Saturday, February 4, 2012

bands on the rise cover story for san francisco bay guardian



Bands on the Rise 2012

Moombahton mavens, doom metal masters, post-apocalyptic art wavers: 12 local music acts you need to know this year

There's no underlying theme running through the 12 acts profiled here other than geographic: they all reside somewhere in the Bay Area. Well, that and we think they'll break huge this year. Or at least, deserve a larger audience in 2012. It's not based on buzz or hype, I can assure you of that. It's about their artistic output, innovation, and listenability, the grand scheme of the band's lifespan (just how many EPs did they record?), and the current cultural zeitgeist as we see it.

Perhaps what links them is what divides them — their musical diversity. As opposed to recent years, we are not in 2012 overloaded with a single genre. That blanket, behemoth of fuzzed out garage rock, which at times felt overdone, overhyped, and overworked, is finally expanding. That's not to say we aren't fans of garage, it's just a note that there's so much more out there in our freaky little section of the West Coast. This year feels electric; it began with a refreshing mix of acts on the rise [...]

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