Well, we all made it. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Wanna do something fun? Grab the TWO SYLLABLES VOL. 21 compilation from the almighty First Word Records, straight out of London, for free. It’s a tradition where they compile tracks from the albums they released throughout the year.
So you can expect jazz from Takuya Kuroda & Amanda Whiting; hip hop from Essa, Tall Black Guy & the “Nothing Leaves The House” crew; soul from Allysha Joy, Royce Wood Junior, Victoria Port & [K S R] and bruk from Quiet Dawn & Kaidi Tatham. It’s a steal. Pay what you want here, just keep this boundary-pushing imprint at the front of your mind all year when you’re searching for some enlightening takes on soul, hip-hop, and electronic music.
No better way to kick off a New Year, Under The Stars…..
Let’s Get it!
TAJ MAHAL RECEIVES LIFETIME HONOR FROM GRAMMYS
The Grammys announced in late December that Bay Area legend Taj Mahal will be among their 2025 Lifetime Achievement honorees. The notable group of other artists include Prince, the Clash, Frankie Beverly, Roxanne Shanté, Frankie Valli, and Dr. Bobby Jones. Erroll Garner, Glyn Johns, and Tania León were named Trustees Award winners.
Mahal, who just performed in November at our SF, in-town hothouse of a performance space, the 4 Star Theater, as part of the ongoing Fogcutter series, and has collaborated with everyone from Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters to Jerry Garcia and the Rolling Stones, plus Bob Marley and the Wailers. His career resembles a wild and unpredictable weathervane of activity, pushing genres and maximizing the limits in jazz, funk, reggae, country, rock ‘n’ roll, and of course, blues.
We salute this titan of song and maestro of the arts.
The Special Merit Awards Ceremony—where the awards, many posthumous, will be handed out—takes place the day before the main gala, on February 1, 2025. The main 2025 ceremony airs live from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on February 2.
NOISE POP 2025 PHASE 2 LINEUP
When I wrote about Oakland’s Dani Offline back in September, I knew this artist, known for their R&B, neo-soul, and experimental electronic music, was going places. Quickly too. But had no idea the 32nd Noise Pop was on the trajectory, as part of the expansive Phase 2 drop for February 20—March 2 edition of San Francisco’s all-inclusive, crosstown, downtown, around-town, weeklong music party that reads vast and feels personal. It’s back, baby!
Kicking off the fest’s opening night party at Cal Academy’s NightLife event will be none other than LA’s DāM-FunK, which promises to be one smooth and thumping ride for sure. Live sets, DJ sets, it makes no difference; he never disappoints.
With Dani Offline, on February 27th, kicking off a four-night takeover of Noise Pop at SF Jazz in the dance-friendly Joe Henderson Lab, where every performance feels like a Friday night in some quirky, funky club you just happen to stumble upon. It’s a coveted performance space in the city that jazz artists, DJs, avant-garde musicians—the whole lot of ’em—are lucky to get a chance to play in. Artists Sirintip (February 28), August Lee Stevens (March 1), and MeloDios (March 2) will perform two concerts each night, completing the installation with an open dancefloor policy that bespeaks suave programming.
The expanded lineup also includes MC Danny Brown headling the festival with a special one-night performance at Public Works (February 22); lo-fi rock pioneers The American Analog Set, who return to SF after a 20-year hiatus to perform two nights of an “intimate and immersive 90-minute live show” of thoughtfully selected songs from their first six albums (February 26-27); and one of SF’s most legendary bands, the Flamin’ Groovies, performing February 22 at 4 Star Theater.
A final wave of lineup additions to be announced in early 2025, featuring dozens of local bands.
For more Noise Pop info go here.
ANALOG DOG AT THE INDEPENDENT, FEBRUARY 7
San Francisco, a city forever draped in the boom-or-bust cycle, is always consistently seeking innovative solutions for dog waste management in parks and on the lookout for new bands.
I mean that should be the motto for the old 415, right? But it’s so true. Now, at the moment I don’t have suggestions about the poop situation besides feeding Fido less. But I got a new band for you boppers to check out.
Analog Dog makes music that gives the sensation of weightlessness. No disrespect meant, but you hear songs like “What Future?” with the plinky piano lines, supple bass motion, and polite crooning from the vocalists, and it’s a different sensation coming from the Bay Area music division. And that’s really cool. Who wants all the tuneage from one city to sound the same? Boo. Get that vanilla shit outta my town.
The band calls their sound appropriately “genre fluid,” taking all types of influences from the band members’ tastes—psychedelic riffs of the 1960s, disco grooves from the ’70s, and modern indie pop techniques found in contemporary arrangements. Analog Dog punches up something innovative.
And that does track as San Francisco. Go catch them at The Independent in early February, and get ready to smile along to something kinda new. Grab tickets here.
DEAD & COMPANY “DEAD FOREVER LIVE” AT SPHERE LAS VEGAS, MARCH 20 TO MAY 17
The long strange trip just keeps on ringing—in Vegas. Dead & Company opened their much-anticipated 2024 Sphere residency in Las Vegas, playing 30 shows, and selling 477,000 tickets. According to Billboard, the $131.8 million gross made it the eighth highest-grossing rock tour, 22nd in all genre ranks, for 2024. That’s a lot of sugar magnolia, right? Especially keeping in mind that Phil Lesh, bass player and co-founder of The Grateful Dead, passed in the same year, just months after the 30-date residency.
Yet the cultural indentation of these shows appeared everywhere. I wish I had the metrics on how many Hoka shoes were bought before and during those shows; it’s a four-hour-plus extravaganza. Keep your feet comfy, people. America was having a ‘Truckin’ moment in the desert, wearing its squishy-chic footwear—and rightfully so. Between the graphics, visuals, and time-bending immersive environment combined with pretty much well-applauded fine playing from the band, it was a coveted ticket for Adult Disneyland.
With columns from numerous writers making reflective takes on the “Scarlet Begonias,” period in their previous life, while tripping balls as a grown-ass adult coming from the likes of Variety, New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and of course Psychedelic Scene Magazine, these shows did something nobody expected: They enlivened a fan base.
Welp, they’re going to run it back.
Dead & Company’s Dead Forever Live at Sphere Las Vegas will run from March 20 to May 17, in celebration of the band’s 10th anniversary. I’ve yet to run across a bad or even ‘meh’ response to the run of shows last year, so if you love ’em or have a Dead-adjacent friend in your life, grab tickets here.
