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Interview with Madison McFerrin

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Tune in on Wednesday, May 31st @ 2PM to hear Excuse My French sit down with  independent artist, producer, and musician, Madison McFerrin, before she hits the stage at The Independent in SF on Friday, June 2nd.

Madison McFerrin recently released her highly-anticipated debut album, I Hope You Can Forgive Me. The self-released record represents a personal artistic evolution in her career in which she learned to improvise, self-produce, and ultimately trust herself in the midst of an ever-changing landscape in the global pandemic. An astonishing meditation on the themes of love, self preservation, fear, and conjuring, she approaches vulnerability with a burning desire.

A majority of the tracks on I Hope You Can Forgive Me are self-produced by McFerrin, a newly refined skill she honed during the pandemic. In addition to being a producer and arranger, she is also an instrumentalist, playing bass, synth, and creating background vocals for several of the songs. The intimate album’s sole feature is her father, Bobby McFerrin, who appears on the record’s focus track “Run”, a powerful song about her family and a spiritual connection with an ancestor who she learned escaped enslavement; taking the next step sonically while thematically exploring self love and intimacy.

Frankie Cosmos at the Chapel

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Photo & Review by Sophia Risin

Tucked between the bustling neighborhood of the Mission neighborhood in SF, the Chapel’s summer stage is one of the city’s best kept secrets. The spot is marked by shady trees and incredible acoustics that make for one of the most unique and incredible shows. Greta Kline, known by stage name Frankie Cosmos, was no exception. Talking to anyone who’s online enough these days, Frankie Cosmos is a name impossible to avoid. From the song “Fool,” the closer for the night, to “Aftershock,” the first number of the night and a personal favorite, the band’s discography is full of hits that are nothing but easy listening indie pop music that are the perfect beginning to a summer of sound.

The first opener for the night was the band Polkadot who I hadn’t heard of prior to the night and have become a fast fan. Their set was full of energy and infectious sounds that were a good indication of the night to come. Their current band features a former KALXer which is always a pleasant surprise.

The second opener was Stephen Steinbrink, Cole Pulice, and Taylor Vick. Steinbrink was on guitar and vocals, Pulice on tenor sax, and Vick on keys and vocals. The set was a wide departure from the energy of the first show, much more relaxed with haunting melodies, reminiscent of Haley Heynderickx and Sunday mornings with NPR in the kitchen with my family. The timing of their set coincided with sunset and so we had the pleasure of watching the light change as the music sang the night into a calm quiet.

Finally, in the early evening, once the sky had completely darkened, Frankie Cosmos took the stage. After spending the second opener’s set mostly still, I had been looking forward to a more uptempo set, but what they lacked in energy, they made up for in their overwhelmingly magical performance. The Chapel is a really unique venue where they have someone live painting a background interpretive piece that added another level of performance to the entire place. Their performance had made the entire show feel like sitting in on a friend’s backyard party with the friends of the band coming up during the show to join in on choruses and giving shoutouts. Throughout the tour, Frankie Cosmos has been playing smaller intimate sets and the Chapel’s Summer Stage was no exception. They were not the most lively performance but, it was a lovely set nevertheless and a nice night for the beginning of finals week. The show was not a standout by any metric, but the music was lovely, the fans were some of the sweetest people, and they had a very energetic and enthusiastic crowd.

Interview with Nuovo Testamento

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Join DJ Massari on Friday, May 26th @ 2PM when he airs his recent talk with Chelsey Crowley and Giacomo Zatti of Los Angeles / Bologna based trio, Nuovo Testamento.

Nuovo Testamento has taken over dance floors with their uniquely dark Italo disco-flavored pop hits in just a few years. Following the release of the coldwave cult hit Exposure EP back in 2019 (Avant! Records), their acclaimed full-length New Earth exploded onto the scene with its graceful 1980s-influenced club elements, contagious rhythms and a powerful punch of synth-pop. The release was widely considered across genres to be one of 2021’s best underground albums of the year.

Today they return with the release of their highly anticipated second LP, Love Lines, on which Nuovo Testamento continue to explore the light, the dark and exultant personal power in what will undoubtedly become an instant dance classic.

Love Lines is an album about proof of life and the joy of survival. Vibrant with Italo disco and Hi-NRG celebration, the record invokes a sense of motion in an often stagnant time and place. Inside the eight new tracks, rich synthesizers and driving percussion testify to the need for movement, connection and autonomy.

Produced by sound engineer Maurizio Baggio (Boy Harsher, The Soft Moon) with vocal recording by Riki, Love Lines is reminiscent of the work of Shep Pettibone, Chris Barbosa and serves as a reminder of the power of pop music.

Nuovo Testamento includes members of hardcore and dark punk royalty Tørsö, Horror Vacui, Crimson Scarlet and touring members of Sheer Mag.

Interview with Jared Mattson

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On Wednesday, May 24th @ 2PM, Excuse My French speaks with guitarist Jared Mattson before his show in SF at The Knockout on Friday, May 26th.

New album, Peanut, is a big deal for Mattson, who’s stepping out on his own after playing with his twin brother as The Mattson 2 for over 20 years.

Like many debut solo albums from musicians in bands, Jared Mattson’s Peanut didn’t originally come from a need to break away. As a composer for the Mattson 2, Jared Mattson was working up a batch of new songs through the winter of 2019-2020, looking ahead to the next album he and brother Jonathan Mattson, the blitzkrieging drummer, would record. As the pandemic hit stateside, Jared holed up in his home studio and kept developing the new music. And during that process it became increasingly clear to them that this wasn’t shaping up to be the next Mattson 2 album. This was a Mattson 1 album.

On Peanut, Jared is both departing from and expanding upon his work with Mattson 2. The album is a slowly unfolding blend of R&B, reggae and art rock that paints a portrait of a musician with a fantastic sense of groove, rhythm and pacing.

Photo Credit: Lucky Banks-Kenney

KALX Live! with Low Praise – Sat May 27

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Tune in this Saturday 9pm-12am to hear Low Praise on Kalx Live! hosted by DangerVenture. 

Low Praise are an Oakland trio that recalls 70s post-punk acts such as The Fall and Wire.  The band’s debut album DRESSING, out now, was recorded over two sessions split apart by a year of peak Covid. During this time they were forced to evolve and collaborate remotely, leading to new experimentation in sounds and structure. The band then came back together to reimagine these experiments in their stripped down three piece live format. The end result delivers their most diverse and wide reaching songs to-date, unified by themes of anxiety and helplessness that they collectively experienced during that time.

You can find the band live next at Thee Stork Club for their record release with Juicebumps and HIts. Tickets available here.