Veteran East Bay indie-rock outfit B. Hamilton comes to San Francisco to play new music from their forthcoming new eponymous album set to come out later this month at the Make-Out Room Thursday.

The creative outlet for songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Christopher Parks, B. Hamilton got it's start in 2010 as a lo-fi bedroom studio project that featured Parks playing virtually every instrument. He developed material that, along with contributions from friends recorded at various studios in Oakland and Southern California, would become the songs for the first B. Hamilton release Because the laundry room is the only place god can't see me and steal my ideas.

With songs ranging from punchy alternative hard rock to electronic-tinged, beat-driven sounds reminiscent of UNKLE to rootsy acoustic jams, B. Hamilton covered an impressive sonic expanse on the debut. By the time Parks got together his next round of tighter, more polished tunes together for Everything I Own Is Broken three years later, drummer Bill Crowley and bassist Andrew Macy had joined the fold as full-time members. Spotlighting Parks's blazing guitar skills and nuanced storytelling, songs like fiery opener "Me and Margaret Counting Countdowns" and "Outside a Hexagram" and the moody "Gold Teeth" showed the band had taken a quantum leap forward.

Parks would follow up with a collection of demos, remixes and unreleased songs entitled Garbage In, Garbage Out in 2014 to fill the gap before the band's second proper album, Fight Everything. Drawing on more collaborators (Parks shares songwriting with Macy as well as drummer/pianist Eric Kuhn and drummer Tyler Corelitz), the record further refines B. Hamilton's mix of propulsive rockers that at times recall Queens of the Stone Age and swampy stoner-rock outfit All Them Witches and introspective songwriter confessionals.

The band would remain quiet for some time after that release, but emerged more active than ever last year when it announced a new compilation of covers entitled Covers of Others. Originally intended as quick live in-studio recording, the collection evolved into a far more sophisticated project tracked with input from new drummer and accomplished engineer Raj Ojha (former Howlin Rain drummer who was one of the principles in Once and Future Band in addition to playing with the Shannon Shaw Band and the Black Crowes). Offering up compelling versions of songs by Brian Eno, Roky Erickson, Neil Young, Genesis and soul singer Ronnie Whitehead (the simmering take on the R&B obscurity "Begging You" is a highlight), the comp provides an interesting look at the diversity of influences Parks and company draw upon.

Parks also had a hand in writing and recording the Coup song "Oyahytt" that became the main theme to Oakland rapper-turned-director Boots Riley's hit debut film Sorry To Bother You in the summer of 2018. After a year of hard work, B. Hamilton released a another stellar collection with the following year's Nothing and Nowhere. Featuring some of the most self-assured songwriting Parks has conjured yet, the all-too-short collection packs an enormous musical and emotional wallop with the tale of lost wasted youth heard on "North San Juan," the pounding, catchy riffs of "Whatever Is Owed Me" and "45 and Straight" and the immaculate storytelling pop of "Song for T.W." that takes cues from classic Steely Dan and Boz Scaggs. 

While the pandemic would curtail live shows, Parks was able to find an outlets. He recorded a live solo acoustic set at Oakland studio Santo Recordings in 2020 that he put out as Ukulele Music for Car Commercials and Pharmaceutical Ads (Live at Santo) the following year along with a reissue of Nothing and Nowhere through Sofaburn Records and remastered versions of his first two albums. The band's productivity would ramp up in 2023 as Parks and Ojha released the first of what would be a string of five EPs under the B. Hamilton moniker (though one was credited to Parks himself) filled with quality new tunes. 

That prodigious output has apparently continued as B. Hamilton gears up to put out another full-length album in March. With two singles already released that feature keyboards from Ojha's Once And Future bandmate Joel Robinow and intricate horn arrangements, Parks continues to push the outfit's sound into fresh new territory. The band headlines this early show at the Make-Out Room in San Francisco's Mission District Thursday night, playing songs from the album after a support set from Low Plateau. The fellow Oakland band features Drunk Horse and Once & Future Band guitarist Eli Eckert collaborating with Winfred E. Eye bassist Aaron Calvert, drummer Chris LaBreche (Sweet Chariot, ex-Parchman Farm)  and Comets on Fire drummer Utrillo Kushner -- who also leads his own group, Colossal Yes -- on keyboards. DJ Foodcourt, aka Make-Out Room booker and SF music scene crank Parker Gibbs, plays records before and between bands.

B. Hamilton with Low Plateau
Thursday, March 6, 6:30 p.m. $10
The Make-Out Room