• StitchCraft

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$8

21+

9PM

- Big Light

San Francisco is a music city. Its musical heritage is as iconic as New Orleans’ and as diverse as New York’s. And so while they sound only remotely like any of the famous San Francisco bands of yore, Big Light frontman Fred Torphy says that, when pressed up against a wall to describe Big Light’s big rock sound, he’ll often use the term “psychedelic.”

“We’re experimental, but we also like to keep things tight, songwriting-wise,” says Torphy. “Maybe that’s where our love for Jeff Tweedy shines through.” Quick to shoot down any actual Wilco comparison, Torphy says that Big Light is more directly influenced by the songwriting of Dire Straits, the arrangements of The Sea & Cake, and the sensibilities of Stephen Malkmus than the artists that people frequently lump them with. And even these references he’ll only offer after being shaken down for them.

“It’s a lot of different things,” offers drummer Bradly Bifulco. “Many of our songs have distinctly different feels.” Bradly says that the secret behind the band’s consistent sound might be found in Torphy’s songwriting, even though each song has its own “deliberately implied sonic idea.”

Torphy grew up in Rhode Island and at an early age became friendly with Brad and Andrew Barr of the seminal avant-garde band, The Slip. Through The Slip, Torphy met and befriended Nathan Moore (Surprise Me Mr. Davis, The MuseMent), a prolific singer-songwriter with a devoted underground following. Big Light’s debut performances featured Moore at the helm and showcased a number of his rarities alongside Big Light’s new originals.

After hearing some of those early performances, Apollo Sunshine’s Jeremy Black asked to get involved, and in the spring of 2008 he produced the band’s self-titled EP at his new studio in Oakland, CA called Coyote Hearing. Big Light became the first band to record there. The EP was picked up for digital release in June 2008 by San Francisco’s reapandsow records.

Another one of Big Light’s notable friends, bassist Steve Adams from ALO, also wanted to get involved. With ALO currently on holiday (and keyboardist Zack Gill touring with Jack Johnson), Adams began sitting-in on a couple of tunes with Big Light at a few of their early shows. They recruited him for the EP and then, feeling some sort of greater connection with Big Light than merely “special guest” status, he signed on for the summer 2008 season. (Recently, ALO frontman Dan Lebowitz also sat-in with the band and has already planned additional collaborations).

Although Big Light emerged onto the scene only last year, their internal roots are deep. Singer/guitarist Torphy and multi-instrumentalist Jamie Fordyce have been playing music together since they met as children on the beach. “We were rug rats together. We started our first band when he was 8 and I was 10,” says Torphy. “I think we called it Steel Harmony. We played some Guns ‘N’ Roses tunes, and Allman Brothers…”

Torphy and Fordyce both moved to San Francisco in 2005, playing off-and-on in the New England-based outfit, The White Thighs. After recruiting Bradly Bifulco to play drums for The Thighs, Fred & Jamie decided to start a more regular project after recording a few demos & playing some gigs as a trio. After they met keyboardist Colin Hoops through the local music scene they christened the project Big Light. The lineup was recently expanded to a seven-piece with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Dan Hurley (”Another childhood friend of mine and Jamie’s,” explains Torphy.) and percussionist Cochrane McMillan. -Benjy Eisen

- StitchCraft
To bake a StitchCraft, combine equal parts fiddle gypsy acid-freak-folk, sunny latin guitar, African-inspired rhythms, tight female vocal harmonies that bend and slide like an electric butterfly trombone, oh… a wheel full of bicycle spokes, and 20 sticks of dynamite, and strike a match…BAM!

Combining a unique mix of guitar, fiddle, drums, mandolin, percussion, and weaving vocals, StitchCraft is a powerful mix which defies genre-labeling and produces a brand new sound. This musical trio out of San Francisco, California plays a dynamic and versatile array of music from lyrical ballads to driving and powerful anthems, from pop-driven, loop-based electric pandemonium, to genre-bending, world-music-inspired folk fusion. Their music mixes rich harmonic arrangements, thoughtful lyrics, and undercurrents of intricately woven rhythms to produce delicate, yet vivid, melodic textures.

These musicians are charting new territory and turning heads as they take their eclectic sounds and rhythms to new levels. Through their lulling songstress counterpoint and captivating parables, their colorful poetry pulls in a wide range of audiences and reveals the connections they spark in each other on stage.

The group’s second album is in the works, and will be their first major recording project with the addition of Vermont-hailing drummer, Ezra Lipp. This highly anticipated album will combine these three musicians’ ever-developing styles and collective brainstorming to produce a fluid and conceptual tour de force; the culmination of years of musical transformations.