Male Gaze (Noah)

I’ll be honest, I’ve been worried about San Francisco’s music scene. I think we all have. Ty Segall moved to Los Angeles, quickly followed by John Dwyer and the indefinite hiatus of Thee Oh Sees (though it wouldn’t seem so by their continued prolific album output). Oh we’ve still got Grass Widow, and their solo projects, a few scattered albums by The Fresh & Onlys and Tim Cohen’s solo project Magic Trick, and a few up-and-coming purveyors of thrashy tunes (Tony Molina comes to mind) to lean on when the times are really tough, but for the most part the music scene I dropped into five years ago seems to have gone the way of the dodo. Musically, San Francisco is up in the air right now, and I can’t really tell what it’s going to look like when it finally lands. I will say, there could still be hope, especially if bands like Male Gaze continue to knock out solid tunes like Cliffs of Madness. The band, made up of Matt Jones from Blasted Canyons, Mark Kaiser of Mayyors and Adam Cimino of The Mall, plays a meaty version of the type of genre-pushing garage rock San Francisco used to be known for. This isn’t just fuzz and fight though, Male Gaze adds a layer of weird that pushes the sound to a different layer. Discordant guitars grapple with a heavy-hitting, flighty rhythm section and Matt Jones warbling, David Bowie-esque vocal range. It’s loose and loud and smack dab in the middle of weird and downright fun. This might just be the shot in the arm the current humdrum state of San Francisco music needs to help right its course.

Male Gaze has a 7″ out now on Mt. St. Mtn. and a full release from John Dwyer’s Castle Face on the way.

:Male Gaze – Cliffs Of Madness: