Author: Christopher Rogers

Christopher Rogers is a journalist / developer / enthusiast from and about the San Francisco Bay Area. His favorite secret about the SF Bay Area is that -- --- --- ---- ---- ---- - -- ------ ----, --- - ---'- ------ ------, -- ------ --- -------.

Show Review: The Appleseed Cast at Bottom Of The Hill, 3/6/10

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In 2001, Kansas’ The Appleseed Cast made the leap from being a well-regarded emo rock group to something not on any charts.

The band released an ambitious precedentless work: Low Level Owl, Volume 1 & 2.

The songs of the Low Level Owl project mostly flow into one another without break, changing tempos and beats mid-stream. Some songs have choruses, some don’t. Some have singing, most don’t. Musical facets or patterns repeat and shimmer like dust devils dancing through the summer air. This aural sum flitted free of convention so thoroughly that it couldn’t well be called “emo” rock. What does it sound like? Intricate chiming melodic rock that fords forward without map yet with purpose. It sounds matter-of-factly majestic without trying to be majestic — like a hawk cutting a turn through an updraft. Continue reading “Show Review: The Appleseed Cast at Bottom Of The Hill, 3/6/10”

Noise Pop Show Review: Far at Bottom Of The Hill, 2/25/10

Sacramento, by its nature and its history, is a place where expectations fall short of their intended aim.

During the late 1990s, the band Far created rock music that sounded like what it could be like to be young in Sacramento: more questions than answers, long roads of shimmer-hot blacktop, and frustration. Lead guy Jonah Matranga’s vocal range within the space of one track could range from gentle keening to the bare-throated howl of an animal one size larger than his small body.

The songs felt fearless, with the inertia of a determined plunge into the unknown. Unafraid to be delicate, unafraid to throw a violin over the mix, unafraid to attack thorny lyrical topics like faith and self and loss.

Far’s soaring melodic anthemic “Nineties alternative” rocknroll sounds like being young and strident and skeptical and putting a foot down hard on a gas pedal.

After releasing two major-label albums, the band disintegrated in 1999. Their second LP, Water & Solutions, grew in prominence after their passing. The aggressive, flexible, heartfelt thrust of Far’s sound inspired listeners and bands. Their music became influential, garnering posthumous accolades and meaningless portmanteaus long after they’d broken up: “post-hardcore;” “pre-emo;” “emo-metal.” Water & Solutions began being considered a classic album, a precursor and influence on the music that came afterwards.

Now, thanks to Ginuwine, Far is back. And onstage for Noise Pop 2010 in San Francisco.

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Jonah Matranga of Far rocked so hard that he resembled a Francis Bacon painting (but in a good way).

Sacramento, by its nature and its history, is a place where expectations fall short of their intended aim.

During the late 1990s, the band Far created rock music that sounded like what it could be like to be young in Sacramento: more questions than answers, long roads of shimmer-hot blacktop, and frustration. Lead guy Jonah Matranga‘s vocal range within the space of one track could roam from gentle keening to the bare-throated howl of an animal one size larger than his small body.

The songs felt fearless, with the inertia of a determined plunge into the unknown. Unafraid to be delicate, unafraid to throw a violin over the mix, unafraid to attack thorny lyrical topics like faith and self and loss. Continue reading “Noise Pop Show Review: Far at Bottom Of The Hill, 2/25/10”

Album Review: Fucked Up – Couple Tracks: Singles 2002-2009

The band Fucked Up are. No one can live the punk rock dream anymore in 2010, right? Whatever. This odds and sods two-disc compilation details the swath that this group has cut across North America from their Canadian base.

Fucked Up sound like heavy rock and roll. Buzzsaw guitar hooks whir like electric razors, danceable drumbeats, and size-of-a-small-bear frontman Pink Eyes’ winsome RRRARRRR-GARRRRGH riding gleefully atop the mix like a dolphin frolicking in a ship’s wake.

With b-side cuts, import singles, kinda sorta cast-off cover tunes, Couple Tracks shows the breadth of how far Fucked Up have gone and how far they’re willing to go.

The band Fucked Up are. No one can live the punk rock dream anymore in 2010, right? Whatever. This odds and sods two-disc compilation details the swath that this group has cut across North America, sweeping south out of Canada and wreaking havoc in the form of raucous, sweaty live shows.

Fucked Up sound like heavy rock and roll. Buzzsaw guitar hooks whir like electric razors, drumbeats compel you to jump about, and their size-of-a-small-bear frontman Pink Eyes’ winsome RRRARRRR-GARRRRGH rides gleefully atop the mix like a dolphin frolicking in a ship’s wake.

With b-side cuts, import singles, kinda sorta cast-off cover tunes, Couple Tracks shows the breadth of how far Fucked Up have gone and how far they’re willing to go. Continue reading “Album Review: Fucked Up – Couple Tracks: Singles 2002-2009”

Photo Gallery and Video: Pixies at The Fox Oakland, 11/8/2009

Photographic evidence of the first triumphant Pixies concert at the Fox Theater in Oakland.

With a bonus video snippet of one of the most wonderful moments in music ever, performed live that very evening.

Continue reading “Photo Gallery and Video: Pixies at The Fox Oakland, 11/8/2009”

May 4th, 2009 (Sluttering Day)

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Jawbreaker in their natural environment: the Mission District."]The guys on Mission Street.[/caption]There is no pain greater than that caused by a relationship’s dead future.

It is nearly unspeakable. All the best hopes and promises that a person could possibly have — dashed. Irretrievable. Yet the memories of sweetness linger and haunt, ever out of reach.

With “Sluttering (May 4th),” the band Jawbreaker ink around the outlines of what it is like to feel this specific pain and the particular interpersonal agonies that go along with it: the machinations that can occur, the sheer hurt, the recriminations, the kissoffs (both real and imagined), and where hope goes after all that.

Jawbreaker in their natural environment: the Mission District
Jawbreaker in their natural environment: the Mission District

There is no pain greater than that caused by a relationship’s dead future.

The agony is nearly unspeakable. All the best hopes and promises that a person could possibly have — dashed. Irretrievable. Yet the memories of sweetness linger and haunt, ever out of reach.

With “Sluttering (May 4th),” the band Jawbreaker ink around the outlines of what it is like to feel this specific pain and the particular interpersonal agonies that go along with it: the machinations that can occur, the sheer hurt, the recriminations, the kissoffs (both real and imagined), and where hope goes after all that.

Defined by the writer of the lyrics, Blake Schwarzenbach, the word itself means “pontification under duress and/or a kind of drunk muttering.”

And as the song’s chorus whipsaws in, Blake’s voice climbs meticulously across the syllables of what it sounds like to know that the person who was once with you is now with someone else:

slow dance alone with no one to the sound of four hands clapping / congratulations to you both I hope somewhere you’re happy / if there’s a moral to this story, then I wish you’d show me

Today is May 4. It is Sluttering Day. Listen to the song. And if you can help it, don’t break anyone’s heart.