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 | SF Station Blows It Up NYC does it again with Vampire Weekend. With their fun and quirky sound the foursome sold out Popscene last Thursday night. The room was full by 10pm as fans waited for the boys to hit the stage. Looking around, I could see how diverse the crowd was -- everybody from hipsters to middle aged rockers were present and once VW hit the stage it was apparent why. With their great mix of West African pop infused indie rock the boys take you on a journey through sound.More |  | Music to Shake Your Ass To With its fusion of Latin music, hip hop and funk, Bayonics have gained a reputation for providing the perfect soundtrack for bumpin’ and grindin’ across the dance floor. The 10-piece band has roots in San Francisco’s Mission District, among other locales, and holds a monthly residence at the Elbo Room, along with regular gigs at other clubs throughout the Bay Area and U.S. tours. The band’s next Bay Area performance is February 23rd at Café du Nord. Jim Vargas, a vocalist/MC with the group, spoke with SF Station during a phone interview.More |  | A Discussion With an Apocalyptic Messenger After coalescing in Sonoma County’s small and incestuous rock scene, The Aimless Never Miss packed their bags to try their luck in San Francisco. About two years and two EPs later, TANM is gigging with a psychedelic light show that matches their spacious guitar and synth-driven tunes. The band is working on their debut LP between gigs at various venues around the Bay Area. They perform on February 12th, opening for Raised by Robots at Café du Nord. Jonny Latimer (guitar/vocals) spoke during a phone interview with SF Station from his SOMA practice space.More |  | Rockin’ Just Like Thelma & Louise It’s been about five years since the HorrorPops went Hollywood and relocated from Denmark to Los Angeles, and now the group is taking it one step further with a new album inspired by various B-movies, Alfred Hitchcock and Thelma & Louise. The group, fronted by standup bassist/vocalist Patricia Day, returns to San Francisco with its mix of punk, psychobilly and pop for a show at Slim’s on February 8th. Drummer Henrik Niedermeir spoke with SF Station during a phone interview from Los Angeles.More |  | A SF Class Act Social Studies have been without a bass player for the last few months, but that hasn’t slowed the dynamic SF indie rockers down much. The band recruited a friend to hold down bass duties -- who might end up sticking around for good -- and has recorded most of its first full-length album, a follow-up to the 2006 debut EP [b]The World’s Biggest Hammer[/b]. Social Studies is also preparing for a Bay Area showcase gig at South by Southwest in March, and hoping to arrange a U.S. tour sometime this year. Vocalist Natalia Rogovin spoke with SF Station during a break from her daytime office gig in the city.More |  | Can you Kwassa Kwassa? After two U.S. tours, sold out shows overseas and national media coverage, including write-ups in [b]The New York Times[/b] and [b]Rolling Stone[/b], Vampire Weekend are final ready to release their self-titled debut album on January 29th. The Brooklyn-based indie quartet returns to San Francisco with its “Upper West Side Soweto” -- a style that has earned comparisons to Paul Simon’s album [b]Graceland[/b] and other 80s rock-afropop fusions -- for a show at Popscene on January 31st. Bassist Cris Baio spoke with SF Station during a phone interview from Brooklyn.More |  | Keyboard Trio Perform in SF Before Winter Hibernation After a year of extensive touring around the world, Brooklyn keyboard trio Au Revoir Simone return to San Francisco for one last performance before taking a break for the first half of 2008 to write and record their third album. Heather D’Angelo spoke with SF Station during a phone interview from Los Angeles, where she was vacationing with her boyfriend.More |  | Telling it Like it is For nearly 25 years William “Darondo” Pulliam remained a mystery to vinyl collectors and 70s soul and R&B enthusiasts. The Bay Area singer released three singles in the early 70s before abandoning the music scene and virtually disappearing, leaving only a few rare 45s -- which reportedly sell for hundreds of dollars -- and a mysterious persona. In addition to his music, and its nods to Al Green and The Isley Brothers, Darondo was known for sporting flashy clothes, spending money and driving his with 1965 Rolls Royce. Some thought he was a pimp, but the singer claims he was a legit businessman, enjoying the finer things in life.More |  | An SF Band That Likes To Fuck Around The Fucking Ocean should be easy to sum up in a quick paragraph, but the San Francisco-based band is kind of complicated -- in a homegrown, post-punk, work-all-day-rock-all-night kind of way, of course. Two members of the current three-member lineup -- Marcella Gries and Matt Swagler -- live in the Bay Area while John Nguyen resides on the East Coast.More |  | By the Beat of Their Strum With a sparse arrangement of three stringed acoustic instruments, The Devil Makes Three channel bluegrass, folk and country styles of yesteryear with narratives about whiskey, heartache and bloodshed, among other topics. The trio, that formed in Santa Cruz in the early ’00s after childhood friends Pete Bernard (guitar, banjo, harmonica) and Cooper McBean (guitar, banjo, musical saw) linked with aspiring standup bassist Lucia Turnio, returns to San Francisco to celebrate the re-release of the self-titled debut that was originally released in 2002.More |
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