Alternative rock. You know, like indie rock except maybe a little heavier sometimes.
Here’s the second round of our favorite Bay Area albums of 2023. From Blues Lawyer to Brontez Purnell, the artists on this list lay down massively catchy riffs whether they’re tweetastic, funky, or sticky sweet nostalgic.
All in Good Time – Blues Lawyer
“Bathing in the Sunday sun
Unburdened by the damage done
Suddenly I see your face
Looking slightly out of place
Could it be elusive Eden?”
Is this the least dark entry in the catalog of Dark Entries Records? At least sonically, it might be. But we can’t complain, given that All in Good Time by Blues Lawyer bridges one of the city’s best and most consistent record labels to one of Oakland’s most tweetastic bands around. Citing 90s alternative rockers like Lemonheads and Teenage Fanclub as influences—I’m hearing the Vaselines—songwriters Rob I. Miller and Elyse Schrock effortlessly exchange mellifluous lead vocals over pop punk riffs that just keep on coming, catchy and catchy every time. Since forming in 2017, the band has evolved in more ways than one, so it’s fitting that the newest album finds its muse in the passage of time, and our relationship to its passing.
— Ronny Kerr
Listen to an interview and performance by Blues Lawyer on Lower Grand Radio.
Altered – Ricky Lake
“I grew up around so many different types of music, it didn’t make sense for my own art to feel so boxed in.”
Ricky Lake
Hyped up like an EDM climax from the very first second, Altered is a pop punk-meets-hip hop full-length from Ricky Lake on Text Me Records. A completely San Francisco family affair (with a little evening swing through Lake Merritt on “Davonte”), the new album represents an important step in the artist’s journey, saying goodbye to boundaries and exploring the blending of multiple genres. Sometimes it sounds like big music festival trap music, sometimes it sounds like chillwave Toro y Moi, and it almost always sounds as emo as adolescent years spent cruising around the Bay in a buddy’s vintage Volvo. Is it summertime yet?
— Ronny Kerr
Cardboard People – Cardboard People
Set in an empty skateboard park on a gloomy day, the music video for “And Still I Rise” powers forward with Yunoka Berry’s soulful vibe and sultry voice, offering up enough energy to lighten up the gloom. The dystopian surroundings provide a mirror for the song’s central imagery: It’s hard to make it in our dystopian, late-stage capitalist world, and that’s under the best circumstances. It’s a rat race and the billionaires have all the cheese. No one’s willing to walk a mile in anyone else’s shoes. Those who are struggling to pay student debt, find a steady job, or affordable housing are even less empowered to make their own decisions. Yet you can still find strength in your own story and your struggle. This song can be the anthem to inspire anyone to pick themself up and be proud of who they are, fuck what the haters say.
— Elliot Engel
“Glass Jaw” and “Around Around Around” – chokecherry
Heavy, spiraling, entrancing—and utterly satisfying. New this year, SF band chokecherry has only released two songs, but they’re both outstanding. We’re far from the first to realize it: Their debut single “Glass Jaw” has already racked up nearly a million plays on Spotify (TikTok viral??) and their second single “Around Around Around” keeps the catchy ethereal vibes flowing.
This band may be new but they all know what they’re doing: Guitarist Izzie Clark also performs with Thank You Come Again, bassist Scarlett Levinson also sings in Fauxes, and drummer Maryzelle Ungo operates sound healing events for The Center SF. And now the magic of the blend starts to make sense. This is healing music that fucking rocks.
— Ronny Kerr
NN – Nothing Natural
Here comes the rain again. And here comes the shoegaze too! Nothing Natural is a new quartet out of Oakland playing grungy, punkish jams, and their first recording project as a full band is NN, a self-titled-ish EP released on Dandy Boy Records. The opening track “Glass” comes in strong with a massive, delightfully crushing riff, but most of the music here resides in a gentler place, buoyed by billowy electric guitar and sweet vocal harmonies.
— Ronny Kerr
No Jack Swing – Brontez Purnell
“Ghosting is a clear form of communication.”
As eclectically inspired as new jack swing—the late 80s hip hop-dance pop-R&B fusion from whence its name—No Jack Swing is the latest release by queer punk writer, dancer, and multi-hyphenate Oakland artist Brontez Purnell. Co-released by Dark Entries Records and Brooklyn-based QTPOC art collective Papi Juice, the album has one important sonic thread: the Amen break. But don’t expect jungle or drum and bass. It’s mostly midtempo funk alternative, with the lead single “Girl from Ghost Town” rhythmically reminiscent of the massive 1992 pop rock chart-topper “Two Princes” by Spin Doctors (hopefully no one hates me for that comparison). But the album’s centerpiece is the highly personal “I Got Joy,” organically built upon and unfolding out of gospel tapes from Purnell’s childhood singing with the New Zion Missionary Baptist Choir of Belle Mina. Joyful? Because it’s completely free to be whatever it needs to be.
— Ronny Kerr
shapes & colors – abracadabra
Peace Loving People – Pardoner
In their relatively brief existence as a band, Pardoner went quickly from local fame to wider appreciation; releasing an album with Father/Daughter and Pitchfork recognition by 2017. They’re one of the most celebrated San Francisco bands of the last half-decade. And in 2023 they’re back with new album Peace Loving People.
Pardoner is described by their label as having an “angular weirdness” and by Stereogum as “indie rock classicists”, but neither of those descriptors quickly and neatly sum them up. Musically speaking, they never stay in one place too long. While they’re not wildly detouring into disparate genres like flamenco or something, they do constantly exhibit a surprising duality: They’re somehow gritty and fuzzy but arrestingly melodic at the same time. This is made explicit on the single “Are You Free Tonight?” – after meandering in typical verse-chorus-verse construction for a minute, it veers abruptly into the kind of thrashing balls-to-the-wall punk you’d expect from them. OK – maybe that’s the angle they were talking about.
— Jody Amable
So Far So Good – Meernaa
“Yeah even through these darkened dreams I still need tending
And I’m just trying to get along”
So Far So Good by Meernaa tenderly embodies the enduring sense of loss, of nostalgia, of hope that’s hoped to last, like a sticky sweet residue left over on your tongue from childhood. While you can still taste the psychedelic haze from a pleasant past summer, the scene is gently taken over by citrussy, tangy guitars and poetry to guide us into more sobering territory.
Taking aid from a variety of childhood influences, singer-guitarist Carly Bond of Meernaa invites us to experience a different kind of warmth as she navigates, processes, and transforms painful memories to lay ease on the mind. No longer sticky sweet, the matured palette is more fitting now. Wiser than yesterday and standing a little taller, we can find comfort in leaning in and letting go. Bond’s soothing voice is safe and warm, protecting from erasing the memory of what once was, and allowing for the hope of even more vibrant days to come. Out now on Austin label Keeled Scales.
— Elise Mills
