Email Author Mark Keresman

2005 Stories by Mark Keresman

• The big-band jams of the Realistic Orchestra, and the twisted sounds of fusion supergroup Banyan

  published December 21, 2005

  In the swing era -- the years following the Depression (1935) through the World War II victory (1945) -- big bands were the dominant force in... More >>

• Roger Waters

  published December 21, 2005

  When rock types aspire to a sort of respectability by working in the distinguished symphonic idiom (e.g., Paul McCartney's Liverpool... More >>

• Eno Moebius Roedelius|Eno Moebius Roedelius Plank

  published December 21, 2005

  A few years before his ascendance to iconhood, Brian Eno was a British, ex-Roxy Music rascal who -- like the Velvet Underground in the 1960s --... More >>

• The Mother Hips

  published December 14, 2005

  When too many artists are cookie-cutter predictable, the more cynical listener can discern all there is to know from the first strum of a song's... More >>

• Kinky pop from the Subways, protest jazz from the Liberation Music Orchestra, and godhead rock from Echo & the Bunnymen

  published November 30, 2005

  Yes, the Subways played a few weeks ago on The O.C. , but the still-not-old-enough-to-buy-beer trio couldn't be less like Death... More >>

• Holiday Gift Guide

  published November 23, 2005

  Gifts for Her Shop Around Tours If you live to shop and love to travel,... More >>

• Merge Records' package tour, New Buffalo's Olivia Newton-John sweetness, and the return (yet again) of American Music Club

  published November 9, 2005

  In the 1950s, bands went on "package tours," where each of many performers took the stage for 15-20 minutes apiece. It's unknown if the Merge... More >>

• Patty Waters

  published November 9, 2005

  She released but two albums in the mid-1960s on the iconoclastic ESP label, but avant-garde vocalist Patty Waters had considerable impact,... More >>

• Altamont

  published November 9, 2005

  There comes a time in many a noise-rock performer's life when he desires to play music somewhat more user-friendly and less confrontational. In... More >>

• Neo Camerata

  published October 19, 2005

  Like the Kronos Quartet, Neo Camerata is a Bay Area- based chamber music ensemble ("small group," in rock lingo). And like Kronos, NC presents... More >>

• Dios (malos) drops dream pop at the Great American, and the experimental Fog City thrill ride that is Eddie the Rat

  published October 12, 2005

  Dios (malos), the South L.A. quintet formerly known simply as dios, has spent the last few years fielding cease-and-desist letters from... More >>

• Paula Frazer

  published October 5, 2005

  Melancholia comes easier to some than others -- but like most any state of mind, it's what one does with it that counts. S.F.'s Paula Frazer (who... More >>

• J.C. Hopkins Biggish Band

  published September 21, 2005

  Don't assume from his spiffy 1940s cover-art attire that ex-S.F. folk-rocker J.C. Hopkins (Flophouse) is going all Cocktail Nation on us. Where... More >>

• Hear This

  published September 14, 2005

  Last week, upon accepting his Mercury Prize (the U.K.'s annual determination of the best album of the year from a field of 12), Antony Hegarty of... More >>

• Herbie Hancock

  published September 14, 2005

  First off, Possibilities is not a jazz album. (Ah, that collective jazz-snob grouse.) Herbie Hancock, one of... More >>

• Bob Dylan

  published September 7, 2005

  This official soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese-directed PBS biopic No Direction Home could well be subtitled The Alternatin' Bob... More >>

• Misc. Reviews

  published August 31, 2005

  Envision a late-night network television show hosted by Al Franken or Janeane Garofalo, with guests covering the spectrum of music, cinema,... More >>

• John Vanderslice

  published August 24, 2005

  Despite the too-easy contemporary advantages presented by digital sampling and laptops, some musicians still do things the old-fashioned way, with... More >>

• San Francisco Chamber Jazz Quartet|Steve Heckman Quartet

  published August 24, 2005

  Though New York and Chicago have usually overshadowed it, San Francisco has always had a vibrant and varied jazz scene, and these recent platters... More >>

• Frank Black

  published August 17, 2005

  Anyone hoping Frank Black would revisit the quirky frenzy of the Pixies or the power-pop of his solo debut, Teenager of the Year, will be... More >>

• Miles Davis

  published July 13, 2005

  It's rare that an album of historic import upon its initial release remains so decades after the fact, but 1956's 'Round About Midnight is... More >>

• Janis Joplin

  published July 6, 2005

  In 1970, things were beginning to look good for Janis Joplin. She'd finally obtained the quality backing band she'd needed all along, Full Tilt... More >>

• Elvis Costello

  published June 29, 2005

  Elvis Costello's King of America (1986) was in many ways a pivotal album in the singer's career. For it, he switched out the Attractions... More >>

• Hear This

  published June 22, 2005

  As America's answer to Syd Barrett, Arthur Lee commands the attention of generations of rock music geeks. Though maintaining a sporadic... More >>

• Scott Amendola Band

  published June 22, 2005

  Bay Area drummer Scott Amendola has provided the beat for an exceedingly diverse lot, including folk and rock singers (Sonya Hunter, Carla... More >>