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!

Matt and Kim at The Warfield 4/3/2018

Matt and Kim at The Warfield 4/3/2018
photo by Marc Fong

After a long road to recovery following a ACL injury Kim endured during a show in Mexico last year, Matt and Kim are back on the road touring in support of their upcoming album, Almost Everyday. Their Spring tour which stretches beyond Summer, includes sold-out shows on the East Coast as well as a show at The Warfield in SF, here on the West Coast. 

Matt and Kim at The Warfield 4/3/2018 
photo by Marc Fong 

Over 14 years and 6 albums, the energetic duo/couple from Brooklyn New York still draw the same frat-boy, college kid crowd. It's no surprise that Matt and Kim's exuberant presence keeps fans, old(er) and young(er) coming back electro-pop track after electro-pop track.







TWINKIDS and CRUSIR opened the show as fans streamed into the concert venue in the heart of downtown San Francisco.
Matt and Kim stormed the stage just before 9:30pm and the place exploded at the sound of their first song, the marching band fueled anthem "It's All Right". 

Matt and Kim at The Warfield 4/3/2018 
photo by Marc Fong

Matt and Kim at The Warfield 4/3/2018 
photo by Marc Fong 

The most lovable thing about Matt and Kim is them, Matt and Kim. Both of them hit the stage with off the chart energy, infectious smiles and a genuine vibe that they are having a blast and they want everyone there to join in on the fun. It's that way everytime I see them and I like to believe that's how it is at every Matt and Kim show.







They definitely put in the work to hype up the crowd but it's not forced: Matt takes the lead on the boisterous banter while Kim is in charge of the antics.
Gone are the days of her walking walking on hands across the crowd but that didn't stop Kim from continually standing on her drums, getting in fan's faces or throwing out handfuls of balloons out into the crowd which were then blown up and tossed around.

Matt and Kim at The Warfield 4/3/2018 
photo by Marc Fong 

Matt and Kim at The Warfield 4/3/2018 
photo by Marc Fong 

Their high-velocity set included classic crowd pleasures: "Block After Block", "Cameras" and "Daylight" as well as fun renditions of Rhianna's "Umbrella", Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", Van Halen's "Jump" 50 Cent's "In the Club" Princess Nokia's "Tomboy" and "Barbra Streisand" by Duck Sauce.









Matt and Kim's 6th studio album, Almost Everyday drops in a couple weeks on May 4th and they'll be on tour in support of it for a few more months! 

Matt and Kim at The Warfield 4/3/2018 
photo by Marc Fong 

Matt and Kim set-list 4/3/2018 

1. It's Alright 

2. Make A Mess 

3. Hey Now

4. Forever 

5. Block After Block 

6. Cameras

7. Like It Use To Be

 8. Umbrella 

9. Now 

10. Jump 

11. You Can Blame Me 

12. I See Ya 

14. Lessons Learned 

15. Get It 

16. Tonight 

17. Daylight Outro

18. Daylight 

encore

1. Please No More

2. Let's Go 

YACHT is back in SF 4/7/2018 @ The Midway!

Primo indie band YATCH are playing at The Midway in SF tomorrow night, exactly two months after they headlined at The Independent! 

YACHT @ The Independent 2/7/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

YACHT @ The Independent 2/7/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

Their last release, five song EP Strawberry Moon, ebbs and flows from high-tempo to lower tempo, back to more up-beat tempo and dancey, to more melodic and ends with a totally different sound. It's as if the band artistically tied the phases of the moon into their new music. 

YACHT @ The Independent 2/7/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

YATCH rocked The Independent last month are here are the pictures that prove it! 

YACHT @ The Independent 2/7/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

Tomorrow night, they're part of the opening of the She Bends: Women in Neon Art exhibit at The Midway Gallery. It features 32 women benders from around the world making it the largest, most inclusive all women art exhibit ever put together. 

YACHT @ The Independent 2/7/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

YACHT @ The Independent 2/7/2018
photo by Marc Fong 

It's fitting that YACHT is the band performing live at this opening being that front woman Claire L Evans of released her book, Broad Band: The Untold Story of Women Who Made the Internet last month. Girl power!

YACHT @ The Independent 2/7/2018
photo by Marc Fong

By the looks of their last show in SF, She Bends: Women in Neon Art opening with YACHT live will be a fun night! 

Tickets to the art show are still available. 

Beth Ditto @ The Regency Ballroom 3/25/2018

Former Gossip lead singer, Beth Ditto headlined The Regency Ballroom, one of the shows of her West Coast stretch on her North America/Canadian Fake Sugar Tour. The now strawberry blonde soloist adorned the staged in a gold sequined dress just past 9:15 on Sunday night to a small crowd beaming to see her.

She graciously smiled and waved as fans welcomed her to the stage, choking on spit as she thanked everyone for staying through the openers " I always get so nervous playing after them" she said. She went on to say that she and the lead singer of Ssion share the same birthday, "lucky him" she said as the band cued up "Oh My God".  The 37 year old's voice is as grandiose as her personality, powerful and strong like that of an opera singer. Effortlessly hitting notes and carrying them as she sauntered across the stage, flashes of light bouncing off of her as she went. She permeated a certain sense of Southern comfort from the twang in her voice, to the passion behind her delivery to her flirty conversing between songs.

Beth Ditto @ The Regency Ballroom 3/25/2018
photo by Nikki DeMartini

Before the second song of the night, "In and Out" Beth gave a shout out to a guy in the audience wearing a shirt that said "Beth not Meth" then told fans that if she were a drag queen her name would be Bethanphedamean. The fourth song of the night, "I Wrote the Book," drew boisterous cheers and at the end of it, the leading lady introduced her band. Everything she said that night left people laughing, smiling, cheering, applauding or all four. Self described as a "fat feminist lesbian from Arkansas", I see her as being is a proud, outspoken individual.


She's funny and witty. She's a fashionista. She's brave, leaving Gossip after 15 years to do her own thing. And there she was doing it. The Arkansas born, Portland transplant fits in so well with the diverse culture that is San Francisco that I was surprised the show didn't sell better. A fact that Ditto herself did not shy away from but rather, she embraced it.

Beth Ditto @ The Regency Ballroom 3/25/2018
photo by Nikki DeMartini

Beth Ditto @ The Regency Ballroom 3/25/2018
photo by Nikki DeMartini

Regardless if the music is fueled by the eighties era like, "Open Heart Surgery" or possess an indie-pop drive as heard on "We Could Run", her vocals explode with soul. She positively belts every lyric to every song she sings but belting doesn't do it justice. Beth's singing style has an edgy elegance. She is our modern day Etta James. Her voice accompanies the whole range of eclectic synth-pop her solo work encompasses. She has an electric energy that oozes from the stage and buzzes around the room, filling it with a  sensation to dance.







It was really humbling of her to include a handful of Gossip songs in the set. After all, that's how we got to know her and Gossip was a part of her life and career for so long how could she not? Not all artists would though and that speaks volumes about Miss Beth Ditto.
She is a force to be reckoned with and she knows it and she wants everyone to know it, too. All you have to do is watch and listen and you will learn.

Beth Ditto @ The Regency Ballroom 3/25/2018
photo by Nikki DeMartini

Beth Ditto set-list 3/25/2018 

1. Oh My God 

2. In And Out 

3. Fake Sugar 

4. I Wrote The Book 

5. Yr Mangled Heart 

6. Oo La La

7. Love Long Distance 

8. Open Heart Surgery 

9. We Could Run

10. Listen Up! 

11. Coal to Diamonds 

12. Standing in the Way of Control 

encore

1. Clouds 

2. Heavy Cross 

3. Fire 

4. Dream a Little Dream of Me