Well, hello lovers of music and culture. We are Under the Stars, a quasi-weekly column that stays on message with strong-ass opinions, presenting new music releases, upcoming shows, and other adjacent items. We keep it moving, hustling with the changes, thinking outside the margins. We’ve been doing this for five years… Spend some time with us…
“ALIEN: EARTH” ON FX/HULU
So I’ve been actively following (putting hands in front of face cause those facehuggers freak me the eff out) that “Alien: Earth” series on FX. It’s one of the creepiest-excellent Alien adaptations to date. Administered by master showrunner Noah Hawley, it’s also the best TV series we got this summer. (HBO/MAX’s “TASK” looks to carry us into the autumn.) But the way the camera moves about the Alien multiverse, its Peter-Pan-esque storyline—it even drops a mini-Alien movie right inside episode five, turning the spaceship into a house of horrors with all types of creepy crawlies seeking escape routes, engaging in inter-species beef on beef. Add to this Smashing Pumpkins’ “Cherub Rock” as the end credit coda? That Billy Corrigan repeated wail, “let me out,” screaming over the guitar feedback at the end of episode 5?
Yep. Hawley is on one. Again.
Here we have the classic Xenomorph and new alien species that include the T. Ocellus (an eye-catching parasitic creature), a flying insectoid, a predatory plant-like alien, and a powerful, large-scale Species 37. Other introduced elements include different versions of alien eggs and a new topic for your therapist in a Facehugger for the 21st century, and a potentially new hybrid creature who sweats in buckets.
It’s an all-star line-up of body killers and nightmare makers who are actively plotting out ways to overtake humans, but we deserve it. After all we, the nosey, curious, money-grubbing humans, went out to space to capture them. It’s us, folks. We’re the monster. Not the other way around, so err, yeah. They pissed off, Mang.
And they say human beings are the superior species… I think otherwise.
This is a macro-story about five corporations running the earth because politicians just couldn’t get the job done right (aHem), one that includes the reveal that a billionaire tech wonderboy of a corporation bribed a spaceship worker to compromise this ship to make it crash into the earth, so that another tech corporation could reap billions from studying all these aliens who absolutely want to murder all the human beings. That last part is by far the scariest, yet totally most believable thing to come out of this truth-teller of a show.
Help us save local journalism!
Every tax-deductible donation helps us grow to cover the issues that mean the most to our community. Become a 48 Hills Hero and support the only daily progressive news source in the Bay Area.
If you see something swimming, with a little tadpole tail, in your drank?
Chuck it.
Watch the show here.
KATY & THE NULL SETS, “I WISH I HAD MET YOU IN THE SUMMER”
Summer’s done, Son. Here to mark our upcoming, incoming autumnal season is Katy Ohsiek (you know, formerly of Portland’s foamboy fame) doing some solo work, and promising more music to come this fall. Stuff you can always rely on—set your time device to—”vulnerable, biting lyricism interwoven with uniquely melodic song structures that borrow from bossa nova, aughts indie rock, and modern Americana.”
Katy gives context to the suspended in time statement on what could have been in a statement:
This is a sweet song about someone I had a lot of fun with. But between living in different cities and having vastly different schedules, our time together was cut short. At least that’s how I felt. I was left thinking about all the things I wished we had gotten around to. This song has been in the archives for a while, and it was a pleasure to revive. I rarely write a sweet song, so it feels good to record and release one.
Pick up what could have been here.
THE FILLMORE THIS FALL
Not much gets past Ashley Graham, art director and marketing manager of the all-important, historic Fillmore. Most recently, she has launched a celebration of past and present local art and artists associated with the venue. As a result, the flyer for the Fall at The Fillmore series, which incorporates designs by four local artists, is inspired by those old-school sticker machines from the ’90s, and each “column” of the machine is designed by a different artist. I’ve witnessed firsthand how many ideas come from Graham, and then years later, are incorporated into the city’s general milieu. This could be a great example.
The pictorial sticker machine and one column of its wares were designed Galine Tumasyan, also of Seablite. The others are by Jon Carr, Patrick Sean Gibson, and Laura Tjho. There will be an actual machine in the venue selling said designs (plus temporary tattoos) and additional work by Ferris Plock, Kelly Tunstall, Daniel Zhou, and The Lads Studio.
The Fillmore will feature even more art at its show at The Social Study, and hosting a Fri/19 pop-up where Tumasyan and Gibson will be selling some wares.
More info here.
BASTIENGOAT, SAFE
Bay Area producers Bored Lord and bastiengoat’s reluctance to stick to one genre of electronic music has been well-documented. Anyone who caught the NO BIAS party that rocked for three strong-ass years at Underground SF knows exactly what’s up.
But let me holler atcha real quick. This new SAFE release from bastiengoat, which dips into juke, bounce, South African gqom, breakbeat, and other Black dance styles is doing things so subtly. Hiding in plain sight.
And sorry, but I have to skip ahead and just blurt out the secret sauce, ’cause dammit, it hits so nice. “Nextel”, the album’s second-to-last track, moves, steps, prances, real cool, slick and housey-like with that boom-bap bass business right there at the foundation, while warm keyboard stabs confuse your inner compass. Where we at, Son? West London? Oakland? Brooklyn? Berlin? It’s someplace, as my man put it in the title, SAFE.
For my money—which is for sure struggling these days with all these tariffs—remains on The Bay. Producers like bastiengoat can execute so many dance music styles, but never make us feel like a tourist. SAFE, indeed.
BUY THIS HERE.
DIRECTIONS IN STEREO AT 540 BAR, SEPTEMBER 26
Join resident DJ Circuit73 on the last Friday of the month at Best of the Bay Editors’ Pick-winning 540 Bar as Directions In Stereo cues up an eclectic sonic backdrop for the evening. This month DIS welcomes special guest DJ Booker D on the ones and twos. It’s gonna be an all-vinyl variety mix to the max. The theme is wide open this month, so expect to hear funk, soul, jazz, rock, pop, reggae, and more, spanning all eras, new to old.
More info here.
PATEKA AT ELI’S MILE HIGH CLUB, OCTOBER 3
This Richmond-based experimental quartet has a wide-eyed palette for sound and the unrelenting fearlessness to share not one but all the dang ideas. Pateka (formerly known as Aaron Space & his Terrestrial Underlings) explains their music as experimental art rock, composed of keyboardist-vocalist Elihu Knowles, guitarist Dylan Ransley, bassist Quinn Girard, and drummer Ryan Higley, as well as occasionally performing saxophonist Hayden Dekker. But that is just who they are on the surface.
Ever-so influenced by Bay Area experimental traditions, the group’s self-titled release blends the soulful fusion of early Unknown Mortal Orchestra with the DIY flexibility seen in the current Jeff Parker-driven jazz scene, all infused with that Bay Area countercultural strangeness and rhythmic polymer. You can imagine the loose rumble of Jon Bap-style arrangements running wild here.
“All of us in Pateka grew up in the Bay Area, and we’ve been making stuff together—movies, music, whatever—since we were kids,” stated Elihu Knowles. “I think that reflects in the music we make; it’s pretty technical, but it still has this kind of homegrown feel. A lot of the songs reference places and traditions from our childhood. This is the first full-length record we’ve made, so I wanted it to encapsulate the things that make our friend group important to me.”
Catch that friend group celebrate this uniquely earnest release, Pateka, on October 3 at Eli’s Mile High Club.
Grab tickets here.
KELLY MORAN WITH SHIPWRECK DETECTIVE (DEVANAND BHAT) AT GREY AREA, SEPTEMBER 25
When you listen to “Echo In The Field”, the first single from pianist and producer Kelly Moran’s new project, Don’t Trust Mirrors, it feels like the 90-second preamble of a oncoming, foot-stomping, sweaty-mugger rave-banger.
It’s got that rizz. But settle in, recognize it’s almost five minutes of a prequel to an all-tomorrow’s party type anthem. You’ll feel grounded, and want to hang out for this origin story.
Moran, who’s collaborated with FKA twigs, Yves Tumor, Kelsey Lu, Oneohtrix Point Never, and the Avalanches, said of the lead single in Resident Advisor: “Few things in this world terrify me more than the idea of me dancing in a music video. I wanted to address that fear head-on because this is the first track I’ve written that makes me want to get up to dance, headbang, and generally lose my shit.”
Grab tix here.
MOMOKO GILL. MATTHEW HERBERT, CLAY (STRUT RECORDS)
So I was politely reminded by none other than the snark gawd himself, Mr. Adrian Spinelli—one of the best music writers in The Bay, period—just how sleek and organic the Clay project from Herbert and Gill actually is.
Yes, it came out in late June. Somewhere between BART-ing three hours a day and averaging 4.5 hours of sleep a night this summer, I forgot about it. My bad.
When Lord Herbert puts his name and stamp on a project, you can expect something specific that runs in direct opposition to what’s supposedly moving folks’ asses on the dancefloor these days. In the past, I’ve called him a sound shinobi—a John Cale-type thinking man’s dance music producer, always bringing some clever aesthetic to each new project. Clay allows me to stand by that statement. Drummer-vocalist Momoko Gill brings abstract, but not flashy “look at me” drum-ideas, sampled in nouveau patterns. Plus, a wide-palette approach to giving vocal accompaniment on this joyful, clean-living, 44-minute excursion through this washed-out house record. At times, it feels like Windham Hill Records, the instrumental acoustic music imprint from the ’80s, was being revived and pursuing ambient house—which actually doesn’t sound terrible.
Clay works best when Gill is accompanying these subtle beat combinations with that dead-ahead quiet and safe vocal presence that assures everybody that noise violence will not be permitted. What we have here is just a holistic eagerness to be challenged—and not on some tired ass vegan IDM bullshit, either.
Just inventive, calm, soulful polyrhythmic ideas you never feel shortchanged by. They’re probably gluten-free.
I won’t call it dinner music, but if I did, Herbert & Gill would in fact be putting some respect on that name. Please revisit this missed summertime treasure.
Snatch it up here.
KENNY DOPE FEAT. RÓISÍN MURPHY – BORN UNDER PUNCHES (AND THE HEAT GOES ON)(BBE MUSIC)
Maybe we can just love and forgive on the dance floor, people? There’s been a lot of Talking Heads activity in the ether these days, but what about something that captures the beautiful chuggy-weirdness that made them the archetype unit in the first place?
Leave it to Kenny Dope, one-half of Masters at Work and yes, the shit talking (shit-posting) out the side of her neck genre-defying vocalist Róisín Murphy, to get exactly at some “deep, dubbed-out psych-funk workout” that’s channeling the spirit, if not technique, of the fabulous Talking Heads.
The original “Born Under Punches” saw these RISD shiny happy blue-eyed punk funk-o-naughts explore global Black music—dub, samba, soul, jazz—from the rooter to the tooter.
Dope and Murphy (sounds like a ’70s cop show, or late ’90s DJ Kicks Mix, right?) identify our 21st century hysteria by reducing the BPMs, increasing the thundering low-end boom, and then, for what it’s worth, letting Murphy cook.
“Stop calling me a boomer, I’m a Gen Xer, and I will have my say”, captures Murphy speaking to and about herself, and in this context, it’s saying all the words, several different things simultaneously.
Known for so much, AND the magnetic voice of Moloko and a longtime habitual line-stepper in art-pop, disco, house, performance art, and YouTube mini-teleplays, she’s packing that meta-commentary hyperbabble—she knows exactly what she’s talking about—channeling all the eccentricities of 21st-century paranoia into something that just builds, thumps, and moves at that other frequency. Hey man, sometimes it’s hard to quantify vibes; you just know ’em when you feel ’em. But this rework? A chess move for the dance floor.
Embrace the funk of it. Argue the other stuff outside the club, on the car ride home.
Grab it up here.
