Former Bay Area resident Conan Neutron brings the noise rock to SF
Former East Bay resident and noted purveyor of noise rock Conan Neutron brings his current tour backed by his band of Secret Friends to the the Bottom of the Hill Thursday night.
A longtime Oakland resident, Neutron was the principle creative force behind the East Bay noise-punk outfit Replicator with bassist Ben Adrian (who later played in Cartographer) and drummer Chris Bolig during the 2000s. Echoing the lurching, dissonant sounds of such influential '90s acts as the Jesus Lizard, Melvins and SF's own Steel Pole Bathtub, the group built up a small but loyal fan base over the course of several albums and U.S. tours.
The group dissolved amicably in 2008, with Neutron initially working with Bolig in the still noisy but somewhat more traditional rock group Mount Vicious. Neutron would then spend a number of years touring and recording with anthemic post-punk band Victory and Associates, as well as co-founding and organizing PRF BBQ West, a series of multi-day festivals in Oakland that hosted an eclectic group of noisy, heavy bands from the Bay Area and abroad for several years running.
A few years ago, he began a new loose-limbed partnership with Melvins drummer Dale Crover and bassist Tony Ash (of Louisville, KY's Trophy Wives) under the moniker Conan Neutron and the Secret Friends. Though their first effort The Enemy of Everyone in 2015 was more of a traditional power trio (with co-producer Toshi Kasai adding percussion and vocals and Oxbow singer Eugene Robinson providing vocals on the song "Fight Math"), their savage follow-up The Art of Murder drew on collaborators from a variety of bands including Crover's partner in the Melvins, Buzz Osborne. Neutron also launched his noise-punk focused podcast Protonic Reversal featuring interviews with such renowned musicians as Black Flag/OFF! singer Keith Morris, guitarist/singer Guy Picciotto (Fugazi/Rites of Spring), the late iconic singer Mark Lanegan (The Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age) and Eagles of Death Metal/earthlings? guitarist Dave Catching.
Neutron has since relocated to Milwaukee, but remained consistently busy with touring and the recording of his Proton and Electrons split single series with help from Ash and Crover. The even dozen limited edition 7-inch singles each featured a new Conan Neutron and the Secret Friends song on one side and a tune by a band that has collaborated with Neutron and friends on the flip including Trophy Wives, the God Eaters, Cheap Sleaze, Cartographer and Crover's solo band playing covers from the classic The Who Sell Out album. The completed series was made available as a limited edition box collecting all 12 of the singles or as a double album on CD or vinyl that included all of the Secret Friends songs on one disc and compiles the b-sides on a second disc.
While the pandemic would keep Neutron off the road for the better part of two years, he remained active with a couple of recording projects, releasing a full album with the Secret Friends entitled Dark Passengers tracked with Crover, Kasai and Ash just months before the COVID-19 shutdown as well as the conceptual split EP Dangerous Nomenclature that featured Neutron and company and duo The Erratic Retaliator Strategy both recording three songs that were written as inspired by the given song titles. Last fall, the group released the split LP Adult Prom with Cincinnati-based electric cello/drum duo Lung. Neutron also co-founded Caterwaul, an annual underground music festival in Minneapolis that this year included such renowned acts as Oxbow, the reunited Brainiac and the Art Gray Noizz Quintet.
On Thursday, Neutron returns to the Bay Area with his latest touring line-up of the Secret Friends featuring Ash on bass, Mindee Jorgenson (Mod Pods, touring drummer for Dale Crover's band) on drums, and Dusty Rose (Shovel, touring guitarist for the Darts) on guitar, headlining the Bottom of the Hill. Neutron and company will get support from reunited San Francisco band Kingdom First.
Though they only had a brief existence in the late '90s and early 2000s, the band featuring former Alice Donut guitarist Richard Marshall, singer Matthew Jervis (The Clarke Nova), guitarist Chris Carroll (Stimmies), bassist Dave Baldini (Swirl Happy) and drummer Christian Stark (Decal) established a reputation for hard-hitting live performances around San Francisco. The group recorded a single bracing album with noted producer/engineer Alex Newport before splitting up. After several members came together to perform punk classics by the Damned and the Saints at a memorial concert in 2022, the positive response spurred the members to pursue a full-blown reunion.
The group played a blistering set for a Noise Pop tribute concert for acclaimed photographer Peter Ellenby last February proved the quintet could still deliver onstage. Kingdom First brought another Portland, OR-based musician into their ranks with the addition of Nasalrod guitarist Mustin Douch. Since then, they supported the Art Gray Noizz Quintet at the Kilowatt last summer and paid a visit to Marshall's stomping grounds in Portland. The band has stayed steadily active in the past year, playing its first headlining show in San Francisco in decades last February and touring the Northwest twice. The band also plays the Golden Bull in Oakland Friday with the Freak Accident.
Opening the show is self-described "post-apocalyptic rock" Oakland supergroup Antler Family. Led by trained opera singer Mia Dean (who also fronts the noirish post-punk/stoner-metal project Blood Moon Wedding), the band also includes veteran guitarist Tom Flynn -- best known as a founding member of influential East Bay punks Fang as well as playing stints in Melvins and Duh and running Boner Records; he's currently also in experimental punk group Suboptics -- bassist/keyboard player Tom Dean (also Blood Moon Wedding, Code of the West) and noted drummer Stark Raving Brad (Marginal Prophets, Undercover S.K.A., Mutaytor, the Freak Accident). The band's eponymous debut album had a lengthy delay after it's completion in 2019, but was finally released earlier this year, earning wide acclaim with its mix of stomping riff rockers and gothic, atmospheric balladry. The quartet recently supported Steel Pole Bath Tub for a packed show at the Ivy Room earlier this month.
Conan Neutron and the Secret Friends with Kingdom First and Antler Family
Thursday, Sept. 19, 8:30 p.m. $15
Bottom of the Hill