With special guest TaughtMe. $5 door.
Mike Sempert is a songwriter/ composer/ producer best known as the band leader and singer for Birds & Batteries.
After many years of making albums and touring the country with B&B, Mike took a break from the indie rock hustle to focus on other aspects of his life. He got a dog, moved to LA, and married his longtime love. Inevitably, a bunch of songs came together, many of them centered around these changes and the questions creative people often face as they stare into the oblivion of adulthood.
And so comes Mid Dream, an album comprised of personal songs presented in hifi on both an intimate and epic scale. Unobscured by excessive reverb or distortion, Sempert's voice and words are laid bare for all to see, a humble but bold offering.
While Mike went in a synthier direction with Birds & Batteries (eg. their 2012 LP Stray Light), he was quietly building up the stack of songs that would become Mid Dream. This new music called for a more organic treatment- exposed vocals, live drums, acoustic and electric guitars, wurlitzer and rhodes. Some songs include flourishes of orchestration, background vocals by some of the Bay Area's finest singers and pedal steel guitar. Others are stripped down. The production and songwriting style is influenced by the classic studio music of the 1970s- albums by Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, Fleetwood Mac, The Band and Tom Petty. The result is honest, gentle and stiking with plenty of sunshine amidst the fog and sea spray.
Moden Kin's debut begins with Drew Grow’s ardent wail, and expands into heady and tilted harmonies that scrape around rowdy guitars. These are songs that push forward and take up space, that celebrate the primitive thrill of being loud when you are expected to be quiet. Spinal drums bend under the weight of probing riffs that snap back toward indelible, rousing melodies. At its core, however, this is a live band. And as most great live bands attempt, Modern Kin has successfully turned their recorded work into a mirror of the hot lights, quavering strings and communal experience. What emerges is an expansive album that deeply explores the instinctual, essential connection music can make between us.
PLEASE NOTE
No paper tickets will be mailed to you. You will be added to a guest list and admission wristbands will be will-call only.
Tickets are non-transferrable. We will not be able to change your name after purchase.
We will not be issuing wristbands until 8:30pm the day of the show.