Well today is the last day of the San Francisco Popfest and probably the best day to attend one of the shows. After all today is Dear Nora, Eux Autres, ChEAP RED, Birds of California, and the ever so wonderful Botticellis at Café du Nord. This is a great opportunity to witness the best in local music and up and coming bands that you’ll be listening to later on because your friends told you to or Pitchfork gave them a 8.1 and you figured, “Hey! They’re good but certainly not the most innovative or cred-boosting I’ve hear this year.”
Right.
Anyway, you also have The Dears, Great Northern and Eulogies playing The Independent tonight as well as the biggest midget in the game Lady Sovereign and Chester French at the Rickshaw Stop. Monday, Flight of the Conchords and Arj Barker bring the laughs to the Berkeley Community Theatre.
Tuesday hosts Animal Collective and Grouper at the Fox Theater in Oakland. I’ve been waiting months to finally see these guys and hear the new tunes live. Could this be the best show of 2009 for me? We’ll see. In San Francisco, you have Boston’s Passion Pit rocking out at Bimbo’s 365 Club to a sold out crowd. I remember seeing them at the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge playing for like 5 people and thinking to myself, “…cool.” Now look at them.
Wednesday I’ll be zoning out at the Mezzanine with M83 and James Yuill. I haven’t seen M83 live yet but from what I’ve heard they’re fantastic. Also St. Vincent returns to the Bay with Pattern Is Movement to play Bimbo’s 365 Club. I would have liked to go to see her but my heart belongs to M83 right now. Our good friends at Ears of the Beholder are going and will most likely be giving a report of the festivities. So stay tuned.
Thursday explodes with Black Moth Super Rainbow and School of Seven Bells at the Bottom of the Hill, the lovely Jenny Lewis at the Fillmore, The Prodigy at The Warfield, King Khan & The Shrines making noise at The Great American Music Hall, and Japandroids with No One and The Nobodies & The Happy Hollows at Hemlock Tavern. No lack of options here.
Friday Friday Friday! Wolf Eyes and Black Dice at the OCD Warehouse and Sun Kil Moon and Mia Doi Todd at The Great American Music Hall. I HIGHLY suggest attending Sun Kil Moon even though Langhorne Slim will be folking it up at The Independent. It’s tough, but a wise choice.
Saturday wraps up the week with indie-punks The Thermals at the Bottom of the Hill, The Roots at Davies Hall in San Francisco, and goth-tronic band Woven and instrumental locals Cloud Archive at the Hemlock Tavern. Woven made our top 20 Best Albums of last year with Designer Codes and are definitely worth checking out if you’re into dark electronic Aphex Twin vs Elliott Smith music.
See you out there!
Woven – My Conditioning
Dear Nora – My Guitar
Japandroids – Rockers East Vancouver
Mia Doi Todd – My Room is White (Dungeon Mix)