The girls of First Aid Kit were giddy as couple of little girls in a dress shop to be in San Francisco, and to be in American in general. As Klara herself says before busking on the docks of the Balcutha, “I don’t know how many times I’ve seen that bridge on TV…and then I’m HERE!”

Yours Truly welcomes you.

One week from today, Yourstru.ly and Blood Drank Magazine will host an evening of music and art at the 111 Minna Gallery in our fair city of San Francisco. You should really come because staying home would mean you’d miss Pure Ecstasy, SLEEP ∞ OVER, Young Prisms, and a DJ-set from oOoOO. I don’t wanna get pushy, but if I was your doctor,  your lawyer or your mother I’d probably sit you down, pour you a glass of milk and have an adult conversation covering the countless reasons why you should attend this event. Here’s a few reasons to get you started.

Pure Ecstasy – Dream Over (via)
SLEEP ∞ OVER – La Rose
Young Prisms – I Don’t Get Much
oOoOO – seaww (via)

Buy the Pure Ecstasy/Sleep Over split 7-inch from Light Lodge
Pre-Order the Sleep Over “Outer Limits 7-inch from Forest Family

Watch YT’s videos of Pure Ecstasy performing at Aquarius Records from awhile back…this show will be kinda like this, just 4x better

Other People’s Poetry – Night Gallery

Night Gallery’s Constant Struggle is available via Rainbow Body Records August 10, 2010

front page image by Sebastien Bremer

Day 3 of the Pitchfork Festival was cloaked in clouds, like Eeyore himself had decided to dust off his cut-offs and bring the gloom behind him. Attempting to dodge the weather, YT took Here We Go Magic to a cluttered classroom atop the artist lounge. Safe from the rain but cemented in the slippery grip of humidity, the band graciously played through this arresting rendition of “Casual,” for Pitchfork.tv.

If Seattle’s The Head and the Heart had a singular purpose it would be to remind us to see the beauty in things, especially the sadness. Each song feels like the story of a soul standing at the threshold of one of life’s most difficult crossroads. Songs of love, loss and introspection unfold like thoughts, cycling through feelings of despair, hope and optimism, sometimes simultaneously. Textured harmonies, earnest piano and almost symphonic use of strings weave together layers of Americana that feel fresh and yet achingly familiar. Images of rocking on a rickety front porch, skipping ties along long forgotten train tracks and chasing fireflies with a punctured bell jar flash through the mind, while deeper lyrics pierce the heart.

Lost in My Mind moves like a freight train a chuggin,’ its jangly guitar and whooping “Whoo-hoos” filling up the landscape like cowboys and Indians.

Winter Song is a log-cabin ballad, with wilting harmonies and a finger-picked guitar that falls like rain on steamed-over windows.

Buy The Head and the Heart’s self-titled debut album from the band, here.

words by Katie Buono

Waking up continually disappoints me, and  picking music for getting out of bed usually proves even worse. My ears are particularly delicate in these bleary minutes; whatever comes first must wake them gently. Too soft, though, and it’s no more than a lullaby back into snoozeville. Listening to Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.‘s “Simple Girl”, I wonder how I’ve made it through thousands of mornings without this song. I want it to wake me up, walk around my apartment with me as I prepare to leave, and stay with me for the rest of the day until I get back in bed and do it all over again tomorrow.

photography by Harry Callahan

Chilling.

Over the last 20 years, the letter (above), and the cassette tape left at the scene…

Entrepreneurs – OPP

…have been dissected and de-coded by every leading expert in the field, with no new knowledge or evidence added to the case files since they opened.  Until now.

New evidence, in the form of another digitized recording was recently uncovered by a team of San Francisco-based amateur scientists, Yourstru.ly

Listen carefully

Entrepreneurs- Six Severed Hates (Yourstru.ly Premiere)

While Entrepreneurs remains to this day at large, you can donate to the Entrepreneurs Damage Relief fund benefiting victims the world over and receive a wax disc for your trouble.

De-coded Entrepreneurs audio transmission tracklisting

‘spider mix’ – john cage
‘mean red spider’ – muddy waters
‘spiders just wanna have fun’ – cyndi lauper
‘ us (spiders)’ – regina spektor
‘caught out there (in the bath)’ – kelis
‘boyfriend (that is a spider)’ – alphabeat
‘flyeater’ – nelly furtado
‘some our lakes’ – land of spiders
’100 different spider puns’ – girls aloud
‘almost’ – tracy chapman
‘running up that hill (cos i’m a spider)’ – kate bush
‘hide and seek’ – imogen sheep

Beat Connection are a pair of Seattle-based-beat-baking-bros with an obvious affection for the finer things in life like: beaches, bikinis, synths, the smell of sun-tan lotion, seagulls, reverb, and rain (I’d hope so coming from Seattle). Their FREEP Surf Noir boasts some seriously chill waves bra, including one cut called “Theme From Yours Truly” (If only that ‘from’ was a ‘for’ than we’d have ourselves a real theme song!) Maybe I’m biased but, no foolin, it’s my fave wave.

Beat Connection – Theme From Yours Truly

and now ALTERED ZONES is….

Most folks think that it’s

But really its just a bunch of bloggers getting together to talk about music most people don’t care about. With that said here’s Yours Truly’s contributions to the site that’s been

We begin with Brad.

Sometimes I wish I was a kid again, as Ahmad once said. Back in the day, I didn’t have a care in the world. Youthful naivete is bliss, and that’s what makes Oberhofer so great. At just 22, Brad Oberhofer is creating music at a level far beyond his years. His effortless blend of scream-sung lyrics, skip-along whistling, erratic percussion, and unexpected song dynamics is one that many bands attempt without success. But Oberhofer’s approach feels genuine, and that’s precisely what draws you in. It’s that youthful flair, that unadulterated sound, that makes this music so appealing.

MP3: Oberhofer: “I Could Go”

stay tuned next week for a new edition of ‘Other People’s Poetry’ with Oberhofer

What sets Big K.R.I.T. apart from every other emcee breathing on a beat? Maybe it’s those home-cooked canvases– born in his bedroom in Meridian, Mississippi– brimming with soulful samples, live instrumentation, and patience beyond his 23 years. Maybe it’s his voice, slow and low, drenched in drawl, refreshing as a glass of sweet tea. Maybe it’s his honesty; the kind that comes from feeling completely at home in one’s skin; the kind that lets him write about his grandma, his contradictions, faith, relationships and fears without a filter. This unfiltered integrity– the courage to be truly transparent– is actually wildly experimental for a genre that expects masks. K.R.I.T. Wuz Here succeeds at setting a new precedent for southern rappers to do something truly innovative: be themselves.

Something

Although song titles like “History of Savannah” and “Flower Reading” exude a sense of late spring warmth, you can almost see your breath around this split cassette from Wild Safari and Cough Cool. There’s lava burning at its core, though, like blood pumping faster in an attempt to fend off the bitter cold.  These tracks simmer beneath their surfaces, slowly building but never boiling over. Despite the cold it brings, this split cassette still keeps you warm enough to make it through any winter.

MP3: Wild Safari: History of Savannah