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.

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.

Battlehooch’s debut EP OOF OWF has already garnered much-deserved respect within the Bay Area and beyond. It is a self-made wonder-work of psychedelic rock, funk, and unabashed nonsense. All four of the disc’s creations are heavily orchestrated movements featuring all manner of percussion, guitars, and driving bass, with some classy Zappa-inspired horns popping up whenever necessary. Vocals are present but one gets the feeling that the listener is less expected to sing along than they are to dance.

Reviews originally published in the East Bay Express on 2/27/08.

Touch My Rash, Doomed from the Start, Pissed-off frustration can be therapeutic, and San Jose’s Touch My Rash delivers the goods with a subtle sense of humor. Lead singer Colin Kutch affects a snarl that’s just punk enough, while the music is reliably simple, fast, and catchy. What healthier way to spend 28 minutes? (Bittersick Records)

Fluorescent Grey, Gaseous Opal Orbs. Though GOO’s shapeless, heavily experimental electronic tableaus are pretty far out-there, Robbie Martin’s sophomore disc as Fluorescent Grey contains his most accessible compositions yet — which goes to show that perception is everything. (Record Label Records)

Gemini Soul, The Nefertiti Experience. Jazz doesn’t get much funkier, or perhaps it’s the other way around. Gemini Soul’s smooth, groovy fusion (they call it “cyber jazz”) rests on the poppin’ fingers of bandleader and bass-master Andre Ajamu Akinyele. (Pearl Jazz Recording Label)

Killian Garnet MacGeraghty, Celebration Songs. Gun & Doll Show frontman MacGeraghty recorded imaginative, quasi-pop theme songs for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and more, then threw them alongside a few non-holiday numbers. Even when repeated in five languages, his version of “Happy Birthday” doesn’t get old. (Mad Chatter Records)

Reviews originally published in the East Bay Express on 2/13/08.

Chow Nasty, Super (Electrical) Recordings (Omega Records). Since forming in 2003, funky San Francisco party band Chow Nasty has relied as much on novelty as on its ability to move asses. The trio’s debut full-length, produced by Peanut Butter Wolf, sounds something like !!! or LCD Soundsystem minus the hip factor, plus madness and a James Brown fascination.

Jimbo Trout and the Fishpeople, Hillbilly Bebop-Boogie (Fishwrap Records). Twang lovers couldn’t ask for much more. The Bay Area band’s first-rate bluegrass, blues, and honky-tonk covers come from a place where banjo, fiddle, and accordion were de rigueur — somewhere the modern world never crept. Only excellent recording quality betrays the fantasy.

Mia and Jonah, Rooms for Adelaide (self-released). Mia and Jonah’s safe, subtle collection of smoothed-out indie-folk would veer dangerously close to adult-contemporary if not for ribbons of dark, Waits-like Americana (two of his band members appear here) and deeper layers that promise to eventually reveal themselves.

The Mumlers, Thickets and Stitches (Galaxia). Funny that they’re called the Mumlers, because that’s just what this album does: mumble. Despite creative instrumentation, nicely inflected vocals, and playful songwriting, Thickets and Stitches lasts forty minutes without saying anything memorable, and then it’s gone.

Reviews originally published in the East Bay Express on 1/30/08.

Creepy, The Triple EP (Teeno Records). San Francisco punk trio Creepy converts a collection of three new songs and two previously released EPs, one dating back to 2003, into a fine thirty-minute full-length. The group’s effortless balance of aggression and melody could find itself a good home on the Warped Tour.

Hot Challenge, Hot Challenge EP (self-released). Featuring three brothers and a friend, San Francisco pop-rock act Hot Challenge has a leg up in the chemistry department. But this isn’t enough to mask the fact that the ten-month-old band still needs time to mature and tighten up.

Silence Is Safety, Silence Is Safety (Teeno Records). There’s a lot to like about Silence Is Safety’s sound: a nice blend of pop- and old-school punk, a tight rhythm section, the ability to slow things down without stopping them dead. Unfortunately, showy vocals from frontwoman Red tend to overpower everything else.

Daddy Cool Productions, Call Me Daddy Cool (self-released). Daddy Cool is one Charles Davis: studio wonk, songwriter, music instructor, and bassist-for-hire. This record finds Davis’ friends returning the favor, as eight musicians in varying roles help flesh out his homage to funk lords James Brown, Bootsy Collins, and George Clinton.

Reviews originally published in the East Bay Express on 1/9/08.

Peck the Town Crier: Groundhog’s Day (self-released). Peck the Town Crier has waged war against predictability. Slowish raps tend toward spoken word and performance art, while low-key backing tracks tap into jazz, funk, bluegrass, marches, and more. Not everything works, but at least nothing is expected.

Brigades Like This: Brigades Like This (Lifeboat Records). Great intentions don’t always yield great results. Better mixing would go a long way for Bridges Like This’ debut, which stumbles in the muddy shoegazing of bands like Mogwai and My Bloody Valentine.

Reviews originally published in the East Bay Express on 11/28/07.

Here Here, The Boy with an Orange (self-released). Even down to frontman Christian Lyon’s soothing vocals, seven-member San Francisco group Here Here sounds a lot like Pinback, just without the snap, and with a whole bunch of violin, accordion, trumpet, banjo, and mandolin.

Parker Street Cinema, Music, in the Blood (Abandoned Love Records). If making beautiful, dramatic music sound effortless is a pinnacle of achievement, then San Francisco experimental rock trio Parker Street Cinema falls a couple important steps below its idols. Fleeting moments of transcendence yield to a sense that the band is overthinking.

Sky Pilots, Enjoy a Day Off (Ghost Mansion Records). Post-hardcore put through the San Francisco spinner: palatable, progressive, and reluctant to push anything too hard.

Jimmy Leslie, Surfin’ the Swamp (Concurrent Records). The vibe is steady, the sound is clean, and Leslie’s bright guitar work rarely missteps. Still, only when the band loosens up and just jams does this New Orleans funk/San Francisco rock hybrid really click.

Reviews originally published in the East Bay Express on 11/14/07.

ALBINO! Rhino (Mighty Niblet Records). Proclaiming George Bush a puppet and our government a “looming threat” won’t turn many heads in the Bay Area, but lyrics are only incidental to ALBINO!’s groove-laden, instrumentally flawless take on the jazz/funk/protest hybrid of Afrobeat.

The Kim Philbys Whir Whir Whir (Evangeline Records). Like a mix tape you might’ve traded with your friends back in the day: charmingly uneven, unabashedly brokenhearted trad rock.

David Widelock Memories of a Surprise (self-released). Amateur album art belies the veteran Bay Area artist’s skill at writing and performing solo acoustic pieces on nylon- and twelve-string guitars, including original arrangements of works by Thelonious Monk, Randy Newman, and Gilberto Gil.

The Landing The Landing EP (self-released). Young, female-fronted Palo Alto trio the Landing fancies itself a bit edgier than these three songs suggest. Still, its debut recording’s piano-driven alt-rock surveys fertile ground.

Tempo No Tempo Repetition EP (Double Negative Records). While the world may not need another post-punk dance band, it has one in Berkeley’s Tempo No Tempo, which advances on its second EP from aping turn-of-the-century revivalists like Radio 4 and Franz Ferdinand to building upon them.

Reviews originally published in the East Bay Express on 10/31/07.

Minipop A New Hope (Take Root Records). Don’t let the name fool you: Minipop’s music can be vast. The quartet is at its best on songs like “Ask Me a Question,” where conventional pop spills over its walls like a river cresting a levee.

Elliot Randall Take the Fall (self released). Close your eyes and forget you’re near the coast — Randall’s roots, rock, and country numbers come straight from the heartland. Keep ‘em shut and never realize he’s only 25 years old.

Emily Jane White Dark Undercoat (Double Negative Records). Folk music can be haunting in the hands of White, whose sparse songs — featuring only her balanced voice over guitar or piano — are as beautiful as they are troubled, especially the reverb-drenched “Dagger.”

Pinched Nerve Mission and Highland (self released). Pinched Nerve, under house arrest for crimes related to his painkiller addiction, sing-raps over demented lo-fi beats about the ills of apartment life in the ghetto: pigeons, trash, and “Scabs and Mice.”

Project Greenfield The Spiral Path (Greenfield Records). On this sophomore disc, five guys who’ve known each other since the ’70s careen between prog-rock, world, funk, and jazz like they can’t pick a favorite. And against all odds, they totally nail it.