You know the drill, 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 and upcoming shows. We keep hustling with the changes, thinking outside the margins. Hop in. And thanks for spending some time with us.
A MUTHER OF A SUMMER FEST SEASON
Wasn’t it just two years ago that musical festivals were being canceled, moved, or postponed due to fires, unforeseen natural events, and lack of funds? Well it seems in 2026, not only are musical festivals back, but they would have you believe our foggy metropolis is the damn epicenter for them. The City is importing DJs from all across the globe to play outdoor raves downtown (wait, doesn’t SF have local DJs and independent crews that should be supported by City Hall? They vote too, right?) and band heavy, three-day campout gatherings are happening right up until November.
Plus, there will be 100-plus acts free all summer-long at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, including local artists Destiny Muhammed and Mae Powell in separate Thursday one-hour concerts slots, visiting performers Helado Negro and Reyna Tropical, and Joe Bataan delivering a full concert in October. Next up, Total Accord Fest is happening June 3-20, featuring performances from Brijean, The Seshen, Mild Universe, Grooblen, Rhymies, Marika Christine, and a host of other local artists performing at Kilowatt, 4 Star Theater, Rickshaw Stop, The Independent, and other venues.
Lastly, the Dirtybird Campout x Northern Nights Music Festival taking place in Cook Valley compound, July 17-19, with a DJ line-up of Justin Martin, LP Giobbi, J.Phlip, Gene Farris, and others. Get your ticket sorted, because this event sells out quickly—even though Dirtybird founder Claude von Stroke has flown the coop for other projects. Summer is lining up nicely, as it should.
MAKAYA MCCRAVEN AT SFJAZZ, THU/21-SUN/24
Color me guilty. I write about SFJAZZ a lot. The music venue in Hayes Valley that opened in January 2013 has become known as the “first freestanding building in America specifically built for jazz performance and education.”
I get excited about this highly expressive, “social music” built from the backbone, the struggle, and the DNA of Black folks. But when Makaya McCraven shows up in Fog City with his exquisite musical personnel to assist with performance? We are talking about Junius Paul, Marquis Hill, Ben LaMar Gay, and Jeremiah Chiu of SML on modular synths, amongst others.
Yeah, that’s when I refuse to stop yappin’.
In comparison to the rest of his discography, McCraven’s gorgeously varied, charming, and thoroughly detailed release In These Times from 2022 (which he will be performing in a string of shows as SFJAZZ’s resident artistic director) seems like a bit of an anomaly. As opposed to earlier and later efforts, mixtapes, EPs, and albums that worked best as skeletal etchings, the strength of this project lies in the arrangements and melodies. It’s not the kinetic rhythmic blitzkrieg attack McCraven can unleash whenever he pleases, his percussion charts hitting with a ferocity that sounds like drum licks plucked directly from a lengthy Fela-meets-James-Brown live recording.
In These Times, an album that took more than seven years to complete—that title that has multiple interpretations—occasionally pirouettes like a dance recital, only to then chug along with pre-linguistic ideas à la a DJ Spooky set. Its 41 minutes reflect on the value of group expression, while offering theories about the direction Black music will take in the future, while fusing classical and symphonic awareness. The blues will always meander on, forever swinging.
Don’t play yourself, grab tickets here.
DUB MISSION 30TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION WITH AT GOLDEN GATE PARK BANDSHELL, MAY 31
As our world-famous DJ SEP rides into the 30th anniversary of the little party that could and did every Sunday night in the Mission at the dearly departed Elbo Room, she is still somewhat amazed at lasting sentiment for an event that started in, jeez, 1996.
“The thing I never anticipated or dreamed of is that so many people would make positive memories of Dub Mission,” she told 48hills via email. “I’ve had many people over the years approach me and tell me about how much fun they had at one of our events, or that going to the Sunday party was part of their routine for many years. The fact that they have their own relationship, in a way, with the night, and that it meant something meaningful to them, is wonderful and unexpected.”
Oh, you can anticipate that wonderment to increase tenfold on this last Sunday of the month.
She’s got SF royalty riding shotgun for the celebration. That’d be co-resident Vinnie Esparza, the first DJ to perform at the Monterey Jazz Festival (on its 50th anniversary), and Maneesh the Twister, who co-founded the Asian underground Dhamaal artist collective and who has toured India, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Bali. These are heavy hitters, even by San Francisco standards.
The party runs 4:20pm-7:30pm. Arrive early. It’s gonna be a session, for sure.
More info here.
gyrofield, YOUR FIGHT (FIELD RESEARCH)
I remain steadfast in the belief that drum and bass can be made of and into so many varying degrees of movement. But when Rolling Stone decides to do a feature on a 23-year-old Utrecht via Hong Kong producer Kiana Li, aka gyrofield, that means there is money associated with this so-called… movement. I don’t know if it’s a knee-jerk “throw them off the scent” or just Li doing what she does, but on this three-track EP Your Fight, the maiden voyage for her imprint Field Research, gyrofield gets deeper and darker in the drumcode.
“Your Fight represents power casting outwards—the rebellion, repossession, and various actionable energies we need”, comments Li. “Field Research will be a home for the future of my emotionally-entangled music, where I’m free to determine what, when, and how I release, in a way that’s nimble and enables a more cohesive roadmapping for the future. I’m also building a safe space for artists to present interesting, odd, or deeply personal ideas. I wish to help them flourish, and encourage flexibility of format and functionality in their works”.
This is dark, shifting, turbulent electronic music with just a faint bit of drum and bass tossed in for shits and giggles. gyrofield is in complete beast mode, with tracks that don’t even try to behave within genre form. “World in a Cat’s Claw” carries computer blip readouts with heady 808s tracking steps; it’s thuddering skeletal electronic music that doesn’t really care if you dance. Just take heed to who is at the controls.
That’d be gyrofield, mate.
Stay tuned here.
DJ SHADOW’S ENDTRODUCING… 30TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR
One of Josh Davis aka DJ Shadow’s best tracks lasts for barely 30 seconds. But its sentiment, forever Ziploc-fresh, remains timeless. “Why Hip-Hop Sucks in ’96,” from his landmark debut Endtroducing… lines up and takes square aim, mocking the era’s popular contemporary hip-hop relying on familiarity rather than ingenuity.
Shadow dials up a cheesy rip-off version of that high-pitched keyboard squeal from the overused “Funky Worm” by the Ohio Players. According to Complex, it’s “one of the foundational sample sources of West Coast hip-hop, typifying the G-Funk sound popularized in the early ’90s.” Shadow’s reference is an upshot indictment of artists’ lack of ingenuity, the blatant abuse—its overuse—at the time by artists banking on its familiarity to sell units. 20 seconds in, we hear Davis’ sarcastic trickster tone: “It’s the money.”
Endtroducing… was DJ Shadow’s Citizen Kane, affecting trends, minds, and a significant wing of record-digging culture. The album’s artwork features a photo by B+ of Blackalicious producer Chief Xcel and rapper Lyrics Born (in a wig) crate digging at Sacramento’s Rare Records. Another photo on the inside sleeve shows Shadow himself flipping through a stack of 45s. A headline of sorts amid the acknowledgements and credits reads, “This album reflects a lifetime of vinyl culture.”
That tradition of excavation exists today at record stores throughout the Bay, more specifically on Haight Street, thanks to Amoeba Records, Groove Merchant, and Vinyl Dreams. High-profile local and international DJs and producers not only still show up at but, in some cases, have their own personal in-store handlers picking and making selections for them. (Not gonna name any names, but I’m a witness.)
Like De La Soul’s earlier endeavors, Endtroducing… communicated that holistic record store love. Like when vaporwave called up Japanese City pop into the 21st century zeitgeist, or when that 1999/2000 Volkswagen Cabrio commercial presented a forgotten folk singer by the name of Nick Drake, jettisoning him and his ear candy “Pink Moon” into the now. Davis, in his meditative psalm, “Midnight In A Perfect World,” gave listeners options for when the party got tired.
Sounding like Of Montreal manipulated with pitched-down block-rockin ‘ beats, this track was recorded at The Glue Factory, Dan the Automator’s (Daniel M. Nakamura) home recording studio, where Kool Keith’s Dr. Octagon – Dr. Octagonecologyst was recorded. The process saw Davis take randomness and turn it into a seminal, peculiar hymn that’s now famous around the world. He pieced together lyrics from Organized Confusion at the beginning of the track, a sorrowful piano section from the 1969 song “The Human Abstract” by David Axelrod, flips parts of “California Soul” by Marlena Shaw, and sews together other pieces, resulting in what would be millions of rave chill rooms’ theme song for the next decade.
Given this big-time “Ess Eff” history, it was a bit of a shock to hear that the upcoming Shadow’s Endtroducing 30th anniversary North America tour won’t land in the Bay Area for a single show. The closest Davis will come is… Los Angeles? Guess we have to stay tuned.
Grab more info here.
