Ep 339: Hits of the Bay 2024 pt 2

Playlist

1. 1′30″ Jacuzzi of Love by UFO Baby on UFO Baby EP (self released) Info

   Local With fresh Air and some very Warm Jets, UFO Baby beckons you hither.

2. 4′02″ Second Sight by Bad Tiger on Bliss (Self Released) Info

   Local For all the <takes> on various platforms infiltrating your mind it is more often than not ~music~ where we encounter thoughtful deliberation such as this, buoyed by acoustic pluck and a searching, restless percussion.

3. 6′18″ Martin Eden Written Left-Handed in Crayon by B. Hamilton on Saigon Market (self released) Info

   Local B. Hamilton’s EPs and assorted releases this year launched something like a new Ziggy Stardust or Kiss type of local superhero: Playing every classic/southern/fusion rock lick in the book, releasing inscrutable concept EPs with elephantine song titles, posting 9/11 mash-ups on instagram, singing insular lyrics I don’t get and ones I now hear every dusk: “These are the meanest sunsets holding me back again.” The question everyone’s asking: “Which one’s B.?” PS: that Breeders cover!

4. 9′59″ Psycho by Fake Fruit on Mucho Mistrust (Carpark) Info

   Local Fake Fruit has been throwing large shapes since they were entirely bowling themed, but Mucho Mistrust finds them reaching new levels of original song form, as songwriter Hannah D’Amato channels Elvis C or Courtney L levels of cathartic candor, bowling spares all the while.

5. 12′41″ Moon Dog by Hook-Ups on Fox and the Hound (self released)

   Local Castro Valley’s Hook-Ups has long been a *teaser* of hooks; on this year’s Fox and the Hound he delivers the full hand, here unfurling one of the year’s great long vocal melodies, a testimony both heartfelt and dare I say dank. As for fans of his comedy samples and snippets, fear not: the track preceding this one is NPR’s Terry Gross asking questions and our hero just laughing.

6. 16′19″ Drop by Sucker on Seein' God (Cherub Dream)

   Local On last year’s demo and this year’s Seein’ God EP, Sucker come at their songs from the slackest, wrongest directions only to go so romantic, so fashionable, so hard, these are tunes for swooning.

7. 18′33″ Hold Me by The Seshen on Nowhere (self released)

   Local The avant pop ensemble topped themselves with album Nowhere, building songs like “Hold Me” into runaway sonic caravans layered with eccentric details: here a massive tuned drum, punctuated by clicks and gunshot, carries forth Lalin St. Juste’s urgent statement of solidarity: “Hold me, I’ll hold you/ Show me and I’ll show you/ Where to go and how to get out.”

8. 21′35″ Positive Acseticism by Katsy Pline on Devotion (self released)

   Local Fans of recent Pline records may be surprised to find familiar depth in captivating new forms: here a totalizing rise in sonic field provides portal to an extended span of consciousness, until the soft but firm ending, explicitly not forever.

9. 25′21″ Garbage Town by Secret Secret on Queen of Cups (Secret Secret)

   Local Look, somebody had to say it: “Get the fuck out of San Francisco!” And no one says it quite like Secret Secret, here doing fifteen different things, all members activated, unpredictable, demonstrating a freedom of dialogue and incident that defines this band, and this City, in civic call and response.

10. 27′57″ In My Home by Pocket Full of Crumbs on In My Hands I Hold A Lucky Cricket (Cherub Dream)

    Local What is chemistry? I daren't guess. What are vibes called now? I shudder to think. Yet this band’s comforting pathos, the irresolvable musing of “How long til I/ mind my business?/ California/ and I can’t forgive this” speaks volumes.

11. 31′42″ Daisy Dukes by AroMa (self released)

    Local While 2023 album Symphony No Harmony was largely sung with a rare sensitivity, “Daisy Dukes” finds AroMa rapping with exceptional brass, over Xae’s deft jazz and tranformer beats.

12. 34′30″ Ivy Hill by CVCC on Ivy Hill EP (self released)

    Local Their Ivy Hill EP lodged four fresh examples of East Bay no pretense guitar pop, in conspiracy with the likes of R.E. Seraphin, Yea-Ming Chen and the broader Dandy Boy Universe; CVCC here serves up a characteristically sharply observed story, journeying from “a detox on the edge of town” to the title’s Oakland neighborhood, rocking out in a crafted finale, and ending with a bang.

13. 37′27″ Cuts by Street Eaters (Nervous Intent)

    Local You will know these spartan Berkeley legends by their uncanny drum/bass/guitar interlock on this absolute road-burner, or should I say Street Eater.

14. 39′36″ Future of Music by Pardoner on Paranoid in Hell (Convulse)

    Local 2/3rds of the song is “I don’t care about the future of music”, but “I was given a simple instrument” and “you only see yourself in stranger’s eyes” answer the underlying question.

15. 41′33″ 1-5-8 by Hits on World of Dirt (Paisley Shirt)

    Local Hear Jen Weisberg drop a melody out of an airplane to land in some kind prog revelatory vocal sphere. If punk is ultimately the notion that new forms are legible, Hits’ trio of Nordile/Tester/Weisberg play both kinds: the present and the future.

16. 43′48″ Cumulus Surrounding by Sutros on Acrid Tongue (self released)

    Local The song’s refrain “What will we say?” is apt for now because it looks to the future while casting pretty serious aspersions on the present. I’d call it ‘dread’ except for the stupendous guitar riff, filling the void in our step.

17. 47′56″ The Carousel by Asha Wells on Tears Of A Clown (Anxiety Blanket Records)

    Local In some schools of fiction, Feelings are to Mood as Figure is to Field: a character has feelings as she walks into the room but the mood surrounds her as does her recent past and context. And so it is in the songs of Asha Wells, where the compelling lyrical narrative is immersed in lush chamber pop, reaching alchemy when, upon a carousel’s rotating platform, Wells declares “cuz I’m here….still.” Gah! Fabulous.

18. 50′59″ County Lines by Share on Have One (Forged Artifacts)

    Local A mountain-sized guitar riff and a big sky chorus, this absolute road dog will see you as far as you need to go, when you need to leave something behind, when you are “hanging on to nothing/ holding on to you.”

19. 55′51″ Blue Jocktober by JOCK on Labyrinth (Cherub Dream)

    Local JOCK the band is a power quartet, if not a magic cube, summoning all rock ever with totalizing force. Going all the way back to Stress Dreams, Kiana Endres has made powerful art with little artifice-- a streak which somehow continues with a band-referencing prog EP about labrynths!

20. 58′33″ Jonathan Says by The Wind-Ups on Happy Like This (Mt.St.Mtn.)

    A tribute to Jonathan Richman, and to signing in the streets, from the Chico-based nugget-panners, hallelujah.