Over the past few years, the San Francisco Bay Area has dominated the world of garage rock with folks like Thee Oh Sees, Shannon and the Clams and Ty Segall recognized as the leaders of a fertile local rock and roll scene. In 2013, all three of those acts remain great: the first two put out a couple of the year’s best albums, and the now LA-based Segall’s newest comes highly anticipated from Drag City next week.
An honest accounting of Bay Area rock in 2013, however, requires a look to the local bands beyond the big names. What that survey reveals, thankfully, is that there remain a lot of very talented acts continuing to push rock and roll, garage punk, lo-fi, and power pop forward in new, weird, and compelling directions. This mix collects fourteen great bands from within that local rock universe, avoiding names that are familiar to the podcast or that we’ve covered here with some frequency.
A few notes on some of the included artists: Scraper just released an incendiary new 7″ on Drag City’s God? imprint. Speaking of new releases, there are new albums forthcoming from CCR Headcleaner, Meat Market, and Adam Widener. Widener’s contribution here is a brand new track from the Vesuvio Nights LP. Meanwhile, Blood Sister features members of Ganglians and Night Manager, while Gravys Drop is a project led by Nobunny drummer Billy Grave.
All told, it’s a really fun collection of songs. Enjoy the mix!
Track Listing:
