Okay. 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…
TELEMAKUS, EIGHT RING REVIVAL
We’ve written about the up-and-comer Telemakus, the 26-year-old Indian American artist, producer, composer, and autodidact who grew up in Sunnyvale, several times. Because he’s talented—no, not just that. Dude is DOPE! The latest news is that he has relocated to Los Angeles and is about to release his biggest record to date, Eight Ring Revival.
It features a multitude of top-shelf musicians shaping the next evolution of fusing jazz with hip-hop and other abstract ideas. That list of collaborators includes Flying Lotus, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Sparklmami, Karriem Riggins, Liv.e, CARRTOONS, Sumin, and Dani Offline.
He’s been open about the fact that he’s faced some challenges along with the success. After being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, he faced a long road to recovery—at one point having to learn to write and compose music with his feet. Such humbling moments shaped his recent artistic output, with songs born from that period featured on Eight Ring Revival. What’s crazy is, if he didn’t reveal those obstacles, you would not be able to detect that he’d gone through a series of setbacks.
Every track I’ve listened to for this upcoming album is brimming with that smooth complexity. Kudos to Telemakus; we’re so happy to have you back. Pre-order Eight Ring Revival here.
DAVIA SCHENDEL, “SKEE BALL” FROM THE FAIRGROUND
This San Francisco vocalist, songwriter, and producer has returned with a new single ahead of her upcoming album The Fairground. “Skee Ball,” a synth-pop earworm flush with darkwave quirks and funfair carnival revelry, finds Schendel sing-sangin’ bars like “we only like to play when we’re winning” as she heads out to wherever she can blow off some steam.
With Spencer Martin of the psych rock band Dark Dazey, singer-songwriter Max Havas, and guitarist Scott Greenberg accompanying on the track, its sound pulls inspiration from the childlike mayhem of an arcade—and how such spaces can soothe heartbreak and other maladies.
As per usual, Schendel comes equipped with sharp concepts, tight production chops (this was mastered by Lien Do at the legendary Different Fur Studios, right here in San Francisco). As I could have guessed, Schendel is handled by local booking juggernaut Total Accord Agency. Davia Schendel continues to be the total package. Grab the single here.
CRUD, HUMAN DECENCY (TANKCRIMES)
Just a casual look at the credo for the Oakland-based imprint Tankcrimes reveals:
“Underground Threatening Hardcore Punk Rock Heavy Metal for True Freaks, since 2002. We take our art seriously without taking ourselves too seriously at all.”
While all of that may be true, on one listen—just one mind you—to “Demiurge Blues” by the label’s group CRUD, who recorded their debut album Human Decency in Gainesville, Florida, I get concerned that I may need to see a reproductive urologist and make sure I’m not shooting blanks. Self-dubbed “metal sludge,” CRUD is the wildest and most appropriate name for a band that wallows in the dark riffs, pummels bass lines, and has a screamo lead singer who sounds like he’s been smoking Marlboro Reds since age 14.
And yet, heh, I can’t stop listening to this punishing metal with low end—it doesn’t have grooves, more like a relentless, crushing onslaught. Talking of “corrupted wombs” and “shit of earth,” it’s not a happy time at the playground, kids, but they are not lying either. Shit is kind of dark out there, and CRUD is here to help you work that out. The vibe is flashing buttcrack accompanied by a persistent forward headnodding motion reserved for a Black Sabbath meets hardcore punk hybrid.
Good chit, Mang. Off ya go. Pick it up here.
STONES THROW 30 FESTIVAL IN LOS ANGELES’ HIGHLAND PARK, OCTOBER 16-18
This 30-year celebration highlights one of the most influential and eccentric American labels of its kind, and make no mistake. Stones Throw has strong ties to the Bay Area. That idea of combining hip-hop with electronic music, rock, post-punk, new wave, electro, all types of funk, and a host of other genre classifications? Label boss and founder of Stones Throw Records, Christopher George Manak, aka Peanut Butter Wolf, puts it plainly on the label’s website, subscribing to his record-collecting traits. “I don’t put out what I think people will like. I put out what I like.”
That makes sense when you consider the wide variety of ideas and artists on the Stones Throw roster. It’s a curation made by an absolute 45s record junkie. And guess what, it works. The Wolf came up in San Jose and brought that certain sensibility to Southern California, where he built a modern, quizzical musical empire that speaks to 21st-century eclecticism.
No AI fake bands up in here, just quality live music: Pearl & The Oysters, Automatic, Mndsgn, Karriem Riggins, and of course DāM FunK, just to round out a few. They are part of a fabric that makes the imprint whose artist-first sensibilities always wink at the Bay when they play our hometown venues. So take a quick weekend trip down south and holler at your peeps. More info here.
“PROMISES, PROMISES,” BRITISH SYNTH-POP AND WBLS
The song “Promises, Promises” by the British synth-pop duo Naked Eyes was one of those sneaky-good tracks that slipped into Black radio, or, as they were officially known back in the day, the “Urban Contemporary” charts.
It had a certain type of swing, hook, melody, and relatable storyline, and as was par for the course with the Brits, who studied and grew up on Black music (Beatles, Rolling Stones, American blues—c’mon keep up), and followed the late disco formulas for making longer, more playable songs for nightclubs. The right producers and songwriters knew how to nail an infectious intro, making it smooth, head-nodding adjacent, before it got to the first sung line.
The Tony Mansfield 12″ mix of “Promises Promises” by Naked Eyes only really got played on Black radio in the States. Pop—ahem—white stations only messed with the three-minute-and-46-second versions because they had Diet Coke to sell, Toys ‘R Us campaigns to ramp up before the holidays, and Big Macs to distribute to the people.
But this track got featured on the Black-owned 107.5 WBLS, New York’s most dominant, influential, and highest-rated radio station during the late ’70s and ’80s. It passed legendary DJ and program director Frankie Crocker’s test, which means the track had the stamp of approval from DJ Larry Levan, too. Crocker would cherry-pick Levan’s playlist at Paradise Garage late at night and then run certain tracks on his radio show the next day. Meaning, “Promises Promises” blew up that above-average music heads consortium of folk—Black, Brown, Asian, gay, straight, trans, and Caucasian. Highly educated, multicultural dance floors comprised of New Yorkers… who had rhythm. Crocker benefitted from having new music pass through this no-bullshit filter. They and Levan didn’t care about trends.
But did the tracks make people want to move?
Crocker made on-air musical choices under the philosophy, “There is nothing I won’t play if I hear it and like it and feel it will go for my market.” Because of this open-minded approach, WBLS regularly broke boundaries by spinning New Wave and alternative tracks—right alongside traditional R&B and disco hits, making them massive crossovers in the Black community. The first time I ever heard The Clash, it was on this radio station.
“Promises, Promises” was human-selected—no algorithms here—and it always delivered the goods.
Rest in peace to Peter Byrne, frontman of Naked Eyes, who passed on September 23.
ALLAH-LAS AT PSYCHED! FEST AT GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL, OCTOBER 20
Let’s not mince words: All music festivals in San Francisco are not the same. Psyched! Fest, presented by the local non-profit DIY station Psyched! Radio San Francisco, provides local music fans, indie scenesters, and counterculture communities in the city a chance to see themselves onstage, authentically. The event series weaves together post-punk, shoegaze, garage rock, darkwave, cumbia, Latin electronic, and experimental music—all genres you would regularly see on a Thursday night, at a variety of local venues: Great American Music Hall, Rickshaw Stop, Monarch, and The Warfield.
Case in point, for that so-called grit quotient? Allah-Las, a band that came together, at least three-fourths of it, while working at Amoeba Records on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles circa 2008, makes rock through an active, ever-changing prism of lo-fi psych, garage, and coastal grooves with a touch of krautrock, soul, disco, and Brazilian music. Elevated and street-wise all at once, Allah-Las is forever a Psyched! Fest-type of outfit. Grab tickets to their show here.
GNARLS BARKLEY AT SF MASONIC, NOVEMBER 5
Just to be clear, when the band known as Gnarls Barkley, typically comprised of singer Ceelo Green and producer Danger Mouse, kicks off its nine-city “reunion” tour at SF Masonic, one member will not be there, or at any of the remaining eight dates. The tour will only feature Green, as per a September 23 note on the group’s Instagram page that explains the duo are business partners, but Ceelo Green “will be performing songs from these three iconic albums… It’s going to be amazing, and he (Danger Mouse) will be there in spirit. See you soon.”
Sounds lit. Eh? Grab tickets here.
