Gaz Coombes (Solo) at Swedish American Hall

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KC Turner Presents
Steve Poltz
+ The Sam Chase & The Untraditional (solo)

Swedish American Hall
2174 Market Street - San Francisco, CA

Saturday, June 30, 2018
7pm Doors / 8pm Show
$20 ADV / $25 DOOR
SEATED SHOW / All Ages

ABOUT:
To suggest that Steve Poltz isn?t normal is about as safe a statement as one could make. You would basically require the powers of the Hubble space telescope to locate Steve Poltz from any region of normalcy. For music fans on both sides of the equator, this is a very good thing.

Born among the hearty seafaring folk of Canada?s Halifax, Nova Scotia, Poltz has lived most of his life in Southern California, where the sun treated his rocky Canadian DNA like clothes in a dryer. Naturally a spectrum of cultural and emotional tensions arose and he eventually sought refuge in the art of songwriting, where he tapped into an unforgettable and often horrifying depth of unhinged genius.

Among the music cognoscenti, Steve Poltz is regarded as one of the most talented and prolific songwriters of our time. His songs have been among the longest running ever on the Billboard Top 100 and they regularly appear in movie soundtracks, television shows, and even the odd commercial. His touring schedule is ferocious, ping ponging between continents with enough frequency to earn him manic followings in scores of different accents and languages.

Any musician who has traveled as extensively as Poltz will have their share of colorful road stories, but Poltz? adventures read like a bucket list. Starting out auspiciously, Poltz recalls meeting Elvis Presley at a small airport and beaming proudly as The King hugged his sister for an inordinately long time. Growing up in Palm Springs, California, he trick-or-treated at Liberace?s house and was Bob Hope?s favorite altar boy. In an alcohol-soaked haze, he infamously accosted David Cassidy, who had summoned him to Las Vegas to write a hit song for the aging Tiger Beat cover boy.

His rich and colorful legacy is the stuff of legend, but it is his distinctive style of songwriting that has caused the world to offer up its stages, clubs, and alleys. Poltz? sound is entirely unique- from his inhuman fingerstyle techniques to the inimitable melodies that roll from his guitar like cool waterfalls, you know a Poltz song as soon as you hear it. To see Steve to perform live is one of the most entertaining shows a human could ever see. Frenzied, aggressive, hilarious, and heartbreakingly sincere, his live performances have become bona fide events, with sub-cultures popping up all over the globe to entice him to come and tour. As relentless as he is in concert, he is also the guy who famously co-wrote the timeless ballad ?You Were Meant For Me? with platinum-selling songwriter Jewel. Of course, because we?re talking about Steve Poltz, it should surprise no one to learn that the song was written on a lazy Mexican beach, where Poltz and Jewel were soon snapped up and sequestered by Mexican Federales and required to witness and eventually assist in a large marijuana bust on the beach. Don?t believe it? See for yourself in the pictures on his web site.

Poltz, an ex high school wrestler (98 pound class), is also an obsessive baseball fan, a die-hard yoga practitioner, a hopeless romantic, a smart-ass philosopher and a child-like adventurer with an absurdist?s view of the planet and all of its curious life forms.

Music fans have adored him since he first fronted the hallowed punk-folk legends, The Rugburns, whose live shows earned the band a following that is best described somewhere between the terms ?cult? and ?crazed substance-abusing fanatics.? Once touring over 300 days a year, the Rugburns occasionally reunite for wildly popular sold-out shows.

Poltz? solo body of work is an impressive collection of ballads, rockers and uniquely melodic acoustic numbers that reflect his incomparable style of alternate tunings and savage finger picking techniques. Guitar geeks fall prostrate at his feet trying vainly to learn how to play his stunningly gorgeous and deceptively complex songs. To see him play guitar is a visual feast so frenetic that close proximity to his playing exposes one to risk of seizure.

His albums reflect the depth and expanse of his influences throughout the years (One Left Shoe, Chinese Vacation, Traveling and Unraveling). He has also released a children?s album (The Barn), a performance DVD (Tales From The Tavern) and a collection of other recordings that defy categorization, such as Answering Machine ? a 56-track collection of 45 second ?songs? culled from his answering machine?s outgoing messages. Neil Young has ranked it as a favorite album.

Steve Poltz?s latest recording project brought him back to Halifax, where he collaborated with Joel Plaskett, an award-winning Canadian songwriter, performer, producer and eminently kindred spirit. The two holed up in Joel?s Scotland Yard studio with a 2 inch,16 track analog tape machine, a 24 hour work ethic, their comfy clothes, and all the mojo they could conjure. The result was Dreamhouse,? Steve?s most accomplished and focused album to date. Critically acclaimed across the globe, it has been singled out by some critics as the 2010 Album of the Year.

His live shows have captivated audiences far and wide with a mix of singing, storytelling, shredding, and the occasional spoken word rants which have been known to incite riots. He can take an audience from laughter to tears and back again in the space of the same song. Steve Poltz transcends the word ?talented.? He is unforgettable in all the right ways.

Written by Joe Daly

Lindsey Jordan is on the brink of something huge, and she?s only just graduated high school. Her voice rises and falls with electricity throughout Lush, her debut album as Snail Mail, spinning with bold excitement and new beginnings at every turn.


?Is there any better feeling than coming clean?? sings the eighteen-year-old guitarist and songwriter halfway through the sprawling anthem that is ?Pristine,? the album?s first single. You can?t help but agree with her. It?s a hook that immediately sticks in your head?and a question she seems to be grappling with throughout the record?s 10-songs of crystalline guitar pop.


Throughout Lush, Jordan?s clear and powerful voice, acute sense of pacing, and razor-sharp writing cut through the chaos and messiness of growing up: the passing trends, the awkward house parties, the sick-to-your-stomach crushes and the heart wrenching breakups. Jordan?s most masterful skill is in crafting tension, working with muted melodrama that builds and never quite breaks, stretching out over moody rockers and soft-burning hooks, making for visceral slow-releases that stick under the skin.


Lush feels at times like an emotional rollercoaster, only fitting for Jordan?s explosive, dynamic personality. Growing up in Baltimore suburb Ellicot City, Jordan began her classical guitar training at age five, and a decade later wrote her first audacious songs as Snail Mail. Around that time, Jordan started frequenting local shows in Baltimore, where she formed close friendships within the local scene, the impetus for her to form a band. By the time she was sixteen, she had already released her debut EP, Habit, on local punk label Sister Polygon Records.


In the time that?s elapsed since Habit, Jordan has graduated high school, toured the country, opened for the likes of Girlpool and Waxahatchee as well as selling out her own headline shows, and participated in a round-table discussion for the New York Times about women in punk -- giving her time to reflect and refine her songwriting process by using tempered pacings and alternate tunings to create a jawdropping debut both thoughtful and cathartic. Recorded with producer Jake Aron and engineer Johnny Schenke, with contributions from touring bandmates drummer Ray Brown and bassist Alex Bass as well, Lush sounds cinematic, yet still perfectly homemade.


The songs on Lush often come close to the five-minute mark, making them long enough to get lost in. The album?s more gauzy and meditative songs play out like ideal end-of-the-night soundtracks, the kind that might score a 3am conversation or a long drive home, from the finger-picking of ?Speaking Terms? to the subtle, sweeping harmonies and French horn on ?Deep Sea.? It only makes sense that Jordan wrote these songs late at night during a time when she was obsessively reading Eileen Myles and listening to a lot of slowcore and folk songwriters.


?Heat Wave? is one of the album?s most devastating moments, a song that wallows in a crumbling mid-summer relationship. ?I broke it off, called out of my shift, and just cried in my bathtub and wrote this song,? Jordan recalls. ?I was just so desperate to just get the way I was feeling out onto paper so that I could just have it and be done with it. It was almost kind of painful. It was like puking onto paper, and crying, ?This girl hurt my feelings!? Towards the end of writing the record, I became better at dealing with my emotions.?


Jordan?s personal crown jewel of the album, ?Let?s Find an Out,? puts her childhood classical guitar training on display. It?s a road song of sorts, a nod to feeling young and disoriented on her first ever tour: ?I?d gotten knocked around a lot by the process. I was scared. It?s sort of this love song about another person who is going through the same thing.? ?You?re always coming back a little older / but it looks alright on you,? she belts over her intricate playing, on one of the album?s most pensive and gorgeous moments. Lucky for us all, she doesn?t sound scared anymore.

2015 began Lloyd Cole?s ?retrospective years? in which the UK born, Western Massachusetts-based musician began to revisit his storied career. In his own words:
Yes, it was me who opened his solo venture (the eponymous 1990 release) with a song called ?Don?t Look Back?. I know, I know?
However, the release of 2015?s Lloyd Cole and the Commotions Collected Recordings 1983-1989 was received to universal warmth and acclaim, and it sold out far more quickly than UMG anticipated. A second printing is due in March, and a second box is in the works, for September release. It will span 1988 ? 1996, my first four solo albums, the lost fifth album, plus rarities and videos.
These boxes are a lot of work, much of which can only be done by me. I must revisit and rediscover material. I am necessarily in retrospective mode. I have decided to embrace it.
Once the world has seen the Retrospective Show I will resume my work as a contemporary artist.

Bent Knee is a band without frontiers. The Boston-based group seamlessly connects the worlds of rock, pop and the avant-garde into its own self-defining statement. On its globally-acclaimed 2016 release Say So, the band focuses on the sound of surprise. It?s rock for the thinking person. The group?s lyrics are dark and infused with themes focusing on the emergence of personal demons, unwanted situations and the difficulty of conquering them. Its mercurial sound matches its subject matter. It?s a thrilling aural roller-coaster ride with arrangements designed to make listeners throw their arms up in wild abandon as they engage with them.


The album has received glowing reviews across major media, including The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, NPR, Consequence of Sound, and Prog. BBC Radio 6 and BBC Radio 3 have also playlisted and championed the band across Europe.


Founded in 2009, Bent Knee is a true collective with sky-high standards and a determination to push boundaries. Frontwoman and keyboardist Courtney Swain?s acrobatic, multi-octave vocals are nothing less than extraordinary. Guitarist Ben Levin morphs between the hauntingly melodic and extreme, dissonant sonics?sometimes within a single verse or passage. Bassist Jessica Kion and drummer Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth deliver deep and thunderous grooves, full of engaging, intriguing ornamentation. Violinist Chris Baum?s driving melodic overlays and atmospheres further take the band?s sound into wild territory. And all of it is brilliantly processed and produced by sound designer Vince Welch.

Transviolet is an LA-based quartet made up of vocalist/lyricist Sarah McTaggart, multi-instrumentalist/producer Michael Panek, drummer/producer Jonathan Garcia, and guitarist/keyboardist Judah McCarthy. The band?s first song, ?Girls Your Age? popped online in the summer of 2015 announcing Transviolet?s arrival. ?Girls Your Age? gained instant online traction with Sarah?s voice at once recalling the Lana, Lorde, Karen O and Imogen Heap: sultry, measured,


assured. Katy Perry praised the lyrics, Harry Styles tweeted his support, Ellie Goulding selected it for a spin on Beats1 and Twin Shadow delivered an exclusive remix. Transviolet has appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden (twice) and The Today Show. They have toured nationally with Mikky Ekko and LANY, and toured the UK with Twenty One Pilots. They've played the festival circuit including SXSW, Governor's Ball, Firefly, Read and Leeds, Great Escape and more, generating over 20+ million spins on Spotify.


Meanwhile, they garnered widespread acclaim from i-D, Nylon, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Noisey, Billboard, and many more. In 2017, they released their softmore EP "Kaleidoscopes" paired with videos for "The Hamptons", "Astronaut", "Kaleidoscopes" and "Pretty Head". In 2017, they performed on The Today Show and for MTV, Billboard and Baeble Music while quietly creating this latest body of work.

?Rock and roll is sort of my consolation prize for wanting to have been a writer,? says James Alex. It?s a humble admission from the frontman of Philadelphia?s Beach Slang, a fiery punk quartet whose raucous gigs often find the songwriter?s earnest lyrics bellowed back at him. Still, consider it a feat that fans are even able to hear those words from behind the trembling walls of distortion that serve as Beach Slang?s raison d?etre. Everything about Beach Slang is loud, from the guitars to its attitude to Alex?s weathered rasp.
Considering that, there?s something almost cheeky about the title of his new project: Quiet Slang. As the name implies, Alex is embracing minimalism, smothering the fuzz in favor of a cello, a piano, and his voice. In October, Quiet Slang released We Were Babies & We Were Dirtbags, an EP comprised of two Beach Slang songs and two covers from The Replacements and Big Star. Consider it an introduction to what Alex calls ?chamber pop for outsiders,? because it simply serves as prelude to Everything Matters But No One Is Listening, a collection of 10 Beach Slang covers that comprises Quiet Slang?s debut fulllength.
The project?s seeds were planted just six months after Beach Slang?s formation, when Alex was asked to a solo Tiny Desk Concert for NPR. ?That was just me, my guitar and a clumsy excuse for charm. But, yeah, the response was beautifully unexpected and really nudged my thinking,? he says. ?Even now, at almost every show we play somebody?s like, ?I got turned onto your band from that NPR thing. You should make a record like that.?? A successful solo tour last year solidified the idea in Alex?s mind, but he says he wasn?t content to make a ?campfire record,? elaborating that he ?wanted it to have more weight than that.?
That?s when he turned to the project?s key influence: The Magnetic Fields? Stephin Merritt. Merritt?s influence lent itself not only in his heartrending use of cello and piano via his work with the Fields, but also in one of his most famous lyrics. ?Why do we keep shrieking/ When we mean soft things?? goes the final lines of ?100,000 Fireflies.? ?We should be whispering all the time.?
?That just always stuck with me,? Alex says, ?how quiet can sometimes be more powerful.? He continues, ?If Beach Slang is me fawning over The Replacements, Quiet Slang is me head-over-heels for Stephin Merritt.?
Though a new Beach Slang record is next up on Alex?s docket, he?s open to the possibility of more Quiet Slang. The project?s sophomore release, he notes, would contain original songs. ?I guess I wanted to chase reinterpretation first. I dug the challenge of it. But, yeah, Quiet Slang deserves its own voice.?
Regardless of its future, however, he hopes the project can convey one simple thing: ?Tenderness. I suppose that sounds overly simplified. But, still, it makes it no less sincere. Look, I?m trying to soften the world a little bit?there?s worse ways to be remembered.?

Noise Pop Presents:
Charlotte Lawrence at Cafe du Nord
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
7pm Doors / 8pm Show / All Ages

From the front porches, alleys, and rivers of Richmond, Virginia, comes Andy Jenkins carrying a crisp, newly cut album, Sweet Bunch. Hatched in the tradition of Southern culture?unhurried in his art, unworried by external demands, yet weirdly ahead of the curve by the time he arrives?Andy is a distinctive and joyously idiosyncratic songwriting talent developed for years in obscurity. Sweet Bunch springs into the world fully-formed, the work of a confident, timeless as well as contemporary singer-songwriter, offering beautiful and basic melodies with lyrics exploring the fluidity between the banal and the sublime. His work feels natural, complete within itself, untrained musically but adherent to its own forms and intricate in its own ways. Spring peepers line the path; the author feeds her peacocks strutting among vines and ruins; a photographer waits for the right light and color in frame. Each song presents a rich, new tableau of sound, glowing worlds to discover, rooted in an unnamed sense of place.


Andy could have found no better seedbed for this sensibility to flower than Spacebomb, a label known for offering high musicianship outside of the predictabilities of New York, Nashville, and Los Angeles. Produced by Matthew E. White, Sweet Bunch was recorded in three magical days of flow-state, the drums, bass, keys, and guitars all live and nothing to regret. The source of this musical surety lies above all with Jenkins? songwriting?natural and effortless as the glide of a swan or sailboat?matched in spirit and strength by the sweet bunch in the studio. The Spacebomb crew ran hard into midnight with a few ringers along for the ride, and a very full chorus of voices shining bright behind Andy?s relaxed, self-assured singing, gently insistent as it dips and soars at every measure. Contentment in life and patience with craft is announced, almost as credo, on the opening track ?Hazel Woods?:


Man, I would love to finish the book but I still have pages and pages of lines. Time sends out a withering look, but I pay it no mind. God, it?s a drag to figure it out, but what else can I do? Nothing whatever, but to read for my pleasure, as the light passes through?


Jenkins sends his warm words buoyed on cool streams of melody, to tell the greater world that Virginia has become, once again, a musical frontier. He sits at a crossroads of modernism, sensitivity and decision, with the expansiveness and musical drawl of Big Star, the bounce of Warren Zevon, and the curly, perfectly-carved melodies of Kevin Ayers. His lyrics have a tendency to stick in the mind, not straightforward storytelling, but always delivering a kind of payoff or reward. Their surrealism, closer to the origin of that term, sees the world in dualities, layered images and dreams. On the topic of love, he is soul-bearing yet light, focused outward, singing conversationally as if from driver to passenger remarking on the passing views. In a way, all of his songs are outdoor songs. Each paints a wide and wild landscape, the mood of a sun setting on a damn good day spent among friends and favored creatures. Sitting high on the hog, like a bump on a log, getting lost in the goodness of the earth.