White Crate Is Documenting the Bay Area’s Music Renaissance

In the fall of 2020, with concert calendars blank for the foreseeable future, something shifted for Ronny Kerr.

The musician, record collector and DJ made a habit of taking long, contemplative walks around his neighborhood in West Oakland. Shows by touring bands and big festivals were off the table. So instead, he says, “I just became really interested and invested and curious about what was happening right here.”

Kerr, who grew up in Daly City, started scouring the internet for new releases from Bay Area artists. As loosening restrictions began to allow for small outdoor shows, he kept track of upcoming performances. Soon, he was sharing his weekly list of findings with friends.

“While everyone else was baking bread for the first time, I was like ‘I wanna start a newsletter about Bay Area music,’” says Kerr. He and his co-founder, longtime friend Elliot Engel, decided to name the project White Crate, after the crate they transported records in when they DJed together.

Nearly four years later, White Crate has become an indispensable resource for Bay Area music fans — and at an incredibly fertile time for local artists. (More on that in a minute.) White Crate has also expanded into so many formats that Kerr and Engel struggle to define it. In addition to the newsletter of show recommendations, there’s a website that publishes daily record reviews and artist interviews, plus a monthly online broadcast on Lower Grand Radio.

Live events, White Crate’s newest venture, have so far included a sold-out Cold Beat concert at Grace Cathedral, and an ongoing series in which they invite a local artist or label to curate a lineup that highlights the best of their scene.

The next show in this series, WC05, is set for Saturday, July 13 at El Rio, with a lineup programmed by the Mission District’s own Text Me Records. Producer and rapper Jammy, alt-hip-hop artist Ricky Lake, Latin Grammy-winning singer La Favi and rapper-actress Tia Nomore are all set to perform live on the beloved queer bar’s sunny back patio, with DJ sets by Drew Banga and Louie El Ser.

“When you start doing research, you realize there’s just such a vast constellation of music and creators and community here that no single person can have a full grasp on it,” says Kerr of the guest-curator format. “So we rely on other people to share what’s going on.”

From where he’s sitting, what’s going on looks like a renaissance. Four years after the pandemic brought live music to a standstill, in garages and basements, in practice spaces and dive bars, the Bay Area music scene is blossoming once again.

“The Bay has always had and will always have amazing music, amazing visual art, amazing art in general. But I think it’s kind of a wave system…. and right now we’re in a really good little moment,” says Ricky Lake, whose most recent EP, Tundra, blends indie rock and emo pop sounds with rap.

Despite having lived here for a decade, Lake said he’s recently started going to new venues — like downtown San Francisco speakeasy The Felix — and seeing more cross-Bay collaboration between Oakland and San Francisco crews. He also attributes a lot of the momentum in his particular scene to femme DJs: “I know that’s very specific!” he says with a laugh. “But people like Louie El Ser, and the DJs they’ve put me on to… they go so hard. No matter what else is happening, they’re finding spaces to throw lit events and create scenes that people want to go to.”

For La Favi, whose recent EP 14 Mission takes its name from the bus line and neighborhood of her childhood, the El Rio showcase will be a hometown gig in the truest sense. “I was born and raised in San Francisco, it shaped who I am, my heart and my soul,” she says. While San Francisco has changed drastically since she was a kid, she says, “It’s always cool to see the new young artists that are coming up, the creativity of youth here — there are always little seeds. You just have to nurture them.”

White Crate co-founder Elliot Engel hypothesizes that the surge of new albums released over the past year is a result of the pandemic’s dormant period.

“People were stuck at home, there was a lot of pent-up creativity,” says Engel. “And of course it’s easier now than ever to create music online. I mean, we’re still finding out about albums that were created during 2020 and 2021 that [artists] are just now releasing, and they’re incredibly creative.”

Practically speaking, he adds, the eviction moratorium may have provided an all-too-brief glimpse into a world where artists don’t have to hustle around the clock to make rent: “People were allowed to breathe a little bit.”

Whatever the reasons for this resurgence, White Crate is documenting it — a role that feels increasingly important when so many outlets that once covered up-and-coming artists have shuttered. Following the decimation of the Bay Area’s alternative weeklies and the demise of indie music site The Bay Bridged, very few local media outlets devote significant resources to coverage of even “traditional” arts like the theater or symphony, let alone the scrappy punk bands, electronic music parties and house shows that form the basis of the independent scene.

Importantly, White Crate’s founders say they’re not trying to grow into a media outlet. They both have full-time jobs, so the project is truly a labor of love. Which, in turn, helps explain why the whole thing has a touch of the nostalgic, DIY energy of a fanzine: They just want you to get to the show. And to celebrate local artists — even though the Fillmore and Fox’s calendars are once again filled with touring bands from around the world.

“There are so many great, accessible music venues that you can just pop into, like Thee Stork Club, Kilowatt, Bottom of the Hill, places where you can go and just be immersed among music people,” says Engel, of what he’d suggest to someone looking to discover independent Bay Area music. (Kerr chimes in, suggesting The Lab for the avant-garde scene, and event producers No Bias and Vitamin 1000 for dance music.)

“There’s remarkably little gatekeeping here. People are welcomed with open arms,” adds Engel. “It’s a pretty special place.”

WC05 takes place from 3–8 p.m. on Saturday, July 13 at El Rio (3158 Mission St., San Francisco). Tickets ($15-$20) and more info here.