#Oakland bands

Shutups Take Mundane Missteps and Make Them Worth a Dance on EP 5

Oakland band Shutup's new EP 5 is a very adult piece of work. This isn't to say that it is frigid or stuffy, but moreso that it provides a rollicking rock foray into the complexities of adulthood. Some of this grown-up feeling comes from Shutups' desire to not waste time. Almost every song on the...

Sophia Vaccaro

Grumpster Finds Solance On the Edges of Debut LP Underwhelmed

Over deli sandwiches, Falyn Walsh of Grumpster told me that she thinks some people are meant to become friends. I had met her, along with Lalo Gonzalez Deetz (guitar) and Noel Agtane (drums) at Gilman Brewing some hours earlier, where we discussed the Oakland band’s debut album, Underwhelmed. The...

Sophia Vaccaro

MAIN - Boy Scouts - Photo Credit Ulysses Ortega 6

PLAYING THE BAYBoy Scouts Artfully Embraces Resignation on New LP Free Company

Taylor Vick of Boy Scouts. Photo Credit: Ulysses Ortega It’s hard not to heavily associate new music with the time of year that you first heard it, where a few notes or a chorus can propel you back in time to months before, your eyes and ears filling with the sounds of springtime or the...

Sophia Vaccaro

PLAYING THE BAYPolkadot Spins Folktales Among the Flowers on Spring Songs EP

Polkadot’s most recent EP, Spring Songs, is a brief affair at four minutes and thirty-nine seconds. However, the two-song EP creates an immediate sonic landscape, an echoing folktale peeled from the page and delivered through ones and zeroes. With a stripped-down delivery and a slow, two-person...

Sophia Vaccaro

PLAYING THE BAYGrumpster is "Crumbling" in New Video

In the music video for “Crumbling,” by Oakland punk band Grumpster, lead singer Fayln Walsh tears off her baggy '80s color-block shirt during the final breakdown, flinging her limbs with detached singularity in front of a golden-hour graveyard. Cut in between shots of the band playing live, this is...

Sophia Vaccaro

PLAYING THE BAYOakland's Skip the Needle Are Done Holding Anything Back

As Bay Area music industry veterans, the four members of Skip the Needle have run the gamut through the bullshit and, according to the lead single from their newest full-length project, they ain’t never going back. “We Ain’t Never Going Back” is the title track from Skip the...

Sophia Vaccaro

PLAYING THE BAYKevin Nichols Rocks the Hallowed Grounds of 924 Gilman

Kevin Nichols wanted to know how much time he had left on stage. “Till you puke!” cried the man behind me. This was met with silence, perhaps one nervous laugh, but I couldn’t help but appreciate the purity of an old punk sentiment in a an old punk stomping ground, even as...

Sophia Vaccaro

TRACK OF THE WEEKPhosphene "Be Mine"

Phosphene is an indie rock band from Oakland, CA. They recently debuted their new single "Be Mine" from an upcoming EP slated to come out later this year. Phosphene consists of Matt Hemmerich (drums), Rachel Frankel (vocals, guitar), and Kevin Kaw (bass, guitar). The shoegaze influence clicks like...

Sophie Saint Thomas