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16 Bitch Pile-Up
16 Bitch Pile-Up has been the Bay Area's premier all-lady noise terrorist cell for five years. The recent relocation of member Shannon Walker to Los Angeles might have crippled a less hardy trio; the band instead responded by releasing its first factory-pressed album to date, a split LP with the winsome title Make Like a Fetus and Abort on Ecstatic Peace (the band has oozed an ephemeral trail of CD-Rs, 7-inches, and cassette tapes across the noise landscape). In its infrequent but celebrated live performances, the Pile-Up is violently unpredictable; ear-scalding harsh electronic noise can melt into quiet experiments with voices and traditional instruments.
Alt-Country/Folk/Singer-Songwriter
Sponsored by Wunder Beer
Emily Jane White
In recent years Emily Jane White has lived in Santa Cruz, Bordeaux, France, and on an organic apple farm in Philo, California; she also worked for a year on a domestic-violence crisis hotline. She has culled her experiences into personal explorations and tales of tragedy on her debut album, Dark Undercoat, which will be released in early November on Double Negative Records. (A West Coast tour will follow.) Exploring "darkness, hope, and melancholy," in her words, White's songs are sometimes compared to Cat Power's. While this pairing certainly fits, her stark guitar-and-piano-anchored tunes have a vitality all their own.
Willow Willow
The genesis of East Bay combo Willow Willow seems like a classic silver-screen chronicle. Two Albany lasses born four months apart, Miranda Zieger and Jessica Vohs became friends in kindergarten and their voices have intertwined in song ever since. Forging their approach from the exquisite, tart harmonies of the Silly Sisters — the traditional Brit folk duo of Maddy Prior and June Tabor — and the Everly Brothers–meet–Big Star pop elegance of locals the Moore Brothers, Willow Willow has one of the most distinctive styles around. After years of performing, Willow Willow released its eponymous debut this year on Mod Lang.
Greg Ashley
Texas transplant Greg Ashley made a name for himself locally as the frontman for Oakland's the Gris Gris, and as a soloist he treads similar dark psych-folk territory, albeit on a somewhat quieter level. His solo debut, 2003's Medicine Fuck Dream, was a ten-track ode to the women in his life and sounded, well, about how you might expect an album called Medicine Fuck Dream to sound. He followed that with this year's critically acclaimed Painted Garden, which, like its predecessor, featured Ashley writing and playing nearly everything on the record, giving it an even more intimate feel.
Or, the Whale
Or, the Whale, a sprawling septet of slide guitars, accordions, washboards, and beyond, began drawing attention when the band released its first album, Light Poles and Pines, in May. Filled with danceable, country-charged rock, reflective ballads, and indie-pop gems, the debut was received warmly by local media, and was even mentioned on VH1's Best Week Ever and a blog for USA Today. Listeners fell hard for Or, the Whale's thrilling four-part vocal harmonies at boisterous live shows, and the band, still in its public infancy, has developed a well-deserved local following.
Club Night
Sponsored by HBI
Remedy
Every last Friday of the month, "Remedy" takes over San Francisco's DNA Lounge to provide a place where, as promoters Chadwick, Xavier, Christopher Vera, and Essential Nightlife are fond of saying, "Music is the cure." This exciting, high-energy evening of deep house music (which began as a weekly event) serves as a leader of the international house scene, often featuring top guest DJs and live performers from all over. "Remedy" recently celebrated its eighth birthday, a milestone vote of confidence in this city's fickle nightlife landscape.
Surya Dub
After exploring the cultural outlands of club music with residencies at Dubmission and Dhamaal, DJ Maneesh the Twister came up with the unified dub theory; namely, that dub — originally a drum-and-bass-oriented remixed instrumental offshoot of reggae, later a production style emphasizing echo, reverb, and dropouts — was the unifying principle connecting roots reggae, dancehall, bhangra, two-step, dubstep, hip-hop, and, of course, dub itself. Assembling a rotating crew of experimental-minded selectors (like Kid Kameleon, Kush Aurora, and Ross Hogg), he began presenting Surya Dub at Club Six in February. The night offers two rooms of mind-blowing musical madness linking dub's cultural roots and its offshoots in one venue.
Tubesteak Connection
Even after several years of consistent success, Tubesteak Connection has managed to keep its determinedly dirty edge, thrusting Aunt Charlie's into a late-'70s and early-'80s time warp every Thursday night. Led by DJ Bus Station John, whose collection of extremely rare jams ranges from gay bathhouse obscurities to New York electro and Eurodisco, the Tenderloin dive transforms into a cruisey dance party that pulls in queers of all kinds. The drinks are dirt cheap and almost illegally strong, and the scene calls to mind a revolutionary and storied era of gay San Francisco.
Saturday Night Soul Party
On the first and third Saturdays of each month, the Elbo Room transforms itself into a '70s English discotheque. On these nights, DJs Pink Panzer, Paul Paul, and Phengren Oswald unleash the kind of '60s soul 45s that spawned all-night dance parties in northern British cities like Manchester and Blackpool. Decked out in swank suits, the Saturday Night selectors deliver obscure, high-energy stompers like Doug Clark & the Hot Nuts' "Baby Let Me Bang Your Box" and Shirley Ellis' "Soul Time." The crowds — a surprisingly diverse mix of modded-out hipsters, herb-an soul fans, and Gap-sporting fitness experts — respond in kind, frugging with the kind of fervor that would make the Wigan Casino proud.
