We always have our ears pressed to the ground for brand new music! We also get excited when we learn about new emerging bands from the Bay Area as well!

Crooked is a new and heavy electro soul band with deep roots in the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. The Crooked Cuts Vol. 1 EP, mixed by Joel Hamilton (Black Keys, Lettuce, Highly Suspect), consists of four unique tracks that set a vibey and slightly haunting stage for a collection of additional songs to be released this fall. With a heavy drum and bass foundation, the tracks are accented throughout with spacious keys and a deeply soulful yet edgy voice. The four piece draws upon a wide spectrum of influences and merges them into a hypnotic feel that dynamically shifts from spacey soul to driving electronic and distorted alternative anthems.

Crooked's style is sultry and a bit innovative. It's R&B you can take seriously. We recommend you give this band's new album a spin and enjoy what they have to offer. It's refreshing to see new projects arise in the Bay!

Here's one from August Artist of the Month Continental Drift, who were helped to their win by this excellent new record. The self-titled, two-track EP from Continental Drift here feels like it has more heart and soul than most albums being released these days. Performed by a ten-piece band, the music here centers on Afro beats while flawlessly weaving in funk, soul, and psychedelic grooves to the mix as well. Whether you enjoy all of those genres or none of them, this EP is bound to reel you in and keep you hooked for its short fifteen-minute duration.

The first track, "Afropsychic," starts out with only a couple instruments pitching in, and as the song progresses the rest of the band joins in one by one, almost like a relay race for music. As each band member joins in, the song grows in its drama and intensity, making it feel as though a narrative is being carried, and not just some cool beats. What’s great about it is that it all feels spontaneous, and not just with "Afropsychic" - the quality spontaneity runs through "Conductive" (the second track) as well. Both songs sound like ten people with amazing chemistry walked into the studio and just jammed for twenty minutes. It’s also worth mentioning that even though the EP has only two songs on it, each of those songs carry so much variety that one could mistake this for a four or five track EP.

Give the EP a listen or download for free below, or mark your schedules for the second Sunday of every month and head over to Stay Gold in Austin for their live residency.

Continental Drift EP: Listen/download here!

--

Nicholas Gomez

@feedbackjunkies

Bad Dad & The Pool Girls have been charming the local scene for a couple of years now with their soul-infused, west coast melancholic folk rock. In fact, “charming” pretty much sums up everything about this band. Their description on their facebook page (which you can go ahead and “like” right here) states that their music is “where old souls meet young bodies.” This frame of mind resonates perfectly throughout their recent self-titled LP. Over the course of nine tracks, the music morphs from a west coast folk style to a melting pot of funk, soul and indie. Lyrically, it’s all over the place, with the majority of the songs either about laying down the funk on a member of the opposite sex (“Lay It On Me”, “Get Down”) or a good ol’ fashioned murder ballad (“Bloody Murder”, “Forty-Five”). Somehow, someway, the BD/PG’s are able to make these subjects mesh behind catchy melodies. Mr. Bad Dad and his pool girls will be playing their hazy summer tunes at The Silver Dollar Room on August 6th. - Chris PJ D

The San Francisco based classic soul revivalist band, Gene Washington & The Ironsides will be performing at Slim's in support of the rapidly emerging soul/big band The Suffers. If you like insanely large music ensembles, energetic soul music and nostalgic experiences, check this show out. The San Jose based band, Los Hot Boxers will be rounding out the bill with a unique fusion of doo-wap, Jazz and Latin musical influences.

This would be the perfect show to take your S/O out for a night of dinner and dancing. It can't always be about you, of course there's no reason why you wouldn't have a BLAST getting down to The Suffers and all the amazing music you're going to experience on August 4th at Slim's??

You can order tickets strictly for the show, or you can invest in advanced tickets that includes a three course meal and reserved seating on the balcony. Do your best to make it out to this show!

Now this is one we’ve posted before as part of a previous Artist of the Month Poll roundup, but now we’re givin’ local pychpoprock (mmmhmmm, smush them genres) act Three Bones its own damn post because they’ve got a neat lil July residency goin’ on at the Historic Scoot Inn that’s jammin’ along quite nicely. We’ve been quite into this pair (headed by Victoria de Benedicty and Dalt Jacob with Grant Johnson and Mike Stavitz as well) since they put what has been one of the year’s prime headspace occupyin’ tracks and eyeball a’pleasin’ vids out earlier this year with the strummmeriffic and oddly super satisfyin’ “Hold on to Ya” earlier this year. Goddamn psychedelic earworms y’all: in a genre that finds itself in the long-noodlin’ territory more often than not, it’s not somethin’ you really expect for a psych track to be a tight, clean piece of pop that gets right up between your brains and shakes its tail for a week or two, but damn if “Hold on to Ya” ain’t just that.

I think what really gets this track and vid movin’ is that it just feels legit as Texas barbeque; even when hammin’ it up all weird and creepylike for the camera (as Dalt does just freaky fuckin’ well), you get that unfakeable sense of authenticity that tells ya these are some good damn people just doin’ the damn thing thing in the way they damn well wanna do it, and they’re down if you’re down and cool if you ain’t. We think y’should be, and a trip out yonder to Scoot Inn will likely get you on the Three Bones wavelength quicker than a blonde dude in an all white get up can strum a guitar, which if you check the vid, is pretty fuckin’ fast.