Total Accord Agency presents:
Aluminum
The relatively short life of San Francisco’s Aluminum has so far yielded a single (Spinning Backwards, 2020) and an EP (Windowpane, 2022), but their debut LP, Fully Beat (2024), overflows with tenured confidence and a singular style that deftly comprises shoegaze, big beat, and jangle pop. With influences ranging from Orbital, to Wipers, to The Avalanches and Sly and the Family Stone, theirs is a multifaceted take on established forms, fed through fuzz and led by honeyed, dual vocal harmonies from Bay Area post-punk veterans Marc Leyda (of Wild Moth) and Ryann Gonsalves (of Torrey.)
Whitney’s Playland
Whitney's Playland is the pandemic-era project of Inna Showalter and George Tarlson, longtime friends and veterans of the music scene (Grandma’s Boyfriend, Blades of Joy, Modern Charms). The band expanded into a four-piece in late 2022 with the addition of Evan Showalter and Paul DeMartini.
Welcome Strawberry
In 2022, Welcome Strawberry released their eponymous debut full-length, which bursts with vibrant, fuzzy dream pop tinged with psychedelia. Today, the Oakland band is announcing its follow-up Desperate Flower and unveiling the lead single “Memory Cube.” It might be recency bias, but “Memory Cube” reminds me of Wishy, if they were a little slower and a little trippier. On Welcome Strawberry’s Bandcamp, they wrote about the album, “scent is the most underrated artform — so much of it is entangled with emotion, mood and memory.” (Similarly, Jenny Hval just shared her scent-focused LP, Iris Silver Mist.) —Stereogum
DOORS at 7:00PM | MUSIC at 8:00 PM