San Francisco band 37 Houses brings their indie rock chops to the renowned Bottom of The Hill. TV on The Radio is back—they too have SF roots. Drew Daniel of Soft Pink Truth lets the fever dream predict his next project, and we present a deep dive into Album Oriented Rock in celebration of a Yacht Rock doc that’s pretty spot on, right down to the Doobie Brothers’ origins in San Jose. It’s Under The Stars, people; spend some time with us.
TV ON THE RADIO, DESPERATE YOUTH, BLOOD THIRSTY BABES 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
It seems after 15 or so years of confusion, missed phone calls, and/or deleted emails, the NPR Music team can cross off a “white whale” band they’ve wanted at the Tiny Desk since its inception. TV on The Radio is making the rounds, performing live once again (for the first time in five years) per the 20th anniversary release of their debut record, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes.
In a recent NYT feature, members of the band waxed philosophically about the proliferation of gentrification in those Williamsburg neighborhoods where they could once go from their apartment to their barista job and then to the rehearsal space all within a few blocks. Certain San Franciscans will relate to those stories; actually, I can relate to those stories specifically in the Mission decades ago, where work, band rehearsal spaces, bookstores, and bars of choice all revolve within an eight-block radius.
It was actually in the late ’90s while bartending at Uptown that I first met TVOTR singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Kyp Malone, who was always tapin’ up weird band posters on the bar’s bathroom doors—containing names that I cannot repeat here, which eventually I had to ask him to take down, which he did with a mischievous grin and a high pitched laugh. I’d see him bopping around the neighborhood; I believe he worked at or hung out at Adobe Books. And then fast-forward to the early 2000s and boom, he’s on the cover of the Arts section of the New York Times with his new band, donning a name that can be spoken aloud.
I was immediately blown away and proud all at once—then I heard the band. Jesus. They did it. Brothers with guitars…. For real.
This black rock and roll band sounded like no other, nor the slew of bands—Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem—coming out of New York at the time directly or indirectly in response to 9/11. I think Kyp put me on a guest list for one of the shows they performed at The Independent, and the band was just stunning. I thanked him after the show, and he was just so cool as always, responding with that high-pitched but mellow “no problem.”
America doesn’t do too well with black rock and roll bands, but this one did EXACTLY what they were destined to do and for that, I am forever thankful. Pick up the anniversary edition here and pray they come to The Bay sometime this summer.
37 HOUSES AT BOTTOM OF THE HILL, DECEMBER 16
Bottom of The Hill has remained a steadfast house of up-and-comers, an in-the-know and on-the-verge venue: Supposedly over 13,000 different bands have played at there in the past 30 years, making it one of those pay-your-dues spots if you come through The Bay. With great acoustics and nice bar placements, it has been a temple for live music, following and predicting trends night by night, act by act. One memory: The ill-famed Beastie Boys concert giveaway during the “Ill Communication” era, when Live 105 DJs leaked the band was playing there under a nom de plume, which resulted in thousands descending on the club within minutes, hopping fences and causing mayhem.
Over the years, I’ve caught dance-punk local legends Von Iva blow the freaking roof off, Chime School swoon hipsters out the door, and good ol’ Tommy Guerrero bring the Mission funk on a Sunday during Noise Pop to a crowd full of ex-skaters sipping lightly on tequila. Even our beloved 12-piece South Bay ska phenomenon that is Voluntary Hazing knocked the joint up with their fourth-wave resurgence album, New Tone, a couple of weeks back.
San Francisco duo 37 Houses will perform at the legendary venue on December 16, featuring their mix of moody ear candy and jangly guitars, and it’s exciting. The band started making music after being quarantined together for four months of marriage. The indie-pop project sees Jeremy Rosenblum on guitar and Erin Samueli on vocals, merging emotions from feelings that come out of “being an imperfect human married to another imperfect human.” Come through for a new era of San Francisco-based performers, making their unique mark on this historic stage.
Grab tix here.
VARIOUS ARTISTS, THANK YOU, DREAM GIRL (THE TABULA RASA RECORD COMPANY)
Drew Daniel, can you say Soft Pink Truth, can you say Matmos, is possibly truly a genius and absolutely off his nutter, all at once. Give a listen to his ode to a dream where a girl at a rave described a genre called “hit ‘em.” Her loose description—“5/4 time, 212 BPM, super crunched-out sounds”—is the parameters. And Daniel is off, spreading this idea to other producers, and blammo, we have a compilation that doesn’t make formal sense, mostly noise, sometimes musical, other times fun with bizarrely structured ideas.
And I am so down, dude. It’s unhinged, like the state of political affairs, but it’s dangerously free of conforming to just one thing. Eprom’s “The Search” is jungle gone wacky bongo-bongo. Popping off, with sections of cool-down jazzbo vibes interspersed, right down to the sexy horn too. There are a zillion weird IDM ideas here. And that’s the meat on this bone, ideas.
A fever dream consists of many gonzo properties right?
This project was mastered by none other than Kevin Moo aka Daddy Kev; Homeboy got Grammys for mastering albums by Thundercat and Freestyle Fellowship. If dude has time for this cray-cray, so do you.
Grab it here.
“YACHT ROCK: A DOCKUMENTARY” ON HBO/MAX
Long ago, I was properly educated to refer to a certain era and scene of music as AOR: Album-Oriented Rock, by none other than DāM FunK. Some jokingly refer to the music that “closet jazzers were making pop records with” as Yacht Rock, the notorious moniker that comes with sailor hats, bad mustaches, and curdles the milk of your White Russian.
Gimme the music and save the yucks.
That being said HBO’s Music Box series “Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary” does an impressive job naming the main players, and running down facts that any super record nerd who reads back covers of Dollar Bin albums sussed out years ago. The players in TOTO ran this genre and in certain respects were the next generation of “wrecking Crew” LA session musicians. Quincy Jones collected TOTO players for his projects like rare comic books.
One major point is made clear that many referees in the Yacht Rock waters miss: It only makes sense that hip-hop artists picked up on Steely Dan, Michael McDonald, Seals and Crofts, etc., to be repurposed in their songs when the AOR musicians were channeling their own inner Ray Charles, Herbie Hancock, or Jimmy Smith. If you have access to a modular synth or Fender Rhodes, at some point you want that sucker to have some bass in its strut and groove on its mind.
Hip-hop just returned the serve.
Filled with infinite talking heads including Questlove—you can’t do a music doc without Questlove; those are the rules, right?—Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers (who formed in San Jose in the ’70s no less), Thundercat, Kenny Loggins, Steve Lukather, and so many more. This doc is worth your time.
We’re going to give you a playlist of AOR/Yacht Rock properties that are not mainlined.
These are get on your knees and dig through those bins songs that hopefully you can find.
Get ready to enjoy some really slept-on good music.
KENNY LOGGINS, “I BELIEVE IN LOVE,” CELEBRATE ME HOME
Kenny Loggins would be referred to as the king of movie soundtracks later on in his career, but at the beginning to mid-’70s, his uncanny hybrid of soft rock, fusion, pop, and just a string of Loggins magic kicked off a genre unto itself. Before you fly into the danger zone, feel the warmth of his mystical combo that not too many others would or could pull off.
STEELY DAN, “BAD SNEAKERS,” KATY LIED
Somebody else said it first, so don’t give me credit: “Steely Dan makes bad vibes sound good.” Wiry guitar solos from Walter Becker, snarky-ass lyrics from the masterful Donald Fagen, and a David Fincher approach in the recording. Take after take after take. Warm jazz-rock bathed in the most glorious lyrical cynicism. An up-and-coming musician by the name of Michael McDonald would do session work for the early adopters of this style of music, but don’t call it by that YR moniker in front of Fagen unless you want expletives shot back from him.
Steely Dan loved McDonald; he could hit those high notes.
Both Once and Future Band, the now defunct killer Bay-area group, and Drugdealer, whom we covered this summer, owe a giant, and I do mean enormous, amount of credit to Steely Dan for creating the lane they could run in. Listen, you can call it psychedelic folk, progressive rock, whatever is clever; Steely Dan is your dad.
THE DOOBIE BROTHERS, “YOU’RE MADE THAT WAY,” LIVIN’ ON THE FAULT LINE
When Michael McDonald joined The Doobie Brothers, some believe he changed the group. But they were ace musicians and always included several different styles of music on their albums, so they went with the Fender Rhodes and that McDonald voice. Wise choice.
BRENDA RUSSELL, “LUCKY,” LOVE LIFE
Vocalist Brenda Russell, while in the Doobie Brothers touring band, first heard McDonald’s voice and was aghast. It had that type of magic to it. Russell also capitalized on this new version of soft pop with accessible songcraft, but still with that bump of soul blended intricately here on “Lucky.”
GEORGE BENSON, “SO THIS IS LOVE?” BREEZIN’
It’s right there in the title. Breezin’ is the fifteenth studio album by jazz and soul guitarist and vocalist George Benson. It is his debut on Warner Bros. Records. It was not only was a chart-topper in the jazz category but also went to #1 on the pop and R&B charts. It was certified triple platinum, making it one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time. There was something in the cultural zeitgeist that crossed over to the jazz idiom, widened the lane, and increased the bandwidth by way of softened arrangements. And hey, if pop music LA session musicians can capitalize on this phenomenon, what can’t a jazz musician who’s been in the game for a long time and is exactly the type of artist these cats are honorably ripping off? Nobody had to tell George twice. He got it.
TOTO, “WAITING FOR YOUR LOVE,” IV
TOTO formed in LA in ’77 and proceeded to lock down most of the session gigs for numerous bands at that time. Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Cheryl Lynn, and Quincy were very familiar with the musicians David Paich, Jeff Porcaro, Steve Lukather, and Steve Porcaro. Well-versed in pop, rock, soul, funk, hard rock, R&B, blues, and jazz, they ran around like a mini-mafia playing on albums without overbearing presence. They knew how to improvise on the spot, nail it, and then proceed to the next gig. So when assembling TOTO, they poured all that experience into a staggering pop juggernaut that not only garnered them numerous awards; they got the attention of MJ, and most of the band played on Thriller. Talk about an active resume.
