British post-punk duo Sleaford Mods headlines August Hall
SAN FRANCISCO -- Delivering a mix of propulsive, minimalist beats and vitriolic diatribes about British working-class life, riveting post-punk/electronic duo Sleaford Mods return to San Francisco to headline their biggest local show yet at August Hall Friday night.
The Nottingham-based group got its start in 2006 when frustrated musician Jason Williamson began looking for a new direction after spending years playing in bands and trying his hand at being a singer-songwriter. Teaming with initial collaborator Simon Parfrement, the pair crafted loops from wide-ranging sample sources that ran the gamut from '60s and '70s rock (Jeff Beck, Deep Purple) and classic punk (the Sex Pistols, the Jam) to soundtracks (Bernard Hermann's "Taxi Driver" score) and more modern hip hop and electronic music (Dr. Octagon, Roni Size). Inspired by both the stripped-down sounds of early Wu-Tang Clan and a long-abiding love for '60s mod sounds spurred by the Jam during the punk era, Williamson unleashing acerbic, profanity-filled tirades targeting UK club culture and the foibles of working-class life in Britain.
Releasing the music through their own label on hand-burned CD-Rs (largely due to the unlicensed sampling the songs were built around), Sleaford Mods began to build a following with occasional live performances and subsequent album releases including The Mekon and The Originator. After their fourth album together, Parfrement would step away from the music side of the group, though he remained a collaborator, photographing the band and making their videos, as Williamson teamed with producer and musician Andrew Fearn in 2010.
With the addition of Fearn, the music took a sharp turn from illicit samples to a propulsive, minimalist style of beats that drew equally from both classic post-punk sounds (particularly the Fall and Public Image Ltd.) and modern electronica. Elevated by the years Williamson spent refining his intricate and caustic wordplay, the pair's first proper release for an independent label -- Austerity Dogs for Harbinger Sound in 2013 -- earned Sleaford Mods widespread acclaim in the U.K. and Europe, as did their live shows that featured an intense Williamson spitting his volatile lyrics over Fearn's music as the producer bobbed and danced along onstage while drinking beers and triggering each tune from a laptop.
The duo's profile would rise further after high-profile collaborations with the Prodigy and Leftfield as well as the steadily increasing sales of subsequent albums that led to Sleaford Mods signing to Rough Trade Records. The pair were also the subject of not one but two documentaries that followed the band's growing popularity and how their message resonated amid the growing political tumult and class division in the U.K.
Sleaford Mods were able to embark on their first tour of the U.S. in 2017, playing Coachella and headlining club shows to ecstatic audiences who had already discovered the pair's fiery music. While the pandemic would curtail their activity, the Mods would still find ways to stay busy with streamed performances, the release of the compilation album All That Glue and the new effort Spare Ribs in 2021 that found them working with Amyl and the Sniffers singer Amy Taylor and rising British talent Billy Nomates to great critical and commercial success.
The group returned to action earlier this year with UK GRIM, its latest bracing effort that draws more heavily on British club music -- with flashes of drill and drum 'n bass -- and includes contributions from Florence Shaw from Dry Cleaning and Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction fame. This show at August Hall Friday night will feature an opening set by SF experimentalists Kamikaze Palm Tree, the project helmed by Dylan Hadley and Cole Berliner and a rotating cast of collaborators that has recently included Josh Puklavetz of White Fence on bass and former Wand keyboardist Sofia Arreguin. The group released Mint Chip, its latest album for Drag City Records, last summer.
Sleaford Mods with Kamikaze Palm Tree
Friday, April 14, 7:30 p.m. $25
August Hall