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wash and waste

13 May

One of my favorite San Francisco holidays is only days away, making this a very squirmy, hard to focus work week. The 100th annual Bay to Breakers arrives this Sunday, swarming the streets of the city by the bay with unicorns, beer floats, barbarians, Care Bears, a few actual professional runners, contact highs, and men in diapers or a lot less.

This will be my third Bay to Breakers but instead of entering it with the confidence of a pro, I am worried the fun police hired by new corporate sponsor Zazzle may rain on the parade more than the weather forecast. During years past, I have gotten nothing but smiles and thumbs up from the city’s finest as I’ve pranced down streets in blonde wigs, furry cat hats and lots of fishnet, but sadly this year threats for legally stopping the mayhem seem more serious… literately the slogan from Zazzle is “we’re serious.” Ugh. They are promising drunk tents for detainment of the obliterated. Time to go camping!

Anyhow I have a fun house party to attend off of the Panhandle to hide from the rain and the feds, but I truly hope that San Fran does not find itself stripped of another one of the events that makes it so great. RIP Lovefest. Long live B2B!

Today’s Emo: Waste / Foster the People

‘you know it’s funny / how freedom can make us feel contained’

Another track dropped off of Foster the People’s upcoming full length debut, and I am loving it. Like Helena Beats and Pumped Up Kicks, this song drips of good old MGMT from years past, and it is nice to have that void filled with fresh young talent. Hopefully unlike MGMT, Foster the P can actually carry a live performance, because I will be seeing them at Outside Lands this August.

I like the sentiment behind the song, about sitting next to someone you love while they sort out some shit in their head, about letting them know you aren’t going anywhere while they do. Heavy stuff expressed with simple lyrics and set to a happy, more lighthearted backdrop. FTP for FTW. Again. #emo

Today’s Untz: Eyes Be Closed / Washed Out (SposhRock remix)

Lately I am discovering that chillwave is the perfect genre for me: untz and emo majestically rolled into one. While the wave’s signature sleepy beats are not ideal for dancing my face off, they hit the spot for most of life’s other moments… leisurely runs, long hours at work, driving with the windows down, semi-conscious early AM muni commutes, and everyone’s favorite time behind closed doors. Toro y Moi, Teen Daze, and Blackbird Blackbird are all finding themselves on heavy rotation as the soundtrack to my life.

This remixed Washed Out song is the perfect addition, oozing with sleepy happiness and a touch of Enya. The track is off Washed Out’s upcoming Sub Pop release in July, Within and Without, and the LP’s cover leaves little to the imagination for which of the above listed activities it is best suited for. Just saying. #untz



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about levels

11 May

There are few better ways to fall asleep than with bass still ringing in your ears, drum beats vibrating through aching feet from dancing, and the heat from a live show pulsing in your veins but somehow still allowing you to drift off into a post concert blissful coma. Thanks to last minute tickets from the lovely Lisa, I was just floored by TV on the Radio at the Independent, and am happily sinking into said slumber.

Today’s Emo: About Today / The National


‘today you were far away / and I didn’t ask you why’

A favorite from the vault, although this one was discovered much later than when it was produced. While I was listening to Maroon Five and Ashlee Simpson and busy wrapped up in soccer practice, prom dates and graduating from high school in the spring of 2004, the National was busy releasing their Cherry Tree EP and crafting this subtle masterpiece which has come back to haunt me and delight me seven years later. Seven years, wow.

I didn’t come across this song until last fall when I started hungrily losing myself in all things The National, and I didn’t fully lose myself into About Today until spring when it started to hit quite close to home. I love the strings, the simplicity, the gaps between words. Mostly I love how it explains the lingering sting of words left unsaid. #emo

Today’s Untz: Levels / Avicii

A quick change of pace. This song is appropriately called Levels, because I hear layer upon layer build onto each other like a well played Tetris game of untz. Avicii is a very Nordic looking Swede who is showing some amazing talent for a twenty one year old, tossing in vocals from Pretty Lights’ Finally Morning between his own blocks of beat laced synth. This is the the kind of music that makes me mourn that it is only Wednesday. But it makes Wednesday so much better. #untz

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just go girlfriend

9 May

Things were getting anti-climatic and very chilly on the bleachers at the Giants game on Friday, so we cut out at the bottom of the 8th to beat the cab crowd only to have the Gigantes take back the game during the 9th. Luckily we made up for this by dancing our faces off at a pajama party at the Mezzanine. Some killer untz, and a reminder of why San Fran/the Mezz rocks… the pajama theme did not translate into skanky lingerie but rather fluffy bathrobes and lots of boxers, flannel and plaid. Cuddle time!

Good that I got some fun in because I spent a lot of the weekend working. The plus side of working at home is headphones get traded in for Bose. That’s the only plus side.

Today’s Emo: Girlfriend / We are Trees

‘talk to me girl / I never wanted it to end this way with you’

First came the Boyfriend EP, and now comes le Girlfriend EP from We Are Trees, a bedroom pop duo that resembles a slightly less funky Beach House with a side of Long Walks on the Beach. Dreamy vocals and teenage heartache dripping in every word. I like. #emo

Today’s Untz: Just Go / Germany Germany ft. Steffaloo


‘if you think you’re better off alone / just go’

Beautiful. Germany Germany becomes my most posted artist with today’s third appearance on TUATE. Everything I come across from Canadian Drew Harris, I adore, but I have had a really hard time classifying this one…. untzy emo, or emoy untz? Opting for untz due to the beautiful beats passing through my speakers right now, but there is definitely something simple and sad in the vocals amidst the deceivingly upbeat synth.  An age old question we have all asked ourselves at some point or another…. as Alice Deejay put it- do you think you’re better off alone? #untz

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dramatic holidays

6 May

Work has been so busy that I haven’t had the time to find good music during the day or the time after work to write about it. But here is good music, and a few words.

Today’s Emo: Wolf Like Me (TV on the Radio Cover) / The Holidays


‘dream me oh dreamer / down to the floor / open my hands and let them weave on yours’

There is something sexy and mischievous about this take on a TV on the Radio classic. The original is arguably untouchable, but Aussies The Holiday give this a brave go, in part releasing the cover in tribute to TOTR’s recently deceased bassist, Gerard Smith. A solid listen that has me revisiting the original.

We’re howling forever. #emo

Today’s Untz: Too Dramatic (the Kids are Radioactive Remix) / Ra Ra Riot

’cause you’re too dramatic / I don’t understand it’

My coworker Tom is a fellow music nerd and revelry lover who also has his own blog, originally named BlogJuice. It has been nice to have someone to ping during dragging midweek afternoons about shows, tracks and fun happenings… helps keep my inner untz happy amidst the cubicle dividers and florescent lights and professional speak. While some of BlogJuice’s stuff is a bit too hardcore for my day to day, it is all pretty solid, and this Ra Ra Riot remix posted earlier in the week hits the spot.

The Syracusian indie rockers get hopped up on something radioactive and I can almost taste the weekend here. So close. Giants’ first pitch is at 7:15 tonight, and I will be there on the bleachers soaking it in, hopefully a few beers deep. #untz

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hawaiian desert

4 May

“Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.” – Hunter S. Thompson.

Today’s Emo: Desert / Other Lives

‘all of your city lights / turn your brightest days into sleepless nights’

You know you are in for a treat within the first thirty seconds of this song when the drums kick in and you find yourself whisked away on a country western ending, riding into the sunset amidst cactus and rolling tumbleweeds and rolling vocals, booming drums, a silky female backdrop, and sweet strings. Desert is this week’s favorite musical discovery made knee deep in a sleepy Tuesday morning quagmire of excel spreadsheets.

The track is off Other Lives new album, Tamer Animals, and these Oklahomans have me smitten. I haven’t been excited about any new releases for the past several weeks, and work has been epically intense so this is especially gratefully received. You can almost hear the horse hooves. More cowbell please. #emo

Today’s Untz: Hawaii (Niva remix) / Blackbird Blackbird

Do happy song names make you predisposed to find happiness in a song?  I think it is no coincidence Hawaii makes me think summer breeze, white sand, and sleepy cat naps on the beach. I have had a hard time getting into San Fran’s Blackbird Blackbird, but this sunkissed remix of their work by Swedish DJ Christian Niva is having me give my neighbors another listen. Hazy waves of chill surfer beats, 75 degree weather, is it the weekend yet? Please? #untz

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2 hearts club

2 May

This weekend I celebrated the coming of May with the smell of sun kissed skin, 70 degree weather, mimosas, and Dolores Park. In return, earned some stellar tan lines and the inability to rally myself off the couch Saturday night to make it out, instead slipping into a late spring eleven hour slumber.

Then I rinsed and repeated in Fort Mason on Sunday.

Time to reboot, to watch Giants games, to play outside, to catch the dozens of amazing concerts passing through SF, and to pretend that summer is as cool as it was when we were young and had 3 months to do absolutely whatever we wanted between school years. I should have been a teacher.

Today’s Emo: Always Like This / Bombay Bicycle Club


‘oh she can wait for what I can give’

I love that the internet is filled with nooks and crannies holding amazing music of years past just waiting to be discovered and listened to as new. Bombay Bicycle Club is a British band that has been around for some time now but has just come across my path and I am really feeling them. Crisp vocals, fun rounds and toe tapping rhythm– they have a slightly more mellow and less polished Two Door Cinema Club sound. The quad is at work with the producer of Animal Collective and the mixer of Arcade Fire to release a new album come September. This time I will catch it the first time around. #emo

Today’s Emo: 2 Hearts / Digitalism

‘a touch too much, too soon / got cast away with you / got cast away with you’

German duo Digitalism delivers a track laced with happy, peppy beats and a depressing tale of unrequited love. Love the 80’s vibe, the slightly jarring sound, and the darker premise embedded in the untz.

This is the first I have heard of Digitalism, but they are about to release their sophomore album amazingly titled I Love You Dude. Euro bromance! #untz

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heart list

29 Apr

The scene: Wednesday night at the Bottom of the Hill, my best friend, Blue Moons, and my favorite band. I showed up at doors, chilled for an hour, impatiently listened to the openers, and then lost myself for a couple hours in a mind blowingly amazing show. It was the first time The Head and the Heart has headlined in SF, and due to our strategic early arrival, I was pressed up front right, so close to the speakers that my legs shook with the bass, watching hands slide on strings and socked feet hop about on the stage while occasionally convincing myself I had locked eyes with the lead singers. The show sold out weeks ago, and they showed us why.

Before starting the last song Jon belted out that he was dying for a cigarette, so after last croon I booked it for the patio area, met the band, expressed my undying devotion, got snapshots, and found out that Charity is nice and shy and not in the least bit indie bitchy like I thought she might be. Then I bought too much merch, cabbed it home and went to sleep with a goofy grin, nestling into bed at one with guitar rifts still ringing in my ears. It is Wednesdays like these and the people I share them with that I will never forget when I am old and boring and thinking back when. These are the places I will always go.

Today’s Emo: Josh McBride / The Head and the Heart


‘darling this is when I met you / for the third time not the last / not the the last time we are learning / who we are and what we were’

This is a new song and it is meant for a campfire. Josh McBride (also known as Seat Beside Me) was one of several unreleased tracks performed, and it was really something – smooth harmonies, trickles on keys, steady strumming and heartfelt vocals. Most of the audience hadn’t heard it yet because they don’t stalk THATH the way I do, and there was that “oh wow” moment of hush when it ended, like people had just experienced something great for the first time and were soaking it in. And then epic applause.

The chorus of ‘you are in the seat beside me‘ makes me think of Death Cab’s Passenger Seat, and while it is unique in its own right, this song evokes similar sentiment– that peaceful comfort of companionship and conviction in who you have next to you at the end of the day. Or the want for that space to be filled. #emo

Today’s Untz: Lisztomania (Phoenix cover) / Edwin Van Cleef ft. Jane Hanely


‘these days it comes, it comes, it comes, it comes, it comes and goes’

I have been hungry for new Phoenix for some time now and thus forced to temporarily satiate myself with remixes. Luckily there is no lack of options. Classixx has a standout take on Lisztomania, and now UK DJ/producer Edwin Van Cleef has made a great go at it, twisting in female vocals from Jane Hanely to give one of the most remixed songs of the past few years new life.

This is the first I have heard of Mr. Cleef, and while I suggest he get a new stage name I will have to keep him on my radar because I want to dance to this. And dance and dance and dance. #untz

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save the cat

27 Apr

Stumbled onto open mic night Tuesdays at Red Devil Lounge due to making drunk friends with a local musician last weekend. Will not miss another… and not just because the crowd was 90% male in plaid. I forgot how lucky I am to live in a big city – it was like a high school talent show for grown ups. Very talented grown ups.

Today’s Emo: I Found a Reason / Cat Power


‘what comes is better than what came before’

I popped an old mixed CD in the Honda last weekend while driving to Los Gatos with my sister and was taken by this almost forgotten subtle Cat Power cover of Velvet Underground that had been gathering dust. There is not much too it – the track clocks in at about 2 minutes and is simple at best, but CP’s version of I Found a Reason is the kind of song that instantly puts you at ease and makes you want to curl up into something (or someone).

I caught Cat Power (less fun non-stage name Chan Marshall) live at a Bridge School Concert a few years back and I don’t remember her being particularly stunning in terms of presence –I think she struggles with stage fright. Still, her voice is enough to carry her… smoky, sultry and sweet without being gooey. Female vocals at their finest, perfect midweek chill sesh. #emo

Today’s Untz: Save the World Tonight / Swedish House Mafia


‘turn up the love now/ listen up now/ turn up the love’

SHM released a new track this week featuring the vocal prowess of John Martin of Miike Snow and I am shamelessly floored. This delightful untz drips of boy band and makes me want to dance like fifteen year old me wanted to dance to N’Sync.

I love the piano break, love the oooh-oooooh echos for singalong like in Kings of Leon’s Use Somebody (favorite karoke song), love that this epic euro untz is somehow earnest amidst all the cheese. Can always count on Pete Tong / BBC Radio 1 to put magic like this on the airwaves.

Oooh-oooooh. #untz

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whale trak

25 Apr

Spring brings our beloved national pastime back into play, and a slew of drunken revelers passing through the ally way outside my office on game days. I know the Giants are playing an afternoon game anytime there is in influx of weed clouds, brawling, or public urination beyond the usual mayhem that can occur any given weekday on the streets of SOMA.

While it is exciting to have National Champions in the backyard, I will miss last year’s random Wednesdays when I snagged last minute $11 bleacher seats, downed a few at 21st Amendment after work and slipped into a spontaneous, fun filled evening. Now it is buying tickets weeks ahead and dropping four times the cash. It feels a little bit like that bittersweet moment when your favorite up and coming band has arrived, and you can no longer stand front row at their concert and lock eyes dreamily with the bass player for less than a movie ticket. You are really happy for them, but they suddenly feel less accessible, less… yours.

Still, it is really ridiculous for me to complain, especially after many depressing years of being a Mariners fan. I went to my first game yesterday afternoon, and even though it was a heartbreaking 10th inning defeat, the beard is feared.

Today’s Emo: Golden /The Devil Whale


‘I thought I heard someone say a prayer / and the words felt stolen’

Another band name with whale in it, although I believe panda is still the most represented member of the animal kingdom in band and dj names these days. I discovered The Devil Whale while doing homework for an upcoming concert – they open for the Head and the Heart Wednesday night at The Bottom of the Hill. Pleasant vocals, swaying melodies, and tambourines, these guys will be the perfect way to start what is sure to be a heavenly emo evening. #emo

Today’s Untz: Heads Will Roll / The Yeah Yeah Yeahs (A-Trak remix)


‘glitter on the wet streets / silver over everything’

I found Skrillex a little too much dub to take with my cornflakes on Saturday morning of Coachella, so A-Trak was the first untz set that I really settled into. And by settle into I mean get epically unsettled dancing. The crowd went nuts for Barbara Streisand (A-Trak is 1/2 of Duck Sauce) but it was hearing his version of Heads Will Roll live that had me undone…. and not just because it made me think of the magical dance sequence on the Halloween episode of Glee. Great energy, great friends, great #untz

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national harvest

22 Apr

Story time:

I grew up in a house where we referred to Neil Young on a first name basis. I learned about Crazy Horse while playing with My Little Ponies, and I subconsciously memorized the lyrics to all of his songs by age 10, including some I really shouldn’t have (I wish I was a trapper / I would give a thousand pelts / to sleep with Pocahontas / and find out how she felt.’ Neil was an inescapable fixture in our home, from our tape deck in the volvo station wagon to our family holiday soundtrack, when my dad would try to slide Rust Never Sleeps into the CD player in the place of Handel’s Messiah whenever my mom stepped into the garage to grab more ornaments.

Accordingly, I hated Neil Young with a fiery passion throughout the majority of my life.

In the past few years though, things have changed. I caught a couple of Neil’s Bridge School Benefit Concerts at Shoreline, and was impressed with his dedication to his family and the enormous respect he has garnered from his peers. When I go back to Oregon I no longer cringe when I am greeted with Rockin’ in the Free World (which also happens to be our home internet password), and these days I find the vanity license plate “Walk On” more amusing than annoying.

As my musical tastes have matured, Neil’s whiny voice sounds a little more palatable and his once gibberish laced lyrics now make at least a little sense. In the end, I have come to realize my dad showed me what it meant to love music before I knew how. Today’s untz may not be an actual Neil song, but this is as close as the TUATE is going to get.

Today’s Emo: Exile Vilify / The National

‘does it trouble your mind / the way you trouble mine?

I lost my shit during The National’s set on Sunday night, so imagine my delight in the release of a new track on Tuesday to help cure my ever aching Coachella withdrawal. While I wasn’t won over by the group’s release of Think You Can Wait last month, I instantly fell for this one… I am such a sucker for piano, and I can picture fingers rolling lazily but deftly across keys in this intro, leading me into the song.

Exile Vilify has all the elements that make The National my favorite band: a mini orchestra, flawless melodies, and Matt Berninger’s signature baritone, which is somehow both calming and haunting, chilling and comforting at the same time. The strings cut everything up and then smooth it together, and I am lost on repeat. #emo

Today’s Untz: Harvest Moon (Neil Young Cover) / Teen Daze


‘because I’m still in love with you / I want to see you dance again’

I will go so far as to admit I actually like a few Neil songs now, and with its simple, cut to the heart lyrics, and swaying on the dance floor rhythm, Harvest Moon is one of my favorites. Although my father may find it slightly sacrilegious, this Teen Daze cover has me smitten… with soft vocals and dreamy rolling beats, the original version is hardly traceable, but isn’t lost here. At this point in life, I must have heard this song a thousand times, but I’ve never heard it like this. #untz

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