It’s here! All the best music from the Bay Area in 2024. Or at least the best of everything we listened to (there was a lot).
In this second of four parts, we’ve got selections from the likes of French Cassettes, Jammy, La Doña, LaRussell, Magic Fig, Marbled Eye and Mild Universe, spanning a wide spectrum of sounds – raw indie emotion, whimsical power pop, smooth drum and bass, high-quality hyphy productions, prog rock flair, Mills-influenced experimentalism, and more.
Naked Roommate – Pass the Loofah
Pass the Loofah is Naked Roommate’s follow-up to their pandemic-era album Do the Duvet. More bouncy with pop rock but just as infectious as its predecessor, the new album applies deadpan-delivered post-punk-style vocals and weirdo synth and sax over a taut, pulsing tapestry of progammed krautrock beats. From the minimal house dance party of lead single “Bus” to the jolly good fun of “Broken Whisper” (reminiscent of Little Creatures-era Talking Heads), the album is just the soundtrack for happily two-stepping in the shower. Out on Trouble In Mind Records.
— Ronny Kerr
Oddity – Oddisea, Pt. 4
The fourth and final entry in a series two years in the making, Oddisea, Pt. 4 is the latest full-length by Oakland artist Oddity. As open-hearted with her Chinese-American transfemme identity as a blooming lotus, the artist gracefully lays funky fiery raps (“Fuel My Fire”) and truth-spitting (“Ego to the Side” ft. Stoni and Pandaraps) alongside soul jazz meditations (“Melt Away”) and instrumental piano pieces gorgeously reminiscent of Bill Evans and Chick Corea. Party grooves and sunshine songs so often dominate the summertime music conversation, but if you’re looking for music encapsulating the beauty of changing seasons, growth, and positive transformation, here it is.
— Ronny Kerr
Peña – Para Ti
A fanciful Latin pop rock jam tracing its lineage from Spain to San Francisco, para ti is the latest full-length album by PEÑA. Led by Nico Peña, the full band applies a psychedelic Latin jazz sonic palette (thanks to keys, alto and tenor saxophones, plus a wide variety of rhythmic explorations) to quick catchy songs pleasing from the start. On the surface, these songs are simple and carefree, but they express a depth of growth for the artist as he simultaneously explores his ancestral and cultural identity as well as his capability as a bandleader. Still, it can be easy to work with friends, and the songwriting and performances here reflect not just a personal story but the story and sounds of an artist working within community. And from community, joy.
— Ronny Kerr
Pocket Full of Crumbs – In My Hands I Hold a Lucky Cricket
Maybe you’re a Gen X Slacker and you can still remember making friends for life at those wild house shows in the 90s. Or maybe you didn’t quite live it, but you’ve damn well enjoyed arguing with coworkers whether there’s any album quite as good as Slint’s Spiderland. Or maybe your ears are so young and fresh that you really have never heard anything quite like this.
Either way, there’s no denying it: This rips.
In My Hands I Hold a Lucky Cricket is the second album for SF trio Pocket Full of Crumbs, and it’s their first to land on local label Cherub Dream Records. Beyond the unforgettable title, the new album worms into your brain through lo-fi indie rock adorned with shoegaze and post-rock—minus all the noise and drama. It’s got a carefree, easy gait, inviting a warm reception on the first listen but (like other legendary predecessors in this field) hinting at secret delights in repeat listens.
— Ronny Kerr
Princess520 – Beautiful Girls Always So Sad
Not yet reviewed by White Crate.
GENRES: rock, punk, lofi
Qamp – Qamp III
Not yet reviewed by White Crate.
GENRES: hip hop, rap, r&b
Quinn DeVeaux – Leisure
Quinn DeVeaux has been a quiet fixture in the Bay Area music scene for the last decade, performing his solo brand of “blue beat soul” while also lending his talents to other beloved groups like the California Honeydrops. All of it pulls from quintessential American genres—blues, R&B, soul and a little bit of country.
Released by Kentucky label SofaBurn, his new album Leisure is handily making it into my best of the year. Vibrant and stirring, the album is classic Quinn, with an exciting pivot in production: It’s got a richer, wall-of-sound style that his other releases typically don’t, and it carries lots of blues and soul hallmarks without being by-the-book. Songs like opener “Very Best Thing” and closer “Holy” both make for a feel-good time with fill-you-up horn sections and organ riffs, but the mournful tone of “Give Love a Try” and unexpectedly sparse production on “I Wanna Know” won’t let you forget the diverse and adventurous musical legacy he has built in the Bay. There’s so much energy packed into this record it almost feels like you are seeing it live.
— Jody Amable
R.E. Seraphin – Fool’s Mate
Oakland’s Take a Turn—which in the past year has released albums by Al Harper, Burner Herzog, and Katsy Pline—also released Fool’s Mate, the second full-length by R.E. Seraphin. A steady march of kick and snare starts the album and rarely lets up, as Seraphin drives forward a head bopping indie pop record for the jangle heads. It’s not all lyrically led, as best indicated by the jammy instrumental track “Somnia,” but Seraphin’s hushed vocals largely predominate otherwise, singing about love and life while alluding to “skin, sweat, teeth, and breath” to suggest “something more ominous.”
Featuring bandmates that play in several other local greats (Sob Stories, Body Double, Reds, Pinks, & Purples, Chime School, Extra Classic) as well as multiple contributions by local artists Owen Adair Kelley, Hannah Moriah, Yea-Ming Chen, and Anna Hillburg, Fool’s Mate is another bright star in the constellation of Bay Area indie rock.
— Ronny Kerr
Ricky Lake – Tundra
Emo rapper Ricky Lake’s album Altered was one of our favorite alternative rock releases from the Bay Area in 2023, and now he’s back with a new five-track EP. Tundra digs deeper into post-SoundCloud pop punk, presenting a set of catchy, melodic, fist-pumping anthems for the local dive bar mosh pit. These could have been hits on Live 105 back in the day, but instead they’re reimagined innovations for the genre-fluid underground.
Like the previous release, Tundra arrives on SF’s Text Me Records, which this year released a string of music from great local artists, including Pallaví aka Fijiana (who has a new album on the way), Nocean Beach, Louie Elser, and La Doña. Just another community-minded crew contributing to the renaissance of musical creativity in the Bay.
— Ronny Kerr
Ritmos Tropicosmos – Ritmos Tropicosmos
Not yet reviewed by White Crate.
GENRES: latin, cumbia, psychedelic
Rocky Rivera – Long Kiss Goodnight
With a “heart colder than the fog when it roll up,” Filipino-American rapper and journalist Rocky Rivera lays out hard-earned truth and wisdom in clear, plain language on her new album Long Kiss Goodnight. Produced by Otayo Dubb and dotted throughout with references to the Bay, the album has a Tribe-like quality, twisting luscious funky walking pace beats with Rivera’s relentless expression of pain, maturity, responsibility, social justice, sexual desire, self-confidence, joy, and more. Basically, it’s unapologetic San Francisco realism in all its messy, beautiful complexity.
— Ronny Kerr
Secret Secret – Queen of Cups
While 90s-inspired fashion might be what most people are rocking these days, spandex is always a Look. SF quartet Secret Secret knows it, harnessing iconic 80s fashion—headbands, armbands, bike shorts, neon, and all—in their new video for “Garbage Town.”
A stand-out track from their latest EP, Queen of Cups, “Garbage Town” is inspired by all the people (especially wealthy SF residents) who complain about the city without actively engaging in the community. The lyrics make clear their frustration—”If you don’t like the city, you can leave the city sir”—but the catchy pop punk music and video reflect a joy and love for this place we call home. Directed by Maria Donjacour and Phil Elleston II, the video features the band and friends stretching out in the dance studio, flaunting ecstatic choreography down the Valencia Street bike lane, and finally raucously celebrating in front of the sexy velvet nudes at Casanova.
— Ronny Kerr
Sheena Dham – Familiarity Heuristic
Not yet reviewed by White Crate.
GENRES: punk, coldwave, darkwave
Sheila E. – Bailar
Bursting with vivacious joy and springtime vibrancy, iconic Oakland drummer and singer Sheila E. just released Bailar, your next favorite salsa album. Yes, she brought in the starpower: Opening tracks “Anacaona” and “Bailar” feature salsa legends Rubén Blades and Luis Enrique, and the lead single “Bemba Colorá” (originally by every Latin family’s instant party starter Celia Cruz) features Gloria Estefan and Mimy Succar. But aside from all the namedropping, this is just a great, uplifting album, guaranteed to get you dancing out of your seat.
— Ronny Kerr
Sholeh Asgary – آبـان (Aban)
Not yet reviewed by White Crate.
GENRES: experimental, Iranian, ambient
Silverware – One True Light
Silverware, the project by SF artist, producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Ainsley Wagoner, first popped into our radar in early 2021 with the irresistibly catchy “Important.” (And, in a beautiful new development of the Bay Area music constellation, Wagoner now contributes reviews to White Crate.) More than three years later, the artist debuts on Seattle’s Ghost Mountain Records with full-length album One True Light, featuring 10 feel-good indie pop rock jams.
The title track opens the album quietly with solo piano and voice that within seconds gives way to a thumping tight full band, Wagoner’s voice threading along softly, full and unwavering. From there the album flows through folksy moments, country rock dances, downtempo synth pop playthings, and more. With “Goodbye,” the album ends the same way it begins: Solo, lullaby-like piano-and-voice so intimate you can hear the heart pang as clearly as the plodding of the keyboard’s mechanical parts.
— Ronny Kerr
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