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Max Diez

Julian Lage Interview

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Tune in on Monday, April 8th @ 10:30am to hear Mr. Green Genes get the inside scoop on Bay Area raised guitarist and composer, Julian Lage.

Julian Lage’s vivid, wondrously textured new album Speak To Me offers a series of dispatches from his ongoing search for narrative beyond words. Intimate in tone and capacious in intention, the album represents some of the most ambitious music Lage has documented to date. Its originals travel a wide range of American music, and delight in the deliberate crossing of wires between gospel hymn and rural blues, California singer-songwriter sunshine and skronky jazz.

A renowned improviser, Lage puts his techniques to work every time he takes the stage. The result is a showcase of endless possibilities in a musical journey, with Lage’s guitar work reflecting his love for blues and early rock in addition to the influence he gets from jazz idols.

Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

Chastity Belt Interview

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Tune in on Friday, April 12th @ 4pm to hear Beast Monster Thing in conversation with Pacific Northwest 4-piece, Chastity Belt, ahead of their show on April 13th at The Independent in San Francisco.

Chastity Belt are tried-and-true legends of the Seattle scene. For more than a decade, the band has created scrappy, clever noise pop, frequently laced with homages to the Pacific Northwest.

New album, Live Laugh Love (Suicide Squeeze Records), finds the members in their prime as musicians. Their parts trace intricate patterns over one another, but there’s room to breathe between the layers. Everyone contributes to the writing, sometimes switching instruments, and for the first time, all four members sing a song. It’s never been more apparent that they are creative siblings, cut from the same belt.

In their decade-plus together, the four-piece – Julia Shapiro (she/her), Lydia Lund (guitar, vocals – she/her), Gretchen Grimm (drums, vocals – she/her), and Annie Truscott (bass, vocals – they/them)—have created a resonant body of work.

The early days of “Nip Slip” and “Pussy Weed Beer” (hits from their iconic debut full-length No Regerts, which recently celebrated 10 years) and the “Cool Slut” era of 2015’s Time To Go Home were raucous bonanzas of dry wit and self-evident feminism. A newfound gravity on 2017’s I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone shifted the lyrical mood toward introspection as they continued to refine their trademark sound: lush intertwining guitars, meticulous rhythms, a careful balance of melancholy and optimism.

Two years later, the dreamy Chastity Belt marked a renewal of vows to their musicianship and friendship, each member coming into their own as artists, convening with a fresh perspective on collaboration.

Will Bernard Performance & Interview

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Berkeley raised guitarist, composer, and bandleader, Will Bernard, joins Sex 14s on the Sparkle Motion show Tuesday, April 9th @ 1 pm for a live performance and interview ahead of performances at Sweetwater (April 10) and The Ivy Room (April 11) along with The Freelance Subversives.

Will Bernard’s unique guitar playing was formed from the rich cultural roots of the San Francisco Bay Area. He studied classical, jazz, and Indian, played in basements and coliseums, has absorbed the Bay Area Multi-Kulti, the funk of New Orleans, and the New York downtown edge.

He’s performed and/or recorded with Charlie Hunter, Stanton Moore, Robert Walter, John Medeski, Bill Laswell, Ben Sidran, Peter Apfelbaum, Dr. John, Tom Waits and many others. His 2007 album Party Hats and his 1997 release with T.J. Kirk, If Four Was One, were nominated for a Grammy.

Pond Life (2022) on Dreck to Disk is his eleventh release as a bandleader and his recent album with clarinetist Beth Custer, Sky (2023), is fifteen gorgeous and intimate duets by two old friends. Will lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Boy Harsher Interview

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On Wednesday, April 10th @ 8:15PM, Fizz speaks with Jae Matthews and Augustus (Gus) Muller of the darkwave electronic music group, Boy Harsher.  The duo play The Regency Ballroom in SF on April 18th and The Phoenix Theater in Petaluma on April 19th.

This Northampton based duo got their start in 2013 after meeting at Savannah College of Art & Design studying film. During this time they started a project called Teen Dreamz, which eventually evolved into Boy Harsher.

In their over decade long career since, the pair have released multiple records, including Lesser Man and Careful, which have since gained a cult following. More recently, the group has shifted their focus back to film, directing and creating an original soundtrack for the short film The Runner in 2022.

Tune in to hear the band discuss their musical process, aesthetic influences and more.

Photo Credit: Marcelo Mudou

Water From Your Eyes Interview

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Brooklyn based duo, Water From Your Eyes recently toured through the Bay Area and Figure Skater was there to catch the show and speak with band members, Rachel Brown and Nate Amos.  Tune in on Tuesday, April 2nd @ 8:15pm to hear their conversation.

“Life is horribly dark right now. And yet, it is not unfunny”. That’s the sentiment that animates Water From Your Eyes on their new album, and first for Matador Records, Everyone’s Crushed.

On the follow-up to the Brooklyn duo’s 2021 breakthrough, Structure, Rachel Brown (they/them) and Nate Amos (he/him) find silliness and fatalism dancing in a frantic lockstep, using heart palpitating rhythms and absurdist, deadpan lyrics to convey stories of personal and societal unease. Described by Brown as Water From Your Eyes’ most collaborative record ever, it’s a swollen contusion of an album: experimental pop music that’s pretty and violent, raw and indelible.

Kid Francescoli Interview

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On Wednesday, April 3rd @ 2pm, Excuse My French speaks with Mathieu Hocine, of French electro-pop project, Kid Francescoli, ahead of his upcoming show in SF at The Great American Music Hall on April 9th.

Kid Francescoli achieved his new LP, Sunset Blue, with a five-stars cast of collaborators: he orchestrated a great 21st century pop-music album, produced by French79, mixed by Stan Neff (Polo & Pan, Kungs, Christine and the Queens), and mastered by Alex Gopher (Daft Punk, The Blaze, Bon Entendeur). The record, as indicated with this first track, is a new turning point between organic and electronic, both a mediterranean travel and a Californian dream, a bridge between Ennio Morriconne and modern electronic music.

The record is also the logical continuation of Kid Francescoli’s previous successes, which made the world dream and dance: “Nopalitos,” “Blow Up,” and “Moon” (certified diamond with more than 200M streams, along with a huge success on TikTok where Lizzo, Jennifer Lopez, and millions of users have used this track, but also Emily in Paris on Netflix or ads like Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Xbox). His most recent success and the creation of his first original soundtrack with AZURO installed him as one of the best French songwriters of his generation, with a unique signature sound.

Photo Credit: Nicolas Despis