San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Listen: Foo Fighters release longawaited 10th album.
For The Chronicle’s playlist of this week’s picks and to watch music videos of select songs, go to datebook.sf chronicle.com.
Lamar, Ronald Isley and others, showcases the modern masters who have made their careers at the intersection of jazz and hiphop.
LOCAL TRACKS TuneYards, “hold yourself.” (4AD):
The Oakland art pop group just announced its fifth studio album, “Sketchy” (out March 26), and has released the single “hold yourself.” Set to thickly stacked instrumentation led by the duo of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner (who composed the score to Boots Riley’s 2019 Bay Area cult classic film, “Sorry to Bother You”), the song is about parting from the outdated ideologies of our parents’ generation and avoiding those same patterns ourselves.
“We all have trouble being brave enough to turn the page,” Garbus sings on the uplifting song’s chorus. And while the track was penned in 2019, Garbus recently said on the band’s Twitter channel that “the themes seem even more relevant today.”
King Dream, “Return to Zero” (selfreleased):
Before the pandemic put a stop to inperson concerts, Bay Area folkrock musician Jeremy Lyon’s band King Dream was a fixture in front of packed crowds at local venues like the Independent, Sweetwater Music Hall and Amnesia. But the recent live show lull has finally afforded Lyon more time to focus on new music, and now the band has released its first single in over two years, with plans in store for loads more in 2021.
“Return to Zero” dissects the feeling of having to start over without leaving the place that you call home. The song’s nuanced pandemic production style sees engineer Scott McDowell recording each of the band members’ parts remotely, while broadcasting the process to each other via the livestreaming service Twitch. The result is a vibrant coalescence of guitar, piano, violin, vocal harmonies and drums, both live and mechanical. While Lyon acknowledges the limitations of recording remotely, he tells The Chronicle that “changing my recording approach out of necessity has opened more possibilities.”
Adrian Spinelli is a Bay Area freelance writer. Twitter: @AGSpinelli