See Moir Music: February 2023
Slipping through the new year
Hi it's already February and hopefully I haven't missed any crucial show announcements because as expected, they've been pouring in since the new year started.
I checked out Hessle Audio (Ben UFO, Pangaea, Pearson Sound) at the Great Northern a couple nights ago and it was a great set. Definitely interesting to have them b2b all night, as the vibe would evolve consistently as they swapped the decks, but it was a good night out. I also spent the whole weekend recovering from how much it wiped me out, oops. I feel old.
Despite being psyched that Monkey Safari was a Sunday day party, I spent my Saturday climbing outside so uh, I didn’t have enough energy to go all day Sunday too. Resting, how does it work.
Where I’ll Be
Fri 2/17 – Flight Facilities and warner case at 1015 Folsom
Unsure what the crowd vibe will be like, but I haven't seen warner case since I discovered him and his track douwannabemine? on SoundCloud years ago. He's been making his way up and so I'll catch him at 1015!
Fri 2/24 – Tourist and Jacques Greene at Public Works (Noise Pop!)
2 of my faves, I even got tickets before Jacques was added to the bill. Really looking forward to seeing them at a cozier venue. (Is Public Works bigger than Gray Area and Starline Social? Feels like it…)
Fri 3/3 – Henrik Schwarz and Kettama at 1015 Folsom
Psyched for this one. Got hyped to see Kettama especially after his b2b with Mall Grab and Loods for this DJ set, and he's also been keeping company with salute lately too. If you've ever heard Henrik Schwarz's remix of Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas's track Ene Nyame 'A' Mensuro tease in a DJ set, you'd be even more excited (I am).
Sat 3/11 – Skin on Skin at a ~ secret location ~
The email said RIYL Bicep so I looked up a set of his and it's pretty sick. He's on Mall Grab's label Steel City Dance Discs. Gonna be bass-heavy and good.
Thu 4/6 – Caterina Barbieri at The Lab
Happy Birthday to me. The last (good) show I saw pre-pandemic, Jacques Greene dropped her track Fantas and I've never shazammed something so many times in my life.
Thu 4/13 – Overmono at 1015 Folsom
They were amazing live at Monarch, the crowd will be a different vibe at 1015 and TBD if it will be a live show as well, but either way, psyched to see them again a few scant weeks before they put out an album.
What's Happening
February
Fri 2/10 – Lee Foss and HUGEL at 1015 Folsom
I was sorely tempted by this show because Morenita by Hugel is just that good, but it's been a busy month already, and I'll be gone.
Sat 2/11 – Danilo Plessow at Public Works
Still sad I'll be gone for this! His set was an unexpected treat at Portola.
Sat 2/11 – What So Not at Gray Area
Sat 2/11 – Goldfish, Justin Jay, Too Many Zooz, and others at The Midway
Sat 2/11 – DJ Python at Monarch
Fri 2/17 – Yotto at The Midway
Fri 2/17 – Fort Romeau and Verlk in the Loft (and Tim Green and Einmusik on the main floor) at Public Works
If you're not familiar with Fort Romeau, check out his remake of a Peter Gabriel track with L.O.S.T., and then check out this set.
Sun 2/19 – Cubicolor (DJ set) (Day Party!) at Audio
Mon 2/20 – FIDLAR at Bottom of the Hill
Fri 2/24 – Chris Malinchak at Audio
Sat 2/25 – Nikki Nair for Garage Access at Monarch
Sat 2/25 – Sultan + Shepard at Audio
March
Wed 3/1 – BIIG PIIG at Rickshaw Stop
Sat 3/4 – Jerro at Audio
Sat 3/4 – Kaleena Zanders and some other people at The Midway
Sun 3/5 – Maggie Rogers at Billy G
Fri 3/10 – Capital Cities (DJ set) at Rickshaw Stop
Fri 3/10 – Marsh at Great Northern
Sat 3/11 – Parov Stelar at the Fox Theater
Sat 3/11 – PUP at Regency Ballroom
Sat 3/11 – Justin Martin at Audio
Mon 3/13, Tue 3/14, Wed 3/15, Thu 3/16, Fri 3/17 – Godspeed You! Black Emperor at The Chapel
Tue 3/14 – Masego at the Warfield
Fri 3/17 – Max Cooper (3D/AV) at The Midway
Surprised to see him go from Public Works to the Midway. Gonna be a good show, I won't make it out for this one.
Fri 3/17 – J. Phlip at Monarch
Fri 3/17 – Felix Da Housecat at Audio
Fri 3/17 – Robin Schulz at 1015 Folsom
Tue 3/28 – Anna Lapwood at First Methodist Church in Palo Alto
First, watch her play with Bonobo at Royal Albert Music Hall. Then watch it again, this time actually watching her play alongside the music. Goosebumps.
Wed 3/29 & Thu 3/30 – Tallest Man on Earth at the Chapel
Thu 3/30 – Anna of the North at The Independent
Fri 3/31 – Marie Davidson at Monarch
Her track Work It was remixed by Soulwax and it was excellent, and Monarch has a great vibe.
Fri 3/31 – Christian Löffler at Great Northern
He had a great set for Cercle, playing an original track for it as well called Ronda which captured me. Probably won't make it to this one either, but still recommended.
April
Sat 4/1 – Colony House at August Hall
Sat 4/1 – Sébastien Léger at Audio
I missed him last time, and I'll almost certainly miss him again.
Fri 4/7 & Sat 4/8 – SG Lewis at The Warfield
Sat 4/8 – Dragonette at Rickshaw Stop
Her track Hello with Martin Solveig will forever remind me of being a know-nothing 20-something in Berlin.
Thu 4/13 – Yaeji at Fox Theater
Thu 4/13 – Elderbrook at The Warfield
Fri 4/14 – Big Wild at Greek Theater
Fri 4/14 – Jan Blomqvist and others at Public Works
Sat 4/22 – Boris Brejcha at The Midway
Wed 4/26 – Tennis at the Fox Theater
Fri 4/28 – Nils Frahm at the Fox Theater
Fri 4/28 – Joseph at The Fillmore
Fri 4/28 – Amtrac at the Independent
I've seen him a few times and his music is good — he's definitely branching out into singing more and that's clear on his latest album, which he dropped a couple weeks ago without me even noticing. Should be a good set!
Later
Mon 5/1 & Tue 5/2 – Caroline Polachek at the Warfield
Sat 5/13 – Whethan on the San Francisco Belle for a boat party!
Tue 5/16 and Wed 5/17 – M83 at Fox Theater
Fri 5/19 – Snakehips at 1015 Folsom
Fri 5/19 – Moon Boots at GAMH
Wed 5/24 – Meg Myers at the Independent
I'll be out of town, but this is an epic lineup. I'm guessing tickets will start at $200 for each night of this "festival"...
Sun 6/4 – Re:SET with boygenius, Clairo, Dijon, and more at Frost Ampitheater, Palo Alto (Stanford)
Wed 8/30 – Sylvan Esso at Greek Theater
Mon 10/9, Tue 10/10, and Wed 10/11 – The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie at the Greek Theatre
Other fun events
Tue 2/14 – A Byte Sized History of Computer Typography with Ben Zotto (Online)
This just sounds cool.
Fri 2/17 – Isabel Wilkerson at Sydney Goldstein Theater
The author of the Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origin of our Discontents is giving a talk as part of a series with City Arts and Lectures. Usually authors are interviewed, but unclear if that's happening here!
Tue 2/28 – Tsitsi Dangarembga & Angela Davis at Sydney Goldstein Theater
The author of Are Prisons Obsolete?, founder of Critical Resistance, and so much more in conversation with anothe activist and writer. Recommended!
Sat 3/4 – Night Of Ideas: More? at San Francisco Public Library (Main Branch)
In a time when everyone else is asking "Less?" the library is asking "More?". Could be fun!
Sat 4/15 – Writing on Raving: Zoë Beery, Geoffrey Mak, and Mckenzie Wark at The Lab
I'll be here, because writing and music. I've been following Mckenzie Wark online for some time, and recently met Zoë on the internet, so I'm extra excited.
Art events
Now – 1/2/24 – Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors at SF MoMA
Perhaps the most entrancing and engrossing a/v art installation I've ever encountered. Highly, highly, highly recommend. I still gotta make it out.
Thu 3/16 – Wed 5/31 – Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: TECHS-MECHS: A Survey of Mexican Technological Culture at Gray Area
Recognizing the militaristic origins and policing applications of the technologies he uses, Lozano-Hemmer’s installations grant participants generative agency, thereby offering them the opportunity to subvert the operational logics of control and surveillance.
Other notes
I did an end-of-year deep dive blog post into my 2022 in music, and also wrote a long long post back in November about whether or not we'd see prompt-based music generation (like Stable Diffusion but for music). Last week Google released a research project they called MusicLM, which is so far just a research project rather than a commercial offering, but still compelling progress.
On a similar topic, I listened to Paris Marx interview Dr. Timnit Gebru for his podcast Tech Won't Save Us, and Paris made the point that much of what is being "automated" by these large language models and diffusion models is culture—the very thing that we'd want to be able to make more of if the constraints of work were removed. Instead, capitalism strikes again and commerce triumphs over culture—so if we can commoditize it and make the cheap labor seem like "free" labor, then that's what we build. Sigh.
Recent great releases
I'm in another one of those phases where I'm not really listening to much new stuff and not really letting much burn in. Feel free to send on some tracks that you've been enjoying!
The Hessle Audio boys dropped Joy Orbison's new track, 2M3 2U and it's even better on a real soundsystem.
Jacques Greene and Bonobo collaborated on a track called Fold.