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Live shots: Baby Dee and Little Annie at Amnesia

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Baby Dee and Little Annie are a match made in camp heaven. The women, nearing their 60s, may have only been playing for 25 people, but boy did they put on a
show Thu/25 at Amnesia.

The two looked like characters out of a B movie or a dirty New York speakeasy. Annie, a diminutive little creature, looked like a gypsy in a headwrap and heavy eyeliner. Dee towered over her in an '80s-esque leopard print sweater and leggings with a pink tulle skirt. When Baby Dee finally appeared an hour after the show was advertised to begin, she sat down at the piano and called into the microphone, "If anyone sees Little Annie, tell her the show has started."

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Party Radar: Prosumer, Kafana Balkan, Night Light, Adnan Sharif, Shonky, Distrikt, Derrick Carter, Ana Matronic, more

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Jajajaja -- this installment of Party Radar is going to be like a last minute dump, since I'm still kind of drunk and the weekend, she is here. Besides, bloggity bloggity blah blah blah, let's just get to the good stuff. But let's first have some delicious beef for breakfast:

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TNGHT whips the Mezzanine's 420 crowd into a frenzy

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Like a microcosm of our ever-morphing music culture, electronic duo TNGHT stands squarely between the traditions of EDM and hip-hop, reaping the benefits of both musical forms, and generating something new in the process. Comprised of Lunice (from Montreal), and Hudson Mohawke (from Glasgow), the pair stopped by the Mezzanine this past Saturday after a two-weekend Coachella run, bringing their shiny, brassy, bass-loaded grooves to a sold-out crowd of ecstatic 420ers. Read more »

Party Radar: Bruno Pronsato, No Way Honey, Harlum Muziq, Tube & Berger, Candis Cayne

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This week's Super Ego clubs column is full of signs and wonders for the coming weekend, but here's a further quintet of banging joints to top you off just right, Your soundtrack is "Triscuits," because that's my theme song right now. (Oh, and just a reminder -- that rained-out, positively drenched Hunky Jesus contest has been rescheduled for tonight, too!)

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Catching up with Young Prisms: new video, new process, and those pesky Cure comparisons

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At their show at Elbo Room on Friday, Young Prisms are going to play new material that they’ve never performed in front of an audience.

“It should be interesting,” bassist and singer Gio Betteo told me last week at Mission Pie. Read more »

Bat for Lashes brings an occult celebration to the Regency Ballroom

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There’s an idea in literary theory that co-opts the philosophical notion of the concrete universal. The value of a poem, character, or story, it says, can be determined by the particular balance of how general and specific an entity it represents.

The remarkable thing about the music on the three albums of Bat For Lashes, the moniker of British musician Natasha Khan, is its melding of opposites. The songs simultaneously exist in the realm of the ancient and the new, the weird and the ordinary, and the grand and the intimate. And the even more remarkable thing is that seeing it embodied on the Regency Ballroom stage in front of an audience didn’t compromise these effects; it heightened them. Read more »

Heads Up: 7 must-see concerts this week

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Macca, Hall and Oates, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails – what is this, 1976, or '99? I kid; the Outside Lands 2013 lineup is again a meaty mix of nostalgic, revived, and shiny new acts. There's the initial punch of a former Beatle slotted alongside NIN, RHCP, plus Jurassic 5, and Willie Nelson, then French synth-pop Phoenix, classic indie darlings Grizzly Bear, the National, Vampire Weekend, and up-and-comers King Tuff, Surfer Blood, the Growlers, along with inspired picks like D'Angelo and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Tickets are on sale Thu/18 here.

While the release of the lineup is exciting news, that fest isn't 'till the end of foggy summer (Aug. 9-11); so focus on the sunny days ahead, the bands that are here now: a reunited King Khan and BBQ Show, the Bay Area debut of both Savages and Lady, plus Night Beats, the 2 Bears, and locals Life Coach and Dreamdate's Anna Hillburg. Read more »

Jessie Ware eats pizza at Little Star, connects with her fans at the Independent

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Last Thursday, when the lights came up on the stage at the Independent, they revealed a woman who was relishing the reverential shouts of the sold-out crowd. With a dramatic bun on top of her head, large hoop earrings, and tall heels, Jessie Ware appeared to embody the fully realized pop star that the world is starting to recognize in her.

Throughout the night, though, it became clear that what makes Ware so compelling isn’t the idolizing distance of pop-stardom, but its opposite. Between each song, she charmed the audience with candid and often self-deprecating banter. To a loud response of cheers and clapping, she spoke of her boyfriend who had joined her on tour and enjoyed planting himself in the audience to gauge its mood. “If someone comes up to you being a bit pervy, it’s just ‘cause he’s really proud of me,” she said, then laughed along with the crowd. Read more »

British singer Jessie Ware on summer plans, being herself on stage, and flowers in SF

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I first heard Jessie Ware’s “If You’re Never Gonna Move” on the road from the East Coast. After that, the song averaged about five plays per state. Ware’s understated and soulful dance pop has the rare ability to adapt to any situation. It eases the tension in a car full of two people with almost irreconcilable taste in music; it works equally well as the soundtrack to a lazy afternoon, and a night out. And it feels good.

The formula, which has earned her recognition in her native UK, is gaining a following in the US. Though the breakthrough album Devotion won’t be released stateside until April 16, many of her concerts, including Thursday’s at the Independent, have sold out to audiences that sing along with every word. (Not to worry, she also has an in-store at Amoeba that day.) Read more »

Heads Up: 8 must-see concerts this week

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Sorry, readers. Modest Mouse at the Fox Theater and Foals and Alt-J at the Fillmore are all sold out shows, plus Lou Reed canceled his Warfield appearance (it was supposed to take place Sunday).

But there are plenty of other shows you should be checking out this week including Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester at the SFJazz Center, long-running legends like Sparks (squee!) and the Skatalites, club-ready 2 Chainz and Ewan Pearson, along with (separate) album release parties for TOKiMONSTA and Burnt Ones. Read more »