Editor's Note: Jonathan Cárdenas of Pow Magazine and San Francisco Great Society put a lot of time into curating this exclusive peek at the upcoming festival, Gathering of the Tribes. This fest celebrates and works to promote and preserve the spirit of psych music in San Francisco. Founder, Dennis Gonzales is very passionate about his work and his efforts to support psych musicians from all over the US. The Bay Area is lucky to have him and the community of amazing promoters and musicians who help keep the spirit and tradition of supportive, familial music and arts communities alive and well. -je

The Gathering Of The Tribes is a festival centralized exclusively in itself and its own breed of musicians and artists. San Francisco has had other festivals in past years, but this one aims to showcase the Bay Area’s breed of psychedelia and its sub-genres, as well as celebrate its musical and artistic ancestry. The name is borrowed, or you could even say revitalized—resurrected—from the Human Be-In that took place in Golden Gate Park, January 14, 1967. This is when Haight-Ashbury became symbolically immortalized as a counter-culture mecca. Our festival celebrates San Francisco’s past and present, and aims to push forward its music and arts in a positive and progressive direction, preserving it for the good of the Bay Area and to keep things groovy.

“We are the San Francisco Preservation Society—God save the Acid Tests, Beatniks and notoriety.”

Hopefully you got that reference. But no, we’re the San Francisco Great Society. 

Founder, Dennis Gonzales: I've been running Pow Magazine since 1986 and being entrenched in the music community for several years as a social media journalist, I can tell you SF music is not only alive, it is about to explode into a new movement unlike anything seen since the first music scene in 1965. Everything about our Society and our festival is a familial, grass roots effort.  Amoeba is sponsoring the event—they too have promoted it on their Facebook page as well as Twitter. Pow Magazine, Counter Culture Artist Management, and Innerlight Presents are altogether presenting this festival. We have reached out to the best of the Bay, and most have said “yes.”

Clay Andrews of The Spiral Electric and Innerlight Presents: If the festival is comprised of bands that are all touring and far away, and everybody has all their records—that’s great and all; you have to bring people to the event, but at the same time it’s like—don’t just throw a fest where you just bring an import of things because that’s not really doing anything for the local scene. It’s not exposing people to what’s actually happening right now in their backyards.

Derek See SF DJ, musician and music collector: One thing I’m especially excited about is hearing and meeting bands that I don’t know even though they're local. Because of what i do for a living, i have to get up real early in the morning on weekends—I do go out and see live music when I can, but never as much as I’d like to, whereas at this festival I’m just super stoked to be able to experience and hang out with like-minded folks.

Performing at SFGS: Gathering of The Tribes
at Public Works in San Francisco on September 13th

The Gentle Cycle
Buzzmutt
The Spiral Electric
LSD and the Search for God
Down and Outlaws
Cellar Doors
Down Dirty Shake
The Love Dimension
Mark Nelsen
Sea Dramas
California Raga Association
Lee Gallagher and the Hallelujah
The Green Door
Carlton Melton
Mystery Flavors
The She’s
Electric Shepherd
Zodiac Death Valley

Visuals by:

White Light Prism - vimeo.com/user6728976
Mad Alchemy - www.madalchemy.net
Andy Puls - www.videopaws.com

DJs:

Abel Oleson
Derek See
Michael Tarin

Tonight is going to be a very auspicious musical occasion. The legendary Paisely Underground band, Rain Parade will be performing at Brick and Mortar Music Hall tonight.

Local veteran psych bands, The Asteroid #4 and California Raga Association will be supporting Rain Parade along with Britpop band, Powder and San Francisco shoegaze staple Joel Gion who will be DJing throughout the entire show.

This evening will be a night of nostalgia and a time for younger music lovers to discover music that defined an era in the West Coast music scene. A large chunk of the town will be heading to this show so make sure you get there a little early so you can get close to the stage! -je

Down Dirty Shake is headling another San Francisco show. This time, they'll be playing with Gainsville based Ancient River and California Raga Association, formallly the Brooklyn Raga Association. This is going to be a classic psych revival show with diverse interpretations of the genre being expressed by each band. Down Dirty Shake plays psych-soul, with a heavy and stylistic resemblence to The Doors. Ancient River is more Pink Floyd-esque garage, gritty sound that drive, and the California Raga Association brings a roots version of psych rock to the table.

Don't miss this show!

Seasides, DJ Andy Human and Cosmonauts are playing the first night of Sprindrift's two Bay Area shows this weekend. The first show will take place TONIGHT at the Night Light in Oakland. Seasides is a Bay Area-based band highly influenced by '70s glam rock with a little bit of garage rock attitude thrown in. Also playing along Spindrift is Burger Records band, Cosmonauts. This band rejoices in reverb-heavy, trance influenced musical stylings.

The second show, occuring on January 26th at San Francisco’s Brick and Mortar Music Hall features the Cosmonauts, California Raga Association, Cool Ghouls and DJs, Tony the Tyger and Jodie Artichoke. The first band to perform will be San Francisco-based band, Cool Ghouls. Hot off their self titled album release last year, the band is known for crafting catchy psych rock tunes loaded to the brim with harmonies. Next is California Raga Association. If you’re looking for a deeply spiritual experience with psych music thrown in, this may be the band for you. According to the group, California Raga Association is a “musical magickal spell that energetically aligns any computer or stereo it is being played through.”

Los Angeles based, Spindrift can now properly be considered an institution of sorts. Seeking to combine elements of psych rock and spaghetti westerns, they have cultivated a sound all their own. Influenced by bands such as The Doors, My Bloody Valentine and Hawkind from the start, the band has gone above and beyond in their creative endeavors. Nearly 20 years later they have two films under their belt - “The Legend of God’s Gun” (2008) and “Spindrift – Ghost of the West,” which is said to be released this year. By marrying film and music together, Spndrift has proven time and time again their importance in the independent music scene.

That said, be sure to see them live in the Bay Area. You have ample opportunities!  -Erin Dage