San Francisco's Brick and Mortar Music Hall will be hosting an awesome Beijing invasion on June 1st in the Mission District. A Recordings Ltd. (Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre's record label) artists, Birdstriking will be performing in support of their new self titled album. The strange and experimental nu-gaze band, The Pleasure Routine will be sharing the bill with Birdstriking along with the psych, slightly prog influenced experimental band,  Chui Wan and Birdstriking/Chui Wan combo side project, Deadly Cradle Death. If all of that info is not cool enough, long time Brian Jonestown Massacre member, Ricky Maymi will be DJing at the show!

You can get out of town (and the country) just by proxy of wandering into this awesome International show. Get a taste of a different culture! The music is going to be noisy, ear splitting and massively fun.

Xiu Xiu may be getting a little too big for the britches of The Deli Magazine San Francisco, but we'd like to give them a shout anyway. It is important for us to continue to highlight this local music duo because they are an emerging experimental art rock powerhouse who will probably never get the mainstream or even indie media coverage they deserve due to their highly off kilter and at times, grotesque art and music style.

This Friday (May 15th), Xiu Xiu will be supporting the soulful Canadian rock band, Timber Timbre at The Fillmore in San Francisco. Timber Timbre sounds like a nice blend of The Black Angels and The Black Keys. They sound good and they sound cool (like James Dean cool), so experiencing their live show after Xiu Xiu's out of the box performance will allow you to let your hair down and dance and shuffle around a bit. Don't miss this show!

A brand new single from the San Francisco based experimental black metal band, Mamaleek has emerged. The new track is entitled, Nothing But Loss and is the very first single to be released from the musical duo's (who are also brothers) upcoming full length album, Via Dolorosa (which Vice kindly defined as "Way of Suffering" in Latin, a reference to the street in Jerusalem down which Jesus supposedly dragged himself to his death).

The exciting thing about Nothing But Loss is that it is not normal at all. It's an intense metal track that sounds like the guitar riffs are being guided with a slide (if you're not sure what is slide is or what slide guitar is, it would behoove you to look it up for reference) and has almost a country, honky tonk style to it. It's pretty cool to hear the guitars wail and whine beneath death metal vocals. The graveling screaming is almost romanticized because of the slight sweetness of the music, as Mamaleek chose to write the song in a higher octave, so it's not the usual creepy black metal style that's played in the lowest tones of E or A. The unique choices the band makes in regards to how they interpret black metal makes them all the more relevant as a ground breaking band.

At the end of the song, it slows down and breaks down a bit to create a dramatic tapering off of strangeness. The song is surprisingly pleasing to listen to and has a lot of character. They have a scary band name and an even scarier album name, but don't let that put you off. Mamaleek's new album is due out on May 26th via The Flesner Records

Bay Area based experimental folk rock singer/songwriter, Todd Umhoefer, better known as Old Earth has given us the pleasure of premiering his brand new EP entitled ...until they're called. If the name of his collaborative music project doesn't give you an idea of the sound of his music, we can surely report that this new Old Earth release is rootsy, earthy and folk rock based with strong elements of avant classical music.

The album features four other musicians, mysteriously referred to as, Burnett, Fritch, Lopez and Moen bring an eerie "Sleepy Hollow" style of depth to the three track EP. There are a couple creative elements that we like: first thing is that the three songs are composed to musically play into one another, making the EP one long 12 minute track. We also like that Umhoefer collaborates with a female vocalist, as mixed gender collaborations seem to be cropping up in the local folk scene these days. We've recently seen Travis Hayes work a female voice into his new music and we think it's cool.

Old Earth is a polished but not self serving solo project that has a lot of sincerity and even more portential. He's got the "knowing" vibe of Neutral Milk Hotel and is willing to take creative risks

Enjoy Old Earth's ....until they're called in its entirety below via bandcamp.com

Beauty Pill's new album "Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are" was released last Tuesday, April 21 via Butterscotch Records. The album comes 11 years after the band's last release and after band leader Chad Clark survived a rare and typically fatal heart disease. It's a deeply personal political album that combines the experimental side of indie rock with wholly new layers of electronics, beats and samples. Check oiut the video for "Dog with Rabbit in Mouth Unharmed."