BoxSpeaker Picks: SF and Oakland Shows – 9/28

Here’s a quick rundown of concerts and events Bay Area readers should check out tonight:

San Francisco:

Cold Fronts, The Jaded, The Wearies, and Flaggs at Neck of the Woods

“Strange Architecture” is a BoxSpeaker favorite because of its lo-fi garage rock feel.

AM & Shawn Lee, Monophonics,  and DJ BCause at the Independent

AM & Shawn Lee hail from Echo Park and bring a 60s/70s French Library feel mixed with some disco riffs.

Menomena and Helio Sequence at the Great American Music Hall

Helio Sequence and Menomena are high school BoxSpeaker favorites, especially Helio Sequence. Bringing together beachy Fender Telecaster guitar sounds and a relaxed but still dancey drum beat, songs like “Keep Your Eyes Ahead” really epitomized high school romance.

OAKLAND:

Station to Station

Station to Station is a multimedia art public art project. With music from bands and musicians such as Dan Deacon, No Age, and Twin Shadow, and sculptures, films, and prints from dozens artists, this roving mini festival is sure to appeal to all senses and art preferences.

Kitten Announces Upcoming Tour with Charli XCX and Little Daylight

Today, Kitten announced their upcoming tour supporting Charli XCX with Little Daylight.

Check out the dates for this BoxSpeaker Favorite triple-threat tour below:

AUGUST:
30 Vancouver, BC Venue Nightclub*
31 Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge*

SEPTEMBER:
1 Seattle, WA Bumbershoot Festival – Fisher Green
3 San Francisco, CA Slim’s***
5 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre***
6 San Diego, CA House of Blues***
7 Las Vegas, NV Vinyl – Hard Rock Hotel & Casino***
9 Salt Lake City, UT In The Venue*
10 Denver, CO Bluebird Theater
12 Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock Social Club*
13 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall
14 Meadow, MI Meadow Brook Music Festival
16 Toronto, ON The Hoxton***
17 Montreal, QC La Sala Rossa***
18 Cambridge, MA The Sinclair***
20 Asbury Park – Wonder Bar**
21 New York, NY – Gramercy Theatre***
23 Columbus, OH The A&R Music Bar*
24 Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge*
25 Atlanta, GA Vinyl*
27 Houston, TX Fitzgerald’s
28 Austin, TX The Parish*
29 Dallas, TX Club Dada*

OCTOBER:
2 Orlando, FL The Social –

Follow Kitten on Facebook for more updates and check out their music on SoundCloud and their official site.

Robots in Disguise

Let me set the scene.

It was 2006.  I was 16, sitting in my living room doing homework.  My big black Sony stereo with the two feet tall box speakers that started everything (Music Starved, BoxSpeaker, my interest in my internship, my hours of searching for and listening to music online, my changing of plans for flights back to LA to accommodate bands’ concerts, probably even the whole point of who I am today) was playing tuned into either Indie 103.1 or KXLU 88.9 (these details escape me, but judging from the lack of static, it was most likely Indie).

Anyway, there I was sitting doing homework when an amazing song came on, sending its electronic beats through the speakers to my ears.  I immediately pushed the red dot button on the stereo that meant “Record” to capture that magic on cassette.  Later, I tried to type in the lyrics that I could hear to find out the song title and band.  However, for some reason I kept getting death metal bands.   It must have been because of the “Do or die” part.  It was kind of hard to get any other lyrics because the section I was able to record was mostly in French.  Anyway, after much searching, I finally found out that the song I heard was “DIY” by Robots in Disguise.

Now, if you know me personally, you’ll be aware of my love of robots and electropop.  The girl duo that is Robots in Disguise bridged my two loves of robots and electropop to make a mellow track that really shows its ambient European electronica influence.

Fast forward to today when they are working on their fourth album and have songs that exhibit a riot grrl feel such as “We’re in the Music Biz.”  This band is versatile and fun!

Check them out here: myspace.com/robotsindisguise and robotsindisguise.co.uk