The San Francisco based alternative surf rock band, Lemme Adams released a new EP last week. The five track album is entitled Black Flamingo and is a strong follow up to their debut album Gorilla Back.

Lemme Adams, as a band is able to incorporate horns into their dark surf rock sound in a super tasteful manner. The horns never bleed over into playing cheesy ska riffs or come off sounding overly "Mariachi", even when performing music for the Latin themed third track, Venezuela. Jordan Miller's bassy tribal drum beats and Adams' signature vocals make the album familiar and warm in regards to the musical style relating to their previous release. Nonetheless, Adams as a songwriter wrote more about what was going on around him while maintaining a bit of subjectiveness in this collection of songs. You can still pinpoint Adams' perception and opinion about what he's lyrically describing, but he's less emotionally direct than his writing was in the last album.

Adams has the ability to write incredibly cynical songs that don't put you off or seem unnecessarily confrontational. The title track of the album (which houses some nice faux improvised jam outs) along with the second song, Hella seem to be about general disillusionment with social popularity. Both songs talk a lot about friends, and Hella seems to point out "friends" inconsistencies and trivialness. Hella is a Californian slang term that means "a large amount of" and can be easily overused in conversation. The irony of the word is not lost on Adams in regards his parody of how many times the word can be said and heard if one is in a group of young people in Cali.

The third song, Venezuela captures the sunny feel of the South American country as Adams sings about not being able to escape the sharp sunlight. Christmas Spirit goes along with the band's weird theme of writing and performing Christmas music all year around, and of course, Toys, the song of the band's award winning music video has finally made its debut on a recording.

Great record. Good job! Take a listen to Black Flamingo!

Lately, Collin Ludlow-Mattson & the Folks have been stretching out their songs—exploring their material from many angles through improvisation. They’ve evolved into something of a post-punk jam band. This new improvisatory approach results in interpretations of songs that are highly situation-specific. What is played is not just a reflection of the song as written; the playing also very much reflects the atmosphere in which the song is currently being played and the evolving relationship of the musicians (Collin, Indianna Hale, Sean Olmstead, and Sterling Schlegel), who are housemates and friends. The kind of music Collin Ludlow-Mattson & the Folks are making now grows best when it is exposed frequently to an audience—people who respond to the music and cause the musicians to respond to their responses. It is perfect then that in June CLM & the Folks have a Tuesday-night residency at San Francisco’s Amnesia—placing them in contact with an audience weekly. Amnesia, which is the hub of a blossoming Bay Area music scene, will be hosting a number of very exciting lineups during the CLM & the Folks residency. The lineups for all five shows are full of local bands who have very compelling catalogs of songs and unique sonic approaches for realizing their songs in a live setting. This is a not-to-be-missed June event, one that will perfectly compliment other notable musical events taking place in Northern California in June—like Hickey Fest and the Grateful Dead reunion concerts.

6/9: Soft Shells
Pat Hull (beautiful tunes from Chico)

6/16: Mark E. Deutsch (super album release!!!!)
Dead Recipe

6/23: TV Mike and the Scarecrowes (playing songs of the Grateful Dead)
Sea Dramas

6/30: Jeff Grimes
1 more band TBD!

The Ballroom Babies are a 3 piece rock outfit made of 3 brothers. Steve, Mike and Nathan Collucci from Mississauga, Ontario. All 3 are seasoned musicians having graduated from Humber College's Music Program. At one point they all separate bands but have come to the conclusion to "never go against the family". They released their first album "Change to Silver" in 2013. Its all cohesive rock n roll with an edge. I particularly like the title track from the album. It starts off with a slow drum beat and a tight chord progression that leads into a dreamy chorus with vocals cut from a Scott Weiland cloth. By the end of the tune it all makes sense...and you're rocking out. Have a listen....you can see the Ballroom Babies Wednesday June 3rd @ the Lazy Flamingo in Hamilton. -Kris"Big City"Gies

Canadiana with a tinge of party-pop, Jonny Debt’s Waiting “Love” is begging you to break out the flip flops and mixed drinks, and play some hooky away from work. Really channeling his inner John Butler, his electric banjo strumming and country-jam band bring a good-times, slacker-rock meander into a fun pop song. The video, one-half party and one-half love-yearning soul search, is a fun venture split between the band jamming with some Jonny Debt-merch sporting co-eds, and a seemingly time and space traversing quest for a mythical long lost love. Wardrobe had a fun time on this shoot. If you’re looking to check this act out, they’re playing at the Midem festival in Cannes, France, and then embarking on a bar-hopping tour of southern Florida!-Cody Wright

The San Francisco based psych shoegaze band, The Spiral Electric and Fine Points, the new formation of a band featuring members of the successful local psych-soul band, Sleepy Sun are going to be performing live at Brick and Mortar Music Hall on June 3rd.

Fine Points are so new that they have yet to release any recorded material, so this show should be some incentive to massage your curious nature (if you possess it) and see what the band can actually do. Obviously, The Spiral Electric is a great live band, and the legendary neo psych band, The Warlocks will be in town to put on an always stellar performance. The Warlocks are an indispensable band to the Los Angeles and Bay Area neo psychedelic music scene. They've opened doors for countless current local bands and helped set the sonic standard for the washed out, reverb latent garage rock style that we've all become accustomed to knowing as a huge chuck of the local music community's signature sound. If you want to know where current San Francisco neo psych-garage rock got born, check out this show.