Oakland band Shutup’s new EP 5 is a very adult piece of work. This isn’t to say that it is frigid or stuffy, but moreso that it provides a rollicking rock foray into the complexities of adulthood. Some of...
Over deli sandwiches, Falyn Walsh of Grumpster told me that she thinks some people are meant to become friends. I had met her, along with Lalo Gonzalez Deetz (guitar) and Noel Agtane (drums) at Gilman Brewing some...
It’s hard not to heavily associate new music with the time of year that you first heard it, where a few notes or a chorus can propel you back in time to months before, your eyes and ears filling...
Polkadot’s most recent EP, Spring Songs, is a brief affair at four minutes and thirty-nine seconds. However, the two-song EP creates an immediate sonic landscape, an echoing folktale peeled from the page and delivered through ones and zeroes. With...
In the music video for “Crumbling,” by Oakland punk band Grumpster, lead singer Fayln Walsh tears off her baggy ’80s color-block shirt during the final breakdown, flinging her limbs with detached singularity in front of a golden-hour graveyard. Cut...
As Bay Area music industry veterans, the four members of Skip the Needle have run the gamut through the bullshit and, according to the lead single from their newest full-length project, they ain’t never going back. “We Ain’t Never...
Kevin Nichols wanted to know how much time he had left on stage. “Till you puke!” cried the man behind me. This was met with silence, perhaps one nervous laugh, but I couldn’t help but appreciate the purity...
Phosphene is an indie rock band from Oakland, CA. They recently debuted their new single “Be Mine” from an upcoming EP slated to come out later this year. Phosphene consists of Matt Hemmerich (drums), Rachel Frankel (vocals, guitar), and...