Acclaimed Japanese psych band Minami Deutsch headlines Halloween show at the Chapel
Japanese krautrock band Minami Deutsch returns to San Francisco to headline this Halloween show at the Chapel that will also feature Hooveriii, Joel Robinow (Once and Future Band, ex-Drunk Horse), UFO Baby and Sunday Mourners.
Formed in 2014 by singer, guitarist and synth player Kyotaro Miula, Minami Deutsch has developed a hypnotic sound built around the fixed "motorik" beat frequently employed by such influential German bands as Can, pre-Autobahn Kraftwerk and Neu! The group released its eponymous first album through the British Cardinal Fuzz label in 2015, showcasing their unique approach to repetition rhythms and heady atmospherics on the extended workouts "Futsu Ni Ikirenai" and "Übergleich Part II."
The group later hooked up with now defunct Japanese psych band Kikagaku Moyo, signing to their Guruguru Brain imprint for a reissue of their debut and to release their second album With Dim Light. They would also embark on their first extensive U.S. tour supporting the group, paying their first visit to San Francisco with the tour's stop at the Fillmore.
In 2018, Minami Deutsch performed live at the Roadburn Festival with legendary former Can vocalist Damo Suzuki, a collaboration that was released as a special EP a year later. More recently, the band issued its latest effort Fortune Goodies in 2022 and toured the States with noted psych power trio Earthless.
The band was one of several international psych bands to be featured at the Chapel's free Union Square concert earlier this month presented in partnership with show promoter and Chapel booker (((folkYEAH!))) that included headlining Australian group the Babe Rainbow, Brazil's Boogarins as well as SoCal Latin groups Thee Heart Tones and the Los Angeles League of Musicians (aka LA LOM).
Minami Deutsch comes back to San Francisco as part of its extensive U.S. tour, topping an epic five-band bill at the Chapel on Halloween night that also includes acclaimed Los Angeles-based sextet Hooveriii. Pronounced "Hoover 3," the band started as a one-man project by Bert Hoover, who had fronted hooky garage-punk band CAB 20 until that band split up. His early drum-machine experiments would gradually evolve over a number of recordings, eventually leading Hoover to put together a full band that started releasing heavily reverbed sounds not too far removed from fellow LA garage-psych groups like Osees, Fuzz and Meatbodies.
The band would expand to its current six-piece line-up including powerhouse drummer Owen Barrett (also a member of equally celebrated LA group Love Fiend) by the time it recorded last year's Water For The Frogs -- their first for The Reverberation Appreciation Society -- drawing inspiration from both '70s krautrock and the albums recorded in Berlin by Bowie and Iggy Pop that pulled from some of those same German influences. For the band's latest effort A Round of Applause, Hooveriii and company tightened their song structures for the band's most infectiously melodic collection of tunes yet.
Last fall, the group issued its latest album, Pointe, which found the band reigning in the distorted guitars of their last album for a more pastoral approach. Hooveriii also reissued the band's first cassette-only album Quest for Blood on vinyl for Record Store Day earlier this year. The evening is rounded out by three more bands including Once and Future Band and ex-Drunk Horse keyboardist/guitarist Joel Robinow playing a Halloween-themed set backed by Magic Fig guitarist Muzzy Moskowitz, drummer Bobby Lopez and bassist Graham Norwood (a singer/songwriter who also plays with Once and Future Band and Noelle Fiore and the Deserters), SF psych band UFO Baby and LA-based garage-rock crew Sunday Mourners.
Minami Deutsch with Hooveriii
Thursday, Oct. 31, 7 p.m. $26
The Chapel
