Closing out the year with various electronic music releases forthcoming and recently dropped, Oakland’s SMARTBOMB platform takes over SF JAZZ early in 2025, and LUNA plays The Fillmore on NYE with a setlist of inspirations. It’s Under The Stars; Spend some Time With Us.
Have a Happy and Healthy New Year—Let’s Get it:
LUNA WITH VETIVER, NEW YEAR’S EVE AT THE FILLMORE
Earlier this year in March, when Luna’s opening act for a gig in Milwaukee no-showed, hardcore fans of the New York-based band who arrived early got a very early Christmas present, just days before St. Patrick’s Day. Luna not only opened for themselves, but they played songs that inspired the essence of the band: tracks by Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, whom they toured with early in their career.
It’s a move that showcases not just a giving band, but one that likes to surprise its audience. So when they touch down for New Year’s Eve at The Fillmore, can we expect tracks by Television? Tom Verlaine collaborated with the band back in the day.
All bets remain fluid as word on tour from fans remains positive for their wandering setlist that relies not just on their history, but others such as The Feelies and Velvets, in an experimental interpretation. As a booker whispered in my direction last week: It’s like NYE for grown-ass adults!
With locals Vetiver in tow, matching that lyrical guitar work, orthodox rock rhythms, and poetic lines, it’s exactly the vibe you want on NYE, so you can rise early on New Year’s Day.
Grab tickets here.
SMARTBOMB COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSE, SMARTBOMB X SFJAZZ, JAN 4, SFJAZZ CENTER
OK, this right here? Dope. Not some well-meaning type thingy, but absolutely, positively on the strength come through type legit. SMARTBOMB, the Oakland-based creative community and live events/multimedia platform, has assembled a ridiculous and straight-up killer line-up of Bay Area DJs and international cutting-edge artists that I’d personally pay to see in 17 different places. But SMARTBOMB and SF JAZZ got ’em all under one roof. Taking over Miner Auditorium, Joe Henderson (you know how live that creative space can get), and the Fisher Family Lobby (a record fair, no less).
With a line-up that reads like an expertly curated music festival illuminating boundary-pushing and genre-defying producers, beatmakers, DJs, painters, and visual artists: Shigeto, Linafornia, Mophono, Citizen Ten, and Lealani, plus a ton of vendors selling records and various DJ sets, I can’t think of a better way to spend the first Saturday of 2025.
Shout out to SFJAZZ for thinking and booking forward.
More info here.
FUTURE BUBBLERS, FUTURE BUBBLERS 8.0 (BROWNSWOOD RECORDINGS)
When we get into the last quarter of the year, I look forward to the Gilles Peterson Future Bubblers compilation; it provides an artistic forecast of what or who’s next coming from overseas.
Future Bubblers is backed by Arts Council England, which continues to focus on uncovering unsigned talent and growing the audience for innovative, experimental music.
The mere fact that the ridiculously talented Yazmin Lacey is a Future Bubblers alumni proves this new talent accelerator program doesn’t just work, but is sorely needed. Y’all heard Voice Notes from a couple of years ago, right? Playing that out at Laszlo here in SF, I always got head turns and people coming directly to the DJ booth that summer asking, “Who’s that?” Direct reaction from people who have no previous history, that’s the proof.
Future Bubblers 8.0 continues the magic by presenting six modern soul music tracks through a prism of future R&B, psychedelic funk, alt beats, and other versions of electronic music with that frequency. JOIISOL’s “Good Intentions” presents a vibey neo-soul arrangement with alt-jazz accents, while Bristol-based vocalist and producer t l k creates new spaces for broken beat arrangements to thrive within their track “Legs,” that push and pull beyond typical house music dimensions. You can’t miss with any of these six tracks—and you shouldn’t.
Future Bubblers 8.0 is what’s next. Pick it up here.
BORED LORD, FOR THE NEW MOON ON NOVEMBER 30TH 2024
There is this quote from producer and artist Mndsgn that I always go back to. Mndsgn aka Ringgo Ancheta’s fifth release, Snaxx, from 2019, was inspired by another nonconformist. “I think of all the posthumous Dilla leaks and how I’ve always been just as, if not more, inspired by the stuff that was never supposed to come out.”
Oakland-based producer Bored Lord has been on a heater of a run for the past couple of years—well earned, I must add—where this producer is globally sought after for melding, bending-inwards electronic music. A self-declared huge fan of early Reinforced Records—the template imprint for British breakbeat hardcore, jungle, and drum and bass—Bored Lord’s throughline is modernity.
This new record once had the nixed names of Esoteric Dub Grunge, Ambient Acid Funk, or (their personal favorite) Meditations on the Disillusionment of the Dance Music Industry. Yet, the best quote from the Bandcamp liner notes cements the point:
“This album is not what people asked for, but it is what I have made myself vulnerable enough to share. I hope it can reach those who it’s meant to.”
That’s what’s up.
Be ready for half-time meditations, steppy-moody bangers, chuggy-dub soundscapes, and just some of the most interesting music you are going to come by.
Once again this Oakland musician, who damn well never misses, has found a grand way to close out their highly successful year.
Pick this up here.
MC CONRAD, CON*NATURAL
A posthumous album from drum and bass vocalist Conrad Thompson, also known as MC Conrad, will arrive in mid-January 2025. Japanese producer Makoto, who worked on the record with Imran Hussain of the Resonance label that Thompson and Hussain founded in 2020, shared the news earlier this month, as stated in Resident Advisor.
Titled Con*Natural, it will feature eight tracks selected by MC Conrad before his death in April at the age of 52, and according to Makoto, Thompson “personally worked on all the recordings and was very happy with them.” The lead single, DJ Marky and Makoto’s remix of “Promised Land” featuring Aquariid, sounds like vintage MC Conrad holding down both vocalizations and MC skills, effortlessly.
All proceeds from the record will go to Thompson’s family and the MC Conrad Foundation, which provides resources to support young, independent artists in navigating the music industry. MC Conrad, with groundbreaking DJ LTJ Bukem, left an indelible imprint on Bay Area breakbeat culture during the drum and bass first wave that took over SF and East Bay in the mid to late ’90s. MC Conrad’s influence on global electronic music culture remains incalculable.
Pre-order here.
