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Girls, Girls, Grrrls

Read more Girls Girls Girls and Riot Grrrls.

Bikini Kill 2024 USA Tour Read More Bikini Kill As you know, we’re big fans of Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, Julie Ruin, riot grrrls… so it it was a delight to read Kathleen Hanna’s memoir Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk. The book came out in mid-May and …

Bikini Kill
bikinikill.com

The dream of the Riot Grrrl ‘90s scene is still alive, and you’re in luck, ‘cos one of the stalwarts of the scene, Bikini Kill, is on tour this year in the U.S. and abroad. After a springtime South American tour, followed by a visit to Europe and the UK, the band hits the road all over the U.S., hitting different cities throughout the West Coast, Midwest, and Eastern seaboard. Guitarist Sara Landeau joins founding members Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail, and Kathi Wilcox, so expect the scintillating grooves and likely some politically-charged banter between songs as we hurtle towards another contentious presidential election. There’s no new album to promote, so fans can gear up for their favorite hits and, hopefully, some deep cuts for the diehards. Supporting acts for the U.S. leg haven’t yet been announced, but tickets are on sale now, so gear up now for revolution, girl-style, yeah!

Tour dates:

8/15: Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern

8/16: Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern

8/18: San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield

8/19: San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield

8/21: Forest Grove, OR @ Grand Lodge

8/27: Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom

8/29: Milwaukee, WI @ The Riverside Theater

8/30: Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed (Indoor)

8/31: Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre

9/3: Toronto, ON @ History

9/4: Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia

9/6: Portland, ME @ State Theatre

9/7: Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount

9/8: Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount

9/10: Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall

9/11: Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage

WUT: Guts, Brains Read More All Girl Summer Fun Band All Girl Summer Fun Band (or AGSFB), are just that ... an all girl fun band. Actually, the band that was asked to be reviewed here was the Thermals, which I can't say that I really like. But I do like the Thermals' Kathy Fosters' side project, AGSFB. …

WUT
instagram.com/wutband

Vancouver BC riot-twee trio WUT just released “Guts, Brains” and announced their August tour dates. The trio features guitarist Kaity McWhinney (Knife Pleats / Love Cuts), bassist Tracey Vath (Knife Pleats / Love Cuts), and drummer Lauren Smith (Tough Age / Jock Tears).

Look for their sophomore album Mingling with the Thorns on HHBTM Records (Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records).

For fans of Marine Girls and All Girl Summer Fun Band.

Tour dates:

08/07- San Diego, CA - the brown building

08/08 - Pasadena, CA - the old town pub

08/09 - Oakland, CA - the stork club

08/10 - Sacramento, CA - phono select

08/11- Arcata, CA - outer space

08/12- Eugene, OR - interzone coffee

08/13- Olympia, WA - san francisco street bakery

08/14 - Tacoma, WA - house show

08/15- Vancouver, BC - red gate

Violent Vickie: The Perfect Girl

Violent Vickie
violentvickie.com

Cover lovers, listen up. Florida-based producer, synth player, and vocalist, Violent Vickie, recently released her cover of The Cure’s “The Perfect Girl”… only if Robert Smith joined Crystal Castles.

Her website mentioned that she’s toured with Hanin Elias of Atari Teenage Riot and shared the stage with Pastel Ghost, Trans X, Missing Persons, Assemblage 23, and Them Are Us Too.

If you like what you heard, she’s doing a DJ set at Goth Night, in West Palm Beach, on August 16, 2024.

8-16 - West Palm Beach, FL @ Goth Night @ Respectable Street (DJ set)

If your band is coming to the Minneapolis/St Paul area, please email details to [email protected] with a good lead time. Thank you.

vu ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Summer Songs of Nostalgia for an Oakland Weekender

Oakland Weekender June 6th - Night 1 All Girl Summer Fun Band Neutrals The Smashing Times Lightheaded Artsick DJ Poindexter June 7th - Night 2 Poundsign Seablite Maria Mo Dotti Tony Jay DJ Jessica B. June 8th - Night 3 Lunchbox Yea-Ming & The Rumors Chime School Kids on a Crime Spree Lavender Blush DJ Kid Frostbite — 3 Night Pass June 6th-8th: $60 Includes Weekender t-shirt, poster and The Velvet Underground tribute cassette featuring a track by each weekender band) This event is 21+ Read More Oakland Weekender The indie music festival Oakland Weekender is returning to Oakland this week: June 6-8, 2024. The three-day music festival is taking place at the Thee Stork Club, in Oakland, San Francisco. …

Oakland Weekender
Thee Stork Club
2330 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland
June 7, 2024

Summer in June is lovely in theory, but every true Bay Area local knows that our mercurial microclimates beckon us east this time of year, away from San Francisco’s gloomy June and through the BART tunnel, surfacing in Oakland for snatches of sunshine. The same holds true not just for the weather but for lovers of indie pop. As art lovers and party people packed Uptown’s Telegraph Avenue for the First Friday art scene, music scenesters packed Thee Stork Club on Friday for night 2 of Oakland Weekender, the yearly music festival. “Festival” may seem like a stretch, as it all takes place in the cozy, dive-y environs of just the one bar, but the stellar lineup did make the weekend feel and sound larger than life. From the lo-fi, ‘90s pop nostalgia of Santa Cruz’s #Poundsign# to the honeyed, atmospheric melodies of San Francisco’s Seablite, the Weekender’s Friday night lineup had music fans basking in the sounds of an indie-pop summer. It was the kind of indie pop night where lyrics and words took a backseat to music, mood, and sound.

Thee Stork Club is a kind of lo-fi venue in and of itself, the kind perfectly suited to the Weekender’s vibe—packed rooms romantically lit in red hues, a series of cheeky, pop culture dioramas just to the right of the small stage, and a side-by-side stall-slash-urinal that seemed to give some restroom-goers performance anxiety. The mood felt rough and ready. DJ Jessica B. primed the crowd with spot-on, breezy pop sets in-between bands. I bopped my head to throwback New Wave gems like Altered Images’ “Happy Birthday” as bands expertly set up and broke down their gear for each set.

San Francisco’s Tony Jay is like listening to the Velvet Underground in a darkened bedroom at the end of the night, all soft-spoken, breathy, almost incoherent vocals against stripped-down guitars, the aural equivalent of the faint smell of cigarettes and street lights shining outside your bedroom window. Never mind that the singer sometimes wears KISS makeup and a leather jacket; the vibe is all downtempo and lofi.

Mo Dotti, a Los Angeles band that bills themselves as “a jangle-gaze band [of] four cat lovers,” combine soaring guitars and airy, feminine vocals into perfect pop prettiness. It’s the moody marriage of pop and shoegaze, guitars climbing chords towards heaven but tethered to catchy hooks.

Maria, who called themselves a “Latino indie pop band from Oxnard,” broke up in 2010, but reunited for new music and a brief but bright slot at the Weekender. With disarmingly cute, cracking vocals playing against breezy guitars, they wobbled into a charming set of indie pop à la the indie band Hefner, full of strumming melodies. They performed a lo-fi cover of the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Set Free,” along with a nice soupçon of honey-inflected guitar pop on their own catchy little ditties, like “Baby Honey.”

Seablite of San Francisco epitomizes the indie rock of their environs—the sound of summer fog, and of winter melodies that breach the clouds, angling towards the sun. “They sound like Stereolab meets My Bloody Valentine,” cooed my friend. It’s the mercurial magic sound of shoegazing and stargazing in the same moment. On songs like “Hit the Wall,” their spacy, swirling guitars harmonize with singer Lauren Matsui’s lush, breezy vocals, crescendoing into dreamlike snatches of psychedelic harmonies. Lyrics feel secondary to the mood of the music, and live it feels as if you’re meant to close your eyes and appreciate the weightlessness of fuzzy guitars and dreamy vocals in a soundscape of loveliness.

It was the best of the indie-pop ‘90s all over again with the triumphant return of Santa Cruz band #Poundsign#, who brought the kind of jangly pop that perfectly fit this early Oakland summer night. Channeling the melody-centered riffs of bands like the Smiths and the Field Mice, #Poundsign#’s deconstructed pop in songs like “Starry Night” and “Michigan” layered hints of ‘60s girl groups and bright harmonies deconstructed into sunshine-flavored songs of equal parts hope and despair. By the end of the Oakland Weekender’s Friday set, local music fans were sent out into the summer night, their hearts full of nostalgia and their ears ringing gratefully with the sounds of a Bay Area summer.

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#Poundsign# at Thee Stork Club (07 Jun 2024)

Robin Lapid ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Something for the Weekend

First time, I did it for the hell of it
Stuck it on the back of my tongue and then swallowed it
Second time, things are getting easier
Blow me down, this wind's getting breezier
Third time lucky, maybe feeling fuzzy
Oh my god, we're getting hippy dippy
Four, six, seven, man I'm in heaven

- Super Furry Animals

Read More All Girl Summer Fun Band All Girl Summer Fun Band (or AGSFB), are just that ... an all girl fun band. Actually, the band that was asked to be reviewed here was the Thermals, which I can't say that I really like. But I do like the Thermals' Kathy Fosters' side project, AGSFB. …

Oakland Weekender 2024
twitter.com/oakland_weekndr

The indie music festival Oakland Weekender is returning to Oakland this week: June 6-8, 2024.

The three-day music festival is taking place at the Thee Stork Club, in Oakland, San Francisco. If you decide to get the upgraded 3-night pass, it will come with an Oakland Weekender t-shirt, poster and a cassette tribute to The Velvet Underground featuring a cover song from each band playing the festival. It is totally worth it, you don’t get this kind of gifts from other more expensive music festival.

Similar to Popfest (which was held in Oakland, New York, Athens, and more), Oakland Weekender promises Slumberland or MicroIndie-type twee/indiepop bands, such as our favorite All Girl Summer Fun Band, who playing on June 6. We previously described AGSFB in April 2007 as “All Girl Summer Fun Band (or AGSFB), are just that ... an all-girl fun band… the band came into existence after Kim Baxter approached Jen Sbragia after a Softies show in Portland in 1998 with her music tape. That summer, they got together, and well the rest is history as they say.”

The other big name on the Weekender show is Lunchbox, playing on June 8th. The 30-year-old band was actually on a California tour in May to promote their new Slumberland album Pop and Circumstance (which was released on May 10, 2024). The new record is described as a mix of British pop, but with a Southern California pop sensibility.

Full lineup:

June 6th - Night 1 • All Girl Summer Fun Band • Neutrals • The Smashing Times • Lightheaded • Artsick • DJ Poindexter

June 7th - Night 2 • Poundsign • Seablite • Maria • Mo Dotti • Tony Jay • DJ Jessica B.

June 8th - Night 3 • Lunchbox • Yea-Ming & The Rumors • Chime School • Kids on a Crime Spree • Lavender Blush • DJ Kid Frostbite

Read More Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend must be very pleased with themselves. I mean, these guys were on SNL (3/18/08), on the cover of Spin Magazine (Mar 2008), and overall huge support from MPR ... so basically these guys are probably the most overhyped band right now. … Ra Ra Riot Ra Ra Riot is back in town at the Triple Rock Social Club this April 7th, in support of their fourth LP Need Your Light (Barsuk Records). The record came out in February but already Harper’s ....

Vampire Weekend
vampireweekend.com

I had no idea that New York’s Vampire Weekend have gotten so big. They are playing the Armory in Minneapolis at the end of July, and this venue is massive (8,400 capacity!) In fact, demand was so high, the band even added a second night for the Armory, you can see them on July 30th or 31st (or both if you’re feeling dangerous).

Vampire Weekend (03 Apr 2008)

We saw the band in April 2008 at the Triple Rock Social Club and wrote, “You know me, the more hyped a band is, the more they have to prove to me that they are worth all the buzz. Fortunately, I was impressed with them. They clearly know how to manipulate their audience ("this is a tall order, but could you guys ....") and the band played really well. The one downfall is that they are still very, very young (and I don't mean the way Ezra Koenig looks like he's barely 18 with his dashing good looks and polo shirt). They barely had enough material to make the show last for an hour. In fact, they played their entire debut album, plus two other songs. Of the two songs, one of them is untitled as of this writing - and it requires the keyboardist, Rostam Batmanglij, to pick up an extra guitar. This new song is actually pretty good, possibly the best song on the whole set... plus I was quite surprised with the way Batmanglij handled the guitar with ease.”

Ra Ra Riot will be support for this tour. The band released their first music in five years, a single called “The Wish”. The single was co-written and produced by their friend and longtime collaborator Rostam Batmanglij (Remi Wolf, Carly Rae Jepsen, HAIM), mixed by Andrew Maury (Madi Diaz, Tegan and Sara, Shawn Mendes), and mastered by Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer Emily Lazar (Coldplay, Jacob Collier, Beck).

Ra Ra Riot’s Wes Miles adds, “Rostam and I have been longtime collaborators and have gotten to work on all kinds of different projects together over the years. It’s always something fun and exciting and new. When we got into his studio recently, we found we’d both been getting into fingerpicking – some folk stuff, like Fairport Convention, Joni Mitchell, Anne Briggs, Judy Sill, that kind of stuff. And so we just went from there. It started with a riff I had, super rough, with a sort of nebulous story, and he helped simplify the fingerpicking pattern and start molding it into more of a specific story and vibe. Rostam added some organ - Hammond B3 - and some mandolin, and Joey, his assistant, who’s studied Latin percussion, really added a lot of movement to it. Over the course of two trips to LA, we wrote, re-wrote and recorded the song almost in real time, and I think it’s something really new for us. To me, the song’s about the power of imagining a different world – not necessarily in a fantastic or escapist way, but in an empowering way. About manifesting these deeply held wants and desires. Having these powerful dream visions and trying to capture that moment before you fall deeply into dreaming. Rostam and I love working on songs that can read as both happy and sad at the same time and using that tension to amplify and understand the depth of these feelings and visions.”

Ra Ra Riot (27 Sep 2016)

We saw the band in Sep 2016, and said, “The group started with one of their earliest songs, 2008’s ‘Too Too Too Fast’ co-written by the band’s original late drummer, John Pike (but excluded early hit, ‘Dying is Fine’, which was about his passing). The taste of the new began with 2013’s ‘Binary Mind’ with vocalist Miles easily sliding between mid-range vocals to more falsetto as violinist Zeller at his left, led the added elegance with added strings. Closing tracks ‘Water’, which throbbed with electro-bass and ‘I Need Your Light’ which was also beat propelled, were both from the new album, produced on record by ex-Vampire Weekend keyboardist and longtime friend of the band, Rostam Batmanglij.”

Tour dates:

July 22, 2024 in Kansas City, MO @ Starlight Theater+

July 23, 2024 in Lincoln, NE @ Pinewood Bowl Theater+

July 25, 2024 in Maryland Heights, MO @ Saint Louis Music Park+

July 26, 2024 in Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island+

July 27, 2024 in Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island+

July 30, 2024 in Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory+

July 31, 2024 in Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory+

August 1, 2024 in Milwaukee, WI @ BMO Pavilion+

+with Vampire Weekend

Vacant Weekend
linktr.ee/vacantweekend

Manchester based trio Vacant Weekend announced their new release “Funny Dad”, available on May 31, 2024. This is the second track (after “Talk”) from the upcoming EP, due out this summer via Manchester indie label Cosmic Glue.

The song is described by the band as “the closest thing we have to a ballad…” they later expand, “It’s just raw emotion poured into sound, and that sort of thing is only able to happen in a room you really feel comfortable being vulnerable in - being friends for most of our lives, it’s a privilege we’re always afforded. After that, the lyrics just fit into place, they’re so sparse but it’s as if most of what needs to be said is already present in the music.”

If you’re in the UK, go check them out at one of these live concerts:

14th June, Newcastle, The Globe

16th June, London, The Windmill

17th June, Liverpool, Jacaranda

19th June, Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club

20th June, Kendal, Glisky

21st June, Manchester, Low Four

If your band is coming to the Minneapolis/St Paul area, please email details to [email protected] with a good lead time. Thank you.

vu ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

All Girl Summer Fun Band - Video Game Heart

 

 

All Girl Summer Fun Band - Video Game Heart

All Girl Summer Fun Band

All Girl Summer Fun Band

All Girl Summer Fun Band (or AGSFB), are just that ... an all girl fun band. Actually, the band that was asked to be reviewed here was the Thermals, which I can't say that I really like. But I do like the Thermals' Kathy Fosters' side project, AGSFB.

This song, as well as a few others are available on their official website, so if you like what you hear, just head over there.

I did a little research on the band's biography, and it's really hard to escape the definitive biography by Kathleen Fennessy for All Music Guide, so I'll just summarize for you: the band came into existence after Kim Baxter approached Jen Sbragia after a Softies show in Portland in 1998 with her music tape. That summer, they got together, and well the rest is history as they say.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like they've released any new material since 2003, and I think perhaps because one of their member (Ari Douangpanya) left the band.

Anyway, this song is all-fun! Video gamers unite!

ALBUM DISCOGRAPHY □ All Girl Summer Fun Band (2002, K Records) □ 2 (2003, K Records) SINGLES/EPS □ Summer of '98 (2003, Magic Marker) □ "All Girl Summer Fun Band" (1999, Magic Marker)

COMPILATIONS □ Look of Love/Will I See You (Split 7" with Photo Jenny, Red Wagon Records) □ Happy Happy Birthday to Me Vol 2 (Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records) □ Rock and Roll Camp for Girls (2002) □ A House Full Of Friends (2005)

Le Mew wrote: Apr 15, 2007 at 12:22 AM

I think they are in the studio right now, working on a new album! yay.

vu