Any discussion of SF music in August has to begin with Outside Lands 2014. Tickets sold out in the blink of an eye, a well-deserved achievement considering the extremely packed lineup of everything from Kanye to (Mikal) Cronin. It’s great to see Outside Lands continue to soar. Now when do we start talking about extending it to a second weekend?
OSL is the biggest, but it certainly isn’t the only festival happening this month: the 20th Street Block Party returns for another day of free music in the Mission; the First City Festival brings Beck, The National and many more to Monterey; and the Woodsist Festival offers two days of great indie bands in Big Sur’s Henry Miller Library.
Beyond the fests, a number of local and locally-affiliated bands have new albums they’re celebrating with Bay Area shows. Local shoegazers Whirr, who now share bandmember Nick Bassett with Philadelphia’s Nothing, are about to launch Sway, and the song we’ve included here sounds like the group’s best work yet. Luke Sweeney of Vows has a new solo LP of psych-pop coming soon. “Doin’ It to You” has us very excited about checking out Adventure:Us in full. Finally, Oakland’s Mr. Kind is a quintet on the rise; the group brings a new EP to Bottom of the Hill later this month.
Enjoy the podcast and then go see some concerts!
About the bands: