Neon Indian

Neon Indian’s warm, retro glow

What To Do? Thursday's Pick: Neon Indian

​Neon Indian @ Rickshaw Stop Mapping out a universe of spongy synth leads and canned beats, Texas tinkerer Alan Palomo has managed an offbeat triumph in Psychic Chasms, the debut of Neon Indian, his one-man project. The album, which features such casually sung gems as "Terminally Chill" and "Ephem ... More >>

Thee Oh Sees to Play Todd P's Mexico Music Fest

There's been a bit of a buzz about the music festival tastemaking New York promoter Todd P. has planned down in Monterrey, Mexico, right around SXSW. This week Pitchfork announced that south of the border showcase, called MtyMx All Ages Festival of Art and Music, is gonna happen, with local garage ... More >>

Bay Area Music Links: Eating with Hendrix, Fighting the ABC

Dominic SantosGeographer​What records do you think Neon Indian's mastermind will play at his SF DJ set? [Epicsauce] Check out the Karmann Ghia in Port O'Brien's new video for "Leap Year." [Hear Ya] An Isley brother remembers Hendrix eating at the kitchen table (and will play his tunes at the ... More >>

Neon Indian One of Many Reasons To Spend Thursdays at Milk

Dagny PiaseckiNeon Indian​"Milk Bar -- isn't that a dance club?" Such was the reaction I got from a couple of jaded music-geeks about last Thursday's free show at the white-walled, un-hipsterfied Upper Haight spot. My answer was yes -- until now. The skinny-jeaned and sloppy-haired turned out in ... More >>

Mexican Music Fest Roundup: MtyMx Festival of Arts & Music

Gretchen Robinette ​MtyMx All Ages Festival of Arts & Music March 20-22 2010 Monterrey, Mexico NY buzz show-promoter Todd P's MtyMx All Ages Festival of Arts & Music, a three-day event in Monterrey, Mexico was scheduled to feature over 80 bands on two stages on the Autocinema Las Tor ... More >>

Phil Collins: Indie Hipsters' Non-Guilty Pleasure

Peter Gabriel may be courting indie rock with his reciprocal covers albums Scratch My Back and the forthcoming I'll Scratch Yours - featuring the likes of Bon Iver and the Arcade Fire - but don't discount indiedom's growing love for his old Genesis cohort Phil Collins. The recent rise of chillw ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Neon Indian, Nite Jewel, Nice Nice and DJ Jonas Reinhart at Mezzanine

Neon Indian​Neon Indian, Nite Jewel, Nice Nice, DJ Jonas Reinhart Friday, March 26, 2010 Mezzanine Better than: Watching Tron on acid. (Probably.) Since the hazy synth-pop style known as chillwave had its fuse lit by the blogosphere last year, the music's popularity, and its sound, have outgro ... More >>

For hundreds of nostalgic fans and bands, cassettes are back

Neon Indian​Neon Indian, Nite Jewel, Nice Nice, DJ Jonas Reinhart Friday, March 26, 2010 Mezzanine Better than: Watching Tron on acid. (Probably.) Since the hazy synth-pop style known as chillwave had its fuse lit by the blogosphere last year, the music's popularity, and its sound, have outgro ... More >>

Delorean's Ecstatic Club-Pop Gets Buried By Cardboard-y Sound at Popscene

Delorean​DeloreanTeengirl Fantasy Popscene @330 Ritch June 10, 2010 Better than: Listening to the oonce-oonce-oonce of Euro house music blast through your hostel room wall This is the part of the review where I insist that, while yes, Delorean has steamrolled the blogosphere this year, and yes, ... More >>

Neon Indian, Janelle Monae, Jazz Mafia All Stars, More at All Shook Down Music Fest

Neon Indian​That's right: we're throwing a party. This July 25 in North Beach, you can catch Neon Indian and Janelle Monae along with a hefty smattering of local talent -- the Jazz Mafia All Stars, The Ferocious Few, and the Oakland Faders among them -- at the first-ever All Shook Down Music Festi ... More >>

Friday Night: How Could Erykah Badu Possibly Seem Exciting After Janelle Monae?

Tom FergusonErykah Badu​Erykah Badu Janelle Monae @The Paramount Theatre, Oakland June 17, 2010 Better than: Watching old Michael Jackson videos on repeat. (Well, maybe not.) There were seats all the way up to the front of the stage at the Paramount last night, and at first they seemed silly: A ... More >>

Behind the Beat with Shane King and Eric Kozak

L to R: Shane King and Eric Kozak​Aside from the fact that Shane King and Eric Kozak (of White Girl Lust) have been around San Francisco for ages DJing, promoting parties, and just being general badasses, they need little introduction because it's all within this special double-helping interv ... More >>

Looking Forward to ASD Fest, Reason 1: Neon Indian's Explosive Synth-Psych

There are less than three weeks left until July 25, when the All Shook Down Festival takes over North Beach for a day of Veuve Cliquot-quality music at a High Life price. Which means it's time to start getting to know the performers. We begin today with Neon Indian, chief perpetrator of the much-blo ... More >>

ASD Lineup Expanded: Sonny & the Sunsets, Ty Segall, Disco Shawn, the Park, Many More

Tanit SakakiniSantero and band perform at the All Shook Down fest on July 25​It is with great (and, yes, self-promotional) pleasure that we announced a wildly expanded lineup for the All Shook Down music festival in North Beach on July 25. In addition to our national headliners -- Janelle Monae an ... More >>

Presenting the All Shook Down Music Festival Schedule

​Here you have it, San Francisco (and Bay Area) music fans: the long-awaited schedule for this year's All Shook Down Music Festival. As you've probably heard by now, the All Shook Down Festival will bring a boatload of local musical talent to stages in North Beach on July 25. Neon Indian, Janelle ... More >>

All Shook Down: SF Weekly's music fest is unlike any other this summer

​Here you have it, San Francisco (and Bay Area) music fans: the long-awaited schedule for this year's All Shook Down Music Festival. As you've probably heard by now, the All Shook Down Festival will bring a boatload of local musical talent to stages in North Beach on July 25. Neon Indian, Janelle ... More >>

All Shook Down: A cross-section of the festival schedule

​Here you have it, San Francisco (and Bay Area) music fans: the long-awaited schedule for this year's All Shook Down Music Festival. As you've probably heard by now, the All Shook Down Festival will bring a boatload of local musical talent to stages in North Beach on July 25. Neon Indian, Janelle ... More >>

Neon Indian's Alan Palomo on Why Chillwave Is Old, and Why His Live Show is Like a Cover Band

Neon Indian's Alan Palomo​We had a quick chat with Neon Indian's Alan Palomo ahead of his performance this Sunday at SF Weekly's All Shook Down Music Festival. (Which, coincidentally, is the day after Palomo's 22nd birthday.) Palomo told us why Neon Indian's live show is like a Neon Indian cover b ... More >>

All Shook Down Festival: Everything You Need to Know Is Right Here

​This is it. We promise. It. The last "we're having a festival and it's going to be awesome and you should come" post. The last one. For this year, anyway.We couldn't resist one final opportunity to guide you, like a friendly Friday afternoon phone tree, through the preliminaries of this Sunday's ... More >>

All Shook Down Festival: It's Not Over Yet!

When we last left off, our friend Janelle Monae had just blown everyone's minds and then left us alone to process everything.We now resume our story with Neon Indian. Alan Palomo and his band played for a crowd of loyal All Shook Down goers willing to withstand the chills for some chillwave electron ... More >>

Watch Neon Indian's Interview With SF Weekly: Crazy Parrots, Helsinki Love, and 4 Loko Party Fuel

Minutes after Neon Indian's foundation-rattling, eardrum-splattering set at SF Weekly's All Shook Down Music Festival yesterday, we rescued principal member Alan Palomo from a jacket-wearing parrot that was roaming the streets of North Beach. (OK, we sort of interrupted his petting session with the ... More >>

Last Night: All Shook Down Music Festival in North Beach

Joseph SchellJanelle Monae​All Shook Down FestivalNorth BeachJuly 25, 2010Better Than: Getting all shook down in North Beach for the very first time.Disco dancers, cowboys, glam girls, hipsters, indie rockers, hip-hoppers, sock-hoppers, punk rockers, clash city rockers, category-defiers and more: ... More >>

Photos: Neon Indian Gets Friendly With A Parrot at All Shook Down

Neon Indian's Alan Palomo, with parrot​Maybe you saw us ask Neon Indian's Alan Palomo about his encounter with a very odd bird -- a jacket-wearing parrot, in fact -- in this video from Sunday's All Shook Down Festival. We weren't tripping -- here's a few more pictures of what the bird-indian encou ... More >>

All Shook Down fest wowed thousands at North Beach venues

Neon Indian's Alan Palomo, with parrot​Maybe you saw us ask Neon Indian's Alan Palomo about his encounter with a very odd bird -- a jacket-wearing parrot, in fact -- in this video from Sunday's All Shook Down Festival. We weren't tripping -- here's a few more pictures of what the bird-indian encou ... More >>

Forrest Day's Surprise Ending at All Shook Down, Morcheeba Reunited, Scorpions' Last Sting

Neon Indian onstage at Sunday's All Shook Down Music Festival​Most of the live performances at the first-ever All Shook Down Music Festival went off with nary a mishap. But hip-hop/funk/soul outfit Forrest Day was another story. At the band's second set of the day, exhausted frontman Forrest Day p ... More >>

Is Chillwave the Sound of Summer 2010?

Washed Out wonders if he's your summer fave.​It may be hard for us S.F. residents to tell, but summer is here, and that means it's time to bust out our brightest, shiniest, dreamiest, and, uh, summeriest music to help make these months (more like weeks in our case) that much more memorable. Of cou ... More >>

Win Free Tickets to Tonight's Neon Indian Show!

Neon Indian sending out those chill waves live.​You know how to read, right? Of course you do--you're looking at this blog. Well, go ahead and double check that headline if you want, but yes, we are indeed giving away tickets to the Neon Indian and Prefuse 73 concert that's going down tonight at M ... More >>

Painted Palms' Canopy EP = Dreamy Local Psych-Pop For Free

​Not sure if it's considered a pejorative to call a new band "chillwave" these days, so perhaps it's best to avoid that word when bringing up Painted Palms, a newish S.F. outfit whose upbeat electro-psych-pop we are rather enjoying. Anyway, what this two-person bedroom project really sounds like i ... More >>

The Sounds of 2010

What we'll remember from the year in S.F. music.

Toro Y Moi Calls It an Early Night at Great American Music Hall

​Toro Y Moi March 25, 2011 @ Great American Music HallBetter than: Walking through the Tenderloin in hail. Toro Y Moi may seem like another foreign language moniker for another East Coast college grad's bland "chillwave" solo project, but after a consistently entertaining performance at Great Am ... More >>

Sleigh Bells, Neon Indian Add New Show to Sold-Out S.F. Run Next Week

(k.) Marin/Wikimedia​ After selling out two back-to-back shows at the Independent, the double bill of Sleigh Bells and Neon Indian announced earlier this week that they will perform a third show at the Rickshaw Stop. The hype magnets of 2010 and 2009, respectively, both well-known for their high- ... More >>

After "Portlandia", Washed Out Trades Sampling for Songwriting

(k.) Marin/Wikimedia​ After selling out two back-to-back shows at the Independent, the double bill of Sleigh Bells and Neon Indian announced earlier this week that they will perform a third show at the Rickshaw Stop. The hype magnets of 2010 and 2009, respectively, both well-known for their high- ... More >>

In Print: Washed Out Trades Sampling for Songwriting, and More

Washed Out's Ernest Greene​After Portlandia, Washed Out trades sampling for songwriting: Washed Out might be the most perfect band name ever conceived: It captures the gist of Ernest Greene's music in two simple words. Bright, explosive hues could have easily ruled his synth-driven pop, but he ... More >>

After 13 Years, Berkeley Label Absolutely Kosher Will Stop Releasing New Records This Fall

​There is only Hard Times left for Absolutely Kosher. Battered by the economic collapse and by titanic shifts within the music industry, the 13-year-old independent Berkeley record label that released albums from artists such as the Mountain Goats, the Wrens, Xiu Xiu, and Pinback's Rob Crow ... More >>

Get Intimate as Girls' Perform "Love Like A River" For an Empty Room

​ Watch this: "Love, Like a River," the closing ballad off of Girls' latest album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, played beautifully in a room with no audience. That's the whole idea behind the For No One series, which has also featured Titus Andronicus and Neon Indian. But playing to a lonely house ... More >>

Fauxchella: How to See Your Favorite Coachella Bands Without Leaving S.F.

Christopher VictorioYou could see the Coachella artists... without seeing this.​ Maybe you hate traveling. Maybe you're broke. Or maybe you're allergic to waiting in long lines under the hot sun while privileged pre-teens gyrate to David Guetta. There are many, many good reasons not to go to ... More >>