Entertainment

Local garage favorites Not Yetis celebrate new album at Make-Out Room

Updated on: June 21, 2023 / 3:09 PM PDT / CBS San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO -- Local garage-rock vets Not Yetis play songs from their long-gestating debut full-length album at the Make-Out Room Saturday night with headliners the Nashville Ramblers.

Not Yetis sprang to life in the summer of 2015 and feature members of a variety of local bands including the Low Humbles, Sh---y Sh---y Band Band, the Hi-Fives and the Ogres. Coming together with the aim of writing and performing a complete conceptual "budget rock opera" telling the story of a pair of mythical creatures who take on human identities and escape to the U.S., eventually forming a band.

Not Yetis on Reality Check TV 8/25/18 by Reality Check TV on YouTube

While the band has scaled back its original ambitious aim to present their song cycle in small theaters with video projections, narration and interpretive dance numbers, they did manage to complete their magnum opus. The group's self-released album A Cautionary Tale, a collection of 26 original tunes along with a comic book that illustrates the lyrics of Not Yetis' garage/surf/pop songs that sound like the Who and the Archies collaborating on an absurdist sequel to Tommy.

The band record release party will also feature a performance by legendary San Diego power-pop outfit the Nashville Ramblers. Best known for their classic 1986 underground classic "The Trains," the group featuring founding guitarist Carl Rusk has roots in San Francisco. Rusk was living in a Haight Street apartment during an abortive stint attending art school when he wrote "The Trains" and other songs before returning to San Diego to found the Nashville Ramblers. The group's mix of British Invasion sounds and the LA folk-rock of the Byrds and Love. In addition to this early show at the Make-Out Room in the Mission District Saturday, the bands will share the stage at the Torch Club in Sacramento Friday night as part of the Sacramento Trash Jubilee put on by Slovenly Records with local garage-punk legends Th' Losin Streaks.

Not Yetis Record Release Party with the Nashville Ramblers
Saturday, June 24, 6 p.m. $10
The Make-Out Room

Dave Pehling

Dave Pehling is website managing editor for CBS Bay Area. He started his journalism career doing freelance writing about music in the late 1990s, eventually working as a web writer, editor and producer for KTVU.com in 2003. He began his role with CBS Bay Area in 2015.