If you're Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails, you can throw a new record up on the Web without major label support and fans will come running (or, as it were, clicking). But for...
The Strokes are officially on "hiatus" until early 2009, but really, does anyone care? They aren't the same hungry young Manhattanites who released Is This It in 2001. That...
We've had some things to celebrate of late: Barack Obama in the White House come January; a dose of summer heat hit in the middle of November. Literally and metaphorically,...
Dave Aju has always made strange sounds. Ever since he was a kid, growing up as the youngest of five music lovers in the South Bay, Aju has been mimicking instruments and other...
It's been too long since a San Francisco band broke the indie music industry ceiling to garner national acclaim — but the Dodos are doing their best to poke holes...
It's no secret that Wayne Coyne enjoys acting like an alien. The Flaming Lips frontman exists in a universe far, far away from the orbits traveled by conventional pop singers...
Once all the other music festivals have their way with the locals, Budget Rock (www.myspace.com/budgetrock) comes in at the end of October to sweep up the trash – trashy...
Wildildlife's Six is one of the best records to come out last year. I love its textured mash of beastly howls, sci-fi swells, and ingenious experiments (like the creepy...
Okay, we get it. The economy is in rapid decline. The major labels are in rapid decline. And, thanks to San Francisco's insane summer festival schedule, our hearing is in rapid...
Every fall, SF Weekly tackles a new election season. While this November offers significant political issues for voters to decide upon, in October we host our own essential...
California's psych-rock acts are getting heads buzzed around the globe. The music roughs up '60s San Francisco/Dead influences in filters ranging from heavy metal to punk and...
With its satin headbands, lacy-collared dresses, and affinity for bluesy ballads, Sacramento duo Agent Ribbons is a modern band yearning for an old-fashioned era....
It was one of those balmy September weekends when San Franciscans can actually go sleeveless after 10 p.m. And yet in the line snaking outside Mission bar the Knockout for the...
Davila 666 is Puerto Rico's answer to the Black Lips and my answer to the question: When will a new band seriously brainwash me on its music? Since picking up Davila's debut...
Living in Los Angeles has helped artsy-fartsy folkster Devendra Banhart befriend all sorts of famous collaborators. Actor Gael García Bernal guested on Banhart's last...
For all the insanity of Augusten Burroughs parents, they produced a pair of excellent memoirists. Burroughs is the author of Running with Scissors, which wryly chronicled...
The entertainment at live shows is usually formulated into the same split: 90 percent music, 10 percent banter. Generally, that's a fine balance. Hearing some conversationally...
It's been a while since I've lived by the semester schedule, but looking at all the college kids hunting for places to live around town, I'd say it's back to school time in the...
It was barely 10 a.m., and '80s rock stud Kip Winger was winking at me for the second time as he played bass. He was making me blush profusely. I could barely look at Kip, or...
Despite all the peaking and plummeting of trends in recorded music, compact discs have to stick around for one main reason: mix CDs. Making compilations for friends, crushes,...