Author: Dakin Hardwick

Outside Lands 2021 Night Shows Announced!!!

One of my least favorite things about multi-stage music festivals is, well, having to decide who to see when multiple acts are playing at once… Remember having to pick between NERD and Carly Rae Jepsen in 2018? THAT WAS EVIL!!! How did I manage? By buying a ticket to see Carly Rae at her Outside Lands night show at The Independent the night before. That show was pretty much pure magic. Are you looking for a purely magical experience that’s slightly more intimate than your regular Outside Lands? Feast your eyes on their Night Show schedule: 

To buy tickets, simply go here! The 2020 Eager Beaver presale starts Wednesday, September 22nd at noon PT, and the 2021 Outside Lands Ticket Holder presale begins Thursday, September 23rd at noon PT. Those passholders should be getting an email with a passcode shortly. If there are any tickets left, the general public gets their shot Friday, September 24th at noon PT. Good luck! 

EP Preview: “Nice Try” by Habibi AND TOUR DATES

 

Habibi was one of like five bands to get to complete their 2020 tour before the world shut down. And their good fortune did not end there… Anywhere But Here landed the band on a slew of year-end lists, enough to get the attention of the legendary label Kill Rock Stars, which is AMAZING news because there were six years between the band’s self-titled debut and second record!

While the band is in the studio working on LP #3, they have treated us with an EP of cover songs from some of their favorite performers. The first single is a cover of the Kleenex classic “Nice,” translated into Farsi by lead singer Rahill Jamalifard. The EP, called Nice Try, will be ready for your ears very soon. You can watch this countdown clock with bated breath like I have to know the minute it’s read! And they are also going on tour! Check out the dates below: Continue reading “EP Preview: “Nice Try” by Habibi AND TOUR DATES”

Single of the Week: “You Was Born To Die” by Adia Victoria (featuring Kyshona, Margo Price, & Jason Isbell)

You know your gonna get a real burner of a track when the video opens up with T-Bone Burnett riding in a vintage car. This song, off Adia Victoria’s latest full-length LP A Southern Gothic, which lands in stores and DSPs TODAY, is fierce and fiery. It’s classic southern blues, with that signature T-Bone Burnett spooky reverb and Adia Victoria’s potent vocal. If you are looking for a classic murder ballad when you need that hit of catharsis, this one is for you. 

“You Was Born To Die” can be enjoyed in all the usual places, and don’t forget to grab A Southern Gothic! 

Outside Lands 2021: Additional GA Tickets On Sale 9/16 at 10am

Just a quick heads up- if you missed your shot at Outside Lands tickets in the Spring, they are putting a small number of 3-Day and single-day GA tickets on sale TOMORROW! That’s Thursday, 9/16, at 10 am PST. Go here to snag your tickets! 

Also, tomorrow happens to also be the last day to start your vaccine schedule be fully inoculated in time for the fest! Outside Lands will be requiring either proof of vaccination or a negative test taken within 48 hours of the event. More info can be found here about their health & safety policy!

Reissue Spotlight: Deluxe & Reimagined Editions Of 2020 Releases by Thao & The Get Down Stay Down and Diet Cig

The beauty of bringing a new body of work out on tour is that it allows the artist to find new ways to connect with their own music, oftentimes giving space for a song or collection of songs to grow and evolve. The performer-audience dynamic allows for both the fan and the songwriter to find new meaning and new layers in a piece of work. 

Sadly, many of the best records of 2020 never got that chance to grow with an audience. I’ve spent the better part of a year and a half longing to hear what happens with Diet Cig’s Do You Wonder About Me? once given the chance for a live audience to take it in. Although that has yet to happen, the band has found numerous ways to reconnect with the songs and connect to fans without the opportunity to bring it live. They have done filmed livestreams. They’ve commissioned artists to reinterpret the album as a zine. And now they are blessing us with I Don’t Like Driving Like I Used To, and EP of alternate takes of tracks from Do You Wonder… that were recorded during this ever so lengthy quarantine. 

This companion to a genius record is coming your way October 1st. You can presave your copy on your favorite streaming platform immediately. 

Also breathing new life into their 2020 release is Thao & The Get Down Stay Down. Temples is probably Thao’s most electric record to date, and like the Diet Cig album, a record that helped ease me through the despair of the last 19 months. On October 29th, she is bringing us Temples – Deluxe Edition, where she strips four Temples standout tracks free of the electronic elements and lays them down on acoustic instruments accompanied by strings, no doubt inspired by her neighbors that she introduced us to during her Tiny Desk Concert. 

Preorders of Temples – Deluxe Edition will begin soon! 

David Byrne’s “American Utopia” Coming To Theaters for One Night Only!

I’ll be rather blunt with you- I, personally, am not feeling totally safe with the idea of going to a lively, indoor, open dance floor show. Even though I’m vaccinated and would probably be double-masked, the prevalence of Delta and its intense infectiousness leaves me feeling like, for the good of my community, it’s best to stay away from spaces where we fling spit and sweat at each other. 

BUT- it still feels good to share the experience of music. And this may not be 100% safe; a safer way to enjoy this experience could be in the confines of a movie theater. Specifically heading out this Wednesday, September 15th, to enjoy the Spike Lee-directed presentation of David Byrne’s award-winning American Utopia. For one night only, mask up and take in one of the most cathartic music experiences of a lifetime. Showtimes and locations can be found here! 

Single Of The Week: “Party Anthem” by Sloppy Jane

I feel a tad guilty here… The name of this artist was the main reason I even sampled this track. (Yup. I don’t listen to every song people send me. I’m sorry.) Sloppy Jane is such a fun, clever name, and that means either it’s going to be terrible or brilliant. It turns out this track is brilliant, but not in the way I expected. “Party Anthem” is a fun, quirky song that definitely feels like it was written for a delightfully weird musical. It made my inner theater kid feel happy and alive and ready for rehearsal. 

“Party Anthem” can be enjoyed in all of the usual places. Sloppy Jane, aka Haley Dahl’s debut full-length Madison is coming out on November 5th and can be pre-ordered / pre-saved here !

Single of the Week: “All This Love” by Destroy Boys

Destroy Boys are one of the great Oakland punk bands. A group whose pure, unadulterated energy consumes you and forces you into a manic dance. So, when I heard the first few notes of “All This Love,” I was initially put off. Why? Because it was a ballad. A BALLAD!!! You can’t mosh to a ballad! However, within about 15 seconds, Alexia Roditis’ voice creeps into your veins and grabs your heart, and squeezes it with a tender intensity. This ballad may be more ferocious than any of their more aggressive works. That’s why this is the single of the week. It may end up being the single of the year. 

“All This Love” is the third single off Destroy Boys’ upcoming release Open Mouth, Open Heart, which is coming your way on October 8th. You can preorder / presave here. 

BREAKING NEWS: Halloween Meltdown with John Waters is coming October 16-17 to Mosswood Park

Everything in the news is scary right now… Texas both making abortions illegal AND ALSO USING A FORM THAT ALLOWS CITIZENS TO “TURN PEOPLE IN” INSTEAD OF, I DON’T KNOW, ACTUAL LAW ENFORCEMENT? The West Coast is pretty much on fire, and we don’t have enough water to live anyways. The entire East Coast is flooding due to Hurricane Ida, creating nearly as much damage as Katrina over a larger footprint. The Taliban is back. COVID is 300% worse than it’s ever been. It’s like, what good is Halloween if everything is hell anyway? Continue reading “BREAKING NEWS: Halloween Meltdown with John Waters is coming October 16-17 to Mosswood Park”

BFF.fm presents the inaugural San Francisco Music Scavenger Hunt

I’m just going to say it… I’m gutted that the Delta Variant has taken a toll on our ability to gather again. Yes, shows are happening. Yes, the vaccines we have are highly effective against even Delta. But, also, I’m not willing to put any loved one at risk that can’t get vaccinated yet. And, quite frankly, I don’t even want to put strangers at risk of getting sick. And I sure as hell don’t want the next mutation to be on my conscience. 

But I also miss seeing my fellow music fans. So, in lieu of packing into and sharing germs with strangers at Bottle Rock on Labor Day Weekend, our good friends at BFF.fm have designed something super fun that will keep you moving so you aren’t taking in stale, COVID-infested air and hang with your music-loving friends and possibly make some new friends. They are doing a city-wide San Francisco Music Scavenger Hunt!!! This will consist of 100 different music-related trivia and challenges that will send you all over town over the course of the Labor Day weekend. And you can do it at your own pace- so you can sprint through it all in a day or take it leisurely over the three days—specifically, September 4th – 6th. Teams are limited to six people, and you can register here! All proceeds go to keeping the excellent BFF.fm up and running. Unfamiliar with BFF.fm? Try starting with this episode of Slightly Sobbing that your’s truly appears on.