Folk Yeah Residency at Slim's: The Sandwitches, Art Museums and The Soft Bombs
Check out The Sandwitches with Art Museums, The Soft Bombs and Rachel Fannan (of Sleepy Sun)!!!!
This is part of the Folk Yeah residency at Slim’s this month. All Ages 5 BUX. You can’t really go wrong.
Related show
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100 Records is Sonny Smith’s (Sonny and The Sunsets) mad world of imagined rock created with the help of musical friends: Ty Segall, Tim Cohen (Fresh & Onlys), Heidi Alexander (The Sandwitches) and more of San Francisco’s best and brightest.
Turn Up Records and Sonny Smith are proud to present a five disc limited edition 7″ boxed set. The box titled “100 Records Volume 2: I Miss The Jams” will be in stores November 16th (or can be purchased here.)
Here’s Earth Girl Helen Brown singing “I Wanna Do It”
Sonny Smith’s 100 Records Volume 2: I Miss The Jams – I Wanna Do It by Earth Girl Helen Brown on Turn Up Records
Sometimes the community rallies around an individual and the results are undeniable. There is a long and winding back story to the Sonny Smith’s 100 records project, but all that you really need to know is that Sonny Smith, one of the brightest lights in SF’s neu-Garage scene, has recorded an album that is one for the ages. Sonny wrote songs that make up 100 conceptual 7” singles for a multi- media art show that traveled around the US this past year. Although Smith penned all the music he attributed his masterful tongue-in-cheek brand of laid-back garage- pop tunes to mystical musicians like Zig Speck, Earth Girl Helen Brown and The Loud Fast Fools derived from Smith’s imaginative prose.
Along with producer Marc Dantona, Sonny assembled a “Wrecking Crew” of players the SF scene got together to record songs in basements and apartments around the city and a whole other team of visual artists contributed artwork for each record cover. Here you have 10 songs from the Sonny Smith’s 100 Records. Recorded with local heroes such as Tim Cohen from the Fresh & Onlys, Kelley Stoltz, Ty Segall, and members of The Sandwitches all contributing.
While the artwork and the concept are both wonderfully original and compelling, it’s the tunes that stand out here. Earth Girl Helen Brown’s “I Want To Do It” (featuring Heidi Alexander from The Sandwitches) sounds a bit like the B-52′s singing on some sort of Alex Chilton ‘Like Flies on Sherbert’ outtake. Zig Speck & the Specktones features Ty Segall sounding looser and surfier than usual, like he’s playing with Sonny & the Sunsets. The Loud Fast Fools sound like Modern Lovers but with Tim Cohen of the Fresh and Only’s and Sonny Smith trading lyrics. Sonny’s songs have a rawness that is hard to come by these days, and his beautiful, fun, and often heart wrenching melodies send the whole record into classic territory.
Distribution: Revolver USA
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If you haven’t heard their brooding Americana meets melodic 60’s doo-wop yet, do your eyes and ears a favor and check out their video for “Kiss Your Feet”:
TheBloodBeat: So tell me a little bit about what’s going with you guys now? You put a record out last year (How to Make Ambient Sad Cake), you played a bunch of shows..
Heidi: Yea, we played a bunch of shows. We went on a short tour, and then we went on a long tour. And now we’re taking a bit of an extended hiatus to fuck around and work on ourselves.
BB: Thats always important.
Grace: Yea it will probably be at least another couple of months.
BB: The record was on Turn Up Records. Tell me a little bit about how you got in with those guys?
H: Marc is a friend of ours. Last year he called us up, said he was thinking he wanted to start this label and wanted to put on a Sandwitches record as his first release because he liked our songs and was a real supportive. He thought it’d be a good way to start off so we were like yea, sure, of course! And he was kind of old fashioned about it. He was willing to put up the money and have us go into the studio and do the recordings and do it in a real cool way so it was great.
BB: And where is the studio?
H: In the East Bay.
G: This place called The Wally Sound Studio, run by this guy Wally. He’s a cool rockin’ dude and this place is in his garage.
BB: So Sonny is also on the label?
H: Yea Sonny is. Marc is doing I think 5 of his 7”s. Sonny is doing a series of 100 7”s as this conceptual masterpiece.
BB: I saw it at Gallery 16 when you guys played there, and he played as well. Really cool idea.
H: It’s so cool.
BB: So are you friendly with Sonny as well? He’s like a Bay Area staple huh?
G: We both recorded on some of those 7”s.
BB: That’s cool. And Grace, you put out a solo record recently, Grace Sings Sludge?
G: Yea, I recorded a bunch of songs on my own. It was a bunch of recordings I made last year and my friend liked them and put them out as a limited tape release.
BB: Very cool. And you also in your other time work at Amoeba Records?
G: Yea, I’ve been there about 3 years. It’s like a big dysfunctional family there. Everybody’s really nice and usually a musician.
BB: You must listen to a shit load of music from working there?
G: I’m not quite as obsessive or expert as some of my co-workers. But yea…
BB: Is there anything you’re really stoked on now that you’re listening to?
G: My friend is putting out a Michael Yonkers record so I’ve been listening to him a lot.
H: I got a bunch of music from my roommate recently. So I’ve sort of been slowly making my way through. I’ve been listening to a lot of jazz recently. John Surman, Don Cherry, and am seeking some new pop experiences.
BB: So how do you guys know each other?
G: We met through her ex-boyfriend who worked at Amoeba. So we became friends and hit it off. She gave me a bunch of songs that I really liked. Then she gave me a CD of her recordings.
H: Yea we both did a bunch of recordings, we swapped, and both liked each others stuff.
BB: What do you use for home recording equipment or software?
H: I just use my computer. Mostly GarageBand on there.
G: I have a little digital 8 track that I use sometimes. But mostly GarageBand as well.
BB: More recently you put out the video for “Kiss Your Feet,” which Joey Izzo produced, how did you guys get hooked up with him?
G: He’s my honey.
BB: Oh nice. So when you’re working on new music, it seems like you split on the vocals, do you both bring in stuff you’ve been working on and go from there?
H: Yea, pretty much. I think we both enjoy being in lead and supporting roles so that works out nice. Both vocally and instrumentally. Songwriting wise its a pretty happy union, because all the different sides of it are different and satisfying.
BB: You have really complimentary voices, it make sense.
H: Ha, yea we like singing together.
BB: So any plans for shows coming up?
G: Not for a little bit.
H: I think our next show is in August. We’re not really trying to book anything until that.
BB: The first time I saw you guys play at Cafe de Nord you had a guy drummer, and then when I saw you at Gallery 16 you had a girl drummer…
H: The girl, Roxy, was our drummer on the album. Lance is our current drummer who went on tour with us.
G: He’s in a few other bands and he had a show that night at Gallery 16. He plays with Tongue and Teeth.
H: I thought they were going by Zoo?
G: I think it might be Teeth and Tongue. Or Zoo, haha.
BB: I read somewhere that you used to play with the Fresh & Onlys?
H: Both of us. We were back-up singers. We met through my ex-boyfriend who is Tim Cohen, who is the lead songwriter.
G: He recorded our EP that’s coming with Wymond from the Fresh & Onlys.
BB: When is that coming out?
G: Pretty soon.
H: I think we just got the record sleeves for it.
BB: Is that two legged cat going to be on it again?
G: No, we did the art for it this time.
BB: Is that on Turn Up as well?
H: No, it’s going to be on Empty Cellar.
G: Our friend Greg recorded it.
H: Empty Cellar is part of Empty Nest. There are levels this collective I guess. It’s Arvel Hernandez and Greg Gardner. Arvel doesn’t work at Amoeba anymore but he once did. So it’s those two guys putting it out.
BB: And no bassist right? Is that intentional?
H: We’re always looking! We’ve had some candidates. Bunch of flakes!
G: I like the way the songs sound with the bass on the album but I’m not really in any hurry to expand the band. We’re getting better. We’ve been working on harmonies on the guitar to make it sound a little fuller.
H: There’s always a touchy social dynamic in a band too. Bringing in another person is kind of a terrifying prospect. It’s gotta be the perfect person.
BB: Where do you practice around here?
G: In the TL at Park and Taylor.
H: Francisco Studios. It’s three stories, there are tons of bands there. Francisssco.
BB: Did you both grow up around here? Your music sounds much more like a small town, country folk origin. If you told me you both grew up in Oklahoma I’d be like, yea I know…
G: I’m from the suburbs.
H: Menlo Park.
BB: Well where the hell did you come up with this sound?
G: I have no idea what comes out.
H: It just happened pretty naturally I guess. We had those songs and that’s just how they sounded when we played them together. And we played them together a bunch so we filled them in. Everybody has kind of a good ear so we just heard it out and it felt right.
- matthew hunt
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James Finch Jr. capures the spirit of the Holidays
James Finch Jr. (one of our, dare i say, “staff” musicians) has created this haunting version of Silent Night with the help of our great San Francisco talented buddies including Sandwitch Heidi Alexander. Beautiful!
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This past Friday The Sandwitches cooked up a great radio show filled with great music they’ve listened to too many times. With Stereo Steve on the KUSF console, Heidi and Grace broadcast an hour of music they dig. Check it out, it’s a lot of fun! Thanks to KUSF and kusf-archives.org for the mp3!
enjoy!
The Sandwitches – KUSF Guest DJ with Stereo Steve
]]>the sandwitches – marry me
billy swan – i can help
electric light orchestra – above the clouds
john’s children – just what you want just what you’ll get
baths – be afraid of metodd rundgren – song of the viking
billy joel – the stranger
gary wilson – rhythm in your eyes
canned heat – going up the country
doris duke – congratulations baby
christmas – winterkevin ayers – the owl
the gladiators – fling it gimme
inflatable boy clams – i’m sorry
wounded lion – pony people
jonathan richman – important in your life
sludgehammer – respectharry belafonte – man smart, woman smarter
Here’s a really nice review of “How To Make Ambient Sad Cake” this time from the music lover behind the “Raven Sings the Blues” blog.
“Received a copy of The Sandwitches How To Make Ambient Sadcake in the mail last week and its been spinning on the turntable ever since. It’s a hard nugget to crack, with those sweet girl group overtones and harmonies one minute then the slow burn of gothic folk the next. Their approach is eclectic in style but somehow ends up feeling like one big picture once you back up just a few feet. The dissolution of the American dream from the Shagri-Las to Box Car folk, dust bowl Americana to smoldering 70′s arena ballad femme fatales; its all here and nothing is spared The Sandwitches delicate touch. In a blur of straw and taffeta the band works their way through an album’s worth of free swinging and tight woven pop that leaves a cool shiver down your spine, assuring you something special just wafted through your life. Definitely one not a one off listen, it takes a while to peel back the layers of Ambient Sadcake but once you reach the golden center its all worth it.”
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