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Posts Tagged ‘show’

MySpace (listen to “Daydream,” “Get at Me”)
Official site
Hometown: San Jose
Next local show: None planned
Recent release: The M Album, 2008

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.”

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By Matthew Jordan

Oh, deceitful memory! Every show seen at protean Bottom of the Hill leaves an entirely different impression. Bottom of the Hill is not the seedy den of patched woolens and greasy-headed rockulidge of Sebadoh shows past! It is not the brightly colored, enthusiastic pop brilliance of AC Newman and the yuppies, blazered and bangled, cheerfully listening, smiling, ecstatic! Bottom of the Hill could be anything to anybody.

Touch My Rash, Fluorescent Grey, Gemini Soul, and Killian Garnet MacGeraghty

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)

Sean Smith, Chinese Bookie, the Hipwaders, and Liz Kennedy

Reviews originally published in the East Bay Express on 2/6/08.

Sean Smith, Eternal (Gnome Life Records). Like the best poetry, Eternal engages from the start and expands with each pass. Built upon Smith’s Eastern-influenced acoustic guitar and sparing contributions from four fellow instrumentalists, the disc explores both the form and sound of music through seven joyous, contemplative tracks.

Chinese Bookie, Is That You Behind Those Foster Grants? EP (self-released). It’d be a shame if the best song on here were a cover, and while Chinese Bookie — née San Francisco’s Viola Keeton — does a wicked awesome version of New Order’s “Age of Consent,” this five-track electro-pop debut also features three winning originals.

The Hipwaders, Educated Kid (self-released). Kids’ music that doesn’t drive adults nuts is a trend to get behind. The Hipwaders have been at it since ‘04, even performing at Lollapalooza last year. Their third album offers a thoroughly tolerable batch of pop songs about behaving well with siblings, using the Dewey Decimal System, and falling asleep.
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