In Live This Month, we sample some of the great local and out-of-town bands performing in the coming month in the San Francisco Bay Area.
How has it taken this long to include Chelsea Wolfe in one of our podcasts? Wolfe started out in Sacramento before relocating to LA, and over the course of four albums has defined a unique mix of heavy doom and gothic folk. “Iron Moon” comes from her new album, Abyss, and it highlights both sides of her sound very well. Speaking of Sacramento, our state capital also happens to be where Mike Krol recorded his new record, Turkey. Krol’s an expert at no-nonsense garage rock with a power-pop heart, and Turkey doesn’t waste any time over the course of its 18 minutes.
We’ve also included in this mix the lead-off track from The Expanding Flower Planet, the first LP from Deradoorian. As Angel Deradoorian’s credits might suggest — she’s played bass and sang in Dirty Projectors, collaborated with Flying Lotus, and was a member of Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks — she’s a musical omnivore, crafting vocal-driven songs with elements of freewheeling prog and psych.
Locally, three of our favorite Bay Area bands celebrate new albums with release parties this month. Oakland’s Shannon and the Clams have long been at the top of the garage-pop universe, with songs that soar on earworm melodies and Shannon’s stellar vocals. Their records are consistently strong — and early singles suggest that the Sonny Smith-produced Gone by the Dawn isn’t likely to change that — but the group is even better live.
Also great live is Golden Void, back with their sophomore full length, Berkana. The album was recorded by Tim Green (of the F*cking Champs), and, while their prior LP was tracked live, this time the group added layers of instrumentation to their heady psych. Finally, Bay Area post-punk favorites Wild Moth are back with Inhibitor, out now on Iron Pier. It’s an intense, melodic set of post-punk that demands to be heard live and loud.