nematode

TV Star @ Stork Club, Oakland 2024. Sex drugs n’ rock and roll 🤘 . Mostly rock though for Seattle’s TV Star - hot off their debut LP “Music for Heads” via father/daughter records. ‘Heads’ furthers TV Star’s string of 90s and beyond amp worship, taking a grocery store selection of brit pop, psych rock ala BJM, and some country western grit. ‘Music For Heads’ lyrically explores the aches and pains of a breakup and the blossoming that follows, surrounded by a backdrop of drums and guitars of a band at its boldest. Really a great record by a crew of rock lovers for rock lovers. Live Laugh Rock 🤘 . TV Star is on tour down and up the west coast beginning now with dates in Cali.

Ana Roxanne @ SF, 2023 + 2024. Ana Roxanne bares it all on her new record “Poem 1”, tuning the echoes and pangs of her ambient work into an oscillating ballad centered around her vocal compositions and hallmark reflectiveness. Ana’s music has always been one for wistfulness journeyed unto harmony, often in a haze of warmth through organic textures and moods. “Poem 1” takes what has always been great about Ana - the innate ability to hone in on a meditative and introspective experience across textures and a profuse voice, now in a minimal fashion. Her vocals are at the forefront of this record, backed by piano and shifting experimental and ensemble arrangements at her most confident. Her latest work finds itself at its most straightforward yet, monastic as ever, tapping into a deep yearning for love and spiritual harmony. Ana has live dates near and far with this record, including dates this week in California.

Robert Lester Folsom @ the Troubador, LA 2025. @robertlesterfolsom ‘s music is the hallmark case of art that transcends time and generations. Folsom was born in 1955 and spent his formative and young adult years in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida. From youth onward, he developed his musical abilities and social bonds in church and spent much of the 70s honing his talents alone and with friends between bedroom projects and bands. His love for music was influenced by country folk, the British Invasion, and the hippie movement that would come to define his personality in the 60s-70s. Primed by the music he was making throughout his 20s, he recorded “Music and Dreams”, a small-press album that would help him realize his love and joy of making music. ‘Music’ was an amazing album of psych rock Americana and folk, a standout for the era that didn’t reach the masses it deserved. Robert soon started a family, and his full-on effort to translate his music through bands and recordings was placed on the back burner. He remained at bay, playing music alone amongst family, living a normal life, until his old recordings picked up massive steam amongst enthusiasts and small-press fanatics in 2009. From then on, through Anthology Recordings via Mexican Summer, his debut album and a bevy of home recordings were pressed and repressed for the first time. Interest and well-deserved appreciation for his music swelled in a major way for the first time in a long time, leading Folsom to resume live performances and to publish more tunes new and old. With his home recordings as a star example, Folsom’s music speaks to the heart and soul, crafting a resonance of love, heartbreak, friendship, and self-discovery that echoes across many regardless of age or outlook. The majority of his audience at his current live shows are young adults, emphasizing his honest timelessness as an artist in today’s world with music unearthed 30+ years later. RLF just celebrated the release of his third anthology of recordings from the 70s called “If You Wanna Laugh, You Gotta Cry Sometimes”, and is on another major tour through the west coast and more this Spring and Summer with May dates in Cali.

Flaccid Mojo @ the Chapel, SF 2023. @flaccmo makes music for an underground mutant night club, where the confines of time are just a blur and sounds blast out of gnarled guitar amps. Their music is a bricolage of funk, dub, noise, and electronica, cut and paste in a very lackadaisical pattern built purely on vibes. Flaccid Mojo is helmed by longtime creative partners Aaron Warren and Björn Copeland, both from the project Black Dice active since 1997. Both acts share a similar prismatic approach to rhythm and noise - where Black Dice is a labor of erratic and hypnotic layering of textures and time, Flaccid Mojo takes a laidback approach to finding its own freakish cadence of beats and noise. FM dropped their second studio record “Loose Jacks” on @postpresentmedium this February following their self titled debut from 2022. “Loose Jacks” continues that errant pace and flow from the last record, this time crossing heavier notes between dub and mid 80s electro and hip hop. Not to mention notes of whatever Frankenstein concoction of experimental sounds they can muster. FM is playing their first gig since the album release at @zebulonla for their 9th year anniversary along with Dream_mega and select DJs April 25th

Blue Man Group AKA Snail Mail @ Cafe Du Nord SF, Halloween 2022. BMG aka Lindsey Jordan aka @snailmail has a new record called “Ricochet” out, her first new work in 5 years following sophomore love and heartbreak themed “Valentine”. This new album was made out of solitude, with reflections heavy on life and death, coping with those thoughts, and finding oneself and others in that uncertainty. “Ricochet” also marks a shift in sound a little less indie contemporary and more 90s alt rock than ever, with twangy and grungey pangs from Built to Spill, Liz Phair, American Analog Set, Sheryl Crow, and Bush. This latest record was made in part with pals in Momma, with member Aron working as producer and Etta with cover art. Snail Mail kicks off a tour surrounding this record later this week, Cali dates early next month, along with Sharp Pins and Swirlies on select dates.

Monde UFO @ Zebulon, 2025. @mondeufo has made a career out of vagueness, with songs and themes surrounding space, religion, romance, and the esoteric, traipsing between genres all while creating a musical world beyond dreams. This vagueness is where they excel, blending different eras of jazz and psychedelia, sweeping through 60s/90s rock, exotica, and Brazilian sambas, with hushed Bossa Nova-like vocals being a bonus. All this mind, they land with making catchy and exhilarating music across the board. The band started with rocker musician Ray Monde out of LA at the turn of the decade, who upon meeting artist Kris Chau almost by chance, set upon the sonic explorations they engage in now. Drawn out of curiosity from their jazz record collection and attendance to local ambient/experimental gigs, Monde UFO made headway with early singles that would lead to their intergalactic-minded debut record “7171” in 2021. Followed by a Fugazi cover EP in 2022, their 2nd release and bossa nova coded record “Vandalized Statue To Be Replaced With Shrine” propped up in 2023 via UK-based @fire_records . Fire would then follow to put out UFO’s most hi-fi, lush, and high octane record to date - 2025’s “Flamingo Tower”. Deciding that “Flamingo Tower” wasn’t off-kilter as is, the group dropped a follow-up EP, “Flamingo Tower, Nobody Cares”, a weirder but adventurous release as rewarding as all of their music to date. Monde UFO is one of the few bands where their rich tastes and influences are on par with their incredible talents, taking from art and vibes from all corners of life - even the most arcane - and transforming them into something dense and decadent to the senses. These regulars at @zebulonla (Zebulars) have a live date with English art rockers Ulrika Spacek and fellow Zebulars Mo Dotti at Zeb Wednesday, April 8th.

Kassie Krut @ TV Eye, NY 2024. @kassiekrut is a power trio from NYC, recently on the comedown from their hot self-titled EP from 2024. The project started ages ago with member Kasra Kurt tinkering away with DAWs and electronic music around 2020 as a diversion from his rock-oriented band Palm. As lockdown carried through the early 20s, Kurt brought in bandmate Eve Alpert into the mix along with friend and collaborator Matt Anderegg, all of whom were playing music together at various points out of Philadelphia, PA. Kassie Krut is made out of a shared love for experimental electronica and dance music with pop tendencies, crossing boundaries between dub, footstep, industrial, and techno. The crew made their marks primarily as rockers over the last decade, carrying over a unique lens to their approach of songwriting with Kassie away from guitars and drums into software, and synths. They haven’t necessarily abandoned their rock tendencies altogether - their live set is packed with prepared guitar and electronic drum pads to really bring their pulsating sounds into a live setting. After a great deal of time in Philly, the trio eventually found their way to NYC from Philly in 2024 to evolve and nourish themselves and their music. What was once a solo outing is now a team effort between friends, trading tastes and sounds in an endless exploration of rhythm and noise. Kassie Krut has a date at @openmelody.la alongside greats like RP BOO, Dummy, Lightning Bolt, Deerhoof, and more.

Artificial Go @ Gold Diggers, LA 2025. Extraterrestrial art freaks has invaded Cincinnati. Specifically this one house that holds nearly all members of Artificial Go (or at least used to). @artificial.go is a newish band from the past couple of years who are twisting long-stead genres into their own terms. Go has whiffs of 80s dancey New York acts like Liquid Liquid and ESG and British / Euro post punk like Mo Dettes, LiLiPUT/Kleenex and Glaxo Babies. They carry a real kinetic energy that can get a room going or lead a nice stroll through a park, all with a lackadaisically enchanting delivery. Artificial Go has made back to back strides in the past couple of years, with two whole releases and countless tours. They’re making a journey from Ohio all the way to Los Angeles for a date at @open.melody Fest April 3-5 with plenty of other cool acts as well.

Lightning Bolt, San Francisco 2022 + 2024. One of the greatest ever pairings since peanut butter & jelly and ice & cream. Noise rockers Lightning Bolt are on tour with OOIOO from Japan including a date at @open.melody fest in Los Angeles the first weekend of April. Lineup is stacked with other acts like Deerhoof, Dummy, Kassie Krut, Agriculture, and more

Draag @ SD + LA 2024. @draagsadpeople is a band that couldn’t be more in their own lane. The crew from all across LA takes a maximalist approach to rock, clashing glitchy electronica, dream pop/shoegaze, black metal, noise, and ambient music in a mix distinctly their own. They’re inspired wholly by nostalgia, good and bad, making sense of dreams and misty emotions by exploring sonic territories quiet and loud. They released their latest EP “Miracle Drug” at the beginning of the year, after their last EP from 2024 and a handful of live dates and touring. “Miracle Drug” feels distinct as any Draag release with rich vocal harmonies and ornately layered textures between guitars and synths, all with the added bonus of songwriting and pacing that seems more evolved than ever. Draag is celebrating this new EP from @smoking___room with a live show at @sidthecatauditorium with 16 Underground and Seko tomorrow Thursday March 26th

Cold Beat @ Grace Cathedral, SF 2023. Longtime San Francisco Bay native and artist @hannahlew_ has a new self titled debut around the bend out in April via @nightschool . Hannah Lew charts new pop territory with her eponymous work, bringing over the synth laden post-punk Eurythmics / Soft Cell seeped energy of her last project Cold Beat with a more buoyant and upbeat direction, keeping all the hallmarks of introspection of love and worldly melancholy at bay. Hannah Lew has had this project active with select cool live dates for almost a year now, including a night at the legendary and soon to be closed Bottom of the Hill in SF with Marbled Eye and Cemento from LA.

Container, San Diego 2024. @socialcontainer is the long-standing noise techno project of Ren Schofield, a Providence native turned UK stalwart. Ren has deep roots in the New England noise scene that was so prevalent in the late 90s-early 2000s underground around acts like Lightning Bolt and Black Dice and a ton more. After dabbling in a handful of experimental acts all throughout the aughts, Ren came into the fray with Container, a fully solo techno outing cooked and chopped through piles of distortion, resulting in the catchiest byproduct of chaos around. Container has plugged away with almost a dozen releases since inception, each work proving crazier than the last. Ren has come nearly full circle from his early days with his last Container release “Yacker” from 2024, a full-on implosion of noise and mutation, caterwauling the limits of techno across the board. Ren also stays busy with concurrent side projects, also of the experimental variety like Philly based band POOL and his solo act Plastic Bag with a release this year. Container specifically has some global dates this year, including a stop at @open.melody fest in LA at @2220arts April 4th