Sound Advice: Mermaids, cheese and festival edibles

Home girls: Terra Lopez and Dani Fernandez shook up Dive Bar last Wednesday night during a feel-good homecoming. The ladies are the voice and synth behind Sister Crayon, the electronic soul duo that got its start in Sacramento before relocating to Oakland.

The long and skinny lounge was packed with Sister Crayon’s fans and friends—groups of attractive, alternative, female 20-somethings—who didn’t quite mix with the Dive Bar regulars. Then, there were a whole lot of cheese-industry folks from the American Cheese Society Conference, eagerly waiting for the famed mermaid to appear.

Sister Crayon’s deejay set was balanced, consistent, lengthy and walked that line between commanding attention and making room for conversation. In other words, ideal for a bar’s special-guest deejay set.

Lopez bobbed her green flat-billed hat-wearing head, pumped her fists in the air and sang. Fernandez swayed hunched over sound gear. The music flowed between hip-hop, trip-hop and remixes heavy on bass and dissonance, occasionally veering toward dubstep. A crowd of dancers gathered as soon as Sister Crayon spun “Help Me Lose My Mind,” by British electronic duo Disclosure with London Grammar. I eagerly joined said crowd, though hearing that sultry voice mostly made me wish I could listen to Lopez sing as well.

For the uninitiated, Lopez has some powerful pipes—rich, raw, wild, haunting, emotional. And live, Sister Crayon is made more dynamic with keys and drums. The band is releasing its second full-length album later this year—on Facebook, Sister Crayon teased that the record has already been tracked. Good thing Sacramento can already look forward to seeing Lopez and Fernandez again soon: In October, Sister Crayon is slotted to play TBD Fest in West Sacramento.

Gastromusic: I’m headed to Outside Lands on Friday and am already looking forward to telling you what you missed. It’s long been sold-out, but you can probably still find your way to an overpriced ticket.

The lineup isn’t incredible. Kanye West, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and the Killers hold the headlining slots, but there are some superfun electronic artists in the mix—Disclosure, Duck Sauce, Boys Noize, Gold Panda, Tiësto—and newer, popular alt-pop-rock bands—Chvrches, Local Natives, Grouplove—and a couple really legit rock bands—Arctic Monkeys, the Flaming Lips. Though, mostly what I see in the lineup is nostalgia for several years ago, like Death Cab for Cutie, Dum Dum Girls, Spoon and Jenny Lewis. Luckily, everyone’s teenage crushes on Spoon and Jenny Lewis were both validated by The New York Times in back-to-back magazine features these past few weeks.

My favorite thing about Outside Lands, though, has always been its selection of edibles. Not that kind: The festival nabs major San Francisco Bay Area chefs to cater, and the menu is always high quality, diverse and not insanely expensive. Think Korean bulgogi tacos, South American arepas, deconstructed samosas, pork belly bao, porcini doughnuts and even shucked raw oysters. And if you really just want festival food, San Francisco’s chefs are apparently not above doughnut cheeseburgers and funnel cake.

But brand-new this year, Outside Lands is pairing its culinary stars with musicians, comedians, dancers and other entertainers in a program called GastroMagic. Yes, magicians are on the menu, too.

That means yet another lineup to pay attention to. With seats free on a first come, first serve basis—and limited to 10 fans—the gatherings are seriously intimate. Holy Ghost! will spin while a chocolatier works his magic onstage. Big Freedia will call on fans to twerk in exchange for beignets. Duck Sauce will perform while a chef cooks duck.

Did I mention GastroMagic includes a new BaconLand?

Fake gold: My bad announcing that Goldfield Trading Post was ready for business in last week’s Sound Advice. The owners of the upcoming country bar and restaurant—the same duo that brought Sacramento Ace of Spades and Assembly Music Hall—seemed awfully confident with their various paid advertisements and social-media statuses emblazoning an August 1 opening. Sadly, construction delays proved insurmountable.

I walked by the place (1630 J Street) last weekend, and it did look close to being ready to open. I’m not, however, going to pretend to know when the opening will actually be again.