Blogs

Like London's the Duke Spirit, San Franciso's Love Like Fire offers a rush of angsty alt rock that merges melodic come-ons with anxious verbal knockouts. Singer Ann Yu is a strong seductress, her vocal range setting the emotional tone for the band as she glides between a soft romantic tremble and a firm adminitions that she's unwilling to save the weak hearts that surround her. Today's MP3 of the Day is "From a Tower," a track that swirls atmospheric effects around Yu's wistful warble. -- Jennifer Maerz

Remember that Moldy Peach whose music wasn't in Juno? That skinny dude who dueted with Kimya Dawson back in the day and now is getting caught up in her brand new buzz? Adam Green was his name. And Sixes & Sevens is the name of his new album. Check out the video for "Morning After Midnight," off "Sixes and Sevens," above, and the audio for that song here. Adam performs on Tuesday, May 20, at Rickshaw Stop with Tim Fite -- Jennifer Maerz

In the current issue of the Weekly, Ezra Gale describes local dance commanders Wallpaper as "trashy synth-pop riding garage-sale drum machine beats as a singer wails about 'going big on the weekends' ... Synthesizers whirr, drum machines thwap, and Reed (who sounds as if he stole the Vocoder from Cher's "Believe" session and implanted it in his larynx) rattles on about text messages. If Justin Timberlake were broke and had a sense of humor, he'd probably sound like this."

So this sunny Friday couldn't be a better time to get Wallpaper's "Evrytym We Do It" to get your weekend thwapping in style. -- Jennifer Maerz

Working on the "Punk Family Values" piece for the last couple months, I've become quite fond of Lou Lou and George Rosenthal -- who are not only very bright and down to earth, they're also in a fun rock 'n' roll band called Lou Lou & the Guitarfish. Today's second free MP3 is one of the songs from their self-titled debut album (which comes out June 24 on Birdman Records). Here's a sneak preview for you, a track called "For the Birds." -- Jennifer Maerz

You can also check out Web Editor Janine Kahn's slideshow of the band here.

While all the old shoegazer fans froth at the mouth for the My Bloody Valentine and Swervedriver reunion shows hitting San Francisco this year, devotees to fuzzed out space pop should not forget that this city is also a bastion for the new breed of that sound. Local quartet Astral recently released its sixth disc, Sleepwalker, which floats in a melancholy dreamstate perfect for our little fog Mecca.

Get an MP3 of the ‘gazy, gauzy “Transmitter” here, and see the band perform live on Sunday, May 25, at Annie’s. (Full disclosure bits: Astral's Scott Christy is an employee of SF Weekly, as is Otto Chan, the photoshop magician who polished last night's hangover out of this photo). –-Jennifer Maerz

The Dandy Warhols (Portland's cocky popsters, made legendary in the war of the egos documentary Dig!) are self-releasing a new album this summer called Earth to the Dandy Warhols.

They have a new MP3 available now, though. You can measure for yourself how the attitude measures up to the output by checking out the free MP3, "The World The People Together (Come On)" here. -- Jennifer Maerz

Trent Reznor really loves you guys. He understood that sharing is caring when he produced Saul Williams' free Niggy Tardust album, and now he's carrying on the good will by offering Nine Inch Nails' new album, The Slip, available for free download. CD and vinyl formats are due to come out in July, but that good shit'll cost ya. And if all that free goodness just won't cut it, Nine Inch Nails make a tour stop at Oakland's Oracle Arena on Sept. 5. --Oscar Pascual

While some of Santogold’s electro pop is a bit too ephemeral for my taste, when the Brooklyn artist is on, her music is definitely infectious. With music that leaps between M.I.A.’s international dance flavors and Karen O.’s post punk come ons, the former A&R gal at Epic knows the formulas that get bloggers out of their bedrooms and into the clubs. Her self-titled debut came out last week (with a really cool image of the singer puking gold glitter).

Here’s a track not on that record for your downloading pleasure, called “Your Voice.” – Jennifer Maerz