ltd. will bring their tried and true approach to the Rickshaw Stop, where they’ll perform alongside beloved local janglepop outfit Chime School and dreampopper Mo Dotti (a frequent guest at SF venues.)

While the band’s undeniably catchy pop songs recall all the best of their predecessors—everything from the Byrds to Sarah Records bands to outfits on the great New Zealand label Flying Nun Records—the sonic elements of Ducks Ltd. are only half of the group’s appeal.

True millennials, the band writes from an insouciant, weary world view—the product of endless economic uncertainties, increasing artistic and creative marginalization and a listless political class that doesn’t match their values. “Hollowed Out,” the opening track on “Harm’s Way,” leads off with a lyrical salvo that quickly sets the tone for the remainder of the album, with McGreevy lamenting that, “All we ever do is need/Eat, fuck, and sleep/And then repeat forever.”

“I sort of liked that as the first lyrics on the record because it’s almost bordering on self-parody, but I thought a lot of people would get it,” said McGreevy. “You know, it’s about living through the economic and political and social movements of our time. I mean what I say in those lyrics,  but it’s also kind of funny, in this sad way.”

McGreevy’s laconic, dry delivery and tales of urban ennui offer an intriguing contrast to the propulsive, upbeat backdrop of the band’s musical output—every song feels like an urgent race to nowhere in particular. McGreevy noted that the disparate relationship between words and sound has been a practice honed by pop musicians for decades.

“It gets talked about a lot—this idea of holding two different ideas at once, but that’s really just the nature of pop music,” said McGreevy. “Pop music is bright and engaging, but there have always been these kinds of darker songs. If you go back to the 60s, you’ll see songs like ‘The Track of My Tears,’ and ‘Save the Last Dance for Me,’—those are songs with dark sentiments and that tension is what makes them so interesting.”

That arresting tension is prevalent throughout “Harm’s Way,” which is replete with chugging, skittering songs littered with sardonic observations. “Train Full of Gasoline” is a romping affair, full of starry guitar licks, but its messages are on brand for the album—" Bonded by an emptiness/Shared sense of dull dead endedness.” “Deleted Scenes'' is much in that same vein, a classic power pop track that yields words such as “You used to flirt with disaster/Got used to you letting other people down.”

Again—McGreevy notes that this isn’t a new wrinkle to songwriting, but Ducks Ltd.’s skilled musicianship and keen knack for crafting beguiling earworms adds extra depth to that combination. Ducks Ltd. seem incapable of writing songs that aren’t imminently engaging and also imminently relevant.

Additionally, the band offers a tantalizing glimpse of what could be in store on the final track of “Harm’s Way.” A quiet, wistful ballad that might be the sweetest song ever recorded by the band, “Heavy Bag” is a soft, cooing acoustic number that departs from the more clamorous atmosphere of their other work.

“Yeah—we had never really done anything like that before,” said McGreevy. “It was created as almost a demo—the song king of dictated that it had to be done that way. I think we were trying to break our tendency with that song and push a little against our instincts.”

There is understandably no rush from Ducks Ltd. to upend their winning ways. But “Heavy Bag” is proof that no sound or aesthetic is beyond the mastery of their capable hands. It bodes for an exciting future.

Show Details:

Ducks Ltd. with Chime School and Mo Dotti
When: 8 p.m., Monday, July 15
Where: Rickshaw Stop
Tickets: $15, available here.

Post-Disco Band De Lux Celebrating 10th Anniversary of Debut Album with Show at Rickshaw Stop on Friday

Photo credit: Mike Anderson

Most family heirlooms that come from one’s grandparents are staid offerings. 

Watches. Maybe some silverware. Perhaps some old photos.

Sean Guerin had a slightly different experience. Guerin, the founding member of the Los Angeles-based post-disco outfit De Lux, received a synthesizer from his grandfather, and that timely gift has made all the difference in his musical career.

“My grandfather and grandmother were in a jazz group called the The Aldeberts,” said Guerin. “He heavy collected a lot of gear and I inherited this synth. At the time, I didn’t really know what to do with it. I kind of thought the sounds were cheesy at first, but I spent a lot of time with it because, back then, I just didn’t have much equipment. It kind of forced me to learn to love the sounds of that synth and from there, I really embraced that idea of making modern music with older equipment.”

Production of that synthesizer, a Yamaha DX7, ceased in 1989, but the retro-style approach was instrumental in shaping the sound of De Lux’s early records, including their 2014 debut “Voyage,” which the band will perform in full as part of a 10th anniversary celebration at the Rickshaw Stop on Friday. The event will be presented by Throwin’ Bo’s, a local production outfit, in concert with Popscene, the longstanding indie dance pop-up show.

The roots of De Lux trace back to Guerin’s high school days, when he originally met fellow co-founding member Isaac Franco. After exploring various other musical projects over the years, the duo eventually decided to form a band together.

“I would actually be working in the studio and Isaac would come by and we would randomly write things together,” said Guerin. “At the time, he really wasn’t a very proficient bass player, but I always had this motto that it didn’t really matter if you were a great musician, as long as you were passionate about the project. I could tell that he was interested in what he was doing, and he  ended up getting way better at the bass. And that’s what really helped shape our sound.”

While Guerin was very much steeped in the indie rock sounds of bands like Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade and Built to Spill, he also had an affinity for the dance-punk outfits on James Murphy’s venerable label, DFA Records. Franco came from a slightly different background—his older brother had a bountiful record collection of 70s and 80s disco classics, in addition to more adventurous albums from the Italo disco genre and underground African artists. 

The combination of those influences resulted in a dancy, breezy aesthetic—a sound that captured the adventurous nature and propulsive rhythms of classic disco sounds without the overproduced sheen that marred some of those efforts. Guerin’s voice is a dead-ringer for David Byrne, so in addition to the nightclub vibes to records like “Voyage,” there is also a distinct new wave feel.

“That first album was a big Talking Heads moment for us,” said Guerin. “I hadn’t listened to that record [“Voyage”] in a long time before we had to get ready for these anniversary shows. And honestly, I do like every song on that album, which is cool. A lot of those tracks still hit for me—I’m excited to play them again.”

In recent years, De Lux have grown more boundless in their approach to songcraft, as evidenced by last year’s 29-minute single, “Love is Hard Work,” a dazzling journey through different dance music eras.

That track (which was later released in a multi-song format, consisting of nine different pieces), emphasized the textured sonic elements of the sound, with Geurin’s voice often absent or settled in below the mix. With its amorphous, evolving structure, “Love is Hard Work,” also showcased some of the band’s more recent inspirations, including African Boogie artists. That lengthy single followed the band’s 2022 record, “Do You Need a Release?” an album that saw De Lux pull away from its more classic dancefunk sound in favor of softer, gentler tunes.

Guerin said the band—whose live lineup includes Tyler Lott on Guitar, Taylor Rodiger on synths and Briar Seavey on drums, in addition to the founding members—is currently working on material for a new De Lux album and at the moment, about five songs are in finalized form, although he didn’t have an exact release timeline. He’s also working on a few other projects at the moment, including producing a new album for promising young artist, Gelli Haha.

For now, the band is focused on their upcoming performance at the Rickshaw Stop, a live show that will be driven by their old-fashioned approach to a newfangled setup—an approach that dates back to Sean’s grandfather’s wizened ways.

“With that synthesizer he gave me, he left all these Post-It notes, and one of them said, ‘synths don’t make stilted, disposable, boring, grooveless, crappy music—musicians do,’” said Guerin. “That was his philosophy. It’s not the equipment—it’s how you use it.”

Show Details:

Who: De Lux with Big Sis, Touch and DJ Guillermo
When: 8 p.m., Friday, July 12
Where: Rickshaw Stop
Tickets: $15, available here.

Movie-theater concert embodies a thriving music scene in the Richmond

Originally posted in the SF Examiner on July 1.

For generations, San Francisco’s music scene has been defined by its neighborhoods.

Back in the 1950s—before racist urban renewal policies upended the neighborhood—the Fillmore District was home to a vibrant jazz scene, featuring dozens of African American-owned establishments.

Most famously, the 60s counter-culture movement started in the Haight-Ashbury, pioneered by psychedelic outfits like the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company. Decades later, in the 2000s, the city’s famed and frenetic garage rock scene took root in the Mission District, as bands led by Thee Oh Sees, Sic Alps and Ty Segall created a sense of community around small dive clubs and rent-controlled apartments.

Even the Tenderloin—with its warren of basements, art galleries, bars and recording studios—has a reputation for fostering the careers of young and burgeoning indie rock bands.

The Richmond District—the sprawling residential neighborhood in San Francisco’s northern reaches—has never enjoyed such a reputation. Mostly famed for its proximity to Golden Gate Park and as a last redoubt for (somewhat) affordable living in the city, the Richmond can boast of no distinct musical legacy.

In recent years, however, that has started to change. A new cohort of musicians have proudly set up home in the neighborhood, and the advent of venues with unique and exciting programming have suddenly made the quiet community a bustling and vibrant artistic hub. 

On Friday, the neighborhood will be the center of the city’s tight-knit musical world, when the 4 Star Theater on Clement Street hosts the Fresh & Onlys, a beloved San Francisco institution who will be performing publicly for the first time in six years.

Shayde Sartin, a founding member of the Fresh & Onlys—who rose to ascendancy alongside so many of their peers in the Mission District—drew parallels between that scene in the 2000s and the one currently happening in the Richmond District.

“The one thing that most scenes need to be healthy is this sort of condensed community, and that’s what we had in the Mission District,” said Sartin, who now lives in the Richmond. “I see that happening in the Richmond because there’s a lot of bands out here. A lot of people really appreciate this neighborhood, myself included. I think the Richmond has turned out to be this nice little harbor for these bands and for this scene”

Much of the Richmond’s newfound artistic vigor can be attributed to Adam Bergeron, the proprietor of the 4 Star Theater (2200 Clement Street) and Balboa Theater (3630 Balboa Street)—two movie cinemas in the neighborhood that have greatly expanded their offerings in recent years. 

Bergeron has owned the Balboa Theater and its sister theater, the Vogue on Sacramento Street, for more than a decade under his CinemaSF umbrella organization, but prior to entering the movie business, he ran music venues like 12 Galaxies in the Mission District and the Crepe Place in Santa Cruz. As a result, he forged longstanding relationships with musicians, often employing them in his movie theaters (it was a common sight to see members of local bands like the She’s or hardcore legend Tony Molina behind the counter at the Balboa and the Vogue.)

Sensing an opportunity, Bergeron, who runs CinemaSF with his wife, Jaimi Holker, began incorporating live music into the programming at the Balboa Theater, starting around 2017. Local bands regularly performed in the vintage cinema—which first opened in 1926—with Bergeron sometimes incorporating live music with screenings of classic movies.

In late 2022, he began taking over operations at the 4 Star Theater, which had been shuttered for two years due to COVID. After a slow start, Bergeron applied his formula of interlaying live music, interactive Q&A events and movie screenings to the venue, eventually building a new following to match the Balboa. In the decade-plus of managing venues in the Richmond, he’s said he’s definitely noticed a change in the neighborhood.

“When I first started here, it was a different world,” said Bergeron. “It was really hard to get people to come out here to watch a movie. But then, things like Uber and Lyft changed that. And I think people realized that the Richmond District is this really cool neighborhood. Like, you can get to the park from here, and there is like a cool surf culture here. And I do think introducing some entertainment options into the neighborhood has helped bring a new crowd here as well.”

In addition to regularly featuring a host of local acts like Chime School, Half Stack, Andrew St. James, and the Neutrals, Bergeron was able to land nationally-recognized artists such as Animal Collective, Robyn Hitchcock and the Flamin’ Groovies (a legendary San Francisco band.) Those artists added heft and credibility to Bergeron’s project, but managing the venues did not come without difficulty.

Initially, 4 Star struggled to attract customers—particularly to its movie screenings. At one point, the venue even hosted a GoFundMe Me campaign to support its mission. However, things changed when Bergeron invited Ben Wintroub, owner of Tunnel Records, to set up a second location within the 4 Star building. Wintroub, a Marin County native, who opened up Tunnel Records in the outer stretches of the Sunset District in 2017, leapt at the opportunity.

“Adam was a longtime customer at our shop, and I always really admired the kind of businesses he created,” said Wintroub. “As soon as he mentioned that he had this second theater that was kind of being underutilized, it didn’t take long for us to come up with a plan for Tunnel Records to be a tenant. And I know this sounds a little dated, but the Richmond District just had that vibe of San Francisco that I fell in love with growing up, going to music shows in the 90s. It just has this loose, unpretentious feeling to it, and I wanted to be part of that culture.” 

Bergeron credits Tunnel Records for reviving 4 Star, and now, the lion’s share of the live CinemaSF events takes place at that venue. The combination of retail space, movies and live performances has a special appeal for many, including Tim Cohen, the lead singer and founding member of the Fresh & Onlys.

“For people like me, this venue has it completely figured out,” said Cohen. “I could spend literally my entire day here. I would browse the record store for hours, go watch a movie and then catch a live show.”

While business owners like Bergeron and Wintroub have contributed to the new cultural vibes of the Richmond District, the masses of musicians who have moved to the neighborhood in search of low rent and more living space have undoubtedly made an impact. Members from bands like April Magazine and the Umbrellas call the neighborhood home.

No artist has done more to extol the everyday wonders of living in the Richmond than Glenn Donaldson of the Reds, Pinks and Purples. Every one of the band’s album covers is adorned with pastel-soaked images from the neighborhood, and Donaldson’s lyrics and song titles are teeming with local references. Donaldson has been living in San Francisco since 1995 and has always been an integral part of the music scene, but it wasn’t until his dreampop project with the Reds, Pinks and Purples, that he received national acclaim (international, actually—he just wrapped a tour in the UK.)

In 2022, Donaldson told the Examiner that the Richmond often helped inspire his songwriting ideas.

“I decided to do this idea inspired by the Kink’s ‘Are The Village Green Preservation Society’,” said Donaldson. “Just write about what’s right here, right in my neighborhood. So, a lot of the songs were composed in my head when I was just walking around the Richmond.”

Donaldson is a longtime friend of Sartin of the Fresh & Onlys, whose return to live music is a true boon to San Francisco. Although the group is closely associated with the late 2000s garage rock scene (the Fresh & Onlys debut album was the third release ever on John Dwyer’s Castle Face Records, the defining local institution of that moment), they never fit neatly into that box of scrawling, lo-fi mayhem.

Formed in 2008 by Sartin and Cohen, who were eventually joined by drummer Kyle Gibson and guitarist Wymond Miles, the band’s early offerings were frenetic and uproarious—irreverent garage rock send-offs. But their second album—“Play It Strange,” which landed on Pitchfork’s coveted year-end music list for 2010—eschewed much of that dissonance, yielding beautiful, haunting songs like “Waterfall,” a once-in-a-generation track that captured the band at their high point.

The releases following “Play it Strange,” pushed the envelope even further, as the band embraced more polished production sounds and dutifully crafted songwriting approaches. Albums such as “Long Slow Dance” and “House of Spirits” were undeniably gorgeous creations, more dreampop than punk rock and showcasing just how vast the Fresh & Onlys oeuvre could stretch.

“At some point, we kind of exhausted our means for trying to be lo-fi and grungy, so to speak,” said Cohen. “We were like, let’s see how these songs can sound like in this shimmering, romantic milieu, to see if we can sound actually pretty. It wasn’t a conscious thing or a reaction to how people perceived us—we always steered our own ship. That’s just what we wanted to do at the time.”

Despite the group’s increasingly engaging sound, the Fresh & Onlys’ lineup shifted and splintered in later years, with typical band dynamics—health troubles, personal life changes—reducing the lineup to just Miles and Cohen at one point. Eventually, Miles moved to Colorado, and the band stopped performing live, with the group playing just one private show—at a friend’s birthday party—since 2018.

Although divided among different locales, the band never considered themselves broken-up, and they often discussed plans of reconnecting for live shows. The Friday show has been years in the making, and was made possible with Miles back in town for the Fourth of July holiday. 

“Adam asked us to do this show and we’re all big fans of the 4 Star and Balboa and what’s he doing in the Richmond,” said Sartin. “We were all interested in seeing how this feels, to visit this part of our history.”

Both Cohen and Sartin expressed their enduring love for the city—and to have their return to live music take place at the Richmond District feels particularly prescient.

“Whenever we went out on tour, we were so proud to be this San Francisco band,” said Cohen, who added that the group is considering adding additional live dates beyond this 4 Star show. “This show is going to be a little fly-by-the seat-of-our-pants kind of thing. But we’ve always been that way. And I think people appreciate that.”

In a city famous for embracing the strange and unpredictable, the Fresh & Onlys playing in the Richmond District on the Fourth of July holiday cannot feel more quintessentially San Francisco.

Real Estate mixing things up for their latest tour

Originally published in the San Francisco Examiner on March 12

For more than a decade, Real Estate have been defined by their dependable excellence. Every couple of years, the New Jersey indie rock band is basically guaranteed to release an album of languid beauty, combining elements of catchy jangle pop, melodious harmonies and intriguing wordplay.

Although reliability has become almost synonymous for the band at this point, Real Estate have opted to do something decidedly off brand for their latest tour. Their shows have been displays of unpredictable eccentricity, with their tour opener in New York City only available to attendees with the name Daniel (the name of their latest album) and subsequent performances embracing interactive audience set pieces.

For their show last month at The Independent, the band played a game of rock bingo, where each popped ball encouraged a new prompt, such as “drummer plays guitar” and when they make their return to San Francisco for a show at Bimbo’s 365 Club on Wednesday, that same kind of random energy will be present.

“It just kind of dawned on me that we didn’t have to do the same thing every night,” said Real Estate bassist and founding member Alex Bleeker. “It’s kind of crazy that people gather in a room and are still willing to look at us after all these years. And there’s so many other things you can do than just stand on stage and play your songs.”

While the band is devoted to delivering a unique experience, Real Estate does not need to rely on gimmicks to put on a compelling show. “Daniel,” the group’s sixth full-length album, is another document of flawless and clever songwriting, crafted in the mode of their New Jersey slack-rocker predecessors The Feelies and power-pop auteurs Big Star.

The group recorded the album in Nashville, and their countrified environs bleed into the record. That’s particularly noticeable in the presence of the pedal steel, an instrument that thrusts the band from the suburbs of New Jersey into the murkier swamps of the Deep South.

The pedal steel pops up periodically throughout “Daniel,” acting as a guiding North Star (“Haunted World”), a searing and silvery complementary addition (“Interior”) and as ominous and forlorn backdrop (“You Are Here.”)

“It wasn’t like we wrote those songs with pedal steel in mind, but we just couldn’t resist,” said Bleeker. “It was about embracing the history of the place–embracing Nashville.”

Daniel is powered by the cooing vocals of primary songwriter Martin Courtney, whose pillowy delivery has become a trademark for Real Estate. His hushed tones and the band’s gentle pacing make every Real Estate album imminently listenable, but each new offering brings a different wrinkle to the group, something evidenced by the latest decision to embrace pedal steel.

And like past albums, “Daniel” features a cameo appearance from Bleeker on lead vocals, this time for the Dylanesque ballad “Victoria.” Bleeker, who also records as a solo artist and as Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, has long reveled in his supporting role—happy to act as the palate cleanser and gruffer foil to Courtney’s more placid demeanor.

“We’re not dogmatic at all about having a song of mine in every album,” said Bleeker. “Martin is our chief songwriter, so he’s like the meat and potatoes of what’s going on in Real Estate. But if I have a song that comes up during our writing process that makes sense to include and sounds good, we’ll add it into the mix.”

Although he met Courtney and Real Estate guitarist Julian Lynch as kids growing up in New Jersey, for the past decade Bleeker has lived in Marin County. His presence here has turned the Bay Area into a kind of home away from home for Real Estate, who are semi-regular presences in San Francisco, often playing at The Chapel in the Mission District.

However, the band has never performed at Bimbo’s and Bleeker has actually never stepped foot in the venerable North Beach venue.

“I’m very excited to play at Bimbo’s—it seems like it has such a cool vibe,” said Bleeker. “All the photos I’ve seen of the place just gives it this legendary kind of feel. I’ve been in the Bay Area for a decade now, so I’m almost nearing local status, which makes these San Francisco shows so much fun. I think we’re all super jazzed to be bookending our West Coast tour with another gig here. It’s going to be fun. And different, for sure.”

Torrey siblings to bring shoegaze magic to Make Out Room

Originally published in the SF Examiner on February 28

While the entire musical world might be at our fingertips now, thanks to streaming services and the internet, there are still few better methods of discovering amazing new bands than having a cool older sibling who knows about music.

That time-honored tradition is what led to the creation of Torrey, a band composed of Kelly Gonsalves, his younger sister Ryann and three other members. The band will be playing on Friday at the Make Out Room as part of an album release party for its second full-length record.

“Oh, I definitely got to piggyback off all the hard work that Kelly was doing tracking down music when we were young,” said Ryann Gonsalves, who is four years younger than Kelly. “He was going on all these torrenting websites and making mixes and I would get to benefit from the trickle down of all that. I’d listen to that music, and just be like, ‘My god, this is awesome.’”

Growing up in the East Bay, Kelly said, there was always music playing in the Gonsalves household from bands such as the B-52s and the Cranberries. In the early 2000s, he discovered the albums of indie rock bands such as the Strokes and Wolf Parade, falling further in love with music and inspiring him to pick up the guitar.

Kelly began writing short compositions and sending them to Ryann, who was also exploring music. Eventually, the two started collaborating together, and Torrey was born in 2018. They released an EP in 2019, and their first full-length album, “Something Happy” came out in 2021.

Their latest album, “Torrey,” will debut on March 8, and it features some of the band’s most robust, layered and fully-realized songs to date. The Gonsalves siblings worked closely with Matt Ferrara, lead singer of San Francisco band The Umbrellas, to produce tracks that are teeming with different elements and rich in texture, resulting in gorgeous dreampop and shoegaze creations.

“By the time we were ready to work with [Ferrara] , Ryann and I had these songs that were pretty much complete, but we knew we wanted to add more to them,” said Kelly Gonzalves. “We wanted to include these flourishes and gave him (Ferrera) a lot of creative freedom to include synths and keyboards and maybe some guitar solos. It was important for us to be collaborative in that regard.”

While the first two Torrey albums were self-released, the latest LP is being issued on Slumberland Records, a legendary Oakland label that has long been a champion of local groups.

A collection of ethereal tracks that channel white noise and dissonant feedback into gorgeous, atmospheric landscapes, the new self-titled album evokes much of the great past Slumberland acts, such as Black Tambourine, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Frankie Rose.

Although the songs have disparate elements — scrawling waves of noise with stirring, uplifting melodies — the contrasts work in a strangely compelling way, a reflection of the Gonsalves’ siblings differing, yet complementary approaches.

“Of course we grew up together, but we’re very different people and I think that works in so many positive ways,” said Ryann Gonsalves. “It’s been super interesting to go back and forth with these different ideas and to be discussing different moods and themes. It really turns into this fun, wild-card puzzle, where we balance each other out. Somehow it all works.”

While Kelly typically draws the sonic foundation of each song, Ryann will provide melodies and lyrics. Although Ryann’s lyrics are deeply personal, they’re written in a manner that is more opaque and mysterious, providing opportunities for listeners (even Kelly) to interpret them through their own perspectives.

“I kind of make my own meanings to what Ryann writes,” her brother said. “I’m in the headspace of playing guitar and coming up with chord progressions and when Ryann adds lyrics they take on this different impression for me.”

While the duo were responsible for writing all the songs on the band’s latest album, Torrey has now grown into a five-piece live band, featuring Sinclair Riley on drums, Adam Honingford on lead guitar, and Susie Chinisci on synths and backing vocals.

Now both living in Oakland, Ryann and Kelly are just one more element of a resurgent Bay Area indie rock scene — a tight-knit, cohesive group of acts, many of them which are featured on Slumberland Records (Chime School, The Umbrellas and Papercuts, to name a few.)

“I feel like being on Slumberland is sort of like coming full circle for us,” said Ryann Gonsalves. “One of the first bands I really fell in love with was Veronica Falls, who were signed to Slumberland at the time. To end up on the same label as a band that inspiring, and to be part of this group with so many of our friends — it just feels right.”