Zola Jesus: sophomore album, TAIGA is out on October 7th & the tour kicks off in SF on October 8th!

TAIGA TRACKLISTING
Taiga
Dangerous Days
Dust
Hunger
Go (Blank Sea)
Ego
Lawless
Nail
Long Way Down
Hollow
It’s Not Over

One day after the release of her second  album, TAIGA, Zola Jesus will set forth on her record release tour!  The tour kicks off at  Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco on October 8th before the eccentric, electro- art pop artist brings her act to a slew of major cities around the US, the UK and Europe.

The sophomore album from the once blonde, now brunette, petite singer-songwriter is already getting and gaining praise thanks to  debuts of two brand new songs, "Dangerous Days" and "Go (Blank Sea)".   The  experimental cinematic sounds heard on these tracks alone foreshadow an exceptionally mesmerizing live show. 

 

See Zola Jesus in the classiest setting San Francisco has to offer concert goers!

Tickets to the first show of her tour, October 8th at Bimbo's 365 Club, are only $22.00!

TOUR DATES

Wednesday October 8th – San Francisco, CA – Bimbo’s w/ Operators
 Thursday October 9th – Los Angeles, CA – El Rey w/ Leech
 Thursday October 16th – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall w/ The-Drum
 Friday October 17th – Washington, DC – Hirshhorn Museum
 Sunday October 18th  – New York, NY – Webster Hall w/ Martin Rev (Suicide) & Lee Bannon

 Wednesday October 29th  – Bristol, England – Colston Hall
 Thursday October 30th – Leeds, England – Belgrave Music Hall
 Friday October 31st  – Glasgow, Scotland – Stereo
 Saturday November 1st  – Manchester, England – Manchester Cathedral - Columns
 Tuesday November 4th  – Paris, France – Badaboum
 Wednesday November 5th  – Strasbourg, France – La Laiterie
 Thursday November 6th -  St Gallen, Switzerland - Palace
 Friday November 7th -  Geneva, Switzerland – l’Usine
 Saturday November 8th  – Reims, France – La Cartonnerie
 Monday November 10th  – Köln, Germany – Gebäude 9
 Tuesday November 11th  – Berlin, Germany – Berghain
 Wednesday November 12th  – Hamburg, Germany – Uebel and Gefährlich
 Thursday November 13th  – Frankfurt, Germany - Zoom
 Friday November 14th  – Brussels, Belgium – La Nuit Botanique
 Saturday November 15th  – Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
 Tuesday November 18th  – London, England - KOKO

Le Butcherettes @ The Great American Music Hall 8/12/2014

They hit the road last month in  anticipation of their second full-length album, Cry Is For The Flies,  which came out yesterday, but don't be fooled the familiar vibe of their garage rock roots and post-punk sound because the ladies of Le Butcherettes put on an incomparable live show.  



Le Butcherettes @ The Great American Music Hall 8/12/2014
Photo by: Marc Fong



 On the first leg of their US tour,  Le Butcherettes opened a handful of shows for the pseudo ensemble band, Antemasque and tickets to their show at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco sold-out quick!

 

Le Butcherettes @ The Great American Music Hall 8/12/2014
Photo by: Marc Fong

Staggering on to the stage in matching bloody aprons, the  melodramatic  singer/guitarist/keyboardist Teri Gender Bender feverishly swept the carpeted stage floor as Lia Braswell made her way to her drum kit,  before  violently launching into their set.

 

Their antics yielded an audience engagement riddled somewhat with shock and definitely with awe while a sense of suspense filled the air.  As the enthralled audience intently watched and lightly thrashed, the girls from Guadalajara rocked pretty much non-stop. 



Le Butcherettes @ The Great American Music Hall 8/12/2014
Photo by: Marc Fong

Le Butcherettes @ The Great American Music Hall 8/12/2014
Photo by: Marc Fong

While  Lia made wide-eyed, cartoonish facial expressions Teri's over the top theatrics included intense eye contact with fans in the front, deep throating the mic while growling into it and a running start  stage dive, followed by  face first crowd surfing. The kinetic energy of  their performance aggressively grabs your attention with a fun intention and it is a lot of  fun watching them!  The acoustics at the Great American Music Hall gave their raw rock N' roll sound a grungy edge to all the songs from their LPs and EPs that filled the set. 

 

 

 

Antemasque @ The Great American Music Hall 8/12/2014
Photo by: Marc Fong

 

 

 

 

With out so much as a hello or a thank, there was  a brief exchange of banter in Spanish before Le Butcherettes left the crowd riled up for Antemasque.

 

 



 

 

 

It's safe to say that a lot of  people at the show that night were Mars Volta/At The Drive In fans being that Antemasque is made of members from those bands,  Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala. After witnessing the riot that is Le Butcherettes live, it's safe to say a lot of people walked away fans of the opening band as well!


Antemasque @ The Great American Music Hall 8/12/2014
Photo by: Marc Fong
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Le Butcherttes continue to tour in support of their brand new album and return to San Francisco with The Melvins at The Great American Music Hall on October 21st!

 

 

CATHEDRALS playing at Popscene THIS Thursday September 11th!

 MS MR, the sad-core indie dance band from Brooklyn has blown up since they hit the scene and dropped their debut album, Secondhand Rapture. Did you know that the Miss of MS MR, Lizzy Plapinger is co-founder of a record label?! She is! The label, Neon Gold, which started as a vinyl-only singles label, has since launched the careers of artists like Gotye, Passion Pit, Icona Pop, and Tove Lo just to name a few.

 

To get people pumped about some freshly signed bands and up coming releases, Neon Gold announced a number of Popshop  shows on both coasts!

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

- Thursday September 11th: San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop with Cathedrals, Grizfolk, Tomas Barfod
 
- Thursday September 11th: Washington, DC @ U Street Music Hall with New Madrid, Reptar
- Thursday September 18th: New York, NY @ Westway with ASTR, Conway, Verite

- Tuseday October 7th: New York, NY @ Webster Hall with  Charlie XCX, Elliphant, Femme
 
- October:  New York, NY - CMJ Festival
-Tuesday October 28th: Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo with Circa Waves








The debut, self-titled EP  from the SF based duo CATHEDRALS came out yesterday, September 8th and they're playing a hometown show at The Rickshaw Stop on September 11th! Get the CATHEDRALS EP  now on itunes, stream it on spotify, and/or  grab the vinyl which also comes with a digital download here: http://neon-gold shop.myshopify.com/collections/catalog/products/cathedrals-ep

Kara's Gourmet Cupcakes @ Outside Lands 2014

Wooden Windmills at Outside Lands
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

Summertime = Music Festival-time and it's true what they say, time  does fly when you're having fun! I mean can you believe it's already been a month since the 7th Annual Outside Lands Music (Food, Wine, Beer & Art) Festival?

Grouplove @ Outside Lands Friday August 8th, 2014
Photo by Marc Fong

Believe it because today marks one month since The Killers closed out the third day of SF's  biggest Music Festival which draws Hundreds of Thousands of people to Golden Gate Park over the span of three days in early August.

Tegan and Sara @ Outside Lands Friday August 8th, 2014
Photo by Marc Fong

Along with seeing so many awesome acts that this year's line up offered like (and definitely not limited to), Grouplove, Kanye West , Chromeo, Tegan and Sara, Macklemore, Discloser,  Big Freedia and The Flaming Lips I was really exited because this was the year I was finally going to  have a cupcake at OSL!



Kanye West  @ Outside Lands Friday August 8th, 2014
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

Macklemore @ Outside Lands Saturday August 9th, 2014
Photo by Marc Fong

The Flaming Lips @ Outside Lands Sunday August 10th, 2014
Photo by Marc Fong

The Flaming Lips @ Outside Lands Sunday August 10th, 2014
Photo by Marc Fong

The Flaming Lips @ Outside Lands
Photo by Marc Fong Sunday August 10th, 2014

Kara's Gourmet Cupcakes is a San Francisco based business and their cupcakes have been sold at  Outside Lands since the festival started seven years ago! This year, I decided it was about time I had one! YUM!

Chocolands @ Outside Lands 2014
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

The dessert kiosks have their own space separate from all of the restaurant/other eatery kiosks which line the main stretch between the main Outside Lands stage and 2nd largest stage, Twin Peaks which is across the park. Tucked away in the off skirts of the woods is where all  the goodies are and Kara's Gourmet Cupcakes has  TWO set ups! One of the set-ups is in Chocolands which is a section of the festival strictly dedicated to everything chocolate, so all of the cupcakes sold there are have chocolate (Sweet Chocolate, Chocolate Coconut, Sweet S'mores, etc). Then there's the Kara's Cupcake truck which is parked just outside of Chocolands and it has (almost) all the other cupcake flavors that Kara's Gourmet Cupcakes offers (Red Velvet, Lemon, Carrot Cake, Key Lime, etc).

Kara's Cupcake Truck  @ Outside Lands 2014
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

I chose an appropriate Chocolands flavor, the Sweet Chocolate Cupcake: chocolate cake with a sugary sweet chocolate frosting. Cupcakes come across as the perfect festival treat because you can enjoy it en route to the next stage/set/act but this ideal scenario isn't always the case as I learned at Outside Lands. Kara's really piles the frosting on to their  Cupcakes, a fact  I am not complaining about, but it does make it difficult to eat on the go, especially when dust is being kicked up by passers by (which is  the case a lot of the at Outside Lands).

So I hunkered down for a couple minutes in Chocolands to completely enjoy my indulgent choco-fix.

Kara's Gourmet Cupcakes in Chocolands @ Outside Lands 2014
Photo by Nikki DeMartini



Kara's Gourmet Cupcakes @ Outside Lands 2014
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

The cupcake was un-expectedly fresh! They must have been baked then delivered everyday of the three day festival because I got mine around 4:00pm on Sunday and it's delicious freshness was the very first thing I noticed. The frosting was creamy, not hardened as frosting tends to do when out for an extended time and the cake was fluffy and buttery.

Kara's Sweet Chocolate Cupcake
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

Kara's Sweet Chocolate Cupcake
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

In my experience I've found that  the frosting on Chocolate Cupckaes is overtly chocolate while the cake itself lacks coco flavor and is just chocolate in color. I was delighted that this was not the case with Kara's Sweet Chocolate Cupcake! The cake itself had a distinctive Dark Chocolate taste while it's thick frosting is more of a Milk Chocolate flavor. It's sweet, it's chocolatey, it's pretty darn decadent and I was ready to see  more bands in a mere matter of minutes! Turns out Festival Cupcakes, though not easy to eat while walking, they are a great treat because they don't take much time to eat!Thanks to Chocolands at Outside Lands now I know Kara's Sweet Chocolate Cupcake is my favorite Chocolate Cupcake! I  can't wait to eat a cupcake at Outside Lands #8!

Kara's Sweet Chocolate Cupcake
Photo by Nikki DeMartini


(You wanna see more photos of the bands that played Outside Lands this year? Head over to MarcFongPhoto.com the whole OSL gallery should be up soon!)