February Mixtape: Best of the Bay Area [Part 2 of 2]
This month’s mixtape is Part Two of our “Best of the Bay Area” mix that we started last month (find Part One here). We had set out to make a single mix that encapsulated the local scene, but there’s just too much depth of talent in San Francisco to reduce down to an 80-minute primer. While last month’s mix featured the best of the local indie-rock and indie-pop scene, this month’s installment focuses mostly on slower, more folk-influenced choices.
Featuring several mainstays of the San Francisco scene — including Mark Kozelek (here with his Sun Kil Moon project), Vetiver, American Music Club, John Vanderslice and Rogue Wave — this batch also showcases many of our favorite more recent additions to the scene (Birds & Batteries‘ “I’ll Never Sleep Again” has been on near-constant repeat here).
As we mentioned last month, we stuck to current acts that still self-identify with the Bay Area — artists that might be sitting next to you on the MUNI any given day. Green Day, Journey and the Counting Crows might have been “local bands” back in the day, but none of them are playing Cafe du Nord or the Bottom of the Hill anytime soon.
Best of the Bay Area Mixtape [Part 2 of 2] [.zip file*]
- American Music Club — “All the Lost Souls Welcome You to San Francisco”
- Birds & Batteries — “I’ll Never Sleep Again” | Buy
- Vetiver — “Everyday”
- Sun Kil Moon — “Dramamine”
- John Vanderslice — “Trance Manual”
- Michael Zapruder — “Ads for Feelings”
- Rogue Wave — “Christians in Black”
- Two Sheds — “You”
- Port O’Brien — “Fisherman’s Son”
- Or, the Whale — “Isn’t She Awful”
- Okay — “Only”
- Mist and Mast — “Turn into the Turn”
- L’Avventura — “Rocket Sue”
- Sholi — “Dreams before People”
- The Skygreen Leopards — “Disciples”
- The Lightning Bug Situation — “Topher’s Last Song”
- Papercuts — “John Brown”
- Kelley Stoltz — “Memory Collector”
- Sean Hayes — “Flowering Spade”
*To import the songs as an ordered playlist, go to iTunes, click on File > Library > Import Playlist… and select the .txt file in the mix folder.
For more, check out our monthly mixtape and San Francisco music archives.
Good one. There are some good ones in there that were new to me.
Thanks Adrian. I tried to dig far and wide to get a good cross-section of what’s going on. I’m sure I missed some good acts, but I hope this is a good snap shot of the scene
Ok. They don’t have a full-length out yet but I’m liking what I’m hearing from SF’s “Girls” so far:
Girls - “Hellhole Ratrace”
http://www.strangerdance.com/panther-picks-awesome-mp3s-not-by-animal-collective-gasp/
Yup, they would have been a good addition. Truth be told, I think I’ve been mixing them up with SF’s Women
The part 1 list won’t unzip ;_; 2 works well–enjoying it so far :D Really interested in the pop/rock, though, so if you have any tips…
Huh, you’re the second person to ask about this, so I just re-zipped the files. Give it another shot and please let me know if it still doesn’t work.
I gave the Birds & Batteries song another listen and I’m starting to see why you’re obsessed with it.
Thanks to this mix I am going to look into buying music by L’Avventura and Sean Hayes.
Also can’t wait for the new Or, The Whale album.
Glad you liked the mix. Sean Hayes has a bunch of great albums out and L’Avventura’s debut comes out later this week.
Also, if you wanna catch L’Avventura live, they’re doing a 10-week residency at 33 Revolutions in El Cerrito.
Thank you for this mix…perfectly suits my rainy day mood! Some old favorites and new discoveries…Sholi, Or, the Whale
[...] Thee Oh Sees, Scissors for Lefty and Man/Miracle (many of which were featured on our recent Best of the Bay Area [...]
Found your site while looking for some Papercuts. Now I have 2 .zip files to check out. Thanks! The SF scene is more robust than I realized.
Drewo: Come back and let us know what you think of the mixes. The SF scene is in the middle of a real renaissance in my opinion.
[...] Mark Eitzel among the sparse crowd) to watch a night of great local acts (two of which were on our Best of San Francisco mix) and another all the way from the indie capital of [...]
Rocket Sue sucks sooooo bad. Man how you even put that on the list. My girlfriend kept asking me to turn it off cause it was so lame.