Stars Performing Classic Album at the Chapel on Sunday

Photo Credit: Stars
Canadian indie rockers celebrating 20th anniversary of “Set Yourself on Fire.”

“When there’s nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire.”

That spoken-word opening salvo is the first thing listeners hear on “Set Yourself On Fire,” the seminal 2004 album from Canadian indie rock outfit Stars.

Delivered with a stern, Mid-Atlantic accent, the declaration feels lifted from a gritty noir film starring Humphrey Bogart or a 1940s radio broadcast warning of the perils of fascism. Instead, the unlikely orator of that line—which serves as a manifesto for the entire album—is actually the father of Stars frontman Torquil Campbell.

“Yeah, that’s my dad,” said Campbell. “I wanted to start the record with a quote, and I had been kind of jotting that line down on my arm for a little while because I was too scared to get a tattoo. We were in the mastering suite, basically finishing up the album and I got my dad on the phone, and he recorded that real quick. He always liked to complain that he never earned a penny in royalties from that contribution.”

On October 20 at the Chapel, the band will play their beloved third album in full, part of an ongoing tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release. The guest vocal contribution of Campbell’s father—which kickstarted the opening track, “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” has played a strangely enduring role in the legacy of the album. 

That statement is about defiant self-belief and irreverent radicalism, helping set the tone for “Set Yourself on Fire” and perfectly epitomizing the ethos of the band. Much like today, the world of 2004 was a chaotic, war-torn time, with the Iraqi and Afghanistan conflicts looming large and the machismo of George W. Bush America running rampant. Stars sought to counter those nihilistic undercurrents with messages of empathy and understanding. 

“We were very convinced at the time that being soft and being loving was the ultimate punk act—and we still feel that way,” said Campbell. “That’s how we were raised—if you treat people with respect and dignity and love, that’s going to permeate out into the world. And if you act selfish and you don’t show love and don’t express vulnerability, the world will become a harder, nastier place. And then you get assholes like Donald Trump.”

So much of that communal sentiment derived from the explosion of artistic and creative endeavors happening in the band’s hometown of Toronto. At the time, that city was the epicenter of the indie rock world, with bands and artists like Broken Social Scene, Metric and Feist helping to define the expansive, exploratory sound of the early aughts. 

“It’s hard to describe that feeling in your 20s, when seemingly everyone you know just falls in love with each other,” said Campbell. “We all lived within, like six blocks of each other, and we were all just very obsessed with each other as people. We couldn’t stop hanging out with each other and going to each other’s shows and that energy was just a vortex you got caught up in.”

Whether it was the osmosis effect of the Toronto scene or an inspired burst of songwriting, the resulting effect was an astonishing catalog of songs collected on “Set Yourself on Fire.” Few albums capture the wonderment and awe offered by indie rock—a dynamic that perhaps reached its peak in 2004, when bands within the genre produced classic albums on a seemingly weekly basis. 

Every song on “Set Yourself on Fire” is a certifiable classic. “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” sets the tone from the onset with its heart-on-sleeve lyrics and lilting melodies. The title track is a jittering, propulsive pop classic, “Ageless Beauty” is a stunning shoegaze number and “Reunion” is a janglepop masterpiece. “First Five Times,” is a boozy, synthpop creation and “One More Night (Your Ex-Lover Remains Dead)” is a sweeping, orchestral piece characterized by the time honored soft-loud-soft dynamic.

Things take a more serious turn on the second half of the album, with Campbell delivering a scathing indictment of Bush-era foreign adventurism on “He Lied About Death,” and singer Amy Millan cooing a hopeful riposte to endless warmongering on “Celebration Guns.” The album closes with the gorgeous ballad “Calendar Girl”—a final return to more intimate settings.

For Campbell, mixing the personal (the intricacies of romantic relationships) with the universal (a world beset by war) made complete sense. 

“I just think, that’s fucking life,” said Campbell. “All the stuff, post-9/11 was fundamentally disruptive to our lives. The personal and political were completely intertwined. And nothing really has changed—in fact it’s becoming more pronounced. You go on Instagram, and you see someone talking about their new air fryer they just bought and the next post you see is about stopping the genocide. The difference in the personal and public appearances of people in this world have been erased.”

By melding those seemingly disparate concepts, Stars forecast the future in ways that feel eerily prescient. And despite having that wildly ambitious conceit, the album feels shockingly cohesive. Campbell and Millan trade off vocals like lovers having a conversation and the audacious sonic template (flitting between loud, discordant tracks and symphonic, baroque offerings) is deftly wielded by the stately musicianship of the band, anchored in large parts by virtuosic multi-instrumentalist Evan Cranley.

The result is a document of the times (one that received universal acclaim) that still feels absolutely vital 20 years later. Campbell said there was some initial hesitancy about embarking on a tour that could be seen as a nostalgia trip, but those misgivings were quickly dissipated after the first few shows.

“I can honestly say that these shows have been among the most beautiful experiences of my life,” said Campbell. “This record came out 20 years ago. That is an incredibly long period of time for us to hold on to our audience. It means everything to me that we’re still doing this.”

The band’s show at the Chapel sold out within a few days of tickets being offered and numerous other outings have been packed affairs on the tour. Campbell said the outpouring of support has encouraged them to extend these run of 20th anniversary shows.

“We want to keep this thing going,” said Campbell. “We plan on giving everything we got, for two hours every night. We want to give the people what they want—to make them cry and dance and sing and then send them home happy.”

Show Details:
Stars with Kevin Drew
Where: The Chapel
When: 8 p.m., Sunday October 20 
Tickets: Sold Out

Sunset Rubdown Continue Victory Tour after Unlikely Reunion

Photo Credit: Terry Ondang 
Canadian indie rockers will play at The Independent on October 14

We all know about “the rat.”

No, I’m not talking about the legendary Walkmen track. I mean that feeling of self-loathing, doubt and worthlessness. Some people call it anxiety. Others refer to it as stress. Or maybe we just chalk it up to modern living.

For Spencer Krug, the erudite lead singer and founder of Canadian indie rockers Sunset Rubdown, our sense of existential dread is anthropomorphized into that wily, sly little rodent. 

On “Reappearing Rat,” the band’s lead single off their terrific new album, “Always Happy to Explode,” Krug deftly captures our underlying insecurities, portraying a scene of domestic bliss interrupted by the ominous chorus, “But the rat, the rat, the rat/Has reappeared.” However, instead of taking that mantra as a pessimistic rejoinder, Krug said he actually views the song as a defiant ode to all the band has weathered recently.

“I think, on a not super-conscious level, that song was symbolic of the band overcoming all our doubts and overcoming all these challenges we’ve faced,” said Krug. “There are doubts in the lyrics, but for me, that song is about more than that. Actually, making that song was this amazing experience—it was this realization that this record could be fun, and we could enjoy doing this thing together. It made me love that song so much more.”

Krug—who first came to fame as one of the chief songwriters for the indie rock group Wolf Parade—will showcase the band’s triumph over that recurring rodent when they play at The Independent on October 14. It will be a victory lap of sorts for a band that’s risen like Lazarus on more than one occasion.  

The challenges Krug was referencing in his quote stem from a tumultuous recording process for the album. While all ensconced at Krug’s house on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, drummer Jordan Robson-Cramer tested positive for Covid, and bassist Nicholas Merz abruptly bolted during the sessions, taking an unplanned break to calm his nerves. Michael Doerksen, the band’s original guitarist, never even made it to the studio, so the new album was essentially recorded without any electric guitar.

Still, they persevered, accounting for a minor miracle and continuing the band’s wholly unexpected second act. “Always Happy to Explode” is the first Sunset Rubdown album in 15 years. When the group reformed to tour last year, it came as a shock to many, as Krug had repeatedly shot down any rumors about a potential reunion of the group.

But after being inspired by a dream (true story), Krug managed to corral all the founding members of the group (Doerksen, Robson-Cramer, and Camilla Wynne) for a 2023 tour, and after the success of that jaunt, Sunset Rubdown decided to record their first album since 2009’s “Dragonslayer.”

“I’d been saying for years that we’d never get back together—and that wasn’t a move on my part, I truly believed that,” said Krug. “But after doing this reunion tour, it seemed like both the band and our audiences were pleasantly surprised. There was this built-in gratitude to the whole tour—we were all so grateful we could get together and play these songs again. And our next step was always predicated on the success of the previous step. So, when the tour went well, we all decided it made sense to record a new album.”

Similar to past Sunset Rubdown efforts, the songs on “Always Happy To Explode” are unpredictable, labyrinthine creations, featuring abrupt tempo changes and dramatic sonic interludes. Powered by inventive synth and keyboard sounds, the tracks evoke an alien, unfamiliar and exciting sense of place—a world inhabited by ghouls, moths, snakes and other fantastical creatures that inhabit Krug’s trademark mythical narratives. Additionally, the “little lord”—a figure who pops up periodically in Krug’s songs, makes an appearance on the new album.

“Yeah, that’s the nickname I had when we first started with Wolf Parade,” said Krug. “I was very green to the music industry, and I had these certain lines I would refuse to cross. I wanted things to work in a certain way, and so I got that nickname, ‘little lord.’ It was pretty funny, so I just embraced it.”

Always self-effacing, Krug readily admits to his foibles, singing “And oh/The little lord's bored,” on “Worm,” the epic, penultimate track on the album, which, for the first time, features vocal contributions from all Sunset Rubdown band members (Merz stepped in for Doerksen during recording). Those arrangements add new depth to the band’s sound, with Wynne in particular making her presence felt by infusing stirring harmonies to most of the tunes. 

“I remember saying that I wanted to have a lot of vocals on this record, and not just a bunch of my voice,” said Krug. “I wanted to have lots of Camille singing, you know a lot from Jordan. And Nicholas, the new member, has this amazing voice. He’s that baritone you can hear come in from time to time.”

The cacophony of voices separates this Sunset Rubdown album from previous releases, proving that their extended break has only made the band more vibrant and creative. Equal parts prog and punk, “Always Happy To Explode” define easy categorization—a longtime specialty of the group and one that bodes well for the future.

“As long as Sunset Rubdown continues to be sustainable, I think we’re all on board,” said Krug. “I mean, no one is trying to get rich off this project. But if we people still want to hear us play our songs, we’re happy to perform them. I’m just trying to keep this whole thing alive—of making music. And it feels good to be doing that with this group of people.”

Show Details:
Sunset Rubdown with Sister Ray
Where: The Independent
When: 8 p.m., Monday, October 14
Tickets: $32, available here

As Silverware, Ainsley Wagoner Captures the Profundity of Music

Photo Credit: Marisa Bazan

SF artist will celebrate release of latest album, “One True Light,” with Sept. 24 show at Tiny Telephone studio in Oakland.

The story of Ainsley Wagoner’s life is also inevitably a story about music. 

The Kentucky native grew up playing piano and singing in her church, taking cues from her parents, who were the organist and choir director, respectively. From there, she attended the University of Kentucky, quickly ingratiating herself in the local arts scene while working for the school’s radio station and majoring in music.

It wasn’t until she moved to San Francisco in 2014 that she began to contemplate an existence without her longtime companion. Although it had been a part of her life since birth, music always felt like an organic presence—a calming backdrop that was effortless and natural. 

Upon moving to a new city thousands of miles from her home, Wagoner wondered if she would be able to find that same sense of community that accompanied her earliest memories. For once, she would have to search out this scene, instead of letting it come to her—a prospect that felt daunting.

“When I moved out here, I started to wonder if I only enjoyed music because I was always around it,” said Wagoner. “I wasn’t sure who I’d be once I stepped away from my hometown. But after maybe two years of not doing it, I couldn’t even enjoy listening to music. At shows I was so deeply envious of the people performing. I knew that I had to figure out how to keep making music and find people to do it with here.”

That revelation impelled Wagoner to continue exploring music under her creative moniker, Silverware. On August 30, she released the second full-length Silverware album, “One True Light,” and on September 24, she’ll play tracks from that record at the Tiny Telephone recording studio in Oakland. 

“One True Light” is humble, yet ethereal—grounded in a DIY ethos but also uplifted by Wagoner’s boundless talent and technical expertise. It is secular spiritual creation, an ambitious concept album of sorts that combines Wagoner’s varied influences—everything from the experimental noise bands she played in college to her formative years spent in the church. Flitting between art-rock, synth pop and indie-folk, the album recalls acts such as Indigo de Souza, Bat for Lashes and Chairlift (Caroline Polachek’s pre-breakthrough outfit.) It’s a powerful statement from a musician who draws just as comfortably from Sonic Youth as she does from hymns.

Although she’s now firmly ensconced in the local music scene (in addition to her solo work, Wagoner plays in the awesome indie rock band, Galore), that integration took some time. Wagoner moved from a tight-knit artistic community in Lexington to a city where she knew literally no one. Slowly, she found a group of like-minded artists, mostly from playing at the Mission haunt The Rite Spot Café, making connections with DJs at the indie radio station BFF.fm, while meeting a crew of musicians and engineers working at Tiny Telephone.

Among that Tiny Telephone crew, she connected with Omar Akrouche, who records as Worthitpurchase. The two collaborated on the 2021 debut Silverware album, “No Plans,” and worked together once again on “One True Light.” Nearly immediately after the first album was released in 2021, they began work on the follow-up.

Unlike for the debut album, however, when both lived in the Bay area, the recording for “One True Light,” took more time, due to Akrouche moving to Los Angeles. In addition to the logistical challenges, Wagoner said she had difficulty letting go of the final product.

“I’m not sure how Omar remembers this, but I feel like there was a 3 – 6 month period toward the end where I couldn’t listen to the mixes, because I wasn’t ready to say they were done,” said Wagoner.  “I love “No Plans,” and I’m really proud of that record, but I would listen back and hear things that I wish I had done differently. For this album, over the 2.5 years we were recording, I redid the vocals a lot, because I was getting better at delivering them, and I was playing the songs with my band which helped me refine arrangements. After “No Plans”, I understood better the permanence of recording, so if there was anything I could do to improve the songs, I was going to do that.”

That attention to detail is illustrated gorgeously in “One True Light.” Despite recording in numerous different locales, the album feels crisp, coherent and fully-formed. There are moments of quiet devastation and jarring dissonant interjections, but it’s all a natural ebb and flow that naturally mirrors life’s ups and downs.

The title track kicks off the album in magnetic fashion, shifting quickly from a solemn, hushed number into an urgent, bracing piece capped off with a gritty guitar solo. “No Expectations” follows, an upbeat, thumping piano ballad that’s punctuated by shouted gang vocals of the chorus. “Search,” is a drone-y, atmospheric synth opus and “Longer” is an austere chamber lullaby, featuring a memorable appearance from a forlorn clarinet. “Goodbye,” a stark, dreamlike reverie, appropriately closes out the album. 

And whatever the tempo, tone or genre, every song on “One True Light” is anchored by Wagoner’s classically-trained voice—a silvery, ringing instrument that adds unique depth and pathos to the Silverware catalog.

Wagoner’s powerful delivery charges “Gloria,” the centerpiece of the record. Part dustbowl revival, part canticle, part wistful guitar ballad, the song tackles Wagoner’s evolving relationship with the church and her search for a spiritual guiding light that provides life’s meaning. 

“A lot of this album is wrestling with the dissonance of longing for security inside of a life built around making art,” said Wagoner. “It’s about this effort to stay close with this divine creative force, because I feel the best when I’m writing a song. That’s what makes life worth living—making music. I know there are no guarantees. I know that it might not be going anywhere, but I'm going to do it anyway.”

It's an apt takeaway from an album that exalts and showcases creativity’s profound powers. Wagoner’s musical journey will continue. 

Show Details:
Silverware with Affectionately
When: 7 p.m., Tuesday, September 24
Where: Tiny Telephone Oakland
Tickets: $17, available here.

Been Stellar Embrace Role as Gritty NYC Ambassadors

Photo Credit: Gabe Long

Been Stellar will play at the Warfield on Tuesday, September 24

We all know “(Theme From) New York, New York.” When we hear Frank Sinatra belt out that tune, America’s most famous city turns into a bountiful land of opportunity—a place where you can forget your small town worries and be embraced by a dazzling, electric new life.

Been Stellar, a great new post-punk band that formed in New York City, has a slightly different take on their adopted hometown.

Cheekily titling their debut new album, “Scream from New York, NY,” in reference to the classic showtune, the city haunts each track on the album, appearing not necessarily as a malicious entity, but one that informs every part of daily life. It’s a ghostly apparition, a looming presence in each tortured lyric, wiry guitar lick and crashing drumbeat. 

You can practically smell the freshly-poured tar, hear the blaring horns of traffic and see the wisps of vapors emanating from belowground when you put on this record. It’s a clangorous, dirty, sweaty New York—not exactly Old Blue Eyes version of the city.

“We wanted this album to be about New York, because we are all outsiders and this is the thing that drew us all together,” said guitarist Skyler Knapp. “It was always going to be our first statement to the world. But even beyond that, I find it incredibly difficult not to talk about New York when you’re living here. It’s a city that reinforces its own identity on you. Every experience is filtered through that lens.”

Knappy and vocalist Sam Slocum grew up together in the suburbs of Detroit before moving to New York to attend NYU in 2017. That’s where they met the other members of the band—guitarist Nando Dale, bassist Nico Brunstein and drummer Laila Wayans. (And yes, the band name is partially inspired by actor Ben Stiller, said Knapp, who added that he conceived of it when he was 14. “All of our songs are so serious. I thought it would be a nice contrast to add a little humor,” said Knapp.”)

Like their NYC forebears, Been Stellar are masters at creating atmospheric, lived-in moods— although their references are forgotten museums, vacant parks, grimy train stations and empty streets, as opposed to dank dive bars and seedy clubs. 

Despite those differences, Been Stellar still know how to capture the claustrophobic, loneliness-in-the-masses dissociation of urban life, encapsulated perfectly in “Start Again,” when Slocum drones “they don't complain about the noise from above/The neighbors hear the scream enough.”

Even though the band released its debut album just a few months ago, they have already become an established entity, attracting laudatory press from outlets like Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Stereogum while embarking on a series of lengthy tours. On September 24, Been Stellar will open up for Irish punkers Fontaines D.C. at the Warfield.

As a band that proudly declaims their New York bonafides, Been Stellar understand the legacy they’re entering—but they’re okay with the identity they’ve carved out for themselves.

“Being a rock band in New York—or being a creative person of any kind—is obviously very daunting,” said Knapp. “You’re definitely stepping into these very big shoes, and it’s something we think about all the time. But I don’t mind those comparisons or references, because I’m confident in how we sound right now.”

With their origin story and bristly, post-punk sound, the band inevitably carry comparisons to NYC royalty such as Interpol, the Walkmen, and the Strokes, but Slocum’s loquacious, rangy delivery hews more closely to Elias Bender Rønnenfelt of Danish rockers Iceage, and the group’s maximalist approach evokes the great Austin act …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. Been Stellar can also bw surprisingly melodic, particularly on the Britpop adjacent tune “Sweet”—an album standout.

Although they concede that their New York predecessors influenced their sound, the group cited some inspirations outside that familiar oeuvre. In particular, the band sought to emulate drum sounds found on hip-hop records while taking cues from shoegaze outfits that perfected washed-out moods and tones. 

“We are huge fans of [UK shogezae group] Ride and we love how they jam for like three or four minutes and then kind of coast from there,” said Slocum, who coined the punny album title for the group. “Laila, our drummer, really loves Ride. On that song “Sweet” in particular, the idea was to let the drums kind of wash over you, but without losing that frantic kind of nature of the song.”

“Sweet” gets the big ballad treatment on the album, but the songs that find Been Stellar at the height of their powers are the urgent, Street Fighting Man-esque tracks like “Start Again,” “Passing Judgment” and “All in One.” These are all indignant, visceral and direct tunes, where you can practically see the spittle flying from Slocum’s mouth.

“Some of those songs were really inspired by other bands in New York,” said Knapp. “We toured with our friends Catcher, and they just had this level of fury and aggression in their songs that I really envied. Again—that’s a reaction to living in New York City. If you have something that's bothering you, it seems like the city almost puts an amplifier to it and feeds it back to you. I think we tried to convey that same kind of frustration in our songs.”

That sentiment might have a distinctively New York feel, but it can also resonate with anyone familiar with the beautifully chaotic existence of city living. Been Stellar have been prolific purveyors of that message, too—this upcoming visit to San Francisco will be the fourth such time they’ve played in the city—a notable achievement for such a young band.

The group has additional ambitious touring plans in the near future and have already written a host of songs for their next album. 

As a result, they are poised to continue their role as ambassadors of New York City—an inescapable obligation that they are more than capable of handling.

Show Details:
Fontaines D.C. with Been Stellar
When: 8 p.m., Tuesday, September 24
Where: The Warfield
Tickets: $35 + fees, available here.

Occupying a Distinct Spot in SF Scene, Galore to Take Stage at Bottom of Hill Friday

Photo credit: Wunmi Onibudo

Every week, the members of Galore gather for band practice at an isolated warehouse on the edge of the city’s Bayview District. 

Located among a heap of industrial buildings, the site is a go-to spot for local bands looking to rehearse, as the sprawling complex is affordable, functional and convenient (parking is ample.) The warehouse offers a communal gathering spot—a place for bands to exchange gear and pleasantries while situated among salvage yards and empty streets.

The cozy-yet-remote confines of the warehouse offer an apt metaphor of sorts for Galore: while they are deeply enmeshed in the local music ecosystem, frequently sharing bills with their contemporaries, the band does not fit snugly within some of San Francisco’s existing niches.

They don’t practice the honed janglepop of their peers on Slumberland Records, nor do they embrace the sonorous, lo-fi musings of acts that gravitate around the Paisley Shirt Records or the fuzzed-out dreampop explorations of bands such as the Reds, Pinks and Purples and Seablite. Their influences are diffuse and disparate—one moment Galore is a manic reincarnation of the post-punk greats Wire, other times they embrace the vast sonic landscapes of shoegaze legends Mazzy Star and still other moments they sound like bands from California’s distant past, with their multi-part harmonies and brimming hooks. 

“I feel like with certain bands, you can point really quickly to their influences, which is great,” said Ainsley Wagoner, guitarist and newest member of the four-piece band. “But that’s not really the case with us.”

Since forming, the band has issued one full-length album, one EP and a demo tape, but they’re currently working on their next release, which they hope to release next spring. On Friday night, at Bottom of the Hill, they’ll be playing a host of those new songs while opening up for post-hardcore/power-pop practitioner Tony Molina and Oakland garage rock outfit Unity.

This latest batch of tunes should be the most assured, focused effort of the band’s career. While the foundation of Galore is based around the twin songwriting efforts of guitarist Griffin Jones and bassist Ava Rosen, the band is an egalitarian endeavor, with drummer Hannah Smith and Wagoner adding their own personal inflections into the mix.

Most significantly, the band is taking an increasingly more engaged role in the producing and recording process of their songs. While they’re working with prolific Bay Area producer Jason Kick on their upcoming album, they’ve been given the bandwidth to fully explore the studio for their latest effort—a freedom that wasn’t available in past sessions, due to scheduling and other constraints.

“Just having this dedicated time on a regular basis in the studio to be able come in with edits and execute on those changes has made this a completely different experience,” said Jones. “We will all listen together to a recording and come up with feedback and ideas, like, ‘oh, what if we tried this here, or add something else here?’ It’s been a great learning experience and got us all really excited to grow our studio skills.”

That creative approach has also engendered a growing familiarity and assurance among the band members, whose interactions in the studio have now become almost preternatural. 

“This has happened a few times now during recording, where I’ll look over at Ava and say like, ‘I want it to be like this’ and she’ll immediately respond, ‘that’s what I was going to say!’” said Jones. “We’ve definitely developed that unspoken thing together.”

Rosen said the band’s familiarity with one another has created a language for their creative impulses. 

“When we say we want to hear the sound of breaking glass, we all know what that means,” said Rosen. “Or if we want the tom to sound ‘boom-y.’ We’re all on the same wavelength, and that’s really because we’re all more confident in what we are doing now.”

The band has been working on their 10 latest songs for about a year now, refining and honing their unique, difficult-to-define style. The band’s earlier efforts embraced more of a punk ethos, with rapid pacing and brash, rollicking guitar work taking the forefront. For their 2022 EP, the band slowed down the tempo and further explored multi-part vocals, offering a more hushed, introspective alternative.

In addition to spending more time perfecting their craft, Galore’s sound is due for another evolution, now that Wagoner has joined the group (she replaces previous guitarist Britta Leijonflycht.) While Wagoner, who also records as a solo artist under the moniker Silverware, has taken more of a supporting role so far in Galore, her experience as a producer and songwriter offers tantalizing new possibilities for the band.

“With Ainsley in the band now, it almost feels like we can create this new version of Galore,” said Rosen. “We don’t have to do things exactly like we did in the past. It just makes me all the more excited to get back to the studio and work out new things with her. Plus, she shreds on guitar.”

While they prep for the release of their upcoming album, the band has plans to maintain their regular live presence in San Francisco. They’re also eager to embark on some mini-tours to promote the new album (they still haven’t performed outside the Bay Area.)

“We definitely want to tour,” said Smith, the drummer. “I think we’re committed to doing that—I mean that’s the dream. We just have to find the right time to do that.”

Until then, the band will continue to occupy their distinct space within the San Francisco scene. Apart, but not separate—here, but not quite there. Galore is a band that defines itself from within, not without.

Show Details:

Tony Molina with Unity and Galore
When: 8:30 p.m., Friday, September 6
Where: Bottom of the Hill
Tickets: $18/$22, available here.

Chime School To Celebrate New Album With Record Release Party Friday at the Make Out Room

Photo by Britta Leijonflycht

Andy Pastalaniec can write a pop song.

All it takes is one cycle through the self-titled debut album of Chime School—Pastalaniec’s creative vehicle—to see that he has an almost preternatural feel for the craft. A joyful tableau of breezy urban life, the album is a janglepop journey through San Francisco—a synthesis of the Kinks’ ability to uplift the minutiae of everyday life with the catchy sensibilities of Sarah Records’ bands.

For his much-anticipated sophomore album, “The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel,” Pastalaniec expands on those effortless pop ditties with a newfound pathos, incorporating emotive, vulnerable elements to his songwriting. It makes for an even more rewarding and enriching listening experience.

“The first record is so inspired by my love of pop music,” said Pastalaniec, who will celebrate the Friday release of the album with a show that night at the Make Out Room. “I was just so ecstatic to be writing those songs. I tried to stuff as many little tricks and fun things as I could to make those feel like pop songs. For this second album, I wasn’t trying to make a sad record or anything, but I just wanted to be more thoughtful.”

“The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel” features plenty of Pastalaniec’s penchant for buoyant earworm masterpieces, with singles such as “Give Your Heart Away” and “Wandering Song” feeling like lost B-sides to the debut album. There are familiar touchpoints for the record—80s UK rockers East Village and Glaswegian legends Teenage Fanclub, for example—but tracks such as “The End” and, in particular, album closer, “Points of Light,” offer a tantalizing new direction for Chime School, one imbued with melancholy and jagged dissonance.

Pastalaniec, who also drums for San Francisco shoegaze act Seablite and hushed folkers Flowertown, cites the influence of local musicians for his expanding aesthetic.

“I definitely have drawn from the cluster of musicians here,” said Pastalaniec. “I am inspired by artists like Mike Ramos from Tony Jay and Karina Gill of Cindy and Kevin Linn from Paisley Shirt Records. Right around the time the first Chime School album came out, I started playing in the live formulation of Flowertown, which is Mike and Karina’s band. I really respect how they kind of bring a pensive and thoughtful element to all the creative work they do. I think some of that rubbed off on me.”

Unlike most of the Chime School catalog, “Points of Lights” is deliberately paced and features feedback-laden guitar. Pastalaniec’s vocals on the take feel particularly exposed and forlorn. It recalls all the greatest Britpop balladry from the 90s, replete with a searing guitar solo midway through the track.

“I actually wrote the song originally back in 2020 and at first it had this tempo that’s more along the lines of ‘This Charming Man,’” said Pastalaniec. “But that just didn’t feel right for this record. I started listening to a bunch of stuff that was a little slower and had kind of a more baggy beat. I was sort of thinking in terms of the last song of Teenage Fanclub’s ‘Bandwagonesque,’ that track called ‘Is This Music,’ which has this crazy distorted guitar and is the last song on that album. So, I repurposed the original guitar, which was very clean and jangly and just made it as big and distorted as possible. I knew it was going to be the last song after that.”

From the track sequencing to the artwork to the album title, (an ode to Linn’s Paisley Shirt record label and Biff Bang Pow's "The Girl Who Runs the Beat Hotel," among other inspirations), everything about the record feels very deliberate and thoughtful, a reflection of Pastalaniec’s expansive creative vision. 

Although Chime School has now morphed from a one-man creative endeavor into a solid four-piece live band (Phil Lantz on drums, Josh Miller on bass and Garett Goddard on guitar) Pastalaniec still wrote all the songs and played all the instruments for the “Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel.” He also recorded the album from his apartment. 

“That wasn’t the result of me being some kind of control freak,” said Pastalaniec. “I put the band together in 2022 and we were playing a lot of shows and I thought it made more sense for us to really focus on honing that live sound. I thought it would be better to make the record again on my own and kind of just go creatively nuts, and not really worry about wasting other people’s time.”

For the past several months, Pastalaniec has been incorporating songs from the new album into the live Chime School experience, and on Friday night, the new tunes will likely comprise more than half the set. Later this year, Chime School will bring those tunes to an international audience, with the band slated to go on a tour of the UK in October, following an appearance at the Paris Pop Festival on September 27.

In addition to the band’s international tour—something Pastalaniec has made a primary goal of the group—Chime School has plans to embark on West Coast and East Coast jaunts in the future as well. This year will mark the most extensive live schedule yet for the band, which is also receiving a bevy of positive reviews from influential music blogs. In June and July, the band got a series of glowing write-ups in Stereogum, a national outlet with a sterling reputation for championing up-and-coming indie bands.

“The response has been amazing—I’m completely humbled by any attention we get,” said Pastalaniec. “But one of the things I’ve learned from this process is that it’s really important to focus on your priorities. We aren’t the least bit famous by any means, but once you start getting attention, you do get a little distracted and sidetracked. At the end of the day, what matters most is making art and being surrounded by people who are part of a community that you care about.”

Show Details: 

Chime School with Hits and The Telephone Numbers
When: 7 p.m., Friday, August 23 
Where: The Make Out Room 
Tickets: $12, available here.

Neo-Psychedelic Outfit Woods Returning to The Chapel on August 20

Photo by John Andrews

Though primarily known as a neo-psychedelic or folk outfit, the New York-based band Woods have never been afraid to indulge their pop tendencies over their 20-year career.

While vocalist Jeremy Earl’s wounded, warbly delivery will never be heard on the pop radio stations (if those still exist), Woods has shown a knack for crafting immediate earworms that contain plenty of catchy—if unconventional—hooks and inviting melodies. That talent first came through in the band’s 2009 breakout album, “Songs of Shame,” and it resurfaced again with 2021’s “Strange to Explain.”

The latter album showcased the band’s ever-improving production sound while containing a couple of songs (“Where Do Go You When You Dream” and the title track, in particular) that could have been outtakes from MGMT’s funhouse mirror pop masterpiece “Oracular Spectacular.”

Yet, ever wary of flying too close to the sun, Woods have shifted gears, retreating from their dalliance in accessibility with a follow-up album that is restless, boundless and unconcerned with classic pop norms. Last year’s “Perennial” was the latest example of the band’s tendency to shy away from their previous effort, a tactic that has made Woods an endlessly exciting and unpredictable group.

“We like to make albums that are reactions to what we did before,” said Woods’ multi-instrumentalist, producer and founding member Jarvis Taveniere, whose band will be playing at the Chapel on August 20. “I love “Strange to Explain”—I think it’s a solid record. During those sessions, we had a bunch of songs that were very loose and mostly just instrumentals, those would haven’t made much sense to put on that record. So, when we were done touring behind “Strange to Explain,” we decided to go that jammier route, to just keep things exciting for us.”

“Perennial” is full of loping, bucolic instrumental numbers, with guitars and drums fettered by woodwind instruments. Imagine if your local jazz outfit decided to play their tunes in a bedfull of moss and you get an idea of the atmosphere crafted by Woods. Each song feels deeply organic—instruments fusing and blending together in complementary and seamless manners.

That craftsmanship is the result of two decades of experience, as Earl and Taveniere have been playing together since founding the band in 2004. The two met as students at SUNY-Purchase in central New York, and while they were initially playing in separate bands, they quickly formed a kinship, driven in large part from their experiences traveling together.

“There was a pretty vibrant music scene back then, and it was interesting to go on tour and see people who couldn’t really hang out doing this full time,” said Taveniere. “Jeremy wasn’t like that—you could tell he was cut out for this life. He was somebody who I could not only envision collaborating creatively with, but also someone who I could just hang out with. We both were ready to forego the comforts of a normal life and make things fun.”

While the band is now split up between two coasts—two members, including Taveniere, live in Los Angeles while the other three members reside in the group’s home base of New York—Woods remain ever prolific. “Perennial” is the band’s 12th album, an impressive output for a band celebrating 20 years of existence. Because of that longevity, the creative process has become second nature for the band.

“A lot of these songs just came out of jams or writing on the fly,” said Taveniere. “We will be playing together, and Jeremy will run off to the corner with a pad and pen and just start writing lyrics. It’s pretty exciting when that happens. We tried to set it up where we kind of worked backwards, to turn those jams into proper songs. It can take a long time to really develop a certain type of language with other musicians where you have this unspoken thing. We have that in this band, and I really cherish that.”

Most of the album was recorded at a studio in Stinson Beach, the second straight Woods record to be crafted at the Marin County site, which doubles as an apartment and living space (as he has in past efforts, Taveniere led the production and engineering efforts of the album.) Woods has deep ties to Northern California—the music festival run by the band’s label Woodsist, started at Big Sur, and the group frequently partners with local production outfit, (((folkYEAH!))) and is a recurring guest at the Chapel.

“When we first started, we were really good friends with a bunch of San Francisco bands,” said Taveniere. “People actually thought we were from Northern California. We always felt a deep connection here. Whenever we come to San Francisco, there isn’t any pressure on us—we know we can be ourselves.”

For the Chapel show, Taveniere said the band is devising a setlist that is reflective of its deep catalog—and its penchant for change. 

“I’m already looking forward to our next album,” said Taveniere. “And this time, I want to do the opposite of what we did for “Perennial.” I’m excited about doing something more composed and rehearsed in pre-production.”

It would be the classic Woods maneuver—sticking to the script by ignoring the script completely.

Show Details:
Woods with Anastasia Coope
When: 8 p.m., Tuesday, August 20
Where: The Chapel
Tickets: $23 - $26, available here.

Peerless janglepop practitioners Ducks Ltd. playing at Rickshaw Stop on Monday

Photo Credit: Dylan Taylor

In 2003, when the Stokes released their sophomore album, “Room on Fire,” it was derided by many critics at the time as a duplicative, redundant effort too similar to the group’s seminal 2001 debut, “Is This It.”

However, as the years have passed, that second album has rightly been reassessed as a classic in its own right, a release that rivals its predecessor for greatness. “If it aint broke, don’t fix it,” is a salty old cliché, but it’s a cliché for a reason—sometimes it’s true.

That same adage applies to Ducks Ltd., a Toronto janglepop duo that turned considerable heads with the release of their 2021 debut album, “Modern Fiction,” a collection of shimmering, reverb-heavy guitar tracks. Three years later, much of that same winning formula was repeated for their dazzling sophomore album, “Harm’s Way.”

Tom McGreevy, the singer and guitarist for Ducks Ltd., who formed the band with lead guitarist Evan Lewis, said the band briefly considered a change in tone and tenor for its follow-up release, but abandoned that idea after feeling it would be disingenuous. 

“When we started working on the record, we were sort of like, ‘okay, are we going to take this in a different direction?’’” said McGreevy. “And then we quickly realized that that’s something you kind of just have to let it happen—you can’t force it. If we tried to self-consciously push something, we were not going to make something that’s honest.”

On Monday night, Ducks Ltd. will bring their tried and true approach to the Rickshaw Stop, where they’ll perform alongside beloved local janglepop outfit Chime School and dreampopper Mo Dotti (a frequent guest at SF venues.)

While the band’s undeniably catchy pop songs recall all the best of their predecessors—everything from the Byrds to Sarah Records bands to outfits on the great New Zealand label Flying Nun Records—the sonic elements of Ducks Ltd. are only half of the group’s appeal.

True millennials, the band writes from an insouciant, weary world view—the product of endless economic uncertainties, increasing artistic and creative marginalization and a listless political class that doesn’t match their values. “Hollowed Out,” the opening track on “Harm’s Way,” leads off with a lyrical salvo that quickly sets the tone for the remainder of the album, with McGreevy lamenting that, “All we ever do is need/Eat, fuck, and sleep/And then repeat forever.”

“I sort of liked that as the first lyrics on the record because it’s almost bordering on self-parody, but I thought a lot of people would get it,” said McGreevy. “You know, it’s about living through the economic and political and social movements of our time. I mean what I say in those lyrics,  but it’s also kind of funny, in this sad way.”

McGreevy’s laconic, dry delivery and tales of urban ennui offer an intriguing contrast to the propulsive, upbeat backdrop of the band’s musical output—every song feels like an urgent race to nowhere in particular. McGreevy noted that the disparate relationship between words and sound has been a practice honed by pop musicians for decades.

“It gets talked about a lot—this idea of holding two different ideas at once, but that’s really just the nature of pop music,” said McGreevy. “Pop music is bright and engaging, but there have always been these kinds of darker songs. If you go back to the 60s, you’ll see songs like ‘The Track of My Tears,’ and ‘Save the Last Dance for Me,’—those are songs with dark sentiments and that tension is what makes them so interesting.”

That arresting tension is prevalent throughout “Harm’s Way,” which is replete with chugging, skittering songs littered with sardonic observations. “Train Full of Gasoline” is a romping affair, full of starry guitar licks, but its messages are on brand for the album—" Bonded by an emptiness/Shared sense of dull dead endedness.” “Deleted Scenes'' is much in that same vein, a classic power pop track that yields words such as “You used to flirt with disaster/Got used to you letting other people down.”

Again—McGreevy notes that this isn’t a new wrinkle to songwriting, but Ducks Ltd.’s skilled musicianship and keen knack for crafting beguiling earworms adds extra depth to that combination. Ducks Ltd. seem incapable of writing songs that aren’t imminently engaging and also imminently relevant.

Additionally, the band offers a tantalizing glimpse of what could be in store on the final track of “Harm’s Way.” A quiet, wistful ballad that might be the sweetest song ever recorded by the band, “Heavy Bag” is a soft, cooing acoustic number that departs from the more clamorous atmosphere of their other work.

“Yeah—we had never really done anything like that before,” said McGreevy. “It was created as almost a demo—the song king of dictated that it had to be done that way. I think we were trying to break our tendency with that song and push a little against our instincts.”

There is understandably no rush from Ducks Ltd. to upend their winning ways. But “Heavy Bag” is proof that no sound or aesthetic is beyond the mastery of their capable hands. It bodes for an exciting future.

Show Details:

Ducks Ltd. with Chime School and Mo Dotti
When: 8 p.m., Monday, July 15
Where: Rickshaw Stop
Tickets: $15, available here.

Post-Disco Band De Lux Celebrating 10th Anniversary of Debut Album with Show at Rickshaw Stop on Friday

Photo credit: Mike Anderson

Most family heirlooms that come from one’s grandparents are staid offerings. 

Watches. Maybe some silverware. Perhaps some old photos.

Sean Guerin had a slightly different experience. Guerin, the founding member of the Los Angeles-based post-disco outfit De Lux, received a synthesizer from his grandfather, and that timely gift has made all the difference in his musical career.

“My grandfather and grandmother were in a jazz group called the The Aldeberts,” said Guerin. “He heavy collected a lot of gear and I inherited this synth. At the time, I didn’t really know what to do with it. I kind of thought the sounds were cheesy at first, but I spent a lot of time with it because, back then, I just didn’t have much equipment. It kind of forced me to learn to love the sounds of that synth and from there, I really embraced that idea of making modern music with older equipment.”

Production of that synthesizer, a Yamaha DX7, ceased in 1989, but the retro-style approach was instrumental in shaping the sound of De Lux’s early records, including their 2014 debut “Voyage,” which the band will perform in full as part of a 10th anniversary celebration at the Rickshaw Stop on Friday. The event will be presented by Throwin’ Bo’s, a local production outfit, in concert with Popscene, the longstanding indie dance pop-up show.

The roots of De Lux trace back to Guerin’s high school days, when he originally met fellow co-founding member Isaac Franco. After exploring various other musical projects over the years, the duo eventually decided to form a band together.

“I would actually be working in the studio and Isaac would come by and we would randomly write things together,” said Guerin. “At the time, he really wasn’t a very proficient bass player, but I always had this motto that it didn’t really matter if you were a great musician, as long as you were passionate about the project. I could tell that he was interested in what he was doing, and he  ended up getting way better at the bass. And that’s what really helped shape our sound.”

While Guerin was very much steeped in the indie rock sounds of bands like Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade and Built to Spill, he also had an affinity for the dance-punk outfits on James Murphy’s venerable label, DFA Records. Franco came from a slightly different background—his older brother had a bountiful record collection of 70s and 80s disco classics, in addition to more adventurous albums from the Italo disco genre and underground African artists. 

The combination of those influences resulted in a dancy, breezy aesthetic—a sound that captured the adventurous nature and propulsive rhythms of classic disco sounds without the overproduced sheen that marred some of those efforts. Guerin’s voice is a dead-ringer for David Byrne, so in addition to the nightclub vibes to records like “Voyage,” there is also a distinct new wave feel.

“That first album was a big Talking Heads moment for us,” said Guerin. “I hadn’t listened to that record [“Voyage”] in a long time before we had to get ready for these anniversary shows. And honestly, I do like every song on that album, which is cool. A lot of those tracks still hit for me—I’m excited to play them again.”

In recent years, De Lux have grown more boundless in their approach to songcraft, as evidenced by last year’s 29-minute single, “Love is Hard Work,” a dazzling journey through different dance music eras.

That track (which was later released in a multi-song format, consisting of nine different pieces), emphasized the textured sonic elements of the sound, with Geurin’s voice often absent or settled in below the mix. With its amorphous, evolving structure, “Love is Hard Work,” also showcased some of the band’s more recent inspirations, including African Boogie artists. That lengthy single followed the band’s 2022 record, “Do You Need a Release?” an album that saw De Lux pull away from its more classic dancefunk sound in favor of softer, gentler tunes.

Guerin said the band—whose live lineup includes Tyler Lott on Guitar, Taylor Rodiger on synths and Briar Seavey on drums, in addition to the founding members—is currently working on material for a new De Lux album and at the moment, about five songs are in finalized form, although he didn’t have an exact release timeline. He’s also working on a few other projects at the moment, including producing a new album for promising young artist, Gelli Haha.

For now, the band is focused on their upcoming performance at the Rickshaw Stop, a live show that will be driven by their old-fashioned approach to a newfangled setup—an approach that dates back to Sean’s grandfather’s wizened ways.

“With that synthesizer he gave me, he left all these Post-It notes, and one of them said, ‘synths don’t make stilted, disposable, boring, grooveless, crappy music—musicians do,’” said Guerin. “That was his philosophy. It’s not the equipment—it’s how you use it.”

Show Details:

Who: De Lux with Big Sis, Touch and DJ Guillermo
When: 8 p.m., Friday, July 12
Where: Rickshaw Stop
Tickets: $15, available here.