Northstar Session Live at Boo Boo Records
Saturday, September 23rd @ 5:30pm

We are honored to welcome back LA’s own Northstar Session. If you missed them on Record Store Day, here is your chance to catch this fantastic band… for free even!

The show will start at 5:30pm, so get down here a little early if you want a good spot!

Gwyneth & Monko will be stopping by for an in-store performance this Wednesday at 5pm.

With a voice that invokes Jenny Lewis’ solo work crossed with the intimate folk of Gillian Welch; Gwyneth Moreland strums her guitar in subtle chords while Michael Monko accompanies her lyrical stories with trickling mandolin, steady acoustic guitar and folk accents. Gwyneth & Monko sound as if they come from classic country roots, perhaps off a farm in Tennessee, but it’s northern California they call home.

Monko and Gwyneth formed as band after the 2009 release of Gwyneth’s solo album Wishbone. When she was getting ready to tour for Wishbone, she searched for a backup band and fortune gave her multi-instrumentalist Monko. Almost immediately upon touring, the pair began writing music together. “The first time I heard Gwyneth sing, I knew she was special,” beams Monko. “I could only dream of playing with such talent.” Monko’s musical past consisted of playing both heavy rock songs and bluegrass, which when blended together turned out to be the perfect complement to Moreland’s earthy and classic country vocals.

Rad Cloud live in-store this Friday (08/20) @ 5:30pm.

Price: FREE!

A live show review at Cafe Du Nord by sfweekly:
…the upbeat, San Francisco surf rock of Rad Cloud. The raddest part about Rad Cloud is that the members appeared consistently blissed-out. Even drummer Sarah Ashton smiled brightly while simultaneously sweating out the group’s peppy beats and occasionally chiming in with backup vocals. Their obvious enthusiasm for performing added a lot to what felt at times like a rushed set…

“Existing comfortably somewhere between Silver Jews, Yo La Tengo, and The Violent Femmes, the band manages to be at once accessible, mellow, rocking, and innovative. The record itself also sounds fantastic…

You don’t have to take their word, but check out the clip below and see a taste of what you don’t want to miss.

Rounder recording artist Nathaniel Rateliff will be paying the central coast a visit and performing on Friday July 30th, at the Steynberg Gallery 8pm and here at Boo Boo Records at 5:30pm. Come see the resonant Johnny-Cash-like-baritone perform a collection of world-weary songs chronicling the life of the Denver-by-way-of-Missouri songwriter.  Tickets for the Steynberg Gallery are $9.50 and the warm up in-store is once again FREE.

Rateliff’s stunning and heartbreaking debut album In Memory Of Loss was released on April 27th and here is what a few had to say about it and him.

Old fashioned simplicity… haunting vocals and tender thumb-picking….” – Vanity Fair

“pensive… rousing” “stark, eloquent… Cash echos” – NY Times

“Nathaniel Rateliff… newly signed to the Rounder label, conjured the ghosts of Nick Drake and Gram Parsons with spare, moody folk-rock wrapped in grainy arrangements anchored by a fantastic bassist, Julie Davis.” – Time Out NY

Nathaniel Rateliff Bio

The first things you notice are the voice and the space. That voice belongs to Nathaniel Rateliff, a man who’s earned the twang and hard-knock weariness that shines through on his Rounder debut. The space comes courtesy of producer Brian Deck (Califone, Iron & Wine, Modest Mouse), who helped transform 8-track bedroom demos into miniature epics of contrast, beauty, and yearning. In Memory of Loss is a stunning, heartbreaking sonic document from a singer-songwriter who’s made his way from a childhood in Bay, Missouri (pop. 60) to the national stage.

Rateliff grew up of modest means, the son of devout Southern churchgoers. The family sang together throughout his childhood. At age 7 Rateliff learned the drums. As a teenager, he stumbled across a cassette of Led Zeppelin’s IV abandoned in a local barn; he wore the tape out listening to it on headphones, drumming along with “When the Levee Breaks” and “Misty Mountain Top.”

Rateliff’s youth in rural Missouri was quiet and rambling. He built skateboard ramps, explored caves, slept outdoors in the heat. “I loved growing up there,” he says. “It’s beautiful. There’s something really nice about there not being much to do; it really helped me be a creative person.” After his father passed away, when Rateliff was only 13, he picked up the guitar. His mother taught him three chords, a friend showed him a few more, and there was no need to bother with lessons; he started penning his own songs on an acoustic. He’d later go electric, gaining an appreciation for the freedom of effect pedals: “I was really into making feedback for hours at a time.” Both impulses are present on In Memory of Loss, with its shards of raw guitar rising beneath hushed, insistent melodies.

At eighteen Rateliff relocated to Denver. He scored a job with a trucking company, working on the dock and the yard. The money was good, but Rateliff kept falling asleep at the wheel. “I had a little stint of narcolepsy,” he says. “My limbs were going numb, the color was all weird in ‘em. My thyroid wasn’t working. Weird stuff that shouldn’t be happening when you’re in your 20s, but it was.” After a battery of tests Rateliff decided to take time off from the job. It was a period of rest and recovery, but also one of artistic growth and fresh challenges. Rateliff used the break to learn the piano, much as he had other instruments—by teaching himself. The first song he tackled was Leonard Cohen’s melancholy classic, “Hallelujah.” (That same mixture of the sacred and profane is recognizable on “We Never Win,” with its throwbacks to gospel vocal harmonies, Rateliff harkening to “an old time revival.”)

Meanwhile, Rateliff developed a dedicated following within the Denver music community and beyond. Spin praised his “massive, alluring” voice. Billboard dubbed the unsigned singer-songwriter a ‘must hear.’ This wave of acclaim lead to a live set on the popular indie site Daytrotter and a solo tour opening for the Fray. The New York Times praised Rateliff’s “stark, eloquent [Johnny] Cash echoes,” and he earned enthusiastic mentions from Time Out New York and the tastemaker music blog, Brooklyn Vegan. New York magazine pegged Rateliff as an “artist everyone should be listening to” during the pivotal CMJ Music Festival.

Rateliff began writing a different sort of song than he was used to: quieter, more introspective and patient. A friend turned him on to the bedroom recording potentials of the time-honored 8-track, and a new working method was born. “I just kind of went back to my roots,” he says. “It was a different sound, but it was still coming from the same place.”

While recording In Memory of Loss, Rateliff lived in Chicago, working with producer Brian Deck to craft the nuances: mournful harmonica on “You Should’ve Seen the Other Guy,” the ominous organ of “Longing and Losing,” propulsive bass drum on “Early Spring Till.” Rateliff’s Rounder debut is rooted in a bygone era. It’s both fresh and classic, imbued with a melancholy nostalgia, the rough candor of rock’n’roll’s past and the warmth and earnestness of folk storytellers. Rateliff has a personal connection to the sounds of the 60s and 70s. “It was more about songs, and not about an industry,” he says. “It was about a movement, not about making money. I think we’re moving back into that again. There’s still an importance in actually writing songs again. People are interested in hearing things that make sense.”

These thirteen tracks, with their soulful minimalism, certainly make sense. Hints of the music he grew up on – Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, the Beatles—shine through. (Album closer “Happy Just To Be,” with its pounding piano chords, is a close cousin to the Lennon-penned “Across the Universe.”) Yet Rateliff is also at home in what may be called, for lack of a better term, the neo-folk revival. His voice is so confident that you can occasionally imagine the music dropping out entirely, a song propelled solely by Rateliff’s a capella strengths—equal parts church spiritual and TV on the Radio riffing on the Pixies’ “Mr. Grieves.”

“The one thing that made me want to write and play music was trying to get the same feeling that it gave me when I listened to it,” Rateliff says. “Like having an anxiety attack—where you almost start to weep, at the same time feel a strange pressure in your chest.” This persistent troubadour has struggled and persevered to this point; now, the wider world is ready for Nathaniel Rateliff. “In Memory of Loss,” he says, “is for everyone who’s willing to listen.”

The Shants live at Boo Boo Records – Thursday August 26th @ 5:30pm

The Shants’ slow-burning sound originates from the rural backgrounds of its members: from South Louisiana delta pines, to the brusk plains of Minnesota to the rolling hills of the Central California Coast.

“Baton Rouge” by the Shants

PRESS

“Undiscovered Band of the Month: The Shants. Hailing from Oakland, California, The Shants specialize in a blend of Southern folk and country, embossed with the sad sounds of the pedal steel guitar” – FILTER Magazine

“Rustic and subdued, like the scant, heavily muted light that finds its way to the floor of a redwood grove” – No Depression / Hyperbolium

“The Shants combine mellow grooves with a sexy twang. The vocals will give you a goofy grin. The same goofy grin you get after you…….well, you know. – SF Chronicle Music Blog, Off The Record

“After wood-shedding in Chico, Davis, Nevada City, and other Northern California, The Shants bring their down-tempo Americana to a hometown gig at Oakland’s New Parish (579 18th St., Oakland). Their EP, recorded in a cabin near the Russian River, has the subdued feel of the area’s heavily wooded forests. Their moody combination of vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and dripping pedal steel conjures the permanent dusk of a redwood grove, and vocalist Skip Allums manages to sound both dissipated and agitated at the same time. You can pick up their ragged love letter, “Oh, Oakland,” on iTunes and practice not choking up at the tearful mention of the late, lamented Parkway Theater.” – East Bay Express

“Musically The Shants are the equivalent of dinner with friends rather than dining out. It isn’t flashy and slick but it is almost infinitely more enjoyable. There is very little spectacle to their music, which instead will nest itself quite happily in your head for hours after a few spins, bringing with it a sense of earthy, warm familiarity.” – The Wolf Magazine, UK

“The resulting sound is earthy yet atmospheric, sweetly rough-hewn and occasionally bitter. “I’m a Ghost” manages to be both ghostly and creaky—like a poltergeist moving chairs around a haunted house. There are some livelier numbers (“Oh, Oakland”), but it’s the quieter, sadder songs such as “Lift Up Your Eyes” that set the band apart. ” – Sacramento News & Review

“The Shants recorded the Russian River Songs EP near the Russian River holed up in a cabin in the redwoods. The complete EP was mainly recorded live and in only two takes, what adds a nice campfire atmosphere to the tracks. And saying campfire atmosphere, it is just the right word to express all the other aspects of Russian River Songs. That is: the overall dark character of the music with the haunting but very mellow lap steel melodies, the cozy acoustic guitar play accompanied with chilled e-guitar vibes and cradling bass lines together with decent sounds from the rhythm section on drums – I don’t need to say that this is pushed to the limit every time the harmonica kicks in. The lyrics are perfect to forget about your surroundings and to hum or sing along with them with closed eyes thinking of a nice night with your friends hanging out around some crackling campfire with some tasty beers or beverages of your choice.” – Common Folk Meadow

“The Shants & my iPod have been carrying on a torrid little dalliance for a few days now. Kind of languid, kind of sexy. The clear signature here is the aforementioned pedal steel, wielded craftily by Samuel Tokheim. Samuel plays with finesse, with wit, & with a poetic sense…” – Such A Clatter

Ventura’s own Ray Fresco will be stopping by this Friday evening at 5:30pm for an exclusive in-store performance. During this leg of their tour the band is only playing record stores, so come on out and support a great California band and a local music retail institution.

In the music industry, words like “original” and “eclectic” are seemingly thrown around aimlessly when a new artist is being described. Usually, it’s a desperate and obvious attempt to make an act come across as more unique and interesting than they really are. In the case of Ventura, California’s, Rey Fresco, however, “eclectic” doesn’t even begin to describe the band’s diverse musical sound, as well as their equally varied personal backgrounds.

Though their name may sound more like a solo artist, Rey Fresco (Spanish for King Fresh), is a four piece band that over the past year has absolutely exploded in the California music scene. Comprised of soulful lead singer and Fiji native, Roger Keiaho, drummer, Andrew Jones, who builds his own drums with techniques borrowed from surfboard making, bassist, Shawn Echevarria and harpist, Xocoyotzin “Xoco” Moraza, who plays a 36 string Veracruz harp built by his father and also holds a degree in ethnomusicology, Rey Fresco is “the sonic equivalent of a global summit.”

We all know the San Luis Obispo weekend officially starts on Thursday with Farmers Market. Stop by Boo Boo Records at 5:30pm this Thursay, May 27th to see Hosannas, an amazing band straight from Portland. They’re new album arrives out on Hush Records, who’ve not only issued out the Decemberists, but have close ties to former San Luis natives with releases by Norfolk & Western, The Graves and Bobby Birdman.

Hosannas
Then & Now & Then captures Hosannas at a defining moment.  Collecting the first fruits of brothers Richard and Brandon Laws songwriting with the mellifluous accompaniment of Cristof Hendrickson, this is a slightly warmer and more comprehensive introduction to the band (formerly known as Church) than their well-received Song Force Crystal, which in addition to their intense tour ethic and consistent presence in the Portland scene, helped Hosannas amass a sizable following.

At the center, the brothers vocals dovetail with a rare sensitivity and tenderness, floating over a shifting landscape of warm, distorted guitar figures, found sounds, electric piano, analog synth squalls and the occasional tribal percussion rave up.  It’s a complex tapestry that revels in willful discord, textural juxtapositions,  and arrangements with intense mood swings.  Hosannas is experimental in the same way that the Beach Boys were experimental in their day: challenging assumptions and conventions of pop songwriting, while honoring the fundamentals:  melody, ethos, harmony, golden ratios, modulation, surprise.

But, it may come as no surprise Then & Now & Then was recorded to analog 4 track tape in the living room of an old Portland house.  One can almost hear the freedom of time and space in these songs, as if they were discovered, explored and mapped in the same place. Culling from two short-run CDR EP releases and adding 3 previously unreleased songs, this collection has been wholly reinvigorated with a much-needed mastering from Carl Saff,  and a song sequence that takes the listener on a journey with a beginning, middle and end.

Straight Outta Long Beach! On the same day as their debut release for Sub Pop (Fleet Foxes, Postal Service, Shins), we are hosting an in-store with up and comers Avi Buffalo. They’ll take our stage at 6pm on Tuesday, April 27th! The show is free and open to all ages. Listen Here: Avi Buffalo – What’s In It For

AVI BUFFALO
Avi Buffalo is the adopted name of 19-year-old Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg, also the moniker of the band that he and three of his friends began some three years ago while in high school. Together – somehow – they’ve managed to create an album full of the blissful haze of departed childhood and misspent youth, songs that evoke so precisely half-remembered summers and first loves that never existed, events and people in your life that never were, but which you can’t help but remember.

It’s very much a summer album, not just because of the (in)gloriously titled Summer Cum (“I got lost in your summer cum / Leave all your stains with me”), but because its songs glow with the warmth of that time of year. What’s in It For? almost starts from where The Shins’ New Slang left off, its surreal lyrics and falsetto vocals capturing the sense of a never-ending August night, albeit one imbued with teenage uncertainty. Then there’s the lilting One Last, which captures the last vestiges of sunset, and the gentle erosion of innocence through experience on the lovely Can’t I Know?

Throughout, Avi’s vocals coalesce remarkably with those of keyboard player Rebecca Coleman, who was originally Avi’s muse by way of an intense teenage crush. You can hear the tenderness of first love in their voices, which makes each song that much more fragile and brittle. Yet that frailty is strengthened by the band’s glorious sunlit melodies and obtuse imagery, all of which combine to turn this into a truly remarkable album that’s sad and wistful way beyond the band’s years.