She & Him @ Bimbo's - Monday, November 3rd

She & Him are going to be be playing at Bimbo's on 11/3. Tix are going on sale Thursday morning. Let me know if you'd like to join me and I'll get tix.

Le Switch @ Hotel Utah - Sunday, August 31st

My cousin Leslie just saw Le Switch in LA and said they were great. I listened to them on Myspace and they sound really cool. Don't let the Sunday night show at Hotel Utah scare you, Monday is Labor Day! Let me know if you'd like to join me.

the Botticellis @ Cafe du Nord - Sunday, August 10th

Just read about this band and listened to a few tunes on myspace and I they sound pretty cool. Let me know if you'd like to join me for the show at Cafe du Nord Sunday night and I'll get tix. It's only $10!!!

Here's what I read about them on GenArt:

Thursday, August 7, 2008
Surf's Up
Four beach boys and a girl embrace '60s pop and make retro feel shiny and new.

Oftentimes, when you read a band's adorable how-we-met story it just plain isn't true. Either a reporter gets the facts wrong or something is passed along, telephone-style, through the music blogosphere until it barely resembles what really went down. So when I got the chance to interview Alexi Glickman of the local indie rock sensation of the moment, The Botticellis, there was one thing I had to ask: Did he and bandmate Zack Ehrlich really meet playing Suzuki violin duets back in kindergarten? Because how crazy cute is that?

As it turns out, it's all true. "I think my first memory of Zack is his sweet brontosaurus t-shirt," Glickman tells me. "Needless to say we were both devastated when it came out that the brontosaur didn't actually exist..." Devastation aside, the pair went on to form an instrumental duo and began to write their own music. "We had a pretty funny approach to the guitar having come from violin," he explains. "Instead of learning chords and strumming we just wrote these little melodies and arpeggios to accompany them."

Flash forward to today, and the friends are part of a quintet with a Bright Eyes-produced debut album, Old Home Movies, that critics are going ga-ga over, comparing the Botticellis' lush, nostalgia inducing-sound to wide array of heavy hitters like the Beach Boys, Big Star and the Shins: "Burton (guitar, keys, analogue delay) and I are pretty obsessed with coaxing vibe out of vintage gear. I think that's something that people respond to in our music. People have called our sound cinematic before, too. Blythe (vocals) studied film in undergrad and when we're writing together she talks about sounds as if they were something visual."

While many of the album's tracks speak of regret, as a band, there aren't too many things that the Botticellis would change right now. "I guess we all wish it hadn't taken quite as long to make the first record," he says. "But I think we learned a lot of things that are making it easier and more fun to do album number two."

Catch the Botticellis this Sunday night at Cafe Du Nord; purchase advance tickets here.

- Caroline Stanley

Slow Food Rocks - Saturday, August 30th

Slow Food Nation is having a music fest August 30 & 31. Saturday, August 30th features Gnarls Barkley and The New Pornographers. Single day tix are $59 if you buy them before 7/10, they go on sale tomorrow at 9am.

I try to never miss the New Pornographers, they are great in concert. Let me know if you'd like to join me!

Save the Date - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass - October 3-5

It's still a long way off, but the line up already looks good. Mark your calendars!

Outside Lands Music Festival - Single Day Tix on Sale

Good news, they are finally going to sell single day passes to Outside Lands at $85/day. They go on sale this Thursday at 10am. I'm planning to go on Friday to see Radiohead and Beck (along with all the other great bands). Let me know if you're going to go on Friday too and we can make plans to go together.

The Breeders In Store @ Amoeba - Thursday, May 1st

The Breeders are back with a brand new release, Mountain Battles, and to celebrate, the band is headed to Amoeba San Francisco to perform a free, all-ages in-store on Thursday, May 1st at 6pm! Purchase the new CD on the day of the in-store and score a free Breeders Giveaway Bag featuring a limited edition 7 inch while supplies last!