Live From Nashville: Girls Across America

Friday, September 16th

6pm EDT, 3pm PST

See more on the Girls at True Panther Sounds.

WAMPIRE (on tour from Portland, OR) will be stopping by. Come in and check them out for free this Tuesday. Support touring bands, gas is expensive. Buy some merch if you can!

“Mixing lo-fi beats with layers of electric guitar and a pair of singers, Wampire’s setting pace in Portland’s dance vanguard and playing some the most anticipated and exciting shows in town.”

“A super-tight band, playing super tight dancey pop songs. They could be huge!”

Check them out at:
http://www.facebook.com/wampiremusic#!/wampiremusic

5:30pm // FREE
SEE YOU THERE!

We’re hustling pretty fast to get this news out. We wish we could completely stop our day to day work, and concentrate on the publicity for this show, because its worth it. Signed to Merge Records (same as Arcade Fire, Spoon, M. Ward), the Radar Brothers have been putting out pretty sounds since I heard their 1999 album, the Singing Hatchet. Their recent effort, 2010′s The Illustrated Garden, has garnered terrific ratings as well, and we’re over-joyed to have them for an in-store performance tomorrow, Friday, September 17th at 6pm in our intimate backroom. It’s also WOW day downtown, so from noon to 4pm, we’ll be introducing a whole new generation of future alumni to our shop. So for us, the pay-off is grand. A busy morning, with a tremendous in-store performance to end our work day. Won’t you come join us?

Radar Bros.
The L.A.-based Radar Bros. — originally comprised of guitarist Jim Putnam (Medicine, Maids of Gravity), bassist Senon Williams (Dengue Fever), and drummer Steve Goodfriend — debuted with a self-titled EP (Fingerpaint Records) and quickly garnered themselves a following in the U.K. By 1996, the band had signed to Restless Records and issued a self-titled LP that combined sonic guitarscapes and smoky melodies, earning Radar Bros. a slowcore/sadcore tag and aligning them with peers Acetone and Low (while evoking memories of Neil Young, Brian Wilson, and Pink Floyd). Singing Hatchet followed in 1999, and the band supported its release with tours across North America, the U.K., and Europe. Three years went by before their sun-drenched follow-up was released, but And the Surrounding Mountains was a Crazy Horse-meets-Pink Floyd record that brightened the Merge Records release schedule in the spring of 2002. The band subsequently chose to stick with Merge, releasing The Fallen Leaf Pages in 2005 and Auditorium (their first album with guitarist/keyboardist Jeff Palmer) in 2008. By their 2010 release The Illustrated Garden, the band consisted of Putnam along with bass player Be Hussey and drummer Stevie Treichel.

The Illustrated Garden Review
After several solid albums– many of them released by Merge– and almost 15 years of effort, the bulk of Los Angeles’ Radar Bros. have jumped ship. Among the notables left behind is singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Jim Putnam, who arguably has always been the band’s central figure. Ironically, getting whittled down to one primary member probably makes it easier to stretch out the lifespan of a band, and Putnam soon rechristened the group Radar Brothers and recruited a new rhythm section (bass player Be Hussey and drummer Stevie Treichel) to record The Illustrated Garden. Just as the band’s name is only slightly different, the new lineup’s sound is only slightly different as well, yet the impact of the changes is still felt. It could be just be a trick of the light, but Putnam’s songs here seem a little less elliptical than usual, the music more focused in its gauzy exploration of what could be loosely called Americana.

The “Americana” tag sticks thanks to the general country-rock tropes and all the natural imagery, but as usual the group excels at blurring the edges of an already blurry genre with spacey (but never indulgent) psych leanings, controls set for the heart of the sun but anchored comfortably down to earth. Songs such as “Quarry”, “Radio”, and “For the Birds” recall such fellow travelers as the Meat Puppets at their most desert-fried, but Putnam’s gentle vocals and the generally blissed-out disposition of the new lineup highlight the band’s allegiance to craft over sun-bathed affectation.

Indeed, when all else fails, The Illustrated Garden sure sounds great, with “Horses Warriors”, “And the Birds”, “Xmas Lights”, and “People” all echoing the settled, mellow spirit of the early 1970s. Each track glows like a golden hour snapshot capturing a certain sunset idealism (occasional flashes of menace in the lyrics aside), and if Putnam surely harbors no illusions at this point of his music’s reach, that doesn’t mean his songs shine any less brightly.

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