GT’s guide to San Francisco’s colossal music festival
Outside Lands kicks off Aug. 10-12 in Golden Gate Park with a slew of chart-topping and underground musical acts performing on several stages. And, if you’re anything like us, you’re struggling to pick and choose which bands to see. In our humble opinion, these artists are unmissable:

Will Kahn understands the value of combining musical talents. “I never could play drums by myself,” he says, recalling his teenage years, “so I set them up at a friend’s house, who was playing bass. … That’s how I started—playing with someone else.” Things haven’t changed much over the years for the multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, and studio manager at Paradise Recording. Kahn joined the Afro/samba/funk group SambaDá in 1998, and has been collaborating with local musicians ever since. For the last decade, it has been his dream to form a “total Santa Cruz supergroup” made up of his many gifted friends—and finally, that band has taken shape, under the moniker Afro Beat Box.

The Hood Internet, takes a break from mash-ups on ‘FEAT’

There are plenty of successful musicians who will tell you they formed their band on a lark—just a group of friends, jamming in a garage, drinking beer and never imagining they would hit it big. Until, of course, they decided to play a few bar gigs, and before they knew it, they were blowing up and inking a deal.

Aaron Brink and Steve Reidell have a similar story. Except this Chicago-based production duo, known as The Hood Internet, never had a garage.

Though the moniker sounds unhealthy, Deepfried’s experimental trip-hop tracks are fresh and easy to stomach. Formed in 2000, when Peter Chester (vocals/keys/guitar) and Robbie Cross (bass/vocals/guitar) were studying electronic music at UC Santa Cruz, Deepfried has become known for its organic blend of electronica. “Something we became pretty fascinated with was using computers to do looping,” Chester recalls. Using the computer software Cycling 74's MAX/MSP, they created the "cuisNart”: a personally designed digital looping instrument. The sounds they created were magical, he says—“sorta like grabbing water from a stream and putting Kool-Aid in it.

Oliver Mtukudzi honors the Zimbabwean heritage with sounds of struggle, hope and celebration

According to Oliver Mtukudzi (pronounced tu-ku-zee), “The power of art is to communicate figuratively and be understood universally.” That message is a key component in his distinctive Afro-pop/World music amalgam, often referred to as “Tuku music.”

A musical icon in his native Zimbabwe, Mtukudzi will bring elements of the African musical tradition, the stories of his people, and songs from his 57-album repertoire to Moe’s Alley this Friday.

After watching Office Space, Gabe Robledo couldn’t stop repeating the quote: “Uh-oh, sounds like somebody’s got a case of The Mondays!” The 20-year-old singer/guitarist’s favorite scene became the inspiration behind the moniker of his band, The MonDays. Along with fellow Pajaro Valley High School graduates—Miguel Soriano (bass/sax/guitar), and twins Jesse Flores (drums/shaker) and Ivan Flores (keyboards)—this rock/R&B/hip-hop quartet has transformed the mundane weekday into music that drags on, but solely because their sound is timeless and infectious.

Zoe Boekbinder bids farewell to the left coast with wispy, looping folk-pop

hen she tells you that she "escaped from the circus" to start her solo act, Zoe Boekbinder is talking about parting ways with her previous band, Vermillion Lies, which she formed and played in with her sister, Kim, from 2004 to 2009.

But Boekbinder could easily be talking about other episodes in her life when she decided to break from the norm to pursue other passions. She has lived much of her life like a gypsy—bouncing from town to town practicing different forms of performance art all the way.

The message at the heart of Rob Owen’s music is perfectly encapsulated by the title of his first EP, Common Ground. “The songs are about interconnection or ‘inter-being,’” he explains. “They are about the common ground we all stand on but often forget about.” Tugging at the heartstrings and capturing the soul of audience members, is one of Owen’s strong suits as a singer/songwriter. His journey as a musician began when he moved from Silicon Valley to Aptos, and the change in scenery added what he calls a “different dimension in [his] writing.” Here, he has found solace in his family and a muse in everyday life. “I find that at the place where inspiration and influence collide, there is an infinite ocean of creativity,” says Owen.

Cheb i Sabbah has the vinyl solution to global turmoil

For the better part of two decades, Cheb i Sabbah has been experimenting with cultural mixing of the most literal kind. The world-renowned DJ looms over his turntables like a weaver at the spinning wheel, interlacing modern electronica with traditional Arabic, African and Asian music. But it seems that Sabbah’s DJ gig is just one part of his plan to bring the voices of various cultures into harmony with one another. 

It ain’t over till the fat lady sings, or so the saying goes. Well, since 2004, that fat lady has been pushed aside, multiplied, and renamed Slop Opera: an all-male, hip-hop/rap collective. According to Mike Ross, the emcee/producer known as Ross Rock—a nickname coined by his football coach at Soquel High School—the group started as a quintet, consisting of himself and emcee Addamantium, DJ/producer Mr. Bean, Debris the Emcee and emcee Slie.

How to cleanse the mind and body with Kori Gardner of Mates of State

Cayenne pepper, lemon juice, maple syrup, and water sounds like a recipe for disaster, but for Kori Gardner—singer/synth and organ player for Mates of State—it’s all she can think about.

On day four of a 10-day Master Cleanse juice fast, Gardner and her husband, Jason Hammel (drums and vocals), are trying hard to avoid solid food—and not just for nutrition purposes.

“Jason started, and then 12 hours later he’s like, ‘I’m eating!’” Gardner recalls with a laugh. “We’ve done raw food diets before, but this is a little more extreme,” she says. While she admits that it’s been difficult to stay on track, she believes the rewards are too good to pass up.

“You get these rare moments of clarity that I’ve never felt before,” Gardner says of the diet. “Your mind is so clear because of all the toxins that have left your body.” This lucid mindset has aided her in writing music. “I felt like my ideas were completely concise and clear,” she says.

From a short distance, Al Frisby looks like a classic Santa Cruz surfer: rich silver locks atop a lanky frame. But when face-to-face, Frisby’s drawl reveals his Louisiana roots. The beloved singer/songwriter spouts a wellspring of local lore, has an encyclopedic knowledge of New Orleans music, and offers a slightly demented view of the world—in other words, he’s a colorful character. By the time Frisby arrived in Santa Cruz in the early ’90s, he had made a name for himself by writing comical novelty songs that poked fun at the counterculture. For example, “Deadheads on Bad Paper Acid,” is, according to Frisby, “A good ballad waltz about being raised in a VW van and traveling around the country.”