On The Dino Soars, Stegosaurus Rex presents an interesting collection of homemade electronica. Unlike most bedroom computer-made albums, The Dino Soars jumps across styles, touching on hip-hop and house beats, downbeat trip-hop, electro-pop, and even a bit of experimental, droney electronica.

Where the album really shines is with the more beat-oriented tracks. Opening song “East Bay Kickback” starts the album off strong with a great sample and a solid drum beat, making it the kind of song you would hear in your head while drinking a beer outside on a warm Oakland evening. Another standout track is “Six Sixteen.” A great sample and solid hip-hop beat drive this track as it steadily moves through the opening string loop to a chopped-up vocal chorus and back again to the string loop as it is filtered out.

The album also features some great uptempo tracks. On tracks like “Polar” and “Fleeting Disco Do,” Stegosaurus creates great disco-style house. Catchy samples that he cuts and rearranges as the song progresses, solid bass lines, and some good ‘ol techno beats make these tracks dancefloor-worthy.

Where this album doesn’t work as well is in the less beat-oriented and vocal tracks. These tracks especially lack in production value. The sounds are thin and dull compared to the earlier mentioned songs and have a hard time fitting in with the rest of the album sonically. A little more cohesiveness throughout the album and a step up in production level could put Stegosaurus Rex on the same level as a lot of the stuff on Ninja Tune Records.

TOPR (Top Ramen) has been on the Bay Area scene for a good length of time. He’s got four releases to his name prior to The Marathon of Shame and a respected history in the Bay Area hip-hop scene. However, this is the first album of his I’ve heard and like most indie and underground hip-hop albums, I can’t listen to the whole thing. Sorry. The beats and the lyrics are pretty solid throughout most of the album but there is nothing to it. Most of the same themes, beats, and rhymes, as a lot of decent hip-hop records, just nothing spectacular.

TOPR’s delivery lacks a certain uniqueness and I find it hard to think of a white underground rapper that his style doesn’t remind of. The obvious comparisons to Slug (of Atmosphere), Sage Francis, etc. may seem too obvious but are unfortunately pretty accurate. TOPR’s lyrics are definitely the standout aspect of this album. His experience as a battle emcee pays off in some great lines such as “I’m sick of groupie girls and their stupid pills / Bitch, don’t go out until those bruises heal.” But TOPR’s lyrics are at their best when describing the “urban struggle” in the Bay Area. The album’s final song, “Here’s to You,” is a powerful anthem for a modern, young working class. The chorus, “So everybody in the house put your hands up if your job sucks or you’ve ever been in handcuffs / Something ain’t right / We deserve more out of life / I raise my brew, here’s to you / And everybody in the place to be who thinks to themselves everyday, ‘man, this ain’t the way it should be’ / It ain’t right / We deserve more out of life / I raise my brew, here’s to you” is an intelligent and resonating theme to end the album on.

“The Marathon Shame” is out now along with a full-length DVD.

The amount of indie rock groups in the Bay Area music scene can be overwhelming at times. For some reason there is an unbelievable amount of 20- and 30-somethings who somehow find their way to starting an indie rock band. With this in mind, I swallowed my prejudices towards the genre and gave Geographer an honest chance. Fortunately for me, Geographer is great.

Geographer delivers two wonderfully indie songs with a level of musicianship that is scarcely found in the Bay Area indie rock scene. The first track, “Can’t You Wait,” begins with a four-on-the-floor kick pattern and an unbelievably catchy guitar melody. Shortly into the song come the lyrics. A sweet, full voice begins to tell a story with an engaging personal tone. The track builds, adding cello, keys, and layers of vocals which lead up to an incredibly catchy synth line/disco beat chorus. In indie fashion the song builds up and down on this same theme returning at the end for one last disco beat chorus. “Rushing In, Rushing Out”, the second track on the single, slows down the tempo slightly but continues on the same general path laid out by the first song. A sweet synth melody leads you through another personal and powerful vocal, filled out nicely by a steady and lush cello performance.

Geographer reminds me why I, and a whole lot of other people, fell in love with bands like Broken Social Scene. Geographer celebrates the release of their full length album at Cafe Du Nord on August 17 with Cotillion and Judgement Day.

It’s a family affair Saturday at Bottom of the Hill when San Francisco’s Shuteye Unison, a baby to the local live scene, … in a particularly ambient entry into the local rock music scene. Recording with better equipment at Closer Recording studios, run by Tim Mooney of American Music Club, and experimenting with microphones [more...]

San Francisco experimental trio the Bad Hand seems like the kind of group that’ll try anything once. On This Is No Time for Modesty, the band’s staple rock instrumental base of guitar, Rhodes piano, and drums gets invaded by a gaggle of other genres and sounds, resulting in an ambitious mix of kitchen-sink sonic collages with varying degrees of success.

The band certainly offers enough surprises to satisfy anyone bored with the verse-chorus-verse same-old same-old, as the musicians follow a slew of paths within the album and on the songs themselves. Just when you begin to brace yourself for an all-instrumental record, “Hell Bent” drops in soft, girly vocals; or dirgy grunge falls into good ol’ Southern blues on “Then He Tried to Kiss Me”; or an interlude of fart-like kazoo sounds (“Short Door”) creeps into the batch.

Some of the tracks that fail to catch on weave together so many melodic and genre-hopping fragments that they leave listeners with little to grasp onto. The occasionally rough mixes, as on the hard-rock mishmash “How to Know When” and on the tail end of the disjointed “South Door,” which awkwardly melds a church organ with Southern blues guitar, can make one wonder: Are these guys all playing the same song?

But the band is legitimately enjoyable when it tones it down a few notches and sticks to one groove, like on “En Attenant De Baiser,” a proggy swirl of fuzzy guitars and shifting time signatures that drifts into funky jazz percussion and discordant piano tinkers; “The Twist,” which melds a paced electro pulsing with rainforest flutes and romantic whispers; and the best track, “Lo Ha,” a somber acoustic tremolo piece blended with funereal violin for a chilled out and downright lovely ambiance.

Perhaps most admirably, This Is No Time for Modesty showcases a band with oodles of energy that, when focused, can traverse a range of music and still pull it off — most of the time.

As the summer solstice fast approaches and seasonal wanderlust fuels the itch to hit the highway, so does the need for a chilled-out soundtrack to accompany exploratory road trip wandering. To that end, and apropos of their moniker, San Francisco’s the Drift have crafted the perfect vehicle for both relaxation and rumination while meandering along long and winding roads on their second full-length, Memory Drawings. The four-piece leans toward jazz improvisation with a roc… (more)

Mochipet: Local favorite electro/glitch artist? Break-tastic beat master? Hip-hop producer? Some geek behind a laptop? Big purple dinosaur? This time he’s a general, leading an army of vocalists including Dubphonics, Jahcoozi, Hustle Heads, and members of the Hieroglyphics and Living Legends crews on a victorious, genre-defying march in his new album Microphonepet. If you’re familiar with the San Francisco club/party scene, you’ve probably already heard all about this album and the buzz surrounding it. If not, I would recommend getting your hands on it immediately.

It’s always been difficult to pigeonhole Mochipet (David Wang) into one particular style or genre, but he really covered all his bases on this one. Songs range from supersonic glitchy whirlwinds, groovy house tracks, funky hip-hop numbers, fat bass-heavy club beats, seductive duets, and even lyric-centered raps about life on the streets, each heavily influenced by the guest MCs. What’s most surprising about the versatility of this album is that none of Wang’s explorations are artificial or emulative. While each track is certainly unique, his remarkable creativity and refusal to adhere to any sort of conventional rhythm scream out a sound that is undeniably his own.

Wang also maintains a much stronger sense of cohesion in each of the songs on Microphonepet than some of his other more intense mashup and breakcore material. There’s still all sorts of twists and turns throughout the beats, but the solid sound structures make the music much more listenable.

There’s an energy to this album that makes it immediately infectious. This energy combined with Wang’s creativity make it a perfect party mix for diverse tastes, but also throws plenty of surprises to make it interesting if you’re just listening by yourself. Keep this in your CD player and see how long it takes you to get sick of this album, I dare you.

Liking this album came out of nowhere for me. The first minute of the EP’s opening track, “The City I Love,” is fine — but nothing to take note of: grungy and guitar-driven with some extremely fuzzed-out leads. Then the chorus kicks in and the song transforms with rich harmonies and a clear organ backdrop. Guitar and drums take a backseat. The change was entirely unexpected and I actually had to backtrack to make sure I heard it right. The second track, “Spark,” starts similarly; again, it’s not until the minute mark that a chorus in harmony seems to lift the song out of a dark, introspective lilt.

Meek’s voice is not necessarily one that would aspire to fantastical vocal heights. However, the Livermore resident seems to be the rare case of a lead singer far more comfortable singing in harmony with other voices than solo. And he uses this to his advantage in each song. While the album was very much a DIY project and the fuzzboxes belie the music’s rock roots, the harmonies create lush textures across grunge landscapes that give the songs a transcendent quality. Given the album was recorded in the church where Jonathan’s father preaches, this should come as no surprise.

Quite simply, I haven’t heard harmonies layered with guitar work this effectively in a long while. “From the West” embodies this perfectly. Again, super-saturated guitar leads (think Brian Eno) intertwine with simple melodies over acoustic guitar. And amidst it all, Meek croons, “I’m an island.” The effect gives the listener a sense of the ebbs and flows, and ultimately, the violent crash of the tides against a lone soul.

Or something like that.

The songs themselves are deeply introspective, and the different voices found in each song –- whether they be instrumental or human -– express the myriad points of view at battle within us all: at times discordant, at times in unison.

The last track, “Take a Look,” may be my favorite -– weaving in and out of a dreamy verse in which at one point Meek asks, “Where did my love go?” and transitions into a peppy, upbeat chorus where he answers himself: “Now that I’m older, I can see things as they are.”

Overall, the EP is more ambitious than the band’s name or the album title, Irony and Pity, give it credit for. Meek cuts to the quick of things we have all grappled with at one time or another without being pretentious, patronizing, or obvious. His debut is, most importantly, a genuine reflection of the songwriter.

By Stamati Horiates

Born and raised in the South Bay, Montage is a rising young artist you’d better get to know soon. Currently in the midst of recording his second album, The O Album, Montage has performed in clubs throughout the Bay Area as well as at the ESPN Summer X-Games, and has made an appearance on The World Famous Wake up Show with Sway and Tech. He’s also in the process of shooting a music video for the song “Get at Me.” There’s no question this rapper’s journey has taken flight. But how has he come this far? If you ask him, he will tell you straight up: “Persistence.”

Montage, aka Phil Corbin, first developed as an artist by drawing and painting. The walls of his house are decorated with intricate portraits of revolutionary hip-hop stars like Biggie Smalls and Tupac. Although he has enjoyed producing visual art, Corbin soon turned his interests towards other avenues of expression.

Enrolling in a graphic arts college and spending many late nights spinning as a DJ was just the beginning. Before long, Montage found himself flying back and forth to LA at the drop of a hat, recording in studios and working with top professionals in the business. In one year’s time, Montage went from relative obscurity to dropping his first CD, The M Album. “We recorded something like 50 or 60 songs and narrowed it down to just ten,” said Montage. The album was released in January and has since been gaining momentum in the industry.

“It takes me outta the underground and puts me in the forefront. I have a lot of respect for underground hip-hop ‘cause that’s where we all have to start, but I wanna take this to the next level. I wanna win them [Cali Heights Records] an award,” Montage says.

From drawing to graphic arts to spinning to rapping, it appears that the sky is the limit for Montage. The O Album is set to drop in November of 2008 and promises appearances from some familiar voices including those of Linkin Park and D-12.

When asked for the most important piece of advice he can give to others pursuing their dreams, Montage answered, “Make friends and take every opportunity. I don’t care if you’re sick or tired or you have to drive six hours to record in a studio. The first time someone offers to help you and you say no, that door could be closed forever.”

GET AT IT:
-The M Album is available in record stores, on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, MySpace, and at MontageWorld.com.
-Montage formed his own independent label, Cali Heights Records, also featuring artists Punky and Alterego.
-Montage is hosting a remix competition for his upcoming record. More information is available here.

I reached the Great American Music Hall after riding my bike from the Marina, and was pleased that I did not get lost, as has been habit since moving to the city a month ago. I had not been planning on going to the show that night, but was excited, as the last time I was in the venue was to see Black Lips play a sold-out concert. Suffice it to say I wanted to re-live some of that night’s majesty.