Garage rockers Hot Laundry and the Seagulls co-headline Make-Out Room
Soulful local garage-rockers Hot Laundry team up with SF favorites the Seagulls for an early show at the Make-Out Room Saturday night.
In the space of a few short years, Hot Laundry has risen to become a leading light on the local garage-rock scene. Fronted by pint-sized spitfire singer Janette Lopez, the entertaining band matches the vocal harmonies and sass of legendary girl group the Shangri-las and the high-octane R&B of Ike and Tina Turner with the blistering proto-punk guitars of Detroit heroes the MC5.
Flanked onstage by back-up singers Ileath Bridges and Gena Serey with matching tassled/spangled outfits and tandem dance moves, Lopez and her vocal support provide the visual focal point for the group's entertaining live show that is powered by founding guitarist/songwriter Grady Hord and the rhythm section of bassist Casey G. and drummer Arun Bhalla.
While Hord was writing material intended for the band as far back as 2017, the sextet didn't make its proper recording debut until the release of their EP Shake Slide Twist in 2021. In addition to building a following around the Bay Area with their regular club appearances, Hot Laundry provided one of the highlights to the Mosswood Meltdown in Oakland that same year.
It didn't take long for Hot Laundry to follow up with its first full-length album early in the summer of 2022. Packed with catchy, fuzzed-out groovers like "Work It" and "The Dance," Pawn Shop Gold manages to capture the kinetic punch of the group's live show. Last year, the band released a new video for their digital single "Made Like This" in addition to making its first trek to Europe to play Gutter Island Music Festival in Denmark, followed by its first performances in Japan as part of Tokyo's two-day Back from the Grave Halloween Ball last October.
For this early show at the Make-Out Room Saturday, Hot Laundry will be joined by melodic San Francisco garage rockers the Seagulls. British punk veteran Jon Brooder was raised in South London during the 1970s and found inspiration in '50s rock, Motown, rock steady, British pub rock before the initial wave of UK punk rock took hold of his imagination.
He would end up playing bass in the Clash-inspired late '80s punk band Lightning Strike, which played CBGBs after relocating to New York and managed to score a record deal with RCA. Though the band only managed to release its debut album before getting dropped by the major label, the experience whetted Brooder's appetite for making music and his desire to live in the U.S.
He would move to San Francisco in the early '90s, eventually working with the bands the Hairdressers and the Music Lovers, an indie-pop project led by fellow Brit songwriter Matthew Edwards. It was in the latter band that Brooder met keyboard player Isaac Bonnell.
The two musicians would start the Seagulls in 2012, building on their shared experience to play a mix of covers and original music that nods equally to roots-minded songwriting, punk energy and a bluesy swagger that recalls legendary British pub-rock band Dr. Feelgood -- who the Seagulls have been known to cover from time to time. Rounded out by longtime drummer/singer Geri Vahey (who played in the bands Skint and Mom's Favorite Vase) and Tony Velour on bass, the band managed to ramp up its activity in the past few years despite the pandemic.
After releasing the holiday tune "Spirit in the Air" in December of 2019 before COVID shut down the planet, the Seagulls put out a pair of EPs (recorded both live and in the studio) and several digital singles, with some of the material addressing the stark new reality of sheltering in place and missing human interaction. The band also played a steady string of outdoor shows in San Francisco and at Winters Tavern in Pacifica as businesses gamely tried to operate amid new COVID protocols, providing a bit of relief for people starved to for live music hoping for a brief moment of normalcy.
The Seagulls trekked to the UK in early 2023, playing a series of gigs in and around London. They celebrated the long-awaited release of their album This Time Next Year that spring. Packed with catchy rockers like opening track "Big Bad Beautiful World" and "Sunday Afternoon Drinking" and ska-tinged tunes "Hold On" and "G'is a Drink Woodcock," the bracing effort is a fine encapsulation of the energetic party the band delivers onstage.
More recently, the group has been performing new tracks written since the release of the album live in addition to putting out a new music video on YouTube for "G'is a Drink Woodcock." Brooder also made a solo trip back to England where he played a handful of shows with a variety of musicians and friends during his visit. One of those friends, guitarist "Soho Steve" Crittall, lent his skills to a series of live shows and recording sessions during an extended stay in San Francisco.
Currently a member of the Black Bombers and Alvin Gibbs and the Disobedient Servants, Crittall has previously played with such notables as the Godfathers, the Selector and UK Subs. He joined new bass player Nate Fink (Open Doors, Greg Hoy and the Boys) for a run of shows in SF and Los Angeles before heading home. Last year, the group played its biggest SF concert yet, opening for the current version of the Buzzcocks led by surviving member Steve Diggle at the Great American Music Hall.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
42 minutes ago
King Charles III, Prince William share sweet Father's Day tributes: See the photos
The royals are celebrating generations of dads in touching posts. 0:33 The British royal family is honoring generations of fathers this Father's Day. To mark the occasion on Sunday, the official X account for Prince William and Princess Kate shared heartwarming photos of the Prince of Wales with their three children -- Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. In one image, William is seen standing with his arms around the kids, smiling as they huddle close. Another touching black-and-white photo shows the foursome lying on the grass, laughing together in a candid embrace. 'Happy Father's Day, Papa (before and after!) We love you! G, C & L ,' the caption of the post reads. Meanwhile, the official X account for King Charles III and Queen Camilla also marked the holiday with a pair of nostalgic photos. The first is a black-and-white image of a young Charles and his sister, Princess Anne, being pushed on a wooden swing by their father, Prince Philip. The second shows Camilla with her father, Bruce Shand, on her wedding day to Charles in 2005. 'To all Dads everywhere, we wish you a happy Father's Day today,' the caption of the post read. The royal tributes came just a day after members of the family -- including Prince William, Princess Kate and their three children -- joined King Charles and Queen Camilla at Buckingham Palace for Trooping the Colour. The annual military parade, which marks the monarch's official birthday, took place on Saturday, June 14. This year's event was the third Trooping the Colour for King Charles since his ascension. Though his actual birthday falls on November 14, the celebration traditionally takes place in June.
Chicago Tribune
3 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Review: ‘Iraq, But Funny' at Lookingglass Theatre is a stunning debut in need of an edit
An apt subtitle for Atra Asdou's 'Iraq, But Funny' might be: 'How the British Caused Every Problem in the Middle East (With a Late Assist from the U.S.A.).' It always cracks me up how, in progressive artistic circles, Brits are exempted from the pervasive disdain for stereotyping. Asdou leans into all of it with confident impunity: the accent, the physical appearance, even the quality of one's teeth. Substitute any other nation and she'd be canceled forthwith. Luckily, Asdou, a veteran of the Second City, also is exceptionally funny and there are moments when the latest, massively ambitious show at Lookingglass Theatre struck me as an astonishingly brilliant first theatrical play, even though it will almost certainly infuriate a decent percentage of the audience that has historically supported that particular theater. It annoyed me, too, in places, especially in its determination never to consider the relative merits of other narratives and, more specifically, its lack of a full consideration of the geopolitical impact of the Holocaust, not to mention the British success in fighting against Nazi sympathizers in the mid-century Middle East. But in others, it took my breath away. And, for the record, I believe from the tip of my head to the bottom of my toes that satirists have no obligation whatsoever to be fair. In essence, Asdou has forged a one-night history of the Middle East from the perspective of Iraqi Assyrians, some of whom have, of course, now settled in the Chicago area. The storyteller is an English, Sgt. Pepper-like buffoon and the style is best described as a blend of Monty Python and Howard Zinn. It reminded me most of a similarly cartoon-styled telling of the history of the same region from the perspective of the Palestinian people that I watched a couple of years ago in a museum inside The Walled Off Hotel, outside Bethlehem in the West Bank. But that was on film; the motor-mouthed Asdou puts it out herself, live and in person. I suspect that Lookingglass was knocked out by the script and basically just told Asdou and director Dalia Ashurina to go ahead and express themselves. But they still have to make it great. In essence, Asdou has created two separate shows and spliced them together. One is a familial story about multiple generations of Iraqi Assyrians (played by Susaan Jamshidi, James Rana and Sina Pooresmaeil) and the struggles of a smart young daughter (Gloria Imseih Petrelli) to both honor the sacrifices of her parents and strike out on her own. The second show is Asdou's British alter-ego explaining the history of how everything led to everything in the Middle East. The first one is funny and sometimes quite moving, but despite the references to reclaiming one's own story from someone else's voice, it's also a very familiar narrative when the Midwest-based children of immigrants from Iraq and Iran write plays. I've reviewed a version of it three times already this season in Chicago: it's at the core of Sadieh Rifai's 'The Cave,' Michael Shayan's 'Avaaz' and Esho Rasho's 'Dummy in Diaspora,' also told from an Assyrian perspective. Those are diverse shows in many ways, my point is that the children of the diaspora telling their own stories. I, for one, am glad to hear them. But the comedic, opinionated political history with zany graphics, audience interaction, physical clowning, improvisational antics fueled by political outrage and one hilariously caustic line after another? No one else is doing that. Not at this level. I don't think Asdou has to drop her family story entirely but this style of satirical theater would work far better at around 90 minutes than almost two and a half hours; that's why Second City pays close attention to length. If Asdou could force herself to cut her weaker material and repetitions and keep the familial arc more fully in the context of her lead comedic character and the geopolitical history that character is telling, she'd really have something here. Right now, that character drops away at the end after morphing into Uncle Sam without explanation. That's all part of the standard anti-colonialist/anti-capitalist narrative, I know, but it still needs explaining for those at the back. Asdou wants her family to triumph and, for the most part, and with this capable director's help, she manages to skillfully navigate her twin impulses of moralistic political activism and sharp-elbowed satirical destruction, even though they are actually contradictory when it comes to their artistic obligations. But the core of this piece is political, not 'thanks Mom and Dad, for all you did,' and that is something Asdou has to face if she wants a show that's viable as well as heartfelt. But after one more draft? Sensational, potentially. Already, if I were a scout looking for colossal young talent, I'd jump on a plane, buy a ticket and see what Asdou can do. Review: 'Iraq, But Funny' (3 stars) When: Through July 20 Where: Lookingglass Theatre, 163 E. Pearson St. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes Tickets: $30-$90 at
Hypebeast
6 hours ago
- Hypebeast
Martine Rose SS26 Explores the Offbeat and the Ordinary
For her SS26 presentation,Martine Roseinvited a market of vendors to the Job Centre in Lisson Grove, London, to pay homage to her memories of visiting the eclectic Kensington Market. With models donning frizzy wigs as they strutted through the heavily draped room, Rose's latest collection continued to combine classic British sportswear codes with her avant-garde sensibilities. Leather pants, cut-off denim shorts, and cinched or skinny fits give a sexy edge to, performance-inspired jackets, football jerseys, and 80s-inspired knitwear. In one look, a model wore a bold-shoulder blazer, cinched at the waist, checked boxers finished with delicate lace, and football knee socks with loafers. Elsewhere, a graphic white tank top was paired with typographically printed trousers and a ruffled skirt overtop. Simultaneously masculine and feminine, and evocative of both the office and the nightclub, the collision of the banal and the eccentric is signature to Rose's ethos, drawing inspiration from her London childhood. Bold hues and unconventional silhouettes make their mark on the collection, adding interest to everyday styles. In a more colorful number, a model wore a hot pink 'Total Participation' sport polo with faded denim, covered in a retro technicolor print. Toying with size and shape, a synthetic rain poncho was blown to outsized proportions, and a black puffer coat boasted a skinny, snug fit at the waist. See the gallery above for a closer look at the full Martine Rose SS26 collection.
