Tune-Yards is the brainchild of Oakland-based musicians Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner. The group formed in 2006 and released its first album, Bird-Brains, in 2009 on recycled cassette tape. This archaic medium speaks to the group’s enigmatic sound. Tune-Yards makes music that combines new-school technology and electronica with lo-fi sonic urges. Its songs defy conventional structure but remain infectious, even danceable, resulting in a trance-like listening experience. This sense of raw vitality and rhythm has helped Tune-Yards become both media darlings and, more curiously, a corporate boon. The band’s avant-garde stylings have been used in a Google Pixel commercial and they performed with AI-powered vocal accompaniment for the opening of Google’s annual I/O conference.
Sun, 8pm, $42-$82
Guild Theatre, Menlo Park
