Friday, Aug 14
Smoked Out Soul
Otis McDonald
Seal Party
8 pm doors
$20 advance / $25 door
All Ages
“Old school taste new school bass” Smoked Out Soul is rooted in funk and looking into the future. Blending the classics with modern production, SOS features a high energy DJ dance set laced with live horns, synth, guitar, drums and percussion. It’s Memphis meets California, dusty records and computer love. What started out as a party at a premier night club in San Francisco’s Mission district where DJs would collaborate with special guest live musicians, has now become a touring act, record label and production team that meets regularly to create fresh music. Along with Bay Area clubs, SOS has played festivals such as Bonnaroo, Lighting in A Bottle, Outside Lands, Symbiosis and Joshua Tree Music Festival. Led by producer / DJ / guitarist ZEBUEL, Smoked Out Soul features some of the best players in the bay: Paul Oliphant on drums, Coproducer Ian McDonald (Disco E) on synth and guitar, Brandon Lee on percussion, Chris Hoog on sax, Brendan Liu on trumpet, and as always secret special guests!
From the mind and ears of producer/multi-instrumentalist, Joe Bagale, comes a sound that is fresh but tangibly rooted in nostalgia. The name is Otis McDonald. The mission? Good Music. IN 2015, Bagale released 80 tracks for free, under the name Otis McDonald. Released as copyright free music, exclusively through the YouTube audio library, by 2016 these tracks had been downloaded over 3 million times, and appeared in over 3.5 million videos all around the world with an astonishing total of 7.6 billion views. in 2019 bagale released a full length album, "People Music," in collaboration with his youtube subscribers, took over the lease for studio d at the historic hyde street studios, in san francisco and in 2020 he launched a weekly live stream where he creates a brand new track on the spot and releases every week on all streaming platforms. Whether it's performing, writing, producing, or coming up with new ways to engage with his fans, otis mcdonald plans on giving the world a dose of the past while always looking to the future
Seal Party is a jazz-rock juggernaut forged in the storied rooms of San Francisco’s historic Hyde Street Studios. Studio veterans Kevin Seal and Chris McGrew have joined forces to craft beautiful songs with buttery baritone melodies, layered with horns and intricate percussion.
Their sound is bold and hard to pin down — chockful of blends of soul, psych, rock, post-punk, and R&B, their music moves far beyond any amount of pigeonholing the casual listener can offer up. You may have seen them opening for the Headhunters, collaborating with rapper Big Hongry, or touring across the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. Their two LPs, Circles Headed to the Sky and MMXXII, have earned critical acclaim and international radio play. The Big Takeover put it simply: “Seal Party is just what the doctor ordered… and it is going to make you feel amazing.”
