New albums, resilient festivals, surprise reunions on Sacramento’s July music slate

“A little weird and fragmented” was the process for recording “Afterimage,” the titillating new album from blustery local psych rock act Vinnie Guidera and the Dead Birds.

“We had just gotten into the groove of writing when the pandemic hit, and suddenly we didn’t jam for an entire year,” Guidera said. “By the time we came back to it, we were different people having to pick up the threads from the last version of ourselves in a completely new headspace, and I think that culminated in an album we couldn’t have pictured beforehand.”

Through that lens, once can identify glimpses of the disparate creative periods shimmying throughout the intricate record, with fuzzy, deliberately forged grooves (sure to get a wry smile out of Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis) on songs like “Detach” and the spacious, brain-twisting instrumental title track — giving way to thundering second-act roars like “Pulp” and the intensely grimacing “Slowplay.”

The album’s official release show also finds the reemergence of the Kelps (coaxed out of retirement with “minimal prodding” for this gig), as well as post-punk rockers Clevers, which just released their own dandy of a record, “Gather You” (8 p.m. Friday, July 25, at Starlet Room, 2708 J St. $18. harlows.com).

We’re beaming after hearing news from our friends at High Sierra Music Festival that the 33rd annual iteration will indeed go on, after the entire affair was dangling on the ropes due to lagging ticket sales, as reported by the Plumas Sun. While they’ve filled in enough of the ticket sales gap to forge ahead in ’25, every festival-goer still counts for the beloved Plumas County treasure trove. “High Sierra needs you. And you need this. This doesn’t end with a shortfall. It ends when you stop believing,” the festival said in a social media post. I can tell you from personal experience it is a special time and place — a rare volume of unexpected art, music and experiences throughout the grounds curated by the “High Sierra lifer” attendees as well as by the festival itself. Among the throngs of upstart talent are sets from indie folk rock darling Cat Clyde, bluegrass titan Molly Tuttle, madcap ivory-tickling showstopper Andy Frasco & the U.N., Chaparelle, the feisty and slightly funky throwback country/Americana/lounge pop duo of Jesse Woods and Zella Day, hip-hop all-timer Lyrics Born, acid-dipped funk jazz trio Parlor Greens (red alert, Soulive fans) and the outer nebula traversing Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country. And don’t forget about the multi-act collaborative playshops, which this year feature tributes to Simon & Garfunkel, Sam Cooke, the Meters, a “songbook of 1975” dive and tons more (July 3-6 at Plumas County Fairgrounds, 204 Fairground Road, Quincy. highsierramusic.com).

Those pinging, hazy riffs on Lily Seabird tunes like “Arrow” and “Harmonoia” are pure catnip for fans of electric guitar-driven pastoral indie folk rock, and it’s easy to get lost in those licks. But alluring though they are, you won’t be wandering around her gripping new LP “Trash Mountain” for long before realizing that this is, indelibly, a songwriter’s record. The smattering of comparisons she’s been drawing to Leonard Cohen are apt for (and assuredly cherished by) the Vermont singer on her third album — the luminant vessel of a swarm of kinetic lyrical energy log jammed at the front gates of her mind, yearning for the page and demanding a romp. Heartache, despair and fright all have extensive monologues in this play — a plot line that yet refuses to ignore the rays of sun pouring through the clouds beyond the jagged peaks. This year feels like the start of something big for Seabird, and Nevada City snags an intimate gig on her record release tour — she’ll set up shop outdoors for a solo gig at the hyperlocal Stardust Station alongside indelible local garage rockers Th’ Losin’ Streaks and the debut of brand new rock act Beach Noise (7 p.m. Saturday, July 5. instagram.com/starduststation).

Bank on the City of Davis and Davis Live Music Collective to annually slap a pair of marquee musical acts on the Community Park stage on the Fourth of July — this year captained by the Bay Area’s graveled land pirate and his anthemic band of freak-folk flag flying first mates, The Sam Chase & the Untraditional. Their wild-eyed “Chasing Windmills” and its “We Didn’t Start the Fire” styled lyrical pressure valve for the internet conspiracy age is not a brand new tune — but somehow it is hitting harder in this particular year, as are many of the chanties and ditties in their ebullient, sing-along worthy catalog. Local folk mainstay Hattie Craven Band joins the fun (4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, July 4; music at 6:30 p.m. cityofdavis.org)

There’s really only one question when Ontatio funk platoon My Son the Hurricane blows into Torch Club: how in the name of George Clinton are you gonna fit all those musicians onto that stage? They made it work last time, but maybe a few of them got the night off because there was no more room? Their lineup boasts north of a dozen players, each hurling fistfulls of BTUs into the eye of this storm of funk, soul, alternative rock, pop and bursts of hip-hop — a relentless percussion and brass-laden onslaught that refuses to let up and very much knows its ’90s and 2000s history (9 p.m. Thursday, $20. July 24. 904 15th St., Sacramento torchclub.net).

The Gambler’s Run Music Festival, bouncing back from sparse attendance on its 2023 maiden voyage, is back for round three at North Tahoe’s Crystal Bay Casino after a more bustling 2024 edition. This cozy three-day fest splits its sets between a plush outdoor stage erected among the trees in the backlot, and their ever-rowdy indoor venue, the Crown Room. The Thursday kickoff has effervescent Bay Area bluegrass/folk royalty Brothers Comatose alongside Paul Thorn and an after-party from the indelible North Mississippi Allstars. Full slates on Friday include ethereal worldbeat sonic cartographers Beats Antique with Thumpasaurus, Pixie and the Partygrass Boys, Squeaky Feet, Smokey the Groove and the afterparty with stilted, brass-wielding vaudevillian circus folk MarchFourth. Saturday is helmed by trance jammers Papadosio, the soul-smoldering Monophonics, the aforementioned My Son the Hurricane, Magoo, Sundays at Midnight and lepecial holding the after party (July 24-26. crystalbaycasino.com/gamblers-run-music-festival).

Out of nowhere, the early ’00s schizophrenic chaos of hair-on-fire funk and scattergunning swamp rock that is Okra Pickles is back in Sacramento after nearly 20 years. Their surprise reunion show is joined by Jimmy Zolo Band (featuring former members of Death Angel, Great White and Montrose) and Power Chord Riot (8 p.m. Fri. July 18 at Harlow’s. $26.40. harlows.com)

Speaking of pleasantly surprising reunions, long dormant drug den disco country miscreants Jackpot quietly played their first gig in more than a decade in March — a private affair that any local music lover would have Kool-Aid Man’d the Old Ironsides bricks to get into. That reunion was seemingly enough to coerce the band into a couple of public shows next month in their hometown of Placerville, at the cozy Green Room Social Club (251 Main St.). The initial Aug. 8 gig sold out fast, but there’s promise of a second night to come on Thursday, Aug. 7 — keep your eyes peeled for tix (clubgreenroom.com).

Holding electronic music blowouts nationwide in more than a half-dozen states, but breaking into Sacramento for the first time this fall, the Breakaway Music Festival dropped its banger of a lineup at the end of June, with headlining sets a pair of Dutch phenoms in Martin Garrix and Tiësto, Elderbrook and dance pop phenoms Louis the Child, with more than a dozen additional acts on the undercard (Oct. 11-23 at Cal Expo. breakawayfestival.com)