Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

Comments (0) By SF Weekly Staff Wednesday, Aug 1 2012

Sizzle

Fiona Apple at the Fox

Tough conflicts at Outside Lands

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• Fiona Apple delivered a stunning performance to a sold-out Fox Theater on Saturday night. She pushed her voice early on to a point where it decayed into a growl, and we feared her vocal cords might run out of steam. But an energetic, diminutive Apple impeccably performed 17 songs, many of the best of which came from her new album, The Idler Wheel...

• Kaskade, the DJ/producer and former S.F. resident, talked to us about the rise of EDM: "True electronic music still has not crossed over," he said, adding that he thinks '90s-era European sounds had to mature before they would be accepted by U.S. listeners. He also said he tries to visit Taqueria Cancun whenever he makes it back to S.F.

• Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong will be a mentor for Christina Aguilera's team on the next season of The Voice. It's a brilliant marketing move, considering the band has three new albums coming out this fall, and we're geekily excited to see what Armstrong — who started out singing Broadway show tunes — is like as a vocal coach.

Fizzle

• Outside Lands set times are out, and as expected, some of the conflicts are painful: The older, classic headliners are mostly up against younger dance artists like Justice and Skrillex, but having to choose between Big Boi and Grandaddy on Saturday is gonna suck, as will deciding between Jack White and Santigold. Early afternoons are packed, too.

• Okay, upstart musicians, here's how not to use Kickstarter: Don't campaign for necessities like gas and a van, don't offer stupid rewards to your backers, and don't do a campaign without telling your collaborators. That's just the start of our advice on how to avoid sucking at this crowdfunding thing.

• Kreayshawn dropped "Go Hard," the second single and video from her upcoming debut album. How is it? Let's just say that making a proper major-label star out of Kreayshawn is turning out to mean a lot of work for people who aren't Kreayshawn.