Unpiano | Music Blog

Once again exquisite female harmonies and jangly pop melodies bring San Francisco one step closer to defining it’s sound in the pop music spectrum. Dreamdate have been kicking around the Bay for more years than the average person lives here and has gone through a variety of line up changes. However, all that maturing has certainly seemed to pay off. While 2009′s album Patience was slightly underwhelming, this year’s Melody Walk has upped the songwriting with a nod to darker themes and greater sense of urgency. You can almost hear the wind whip down from the ocean and turn that happy pop sensibility of the past into an icy glare. Since our Summer here in the city continues to keep me shivering in my chair, this all fits together nicely.

Dreamdate – Pyramids
Dreamdate – Melody Walk
Dreamdate – 8 Sleeves

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Bonus:
Dreamdate – Melody Walk (video)

//photo by robert khoury

Oh Spring weather.. you’re here just in time. I can barely motivate to write this post after months of dark and stormy skies, but seeing a bit of sunshine has given me hope and reminded me of hot summer nights. That got me thinking about what music would be accompanying me on my warm San Francisco evenings and I decided that it would be SF’s own Melted Toys. The first song I heard of theirs I swore was Beach Fossils, the second song I thought was Ariel Pink, but the third song.. the third song was just right. ‘Lost Connection’ is dark, loose, and dirty – just like I like it. Still reminds me a bit of John Maus but everyone’s got a bit of something else in them so what can you do? Everything about Melted Toys sounds to me like being on a bike at night while warm air whips all around you. Only a band from the city of hills could make a record like this. Coincidentally, they are playing with Beach Fossils on their next SF appearance and are also on the new comp of San Francisco bands that’s coming out on City Limits at some point. Stoked for the summer – 4AM here I come.

Melted Toys – Lost Connection
Melted Toys – Come On
Melted Toys – Saturday Night Kids

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//photo by mike rosati

Guerneville’s Evacuee have put out a pretty sharp sounding record, must be due to the crisp air out there or something. Having perfected the warbling scream (which is actually pretty incredible to hear), they have developed a sound that draws references to equal parts Spoon and No Age, with just the right amount of melancholy mixed in for good measure. Just remember that before you jump in too quick with that No Age comparison, these guys have been around for going on five years now. Somewhere in that five years they also managed to play more shows that I can even remember which is a sight in itself. I recommend keeping an eye out for them next time they’re in town and then going here to download their album.

Evacuee – New Mountain
Evacuee – Real Winners
Evacuee – Grandmother’s Survival Float

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Dang.. Sometimes it seems like I’ll never have enough time to write up every single band I hear about before they get old and stale (in the blog world that’s like 3 whole days). Anyways, please accept this list of bands that are super good and should be looked into in more detail. Also, this may have been the laziest blog I have ever written.. ever.

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Swimsuit – Sunlight (link)
Tamaryn – Love Fade (link)
The Suzan – Ha Ha Ha (link)
Horrid Red – Pink Flowers (link)
Beach Fossils – Fall Right In (link)
Sic Alps – Do You Want To Give $$? (link)

Not sure why it took me so long in warming to The Lambs. Sometimes when you listen to music all day, your mental filters break down and you have to repeat stuff for the real meaning to sink in. Made up of band members like Aaron Morgan from The Finches, and Kelly Nyland from The Papercuts/Lazarus, Lambs have the same poppy bass lines and soft distortion that I always hold close to my heart. They have been playing a slew of shows around the city lately and while the tracks below seem a bit rough, in the last several years I have come to find that the rough recordings are always the ones I like the best. Bands always re-record everything in the studio and lose the original energy – which is what drives rock and roll like this. So take these songs, hang on to them, and put them somewhere safe. That way you can use that energy to get your heart racing when you need it.

The Lambs – Night Sweats
The Lambs – In The Streets
The Lambs – Brother Sister White

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I’ll be playing records this evening from 5-9pm at the dump in honor of Ferris Plock’s Artist In Residence opening. I know it’s a bit of a trek, but you can take the T streetcar right there if you don’t have a car or just hop on Caltrans. Should be really fun and it’s rumored there will be a pile of dumpster goodies free for the diving as soon as the show starts. Come by and say hi?

//photo by sandy kim

I had been holding out on the new Girls EP to make sure I liked it.. It took about ten listens but now I’m totally sold. Even though the last album had it’s share of mellow songs, Broken Dreams Club is softer in a different way (hence the title I’m sure). And while I picked the fastest song to post up, the majority of the songs are slow, sad and dreamy without being corny – which is no small feat for an indie band these days. It makes me want to take a handful of pills and fall backwards into a feather bed.. if only I did that type of thing anymore. Damn it.

Girls – Alright
Girls – Substance

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I heard these boys burnt it up pretty good at Bottom of the Hill on Saturday and I missed it to go rug shopping (ahem). It’s a bit hard to put my finger on what the consistent sound is here, as they seem to have changed up quite a bit since the SF comp In A Cloud came out back in March. Certain songs have squelching synths and distorted drums, while others go straight out to the garage and get dirty. Either way, they all get topped off with Jon Bernson’s subtle vocals and culminate in a remarkably fresh-sounding debut album which gets it’s release date from Howells Transmitter this January. Since the previous EP Ammunition Teeth boasted a slew of guests from the Howells roster (which all seem to somehow feature Jon Bernson or Tim Cohen), hopefully the album will keep up that trend out come out swinging.

Exray’s – Hesitation
Exray’s – Ways To Stop Time
Exray’s – You Forgot

San Francisco’s own Fresh & Onlys released the video for their song ‘Waterfall’ last week, and while I have been very slow in warming to this band (for reasons that I can never put my finger on), I can’t deny that this song kills it.

Fresh & Onlys – Waterfall

I know this track from San Francisco’s Royal Baths has been getting around a lot lately, and its probably kind of lame to post it again, but it smokes so I’m going to do it anyway. This has got me juiced for their upcoming LP, due to come out sometime next month. Word on the street is that they’re hot live, and by “street” I mean “friends I trust”, not some crackhead in a pair of stolen Ray Bans with one lens missing telling me “yeah motherfucka they hot, hey you gay? that scarf makes you look gay.”

Royal Baths – Nikki Don’t