Brainstory bring their 'Shoebox Days' release party to Alex's Bar

The Rialto-raised psych-soul trio will celebrate a new record in a 178-capacity Anaheim Street room on Thursday, Nov. 19, and tickets are $20.

There are bigger rooms Brainstory could have picked for a record release. They picked Alex's Bar, the Anaheim Street dive with a capacity of 178, where the stage is close enough to the bar that the first and last rows are a few steps apart. For a band whose records sound like they were made in a living room, that fits.

Brainstory plays Alex's Bar on Thursday, Nov. 19, with music starting at 8 p.m. The show was announced Oct. 15. DICE bills it as the "Shoebox Days" record release party, with Koreatown Oddity and DJ Wyldeflower on the bill. Tickets are $20 through DICE, and the night is 21+. The DICE listing also says presale tickets can be bought at the bar on weekdays from 5 to 7:30 p.m., and day-of tickets are sold when doors open. In a room this size, that walk-up line runs out quickly.

If you haven't caught up with Brainstory yet, the short version: they're a three-piece led by brothers Kevin and Tony Martin, with Eric Hagstrom on drums. Kevin sings and plays guitar and Tony plays bass. The brothers grew up in Rialto, out in the Inland Empire, and started in a punk duo before high school. Then they went deep into jazz and formed a jazz trio with Hagstrom. According to SXSW's artist bio, the name comes from a yearbook typo for a classmate named Brian Story. The project became a full band after Tony moved back to Rialto from the Bay Area in 2014.

That jazz training is still in the songs. Brainstory's sound sits where psych, soul and late-night R&B meet: long, warm chords, falsetto hooks, a rhythm section that leaves space. Their 2019 debut, *Buck*, came out first, then the *Ripe* EP in 2021. After that they signed with Big Crown Records, the New York soul label, and in April 2024 released *Sounds Good*, produced by Leon Michels of El Michels Affair. Rialto shaped much of that album: the band wrote it while the family's childhood home was being sold. One single, "Hanging On," has Clairo on backing vocals.

For a band whose records sound like they were made in a living room, Alex's Bar is the right size.

Brainstory have also toured with Lady Wray and backed her on the road, which tells you something about how tight this rhythm section is live. The DICE listing gives no details on "Shoebox Days" beyond the title, so Nov. 19 may be the first time a lot of people hear the new material, and they'll hear it from a few feet away.

The pairing with Alex's Bar makes sense for another reason. The Inland Empire-to-L.A. corridor has produced a lot of soul-leaning bands in the last decade, and Long Beach has always been where those bands play to a crowd that really listens. A Thursday night on Anaheim Street, with a local opener and a DJ between sets, is the kind of show that later becomes "I saw them at Alex's."

Tickets are on DICE now. If you go, get there before 8, buy a drink early, and stand somewhere you can see Tony's hands on the bass.

Sources: DICE: Brainstory "Shoebox Days" Record Release Party w/ Koreatown Oddity + DJ Wyldeflower, Alex's Bar (dice.fm); DICE ticket link (brief) (link.dice.fm); SXSW 2024 artist bio: Brainstory (schedule.sxsw.com); KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic: Brainstory (kcrw.com); Ghost Cult: Brainstory share double single from upcoming new album (ghostcultmag.com); hhv mag: Brainstory release a new album (Sounds Good) (hhv-mag.com); Northern Transmissions: Brainstory collaborates with Clairo (northerntransmissions.com); Pacific Sun: Brainstory (pacificsun.com)