Grand Lake Played The Uptown, Christmas Miracle Ensued

It's no secret that we're huge fans of Grand Lake here at HAD, so when we found out they had a holiday-themed gig in the works, we were sure to be on hand. "A Christmas Miracle" took place at The Uptown in Oakland, and featured a slew of high quality San Francisco bands.

Grand Lake were unquestionably the highlight for us, as they delivered not only their continually expanding musical goodness, but also a fair dose of holiday celebration. Not only was there a killer duet with Dylan Travis from Man/Miracle, but there was also a fair dose of confetti, streamers, and even an appearance by Santa.

In other words, a Christmas miracle.




mp3: Grand Lake - Black Cloud

Pictures by Rick Audet
Many more photos at the HAD Archive

The Heavenly States Playing Free Gig Tomorrow Night @ The Uptown

Ted Nesseth of the Heavenly States at The Fillmore, from the HAD Archive

It's been a while since we caught The Heavenly States in a live room, but word on the street is that they've been diligently working away on new material, and are set to record a new album entitled HE LP! in the coming months. Tasty.

Lucky for us, the Bay Area natives have decided to do all of us a solid with a free show tomorrow night at The Uptown in Oakland. Given that it's the opening night of everyone's favorite summer holiday weekend, the band has new material to play, and it's free, we ask you: Can you really go wrong?

The answer, friends, is "no".

mp3: The Heavenly States - The System

New Music: Grand Lake, Show At The Uptown February 6th

Picture from the HAD Archive

We just got a nudge from a little birdy and discovered that Caleb Nichols (seen above in an HAD Archive photo) left Port O'Brien in June of last year to pursue his own musical endeavor. The product of that pursuit is the band Grand Lake, currently based out of Oakland.

On first listen, we're liking what we're hearing - the band offers up some solid minimalist pop, with catchy melodies and solid hooks. It appears that they've fingered "Nevermint" as the lead track on a forthcoming EP, which is set for release in March on 500 Records.

In the meantime, if you like what you hear (and we're guessing you shall), the band will be playing a free show at the Uptown in Oakland (along with Whispertown, Man/Miracle, and The No's) on February 6th. Four bands for no bucks? Can't argue with value, folks!

Stream: Grand Lake @ Myspace

The Heavenly States: Upcoming Gigs, SF Weekly Music Awards

Photo from the HAD Archive

Ever since their 3 night stand with Spoon at The Fillmore, we really just can't get enough of The Heavenly States. Their live show is killer, and their new record Delayer is fantastic. It's got a seething rock urgency to it that we haven't had the opportunity to experience in quite some time. So it's a good thing for us that they happen to be locals with some killer gigs lined up. Not only that, but they've also been nominated for best Bay Area Indie Rock/Pop in the SF Weekly Music Awards. As such, they're playing the awards ceremony on October 16th at Ruby Skye. What's more, they have another gig at The Uptown in Oakland on November 1st with The Lovemakers. Seriously folks, this band delivers - yous gots to checks it out.

Vote in the SF Weekly Music Awards here.