Welp. Another year has flown by. This one seemed particularly hectic—what with the Trump-dominated news cycle, all the natural disasters and the #MeToo movement. But this is the music section. So, let’s set aside all of the insanity of 2017 and focus on the insanely great local music that we saw over the last 365 days.

Covet
‘Aries’
Back when Metro first began looking into Covet, the band fronted by Saratoga guitar heroine Yvette Young, they were still putting the finishing touches on the music video for “Aries.” It’s the only official 2017 release from the band this year, but it demonstrates the musical dexterity and songwriting abilities of Young and her bandmates. It also is proof that they’re ready to become full-blown rock stars. In the clip, which they posted on YouTube back in February, Covet completely trash a room—which they built specifically for the shoot in Young’s parents’ garage. In some ways it’s a fitting visual for the song, but there’s also a bit of a juxtaposition going on: while it’s true that Young, bassist David Adamiak and drummer Keith Grimshaw are totally shredding on the track, the song is far more serene than many of Covet’s peers on the proggy, guitar-driven instrumental music scene.

The Gentle Cycle
The Gentle Cycle
Though Derek See and Maxwell Borkenhagen—guitarists behind the local psych rock project The Gentle Cycle—share many interests, it seems that location was the chief bonding agent in their music’s winding lysergic chain. The group, which was rounded out by bassist Todd Flanagan and drummer Craig Heitkam, was composed entirely of veteran San Jose musicians. The self-titled record was tracked mostly live in a studio overlooking the SoFA District. The band used See’s analog, reel-to-reel recording console, which when paired with the album’s vinyl release makes for an especially warm-sounding product. But it wasn’t just vintage gear and good chemistry that made the album work. The energy of the room is palpable. “It’s instant vibe when we’re here,” See says of the band’s rehearsal space and recording studio.

Fritz Montana
Father Mother Sister Brother
Fritz Montana had a good summer. The locally brewed indie blues trio released their first full-length. Father Mother Sister Brother is a catchy, bare-bones, nine-song collection. The band released the LP on June 30 and celebrated the very next day by headlining San Francisco venue The Independent for the very first time. Recorded at Different Fur Studios in San Francisco, the new collection is the culmination of years of work for the band, which started in 2013 but consider the record their first official statement. “We started off wanting very much to be something along the lines of the Black Keys,” drummer Matthew Hagarty says, noting that the Keys album Brothers, and Sound & Color by the Alabama Shakes, were both early influences for the group. It shows—but not in a bad way. Album opener “Everyday” is built around two repeating guitar riffs, verse and chorus, each of which evokes that same sense of distant familiarity that The Black Keys aim for—simple and homey, but not quite nostalgic.

Vector Hold
A Tribute to Rush
Anyone who was pumped about the second season of Stranger Things would do well to check out Vector Hold. The latest two-song set by Pete Rice—a.k.a. the one man band known as Vector Hold—not only channels the buzzy analog sounds of John Carpenter and Survive (who famously composed the title music for Stranger Things). It is also a tribute to Rush. The Canadian prog-rock trio weren’t one of the many ’80s needle drops on the show, though they probably should have been. Sure Billy Hargrove was more of a hair metal dude, but it’s impossible to believe that he didn’t also own a copy of Signals, the 1982 record containing Rush’s epic critique of post-war sprawl, “Subdivisions.” The Vector Hold homage takes care of that, reimagining “Subdivisions” as a crunchy 16-bit instrumental.

Chow Mane
Mooncakes EP
Ask Charles Yan—a.k.a. Chow Mane—where he comes from and he won’t start with his birth. For him, it all goes back to China’s Cultural Revolution, which was the impetus for his family fleeing China. Hard times and family history form the foundation of Yan’s deeply personal, lyrical storytelling. On Mooncakes, the excellent EP Yan released at the beginning of October, he revisits the struggles he experienced growing up the child of immigrants in Salinas and East Side San Jose. But he also drops hard-stunting bars about just how dope his grandmother’s cooking is. On “Dumplings,” Chow Mane fuses the pride he has in his heritage with a trap music trope. The result is this euphoria-inducing line: “Grandma steaming dumplings up on the stove,” Yan raps, before an overdubbed callback cuts in. “Whip it up, Grandma!”

Mike Huguenor and André Jaquez contributed to this story.

Speaking with Derek See and Maxwell Borkenhagen, guitarists for local psych rock quartet The Gentle Cycle, it seems that place may be the chief bonding agent in their music’s winding lysergic chain.

Of course, as retro revivalists and old-school gear fanatics, they’ve always had plenty to talk about when they aren’t busy trading fuzzy, reverberant licks. But scanning their rehearsal studio—from the generations of equipment to the exposed brick and massive, smoke-stained windows overlooking South First Street—a broader aesthetic identity comes into focus.

See, a veteran songwriter and bandleader from San Jose (The Careless Hearts, The Bang), initially connected with Borkenhagen over vinyl. The two are the resident DJs at Café Stritch’s weekly Wax Wednesday party, which finds the pair spinning soul, psychedelia and more—all on LPs, 7-inches and 45s. From there, they moved on to “nerding out over vintage amps and guitars,” Borkenhagen explains. Only upon completion of this elaborate hipster courtship ritual did the two endeavor to jam.

Borkenhagen should know a thing or two about jamming. He grew up surrounded by jazz—an entire genre built upon improvisation and the ability to read the players around you. Now, as artistic director of Café Stritch, he plays an integral part in the family business, booking bands and running sound at the restaurant, bar and venue.

Speaking on the significance of their meeting at Stritch and their enviable downtown rehearsal space and recording studio, See touches upon his and Borkenhagen’s dedication to being a San Jose band. “It’s kind of a musicians sanctuary in an area where there is less and less emphasis on music.”

Tracked mostly live on an analog, reel-to-reel recording console, the energy of the room is palpable on The Gentle Cycle’s self-titled debut LP. “It’s instant vibe when we’re here,” See says. They celebrate the release of the record—a hazy pastiche of blissed-out ’60s psychedelia and soul—with a show next week at Stritch.

The Gentle Cycle is available for purchase on the group’s Bandcamp page and will be on hand at their upcoming show—on vinyl, natch. For those who wish to purchase the album with a good deed, See says he will accept proof of a donation to any number of progressive causes—Planned Parenthood, Doctors Without Borders, you name it. He’s not going to be as picky about your good deed as he is about his guitar tone.

The Gentle Cycle
Mar 8, 9pm, Free
Cafe Stritch, San Jose

The SoFA Street Fair returns to San Jose’s South First Street arts, culture and nightlife district this Sunday for a day of music, food, beer, art and much more. It marks the fourth such event since festival organizer Fil Maresca brought the party back to life in 2014 after more than a 10-year hiatus.

As has been the case with the past three fall SoFA Street Fairs—and 2016’s inaugural spring event—the focus will be on local bands. However, Maresca says, there is another focus he and his team have been devoting energy to this year: keeping SoFA Street Fair free and putting a little cash in the pockets of local artists.

“All the bands have always done SoFA Street Fair for free,” Maresca explains of the event he began back in in 1991. The festival remained free until 1995, but began charging a $5 cover from 1996 until 2001 to help cover the costs of running the show.

“We want to avoid that this time around,” Maresca says.

In order to avoid charging folks at the gate, the SoFA Street Fair team have turned to the Silicon Valley virtual payment firm Square and their product “Square Cash,” which, like Venmo and other similar apps allows friends to transfer money wirelessly to one another for free.

This year’s SoFA Street Fair will be giving each band what Maresca is calling a “virtual tip jar.” So far 87 are slated to play on 16 stages, and every one of those bands will be assigned a “cashtag”—like a Twitter hashtag, only with a dollar sign preceding the band’s name, rather than a pound symbol.

“I’m really pleased with it,” Maresca says of the system, explaining that at each stage, a band’s cashtag will be displayed. Attendees who have downloaded the Square Cash app, can then use a given band’s cashtag to tip them. Minimum tips are $2, and one dollar from every tip goes to the SoFA Street Fair. The rest goes to the band.

So, for example, Maresca explains, if someone donates $20 to a band, that group will get $20 and the festival will get $1.

This year’s festivities feature four outdoor stages—two for live music, with bands performing staggered set times so attendees don’t have to choose one act over another; one DJ stage, wedged between The Ritz and The Studio rock climbing gym; and, of course, the crowd-pleasing UGWA wrestling ring.

Some highlights of this year’s musical performers include David Brookings and the Average Lookings, who recently released an excellent self-titled LP. They play on the William Street Stage at 2pm. San Jose blues metal quartet ZED, who also recently released an excellent LP, Trouble in Eden, will also take the William Street Stage at 5:30pm, followed by ascendant alt-rock band Citabria at 6:30pm, and then rock-soul-funk sextet Sweet HayaH headlines the stage at 8pm.

Other clubs in town will be getting in on the action as well. Craft cocktail bar Haberdasher will host Mark Arroyo jazzy rock trio at 5:30pm; and at 7:30pm Cafe Stritch will host psychedelic garage rockers The Gentle Cycle—led by local psych-rock celeb Derek See of The Careless Hearts, and, more recently, The Chocolate Watchband.

Scene veteran Chris Landon will perform at the SoFA Market at 3pm and Uproar, a new music and art space taking over the former space occupied by Zero1 will be hosting Wax Moon at 3pm, Mitchell Lujan at 6:30pm and Bird and Willow at 7:30pm.

As for art, The Exhibition District—the local non-profit responsible for putting up large-scale murals all over downtown San Jose, including their most recent piece on the side of Hotel De Anza. Exhibition District leader Erin Salazar was recently profiled in Metro’s Fall Arts issue.

SoFA Street Fair
Sep 11, 2pm, Free
South First Street, San Jose