The Love X Nowhere

MySpace (listen to "Sympathy," "Into the Fire")
Official site
Hometown: San Francisco
Next local show: 3/28, Rickshaw Stop
Recent release: Into the Fire vinyl EP, 2006

When a local band plays music right up your alley and has been covered by both the SF Weekly and the Chronicle, yet you still haven't heard of them, does this mean you've spent the last year in a cave? In NASCENT's case, no, unless small apartments count as caves. More likely, it means that there's so much great independent music going on in the Bay Area right now that even those of us who make an effort to hear as much of it as possible are bound to miss some of the good stuff. (more >>)

The Love X Nowhere is one of those innumerable mystery bands that play local shows all the time, frequently impress fans and critics, and earn occasional write-ups in local publications, yet still operate off the radar of your average indie aficionado. NASCENT is here to fix that. Psychedelic rock is certainly not nearly as popular today as it was during its late-'60s heyday, but if it's going to continue to catch on among younger audiences anywhere, it's gonna happen in San Francisco.

The Love X Nowhere's sound is more akin to Pink Floyd than the Grateful Dead, but the idea is the same: trip out to long, nearly formless songs that allow the mind to wander and the body to relax. At live shows, the band projects colorful -- shall we say, LSD-inspired? -- visuals on a giant screen behind the stage to facilitate the whole tune in, turn on, drop out experience. Yet all these associations with '60s counterculture bely the group's firm grip on '90s indie- and post-rock. TLXN fans are not aging hippies (well, some may be), but moreso hipsters and indie rockers who like to spin My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins records late at night. It may be too easy to declare that this is a talented, psychedelia-inspired SF rock group for the 21st century, but that's the truth.

THE LOVE X TIMES THREE:
-TLXN have released three EPs to date, and may be releasing their debut full-length within the year.
-The first EP, self-titled, came in 2004. It contains six tracks and charts the progress of founding members Gabriel Leis and Michael Chulada from their previous band, space-rock outfit Muad Dib.
-The second EP, Odyssey, was released in 2005 and featured six new songs.
-The third and latest EP, Into the Fire, was released last year on vinyl only.

DOWNLOAD CENTER:

Download "Sympathy" (mp3)
from "Odyssey EP"
by The Love X Nowhere
Redgummy Records

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic
More On This Album

Oceans of Fire

MySpace (listen to "Jamie Please," "I'll Get Back To You")

Hometown: San Jose
Next local show: 12/9, House of Shields (SF)
Upcoming release: Unknown, 2007

Aren't young indie bands great? No label, no album, no website. Just a group of musicians united together under a common vision and a catchy name. Doing their thing. Eating Ramen noodles. Selling sperm. Trying to sign, put out a record, and earn their own piece of the web. Ahh, the simplicity of it all. Oceans of Fire are a San Jose psych-rock group that may or may not practice the aforementioned methods of indie-rock survival, but that's beside the point. Because above it all is the music, and when the music's good, ain't nothing else matter. (more >>)

Oceans of Fire are green -- they formed just over a year ago and are still figuring out their lineup -- but they have some real potential to create their own space in the South Bay while continuing to work their way into the pysch-pop scene grounded in San Francisco. They are, after all, headlining the second night of the Cool Waves Festival tomorrow night at the House of Shields. Cool Waves is a community of shoegaze, post-rock, and dream-pop bands in the Bay Area, and this is its second festival.

Oceans of Fire currently have two songs on their MySpace page: "Jamie Please" and "I'll Get Back To You." The former is all Jesus and Mary Chain -- feedback, keyboards, fuzz, and a steady psychedelic drone. The lyrics are suitably dark: according to a MySpace blog post by singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter Jason McClelland, the song's about "being in total despair about being raped and not having anyone to talk to or turn to for support." "I'll Get Back To You," in turn, reveals more of the band's love for psychedelia and Brit-pop (groups like Spiritualized and Pulp). The song is driven by a lead guitar and as a result is a bit more upbeat and playful. But the lyrics aren't: it's about being "disappointed in people whom I held dear and thought of like brothers or sisters, but in the end they were just using me."

EVERYTHING'S GONNA BE OKAY:
-Oceans of Fire have played the House of Shields at least once before, as well as the Edinburgh Castle, Hotel Utah, and Makeout Room. Tonight they're supported by fellow Cool Waves bands Cupids and Halcyon High, both based in SF. It's good they're playing these SF gigs, because that's where they're likely to find their audience.
-Other groups that the members of Oceans of Fire dig: Low, Radiohead, Dandy Warhols, Sigur Ros, the Verve, Mazzy Star, Love and Rockets, Blur, Portishead, Spacemen 3, Joy Division, the Small Faces, Supergrass, My Bloody Valentine, and the Kinks. See a trend?