2 weeks Ago By Sacramento Bee
From the “where’d the time go” files, local indie rock fixture is celebrating 20 years as a band this year. We’re not expecting the quartet to appear outwardly exasperated about this realization of two decades in the biz — that’s just not the way their music lands. There’s a grounding sense of fortitude and almost zen-like centeredness to their brand of swirling guitar-driven jangle-pop and .
.. well, we’ll use the oft-tagged “shoegaze” here, but a good plenty of their sonic meanderings are gazing up into the heavens as opposed to down at their sneakers.
Desario’s anniversary celebration features support from and (8 p.m. Friday, Nov.
1 at Cafe Colonial. $14.15.
). Cafe Colonial also is hosting the first two of the three nights of 2024 “ ” shows, organized by Danny Reynoso of the Moans, benefiting the American Cancer Society. Night No.
1 (7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov.
6) leans indie rock/pop with and , with a punk-heavy lineup of and rounding out Night No. 2 (7 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 7). Obviously, if you’re gonna do a “punk vs.
surf” themed night, you gotta move over to the bar named after a boat to give the surf rockers home-deck advantage: the aforementioned and blow it out on Night No. 3 at Old Ironsides (8 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 8. ; ) world tour wraps up this month in Sacramento — it started in October in Germany and finishes Nov.
2 at the Side Door, with one gig in between. We didn’t say it was a tour of the whole world, just of his world. The locally-bred singer has returned to the area after spending 15 years abroad in Berlin, having cranked out around a half-dozen albums since the pandemic.
He’ll be playing an acoustic and a full band set, rummaging through the drawers for some of his dustiest tunes (7 p.m. Saturday, Nov.
2, 2900 Franklin Blvd. $20. ) When one saunters through the hearty discography of , there are really not a lot of skippers to be found — which makes it all the more impressive how boldly “News of the Universe” lands in their already immersive catalog.
Spearheaded by frontwoman Shana Cleveland, their latest release feels as much like a songwriter’s record as anything they’ve dished up so far — lyrical nebulas stitched together by their now finely honed, out-of-body approach to fuzzy thrift shop psych-surf rock. At times it’s the soundtrack to the moments in a supernatural thriller right before things start to go horribly wrong — at others, it’s what you hear when you unwittingly tumble into an intergalactic wormhole with no known destination. We’re not sure which dimension the video for their ethereal banger “ ” dropped us off in, but we’re loving that they still deliver newspapers by bicycle there! For an extra treat, La Luz is joined by retro-Western indie rock troupe , fronted by former Agent Ribbons overseer Natalie Gordon, marking her group’s second homecoming(ish) show of the year (8 p.
m. Wednesday, Nov. 6 at Harlow’s.
$30.75. ).
The Midas touch of jazz guitar royalty is well-documented — so the gilded edge running through his newest project is no surprise. The “leans heavily into percussion” with Hammond’s stirring blues and funk-inflected compositions backed by a parade of frisky and provocative beats ladled out by bassist Mike Palmer, percussionist Dominic Garcia and drummer Tom Monson. “This music represents what it feels like to live in Sacramento,” Hammond says of the project.
“We have so many cultures with their own sounds, vibes, customs, joys and struggles. That’s what makes Sacramento great. And that’s what makes this music great, to me.
It is celebrating the roots that we all come from and harvesting something new” (7 p.m. Friday, Nov.
8 at the Sofia. $25. ).
We got our earliest tastes of Deep Water during Hammond’s free weekend jazz series at Old Soul in Oak Park (4 p.m. to 6 p.
m. Sundays, 35th and Broadway), which has been going strong throughout the year. There’s gigs every Sunday in November, including the likes of (Nov.
3), (Nov. 10), (Nov. 17), (Nov.
24) and (Dec. 1). Live music seems to be becoming an integral part of life at midtown’s Mattie Groves Brewery — as one would expect from a brew joint named after a centuries-old British folk song (we’re partial to ).
They’re routinely hosting local artists in their cozy L Street space (which formerly housed Big Stump), and this month they’re wrapping up a week of Halloween-themed events with a free duo gig from local indie rock mainstay (6 p.m. to 9 p.
m. Saturday, Nov. 2.
). Be Brave Bold Robot uncorks a full band set the following week at Lucid Winery (next to Fox & Goose) alongside fellow veterans , with and (5 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 8. ) We admittedly don’t spend a ton of time pouring over tribute bands, but we do appreciate shtick — like that produced by , which, as you can probably guess, is a clown-themed tribute to System of a Down.
We also appreciate the opportunity to drop lyrics as situationally relevant puns: “Wake up (wake up) / Grab a brush and put a little makeup.” (9 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 23 at Harlow’s. ).
We started this month’s Beat with a 20th anniversary celebration, so we’ll close with one more. Infectiously janky, madcap Nevada City indie collective marks 20 years since the release of their ramshackle zigzagger of a record “Friendship is Deep” by playing the record in its entirety, with assuredly several other of their songs as well. As usual, no way to know who shows up to join in the fun along with founder Adam Klein — but the list we do have is guitarist Ehren Haas, bassist Hunter Burgan, percussionists Todd Roper and David Nicholson, Brett Shady and Jonathan Hansard.
opens (8 p.m. Friday, Nov.
29 at Miners Foundry. $25-$30. ).
.
