Summer is almost over, folks. Time to head out for a night of aural revelry.
Thursday and Friday: ODESZA at 1015 Folsom (DJ Set Thursday) and Mezzanine (Friday)
Seattle electronic duo Odesza faces a challenge that’s become the rule rather than the exception in the modern music biz — the reverse-engineering of a live performance. In this Planet JH interview, Odesza’s Clayton Knight sums up 2014's recurring theme of basement-producer-turned-live-act, saying: “When this whole thing started, it was a hobby. We had the summer to mess around in my basement studio, putting some tracks together, and really didn’t have any expectations for it. We put it out, it caught attention, and then we had to figure out how to adapt the album for a live setting.” GTo do so, Odesza’s live shows use SPD sampling pads and sampled vocals, as well as Ableton software for percussion and drums. You have two chances to check them out this week.
Sunday: Lykke Li at Fox Theater
Swedish indie pop singer-songwriter Lykke Li is evolving at an ambitious rate. The 28-year-old’s latest album, I Never Learn, builds around the core intrigue first found in her debut album, 2008’s Youth Novels. Her songs regularly involve violins, synthesizers, tambourines, trumpets, saxophones, cellos, and more, all of which complement powerful, lusty vocal pipes that could fill an arena. That will forever be the backbone of any Li song. As for the album, everyone loves it, and so will you.
Saturday: Macy Gray at Yoshi's Jazz Club
Macy Gray is earning tangential comparisons to The Black Keys with her soon-to-be-released album. Well, it makes sense given Gray’s recent obsession with the garage rockers. And if you think about Gray’s raspy, beautifully imperfect voice, these two acts are practically musical soul mates. See the interview below:
Saturday: Old Crow Medicine Show at The Masonic
You know, this song:
“Wagon Wheel,” the band’s most well-known song, has become one of those rare, recognizable string-y folk songs to meander its way into the mainstream. The same goes for the band itself, who has been able to stand out in a music industry that prefers gadgets and frills. Guitarist Critter Fuqua explains the Old Crow Medicine's meteoric success: “I think part of our success is because we haven’t been boxed, because we never really played bluegrass; we always played our own brand of the old-time string band tradition, so we never really had those constraints. I think we realized for ourselves that we can take these musical forms and do what we want with them, which is what people originally did. At one time these roots traditions were brand new, and people were doing new things with them, so we were just kind of expanding that.”
Saturday: Interpol at Fox Theater
Interpol has a new identity and a new album, El Pintor. The album marks the first release in four years for the NYC post-something rock band, as well as the first venture sans bassist Carlos Dengler. The A.V. Club has the details: "The remaining members elected to continue as a trio rather than recruit a new bassist, leaving frontman Paul Banks to take over bass guitar duties in the studio, and he does an able job.” By all accounts, it’s a return to form after lukewarm releases that tried to build on the brilliance of 2002's breakthrough, Turn on the Bright Lights, which still stands as one of the greatest rock albums of the last 15 years.
And finally, a moment of semi-silence for Cafe Du Nord, the San Francisco institution that will be scaling back its musical offerings, as reported by SF Station. Cafe Du Nord is/was one of the many SF venues contributing to our city’s eclectic cultural menu, but it's 2014 and music venues are dropping fast. It appears there will still be a stage with “impromptu intimate entertainment acts,” but that the regularly scheduled national and local acts won’t be a regular occurrence. Meanwhile, sad-faced emojis thrive.
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