Nicki Bluhm: To Rise You Gotta Fall album & tour

San Francisco's own, renowned singer/song writer Nicki Bluhm is getting ready to hit the road in support of her upcoming new album, To Rise You Gotta Fall. 

To Rise You Gotta Fall album cover art 

After finding success over the last six years with The Gramblers and some high-profile collaborations with Phish and Ryan Adams along the way, the Bay Area native wrote and recorded the life-chronicling songs for the new album over a two year period. In that two year period she went through a divorce and subsequently moved to Nashville Tennessee. Not surprisingly, the results are "quite personal," says Bluhm, a fact you can hear throughout the emotionally charged Alt-Country album. 

Her in-studio band includes Will Sexton and Matt Ross-Spang on guitars, Ken Coomer on drums and percussion, organ player Al Gamble, Rick Steff on piano and Dave Smith on bass with back-up singers Reba Russell and Susan Marshall, Sam Shoup doing the  string arrangements and various other special guests. They all headed to Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis and recorded  To Rise You Gotta Fall live. 

Nicki Bluhm
photo by Noah Abrams

The outcome is a sweet, heartfelt, heartbroken story. It's rich with melodies and harmonizing. Nicki's smooth voice washes cooly over colorful layers of instrumentation. Her country, folk roots shine on all eleven tracks: some being more upbeat like the title track "To Rise You Gotta Fall" and others more heart wrenching  like the closing track "Last To Know".   

Nicki Bluhm at Stern Grove Festival 7/2/2017
photo by Nikki DeMartini

Starting tomorrow, Nicki Bluhm is ready to share more. Her 22 stop tour kicks off at The Bluebird Theater in Denver, the day before the release of  To Rise You Gotta Fall.  Pre-order the album before then here. 

The heartbroken songbird returns to San Francisco for her show at The Independent on Friday June 8th. For the full list of show dates, click here. 

WORK IN PROGRESS by CARRY ILLINOIS out today!

In 2017, the popular up-and-coming indie-pop band from Austin Texas, Carry Illinois released Garage Sale, following the loss of their original bassist, John Winsor in 2016. 

Carry Illinois

Carry Illinois album cover art for Work in Progress

Today's release of their newest EP Work In Progress is a highly anticipated one following last year's praised drenched Garage Sale. 

Body positivity, self love, mental illness are just some of issues Lizzy Lehman continues to face on Work In Progress. Everyday struggles that so many can relate to presented as a shiny indie-folk dream. Lehman and her band-mates: guitarist Darwin Smith, drummer Rudy Villarreal, bassist Andrew Pressman and keyboardist Benjamin Rowe Violet spent the first part of 2018 writing and recording Work In Progress. 

The official record release show is tonight at Austin's Cheer Up Charlies with a summer tour to follow soon. 

Animal Years at Hotel Utah, tonight!

Last year the Brooklyn transplants from Baltimore, Animal Years released the critically acclaimed EP Far from Home. Produced by Ryan Hadlock, renonowed for his work with The Lumineers and Vance Joy, Far from Home has raked in praise from the likes of Rolling Stone magazine as one of the top 10 Americana artists to watch. 

The pop-rock, Americana band is taking the show on the road and will be play Hotel Utah in San Francisco tonight with Joel Taylor and Sleeping Jesus. Tucked in the corner of a rustic little bar, this quaint stage is a great setting for a down to earth rock show. Tickets for tonight's show are still available and they're affordable! Don't miss your chance to see them live in SF. 

Animal Years 

Of Montreal @ The UC Theatre Berkeley 5/3/2018

Of Montreal has released new music every year for the last eight years and for the last five of those years, they've gone on tour. Since 2013 the experimental uniform from Georgia has played at least once a year in San Francisco but their current tour in support of their latest release, White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood brought them to The UC Theatre in Berkley last week. 

Of Montreal @ The UC Theater Berkeley 5/3/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

Of Montreal @ The UC Theater Berkeley 5/3/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

Kevin Barnes hit the stage looking like a modernized 1960's housewife in athleisure wear. Between his lo-key drag attire changing every few songs and his animated performance along with the rotating entourage of characters that joined the band on stage, Of Montreal did a great job at keeping fans entertained a part from their music. That's what they do.

And then of course, there is the music. 

A leisurely hybrid of indie and psych-rock coupled with afore mentioned costume changes and company make for a trippy live show. The type of indie that is part of their sound reminds me of The Cure. It's very close to indie music's purest form, especially now as the genre spawns more and more sub-genres. Of Montreal's psychedelic influence is bold but not in the jammy sense. It's hypnotic, putting you in a trance where you find songs bleeding into each other.  Seeing Of Montreal live is like falling down the rabbit hole and landing in Wonderland. 

 Thursday night's set started with with "Id Engager" from their 2008 album, Skeletal Lamping which got some people dancing and others murmuring why and how more people were not dancing. "Paranoiac Intervals/Body Dysmorphia" was the first new song heard that night and while fans enjoyed old favorites the mood didn't alter when new music was played. 

Of Montreal @ The UC Theater Berkeley 5/3/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

Of Montreal @ The UC Theater Berkeley 5/3/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

Of Montreal @ The UC Theater Berkeley 5/3/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

The set mostly highlighted their work from 2007 and 2008 from their 15 album catalogue with a couple songs from 2016's Innocence Reaches and 2017's Rune Husk and every song from White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood intermittently sprinkled in. 

Berkeley is runner up to SF when it comes to accepting individuality, so naturally Of Montreal and their fans fit right in. Barnes' is a natural on-stage, the band flowed with all the shenanigans going on around them and the fans were definitely feeling their flow.  

Of Montreal @ The UC Theater Berkeley 5/3/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

Of Montreal @ The UC Theater Berkeley 5/3/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

Kevin Barnes will be (back) in San Francisco for a Noise Pop show at The Swedish American Hall on May 25th! Find out what his solo act is like and get your tickets to that show today. 

Of Montreal @ The UC Theater Berkeley 5/3/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

Of Montreal set-list 5/3/2018

1. Id Engager

2. Gronlandic Edit

3. Paranoiac Intervals/Body Dysmorphia

4. Plastis Wafer 

5. Writing the Circles/Orgone Tropics 

6. Sex Karma 

7. If You Talk To Symbol/Hostility Voyeur

8. Wraith Pinned in the Mist (and Other Games)

9. Sophie Calle Private Game/Every Person Is a Pussy 

10.  It's Different for Girls 

11. Plateau Phase/No Careerism No Corruption

12. Come Wander With Me (Bonnie Beecher cover) 

13. Soft Music/Juno Portraits of the Jovian Sky

14. For Our Elegant Caste

15. Touched Something's Hollow

16. An Eluardian Instance 

17. A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger

en core

18. Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider

19. Gallery Piece 

20. Let's Relate 

Coachella Cupcake

There wasn't a single a cupcake vendor out of the 100+ food vendors at Coachella this year. 

 There wasn't even a vendor selling cupcakes. So imagine how sweet of a surprise it was walking into the office one scorching hot afternoon and finding a box full of delectable cupcakes! I'm not sure where the assorted box of Georgetown Cupcakes came from but I sure was happy that it was there. The selection was super cute and colorful and it didn't take me long to pick one. 

box of Georgetown Cupcakes
photo by: Nikki DeMartini

Georgetown Cupcakes box
photo by: Nikki DeMartini

I went with the one that looked like it was hybrid of mint chip and cookies and cream; the one with the green frosting topped with chunks of Oreos. Both the frosting and the cake had chucks of Oreo mixed in: the cake being vanilla and the frosting a cool mint.  Upon further investigation off-site I found out this is indeed the Mint Cookies and Cream flavor.


Georgetown Cupcakes only offers this Madagascar Vanilla Cupcake baked with Oreo crumbles topped with a mint Oreo crumble-infused buttercream frosting on Thursdays, according to their website.  Luckily they made an exception for Coachella weekend two.

Georgetown's Mint Cookies & Cream cupcake
photo by Nikki DeMartini

The buttercream frosting was surprisingly light all around. Usually thick and heavy, this buttercream was whipped without losing any of the classic creaminess. The mint flavor was light and cooling and it danced on your tongue as it melted away.  The vanilla cookies and cream cake was a wise choice because a chocolate cake counterpart would have been too much. Out in the desert sun, being as cool as possible is key. This cupcake flavor was a refreshing treat in Indio's afternoon heat.
Georgetown's Mint Cookies & Cream is the perfect Coachella Cupcake!