Kelley Stoltz - "Sunday Morning"

Bay area pop guru Kelley Stoltz— who's both charmed us as the drummer for Sonny & The Sunsets and with his own varied and formidable solo output—has covered the uncoverable: The Velvet Underground's two-minute and fifty-six seconds of pop perfection, "Sunday Morning." Stoltz though more than pulls of the feat by sticking close to the script, only adding a touch of extra meat to this beloved classic with the subtlest of strokes. "Sunday Morning" is part of a Velvet Underground & Nico covers album orchestrated by Thee Oh Sees' John Dwyer and put out on his own imprint, Castle Face Records. If you do the vinyl thing, word is Castle Face nearly sold out, so get on it.

Sonny & The Sunsets - "Pretend You Love Me" / Kelley Stoltz - "Caroline"

Two gems recently surfaced from San Franciscan vintage pop connoisseurs Sonny Smith and Kelley Stoltz. "Pretend You Love Me" is off Smith's third LP as Sonny & The Sunsets and it breaks from Hit After Hit's sun burnt 60s pop territory for the heartbroken country. According to Smith's new label, Polyvinyl, every song on Longtime Companion was written during his breakup with a girlfriend of 10 years. The warm bouncing bass, room-filling hits of slide guitar, and a touch of flute on "Pretend You Love Me" recall at times the Marshall Tucker Band or a softer Allman Brothers cut, but Smith's voice brings it all back home, and the song's laid back swinging vibe proves the perfect shelter for his melancholy. Stoltz, also the drummer for the Sunsets, recently released his newest single, the thumping "Caroline," as a vinyl single on French label Les Disques Steak. A muted bass, handclaps, and a few understated guitar and organ riffs provide the perfect backdrop for Stoltz's classic pop sensibilities as he pines over Caroline, the girl that's been "sung about so many times."

Preorder Longtime Companion from Polyvinyl and get instant access to the MP3s. Order Caroline from Les Disques Steak, which boasts fantastic cover artwork by Smith.

Sonny & The Sunsets - "Pretend You Love Me"

Kelley Stoltz - "Caroline"

San Francisco Sounds Delicious

For a while now, the music coming out of the Bay Area has been hovering around some level of greatness. Bands like Sonny and The Sunsets, Thee Oh Sees and The Fresh and Onlys—all written about in a recent New York Times article—play music that defies contemporary fads, standards, and to a degree, interference from computers: it's classic in every sense of the word, as if plucked right out of San Francisco during the sweet pop and psychedelic-infested 1960s via some sort of slipstream in the fabric of time. And these bands, along with the Girls and Morning Benders, are just the tip of the city's pop iceberg: groups like The Sandwitches, Bare Wires, The Mantles, and Sic Alps are all producing material of equal quality by the shovelful.

Because it's simply impossible to keep up with every little great band out there, I'm going to do my best to catch both you, my dear reader, and me up on the fabulous sounds reverberating around the various garages and warehouses within the great city by the Bay (and Oakland too).

Review: Sonny & The Sunsets :: Hit After Hit

Hit After Hit may not have a classic once-in-a-generation caliber single like Tomorrow Is Alright's "Too Young To Burn," but the second full-length from Sonny and The Sunsets is a remarkably executed affair that registers as this group's strongest statement to date: A magnum opus of playful, whip-smart and vintage minimalism of 50s and 60s-inspired California pop sunshine.

The guitar riffs, vocal harmonies and grooves all harken back to images of a twisting and hip-shaking, bob cut, milkshake drive-in drinking youth that's been famously cemented in films like American Graffiti, Beach Party and later re-stylized in Pulp Fiction. But as openly derivative as Sonny Smith's musical diction is, the songwriting here never once comes across as a copy or inauthentic. On the contrary, Smith's voice is one of the most refreshing and original in contemporary pop music. When I listen to songs like "She Plays Yoyo With My Mind" or "Don't Act Dumb" (which employs the lyrics: "Saw you for across the room, talking to some dude / Saw you leave with him, thought you might be dumb too / Girl, don't act dumb"), I honestly don't know whether to barrel over laughing, applaud, or dance and sing-along (the answer is usually a combination).