White Crate 4-Year Anniversary
November 9, 2024 — We’re going big. To celebrate four years of Bay Area Music Love, we’re hosting two events with four of our favorite local bands, four of our favorite DJs, and 10 hours of music.
Sour Widows headlines our day party at El Rio, with support from Pocket Full of Crumbs, Tony Jay, Margot James, and DJ Nocean Beach, representing the best in local shoegaze and alt rock. Read the rest of this newsletter for info about the great albums each of these artists have released this year. (Reviews by Ronny Kerr.)
At night, we move next door to Mothership with Charles Hawthorne and Farsight for an eclectic evening of dance floor heaters from two of the Bay’s most creative selectors, each given a full two hours to stretch out and play. White Crate resident ronny ronny ronny will be opening up the festivities.
Get tickets to Sour Widows at El Rio →
RSVP for Charles Hawthorne & Farsight at Mothership →
PAST EVENTS
WC05 — Curated by Text Me Records
July 13, 2024 — WC05! A continuation of our event series curated by Bay Area artists and collectives, WC05 took place the afternoon of Saturday, July 13th at El Rio on their sunny back patio.
About the curator: Based out of Different Fur—one of San Francisco’s most storied recording studios—Text Me Records was formed as a writing and production team with a dozen or so talented musicians, producers, and songwriters lending to an eclectic mix of style. They don’t just have their ear to ground when it comes to finding the freshest talent from the Bay, they also guide each artist through the process of releasing music and bringing out the best in their craft.
The WC05 lineup featured several highlights from the Text Me roster, two dope DJs, and one exciting guest:
☢️ Jammy is a breakout producer and rapper making waves with his eclectic beats of heavy drums, thick 808s, smooth guitars and jazzy synths.
🎸 Ricky Lake’s latest music speaks to the beauty of loss through delicate genre-bending innovations deftly melding electronic, hip hop, and indie rock.
🔪 Tia Nomore’s fiery wits, lyrical dismantling, and command for respect sets her apart, with a bevy of G-funk-inspired hyphy hits under the belt.
🎤 La Favi, a Latin Grammy winner, brings passionate songwriting, penetrating lyricism, and her hypnotic voice to an intriguing mix of traditional Latin sounds, contemporary urbano, and gothy darkwave.
📀 Drew Banga is a multi-hyphenate talent, having produced some of your favorite songs, played bass on tours across America, and spent the better part of the past two years perfecting his craft as DJ.
💿 Louie El Ser is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, and DJ, never taking the easy path, always finding new ways to break conventions.
🍤 SUP! Streetfood cooked up delicious Southeast Asian bites. They blew us away at WC01 last summer and we were stoked to relive that magic.
Chrissy & Clearcast at Mothership
June 22, 2024 — For White Crate’s club night at Mothership, we welcomed the energy and euphoria of two of the finest producers and DJs in the Bay Area: Chrissy and Clearcast.
While Chrissy—“a walking talking dance floor encyclopedia”—has been a producer, label head, and DJ’s DJ for some time now, Clearcast is a relatively fresh face and essential one to watch. Both share a knack for melding booty shaking bass, headspinning breaks, and anthemic melodies into cathartic dance floor bangers. And both have honed their mixing skills on the burgeoning internet radio scene: Chrissy has been featured on BBC 6 Music, NTS, Rinse FM, and The Lot Radio, just to name a few; while Clearcast has spun on Fault Radio, The Lot Radio, and hosts HydeFM monthly program CLOUDCONTROL.
WC04 — Curated by 7000COILS
March 30, 2024 — The rain clouds cleared right in time for local label and art house 7000COILS to present WC04—a continuation of our event series curated by Bay Area artists and collectives—with a lineup of artists and vendors dedicated to building power and community with Blackness, queerness, and wellness at the center.
Thank you GHOSTMiLK for warming us up with that topsy turvy alien techno straight out of the X-Files. Thank you DPNY the sky wide open poetry, a meditative springtime reset. Thank you KKINGBOO for holding down the decks throughout the day, fluid beats streaming. Thank you Eartha Kunt for the stunning songs and dance, full of poise and grace. Thank you Zero Charisma for offering us your voice, layer and lineage of soul. Thank you Qween for draping the entire day in your royal glow and laughter. Thank you Madre Guía for that elevating vinyl set, from disco to house to dancehall—all paradise. Thank you Mahawam for the seemingly effortless feeling and flow, a celebration of voice and heart. Thank you Blu Moon and Lalin St. Juste for closing out the day with that exalted ambient techno manifestation, another potent word in the name of growth and healing.
Thank you El Rio for hosting us, and thank you to each and every one of you who showed up to celebrate, dance, build community, and support the best in Bay Area music. Much love 💜
Read our interview with Lalin St. Juste, co-founder of 7000COILS.
Bored Lord & Baalti at Mothership
February 17, 2024 — We had so much fun celebrating our three year anniversary at Mothership (Nov 2023) that we decided to throw another party! Our first event of 2024 featured two of the most exciting DJ/producers in the Bay: Bored Lord and Baalti. Both have released incredible records showcasing their unique perspectives on dance music and have brought heaps of (deserved) attention from across the world to the Bay.
Read our interview with Bored Lord and our review of Name It.
Read our interview with Baalti and our review of Better Together.
White Crate 3-Year Anniversary
November 18, 2023 — For our third anniversary, we celebrated by inviting a few of our favorite DJs from some of the most deeply caring and connected local crews to play at Mothership, including SWALK, Lonald J. Bandz, DJ Juanny (Amor Digital), and Ritchrd (No Bias).
WC03 — Curated by Dani Offline
October 7, 2023 — The third in our Bay Area artist-led concert series, WC03 was completely curated by jazz R&B artist Dani Offline, featuring the moody sun-sinking feel-good explorations of Azuah, the completely alive love manifestations of Cheflee, and—throughout the night—an eclectic always high-quality series of selections from Mizu’s DJ set. Plus we’re thankful to Sea to Sea for keeping us all well-fed throughout the event. View reel.
WC02 — Curated by Mae Powell
July 8, 2023 — The second in our Bay Area artist-led concert series, WC02 was curated by Mae Powell—generous spirit, jazz pixie, psychedelic indie folk chanteuse, and the Bay’s rainbow-embodied ambassador of peace and magic. For this outing we were treated to live performances by Everyone is Dirty, The Breathing Room, Marika Christine, and Arts and Crafts, each of whom released new music around the time of the show. View reel.
KOKOKO!, Only Now, and DJ Sep
May 4, 2023 — Smoking amps, melted wires, frenetic energy. White Crate partnered with Public Works to host a night with KOKOKO!, one of the wildest bands hailing from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Local support was provided by Only Now aka Kush Arora (delivering an unremitting emission of razor cut rhythms, primitive channelings, and ritualistic electronics) as well as DJ Sep (founder of Dub Mission, one of the longest running reggae clubs in the world).
Read our interview with Kush Arora.
Read our interview with DJ Sep.
WC01 — Curated by James Wavey
March 18, 2023 — Setting the template for our Bay Area artist-led concert party series, WC01 was curated by Michael Bridgmon, the super talented and supremely charismatic producer-singer-songwriter-rapper-bandleader who you may know better as James Wavey. At this inaugural event, we were treated to live performances by Aroma, James Wavey, Louda, and Mild Universe—plus DJ sets by Tyla Wave and DJ Chatoyance. Sound was supplied by Scheherazade Soundsystem and South East Asian bites were served by Sup Street Food. View reel.
Cold Beat at Grace Cathedral
January 20, 2023 — In partnership with many talented artists and creators, White Crate hosted an awe-inspiring Cold Beat show at Grace Cathedral. The show sold out quickly and garnered much attention, including this fantastic piece from SFGATE—“Rock band sells out San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, covers David Bowie”—featuring writing by Dan Gentile and photography by Adam Pardee. Huge thanks to Hannah Lew and the band for their incredible vision and to everyone who made this performance possible.
Discos Resaca Collective at the Chapel
January 18, 2023 — Kicking off the year, our local music showcase in partnership with the Chapel in SF was headlined by San Jose’s Mariposas del Alma y Discos Resaca Collective, whose 2020 album Y Te Cuento got us through early pandemic lockdowns with an eclectic mix of boleros, corridos, cumbia, cha cha, and midtempo soul. Louda y Los Bad Hombres opened the show with their potent nuevo Latinx-RnB fueled blend of jazz, soul, cumbia, and beyond. Plus, we were honored to have Chulita Vinyl Club spinning eclectic records across Latinidad throughout the night. View reel.