Most Popular
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Gonzalez/Nader Hysteria
They're actually out to stop spoiler candidates.
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SF Supervisor Aaron Peskin's Message to Newsom: Quit Attacking Me!
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Saul Williams Teams with Trent Reznor, Bucks Industry
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Chinese Import
The best (and cheapest) Shanghai-style food
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SF's Most Maddening
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Wikipedia Idiots: The Edit Wars of San Francisco (96)
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The 24 Real Reasons Matt Gonzalez Chose to Run with Ralph Nader (15)
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Building Racism (8)
Segregation and racism are used to pit black and Latino carpenters against each other at a low-income-housing site
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The Demise of Hyphy (54)
Thizzle, bling, and blunts may have helped bring down the overhyped hyphy movement. But KMEL pulled the trigger.
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Gonzalez/Nader Hysteria (6)
They're actually out to stop spoiler candidates.
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Tonight's South Park Spoofs Heavy Metal
02:13PM 03/27/08 -
Dr. Pepper Promises Soda Pop For All...If Guns 'N Roses Get Their Shit Together
01:04PM 03/27/08 -
Comcast and BitTorrent to Hold Hands, Skip Through Daises
12:28PM 03/27/08 -
S.F. Art Institute Yanks Exhibit Over Animal Cruelty Outrage
12:01PM 03/27/08 -
Blue Velvet-Inspired Vegan Birthday Cake
10:49AM 03/27/08 -
Bleeps Revealed: Bourdain On German Anal Porn, Food Network
10:31AM 03/27/08
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Recent Articles By Dave Pehling
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Triclops!
Out of Africa (Alternative Tentacles)
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The Dodos' Foot-Stompin' Chemistry Detonates Staid Duos
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Mexican six-string superheroes Rodrigo y Gabriela
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The Turks embrace Amphetamine Reptile's abrasive edge
National Features
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Miami New Times
Perez Hilton: Exposed!
Can a "crazy, flamboyant dork" from Miami find happiness as a Hollywood mudslinger?
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Nashville Scene
Chip Off the Old Rock
Songwriter Justin Townes Earle has struggled with addiction--just like his proud papa.
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Phoenix New Times
"Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy"
Have they become the magic words when a state wants to terminate parental rights?
By Megan Irwin
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Subject(s): Jim White by Dave Pehling
For more than a decade, songwriter Jim White has pushed the boundaries of alt-country music with his leftfield lyricism and penchant for spacey, downtempo beats; call it gothic y'all-tronica. On his fourth effort for David Byrne's Luaka Bop imprint, White steps back from modern studio alchemy for a more earthy approach that sometimes recalls the swampy sonic hoodoo of Dr. John's classic album Gris Gris. Aided by likeminded gospel-country, folk, and bluegrass mavericks Ollabelle, Laura Veirs, and Don Chambers, White couches his hypnotic storytelling of self-doubt and salvation in an atmospheric swirl of banjos, slide guitar, and swelling strings. Stylistically, he continues to comfortably veer all over the map, sliding easily from the playful acoustic odes "Town Called Amen" and "Turquoise House" to the wistful affirmation of "Jailbird" (with its heartfelt chorus "I wanna be a jailbird/From the prison of my own damn mind") to the simmering Southern funk of "Crash Into the Sun." While White still embarks on dark-cloud ruminations shot through with silver linings of hope, Transnormal Skiperoo offers more warmth and sweetness in its gentle melodies than anything else the songwriter has produced. Tragedy often serves as midwife to great art, but Jim White's latest shows happiness doesn't spell the end of creativity.
