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February 6, 2023

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

  • Thu 2/16 – Neon Indian (DJ set) at Cal Academy of Sciences

  • 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

  • Fri 6/2 – Re:SET with LCD Soundsystem, Jamie xx, IDLES, Big Freedia, and more at Frost Ampitheater, Palo Alto (Stanford)

    • 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"...

  • Sat 6/3 – Re:SET with Steve Lacy, James Blake, Toro y Moi, and others at Frost Ampitheater, Palo Alto (Stanford)

  • 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.

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