Under the Stars is a quasi-weekly column that presents new music releases, upcoming shows, and a number of other adjacent items. We keep moving with the changes, thinking outside the margins. Stay creative, SF!
CAR CULTURE, CAR CULTURE DUBS
Just when you got the hankering for some twisted, chillout, folktronica soul dubs, to ease your rising blood pressure in this crazy kooky world we are all trying to survive: Physical Therapy, the moniker of producer and New Jersey native Daniel Fisher, puts heads in a tizzy with his newer project. He’s followed up one of 2021’s most unique and singular electronic albums Dead Rock with his ‘mind-expanding’ Car Culture Dubs. It’s a name-your-price collection of cutting-room floor edits that bangs like grilled cheese sammiches on shrooms. Shouts to the Bay Area homie Shawn Reynaldo for the info in his must read First Floor weekly electronic music digest. If you want your blissed out reworks of Fleetwood Mac, Rickie Lee Jones, Donovan, and Minnie Riperton, act fast cousin. These joints will only be up for a limited amount of time—and trust me, they golden like Ponyboy—so download them now.
MARK DE CLIVE-LOWE OPENING SFJAZZ CENTER FRI/24 WITH ZAKIR HUSSAIN, ERIC HARLAND, ABBOS KOSIMOV
Jazz-infuenced multi-instrumentalist Mark de Clive-Lowe will help re-open SFJAZZ this week accompanying Zakir Hussain, the universally acknowledged “world’s greatest tabla player,” who will also be appearing with drum wizard Eric Harland and Uzbek doyra master Abbos Kosimov. The concert will be broadcast live as part of Fridays Live, available to all SFJAZZ members. Tickets are almost sold out, purchase them here.
And if you still need more Mark de Clive-Lowe music in your life, and C’mon, we all could use it, he just released volume 2 of his Midnight Snacks series. He calls it “jazz-leaning, beat-centric instrumentals from my imagination to your ears.” But understand, this studied musician, DJ, and performer knows how to make dancefloors and jazz halls erupt with boisterous emotion.
“Crush Velvet”, dedicated to his friend and mentor, the great Phil Asher aka Phlash, reflects on the early naughts nights at Co-Op club at Velvet Rooms in London. “Sorceress” a dedication to Chick Corea, creates his own version of the “Return To Forever” staple. These are not pedestrian offerings. Extra special arrangements, from an expansive creator, exsisting in our lifetime. They will sell out.
Make the purchase here. Join his Patreon. Both will add years back to your life.
REMI WOLF AT NEW PARISH MON/27
So I kinda missed out on Remi Wolf’s EP from a year ago called I’m Allergic To Dogs. Not that I thought it was bad, she just seemed very Gen-Z for my pallet. And that was the whole point. Duh. I’ve gone through, count em 1,2,3, and 4 videos in advance of her upcoming debut record Juno. Doing a little research I found out she’s from Palo Alto and was on American Idol at the age of 17.
Wolf, now I’m assuming 24-ish, who at one point was training to be an Olympic skier, is not cookie-cutter pop diva talent. She’s unique. Her look is not some pop producer group-think cash-getter. It’s naturally beautiful, and in her many vivid psychedelic colored videos, she leans into that singularity with a multi-hyphenate sound, in its own right. Sugary pop, funk-lite, and disco-adjacent but it doesn’t hit like she’s trying to water something down. It’s trippy, but mos def NOT Vanilla. It’s just her.
Citing Chaka Khan, Daryl Hall, David Byrne, Michael McDonald, John Mayer, and Erykah Badu as influences, while receiving an outpouring of support from peers and fellow artists turned collaborators such as Dominic Fike, Beck, and Nile Rodgers. With social media love from John Mayer, Khalid, Willow, and Camila Cabello. You take in all the outlandish outfits, cutesy wrangling of curse words (oh girl loves to cuss), and overall-embracing of her non-barbie-Britney self, you gotta believe all hues of young women who sold out her show at The New Parish in Oakland next week, got this non-verbalized message of self-love while passing on that white boy summer bullshit.
Wolf’s vibe, inclusive of self-empowerment, but not the clunky, dusty type, has been successfully transmitted from the good section of pop commerce. Remi Wolf, a rad rebel, creates the rules she chooses to curse at.
LIVE MUSIC IN OCTOBER AT BALBOA THEATER
As we have all made adjustments, the Balboa Theater has locked onto a rad idea.They have become, unwittingly, the new large hub of live music on the west side. And that’s awesome.
Here’s the line up:
10/7 – Fast Times Presents: Wayne’s World w/ Live Music from Goodworld & The Quilters
10/10 – Virgil Shaw/ Noelle & the Deserters/ Sarah Bethe Nelson
10/13 – 1926 Presents ~ The She’s/ Bong Kitty/ Uncle Chris
10/28 – Outside Lands Night Show: Nap Eyes w/ Boy Scouts/The Reds, Pinks & Purples/ & Advertisement
They’ll also be showing the Todd Haynes Velvet Underground doc for a week in October, have Rocky Horror at the end of the month, and plenty of other great programming EVERY DAMN DAY!
Ashley Graham and Chloe Ginnever co-host “Rewind Wednesday” where they show movies on VHS twice a month, and there’s an awesome new thing called Gallery 3630—curated by Jody Washington, which alternates showing films about art and fashion. New uses of space, vibe on that for a second, carries the hope of what an entire city can do when faced with austere challenges. Shouts to you Balboa! Get more info here.
FUGEES REUNION TOUR 2021, NOVEMBER 7 AT OAKLAND ARENA
No. That above is not an all-caps wish. Dropping out of nowhere. literally, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, and Pras Michel of legendary hip-hop group Fugees have reunited to announce their first world tour in 25 years and first shows in 15 years to celebrate the anniversary of 1996’s The Score, an all-time document of hip-hop inclusivity that changed pop music forever. The tour will take them across the United States, through London and Paris, and into Nigeria and Ghana this November and December.
After the crossover success of their career-making album in 1996, The Score peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 charts and earned the group two Grammy Awards. Fugees were the first hip-hop group ever to be nominated for Album Of The Year, and the nomination also marked the second only rap album to be nominated for the top accolade as well at the time.
Over the next decade, the group attempted solidarity amidst numerous tensions and financial squabbles. Hill’s parting shot of freedom, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, among the most acclaimed albums of 1998, earning 10 Grammy nominations, and winning five, making Hill the first woman to receive that many nominations and awards in one night. That album’s success propelled Hill to international superstardom and contributed to bringing hip-hop and neo-soul to the forefront of popular music. But it bulldozed a rift in The Fugees, leaving many to believe any reconciliation amongst group members would never happen.
“The Fugees have a complex but impactful history. I wasn’t even aware the 25th anniversary had arrived until someone brought it to my attention” stated Hill in a press release. “I decided to honor this significant project, its anniversary, and the fans who appreciated the music by creating a peaceful platform where we could unite, perform the music we loved, and set an example of reconciliation for the world.”
Wyclef, in the same press release, expressed gratitude about the reunion. “As I celebrate 25 years with the Fugees, my first memory was that we vowed, from the gate, we would not just do music we would be a movement. We would be a voice for the unheard, and in these challenging times, I am grateful once again, that God has brought us together.”
Tickets for the Oakland show will go on sale to the general public beginning Fri/24 at 10am. Purchase here.
RAZTERIA’S SPACE TO PLAY
Razteria has announced a new album: Titled Space to play, the San Francisco Bay Area artist sees the project as an ode to unforeseen gifts all human beings possess.
“I hope these songs inspire you to feel the power of vulnerability that comes with making time to be creative… to enjoy being in awe when the inevitable result of this process goes beyond what you could have ever imagined” she stated in a press release. Combining a melange of styles that includes World music, pop and EDM, Razteria—whose given name, Renée, means to be reborn in French—served as producer and sound engineer on the project. She compares the record to the vocal sultriness of Sade, mood of Billie Eilish, dance beats of Shakira, and artistry of St. Vincent.
Space to play can be ordered here.
PEGGY GOU NYE AT 1015 FOLSOM
DJ Peggy Gou is methodical, yet still very punk rock. As the first South Korean Woman to DJ at Berlin’s techno institution Berghain, record the 69th edition of !K7’s DJ-Kicks series, and play 200-plus shows in 2018 alone, all by the ripe old age of 28 at the time, there has to be serious thought behind every precise action this maverick of platforms executes. So much, in fact, she cracked off that DJ-Kicks mix with “Fluresence” a perennial declaration of chill from 1993, by the awe-inspiring Spacetime Continuum, better known around these local parts as The Gawd Jonah Sharp. So when Gou plays 1015 Folsom on New Year’s Eve, announced just last week, you can expect disco, house, techno, and electro when it’s time to get into it.
The 900K Instagram followers, the advert campaigns, the Paris Fashion Week exploits…. Essentially. “Gou-mania” goes on while Peggy Gou turns up and brings that weighty sub-bass pressure. Previous to the rocketship ascension, she was working at a record shop in Berlin almost a decade ago-by choice. So her contribution to mixes and live performances comes from a studied, label-informed pedigree. While we wait for those good folks at !K7 to toss the mix opportunities at some other “non-male and pale” folks such as Georgia Anne Muldrow, Yaeji, Nabihah Iqbal, Josey Rebelle, Foxtrott, and Nite Jewel…..buy your ticket to 1015’s Gou Years Eve.
