5 Songs To Discover In San Diego In May
Speaker 1: 00:00 We are starting to emerge from the world of purely virtual arts and culture events, but it still might be some time before we get anywhere near a sense of back to normal, especially for live music, venues, nightclubs, and rock and roll tours, even. So San Diego musicians continue to record and release new music and KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dixon Evans is here to talk about some brand new songs from local bands. Speaker 2: 00:28 You're welcome, Julia. Hi Maureen. Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: 00:31 The San Diego music awards recently announced they're 2021 nominations who caught your attention on that list? Speaker 2: 00:38 Well, some of the results are a bit predictable, but there were still plenty of new acts and discoveries. For sure. For me, first timer Kelly Hill Nash was one of them. He was nominated for best RNB funk or soul album for his latest CP called transcendence. It was released in November, but might have escaped a lot of people's notice. It's a really great five song release and a standout for me as the ballads stolen. Speaker 3: 01:15 [inaudible] Speaker 2: 01:15 It's lilting and effortless and such a good showcase for Nash's really excellent and versatile vocals. And I especially love the use of crunchy guitar layered over some synth, Oregon. And it also has a nice summary dose of doo-wop backing vocals. Speaker 3: 01:41 [inaudible] Speaker 1: 01:46 Stolen by Kahlil Nash from his San Diego music award nominated EAP transcendence. Next is some experimental pop who tell us about the San Diego bass duo Valcom and their new album linchpin. Speaker 2: 02:00 Yeah. Vacuum is the musical project of Natalia Padilla and Kelly Riddick with Mexican and Israeli roots and linchpin is their debut falling. That album is sweeping it's inventive and it's lash. I instantly thought of Cocteau twins, maybe a dash of Bjork when I first listened to it. And my favorite track is the latest single called golden love. It has really stunning and layered vocals against a pretty textured backdrop of electronic sounds and the lyrics are fragmented and really poetic. And while it's a love song and kind of a quieter option, it also feels like the heart of the album, the entire album is beautiful and there are even a few recent videos for some of these tracks and they're all really well-made, it's definitely worth checking out those videos. Speaker 3: 02:59 [inaudible] Speaker 1: 03:09 That's golden love by Viacom from their debut album linchpin. We moved now from experimental pop to sound art, Mexico city born and San Diego based Francisco. Emma has a new album of compositions called treatise on violence. Tell us about this. Speaker 2: 03:28 Yeah, so Francisco, who many of us know as Francisco Morales, the gallery director for the front gallery in Santa Sedro, he took a bunch of sound recordings while he was at the bread and salt space in Logan Heights. And then he built those sounds into songs into these compositions. And each piece is really distinct, like a separate movement. And the larger work is about the ways violence exists in society. And my pick from the album is time. It's the closing track and it's a reflection on incarceration and what being incarcerated does to our concept of time. The vocals are by Monica Camacho and it's pretty mesmerizing. It's gentle at first, just a solo repeated vocalization of the word time, but then it feverously builds into something that's kind of Speaker 3: 04:28 Transport. Speaker 1: 04:38 That's time from Francisco MAs brand new release, treat us on violence. And speaking of time, how about something that's very of the moment from the strawberry moons. Their new song is called love in the time of Speaker 3: 05:05 [inaudible] Speaker 2: 05:06 Strawberry moons are an indie pop group featuring vocalist Amy Jacobs. And they just put out this new video love in the time of virus. It's very COVID era, but it's not too cheesy or silly about which I personally welcomed. It's warmly funny and also devastatingly sad all at the same time. The video is kind of this time capsule for this really strange period. Not necessarily because of anything specific, but because it's just really kind of dark and lonely and not afraid to lean into heartbreak. That's very 20, 20, 20, 21. To me, there's this refined melancholy to it. And it's really just a beautiful way to Mark this time period. Speaker 3: 05:57 [inaudible] Speaker 1: 06:12 I love in the time of virus by the strawberry moons. And finally, how about some soul? Julia, tell us about the one thing by Cory Gillis. Speaker 2: 06:22 This one is part of the Alfred Howard writes songs with friends series, which is now really close to 100 songs deep. This was written by Howard, along with Quin Devoe and perform by singer Corey Gillis. He was part of the San Diego gay men's chorus. And I have to say it's an instant favorite from this whole project, which is saying a lot because of the songs with friends series has consistently delivered such incredible songwriting into the world this last year. And this soul Anthem is deceivingly simple, but it has plenty of power and heart. It's a love song if a little bit more in-full with a paired down production that really just lets the song shine through. And when Alfred Howard posted about this on Instagram, I have to paraphrase somebody in the comments who said, Grammy awards, listen up. Speaker 3: 07:11 I have perfect. [inaudible] Speaker 1: 07:34 That's the one thing by Corey Gillis, part of the Alfred Howard writes songs with friends project now for more music and arts recommendations, be sure to sign up for the weekly KPBS arts newsletter@kpbs.org slash arts, where you can also find links to stream or to buy any of these tracks. I've been speaking with KPBS arts editor and producer, Julia Dixon Evans. Julia, thank you so much. Thank you, Maureen. Speaker 3: 08:17 [inaudible] think that's true. [inaudible].
