Marte Solbakken http://poppylandet.blogspot.com

Future Twin

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As a generalization, pop stars write generic songs about love, make absurd amounts of money, and then throw a miniscule portion of that money at issues they care about. (Or, possibly, that their PR handlers deem appropriate to care about.) For example, back in 2010, Lady Gaga partnered with Virgin Mobile for her Monster Ball tour and raised $80,000 for homeless youth. Of course, the tour itself grossed a whopping $200 million, so she's not exactly Mother Teresa. Or Neil Young, for that matter. Farm Aid? Bridge School? Those are just regular happenings for a musician who seems to get press as much for his philanthropic work as for his music.

Independent artists, since their earnings are miniscule to begin with, can't afford to throw money at their own problems, let alone the causes of global strife. Instead, they have to use the only means at their disposal, their music, to make an impact. Using music as a medium for social or political change can risk turning people off. However, on occasion, a band figures out a way to charm its listeners into taking note of the issues the members care about.

A perfect example is the relatively new (they've been performing for about a year) San Francisco psych-rock band Future Twin, whose songs you can stream over on the Bay Bridged.

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Gabriella Clavel

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The women of the Bay Area music scene are breaking rules and defying expectations. Lass Out Loud is a new column exploring their lives and work.

Julie Ann Baenziger, aka Sea of Bees, has one of the most compelling and unique voices I've heard in years. Her indie folk-pop evokes a response from more than just one of the five senses. It's warm, it's soft, it's palpable. It's music that not only touches you, but music you can touch. Sea of Bees opens for Wye Oak this Friday at the Independent as part of Noise Pop.

Jules played most of the instruments on Sea of Bees' debut Songs for the Ravens, which was named in NPR's All Songs Considered Top Ten Albums of 2010 list. She spent a good portion of 2010 and 2011 on tour in the U.S. and Europe, a far cry from where she started just a few years ago. Brought up in a strict religious household, Baenziger was herself only recently out of the closet when her album came out. Pegged early on by LGBTQ publications as a "queer" musician, Baenziger isn't as quick to label herself.

"We're all a bit queer, aren't we? It's just a matter of admitting it to ourselves," she laughs. "I identify as a person who falls in love. Like a little boy falls in love with a girl, or a little girl falls in love with a boy, or a little girl who falls in love with a little girl, or a little boy who falls in love with a little boy, I just fall in love. And it is what it is. I'm not so bright when it comes to knowing all these names. Maybe if somebody examined me and they're like, 'Oh! You're queer, lesbian, transgender, that's what you are.' I don't identify as anything except a person who believes in the right to be in love."

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Nicole Nodland

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The women of the Bay Area music scene are breaking rules and defying expectations. Lass Out Loud is a new column exploring their lives and work.

For an artist who often seems like she's taken one too many valiums, Internet sensation Lana Del Rey elicits a weird range of emotions. First came the embrace by Pitchfork. Then came the backlash. Then came the backlash to the backlash. At this point the Lana Del Rey sensation just feels like whiplash.

Del Rey will be performing and signing records at Amoeba Music at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9. For the second installment of Lass Out Loud, with Del Rey's visit to San Francisco looming large, we asked some local music-minded women to weigh in on the main arguments about Lana Del Rey.

1. Lana Del Rey got plastic surgery, feigned an indie aesthetic when Interscope had her back all along, and she's using a fake name

In simple terms, who cares?

"I'm so tired of the snob-blogs dictating music," says Tricycle Records cofounder Julie Schuchard, 38. "First Pitchfork sings her praises, then they diss her. Leave this poor girl and her lips alone."

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Only You, with Rachel Fannan in the red-striped shirt. Photo by Simon Weller.

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The women of the Bay Area music scene are breaking rules and defying expectations. Lass Out Loud is a new column exploring their lives and work.

Former Sleepy Sun singer Rachel Fannan's new all-girl group, Only You, takes a break from the sunnier shores of Southern California to perform at Brick and Mortar Music Hall this Thursday, Jan. 26. Presented by local tastemaker (((folkYEAH))), the lineup also features the great San Luis Obispo rock outfit Sparrows Gate and San Francisco's own Light Fantastic.

After her public and somewhat dramatic break from San Francisco psych-rock outfit Sleepy Sun, Fannan struck out on her own. A little over a year later, she's fronting "three vixen warlords" in Only You, a musical amalgam of surf rock and dream-pop love songs. Their throwback sound with a modern feminine twist is currently being recorded for an upcoming EP, so keep your eyes peeled. Fannan's also got a handful of side projects brewing, recently lending vocals to a Bonnie Prince Billy song and to Mars Volta frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala's new project, Anywhere.

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