Arcade Fire

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

Debaser's New Last Nite Party Takes Nostalgia Back to the 2000s

Debaser presents Last Nite Elbo Room Friday, April 12, 2013 Growing up in the veritable golden age of cultural nostalgia that was the '00s, it never really occured to me that my own decade might eventually be revisited. Even now, it's surprising that anyone would care to go back and try to relive m ... More >>

The 2013 Grammy Awards: Few Surprises Despite Lots of Fun.

The Grammy Awards are dull and insipid every year, but at least for the last two years the Recording Academy managed a few surprises: In 2011, Arcade Fire won Album of the Year, providing a climactic reality-check for thousands of indie partisans; in 2012, the awards attempted to both grapple with t ... More >>

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

SXSW: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Rock ACL Live

By CRAIG HLAVATY Bruce Springsteen's Thursday started with a keynote speech in one of the big ballrooms at the Austin Convention Center, and ended with a mythic three-hour set at ACL Live across town, in front of a few thousand people cooing "Bruce!" The keynote and the show went hand in hand. If ... More >>

Christopher O'Riley and Matt Haimovitz: Show Preview

Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto: A First Listen

​ The No. 1 album in the country this week is by the biggest band on Earth. All is right with the world? Well, hold that thought. Unlike textural forbears U2 and Radiohead, much less the Clash or Nirvana, most people even willing to concede that Coldplay is a relevant force do not think it has ... More >>

Your Post-Bridge School Comedown Party: Watch a Film About the Benefit's First 25 Years

Neil Young at Bridge School​ We already told you about the plans to release a new, three-DVD, two-CD box set celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the now-legendary Bridge School Benefit concerts. The set will feature some stunning performances from over the years by the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil ... More >>

S.F. Rappers the Jealous Guys Issue the Icy, Ethereal Audiobook EP

The Jealous Guys​ Here's yet another promising release from rising S.F. rappers the Jealous Guys: It's the Audiobook EP, a four-track collection of dimly ethereal beats capped with some of the more vivid rhymes we've heard -- especially from an S.F. outfit: "Headed to Pier 39/ Start an Arcade ... More >>

Thirteen Lesser-Known Artists You Should See at Outside Lands 2011

From SF Weekly's latest print music section: tUnE-yArDs is one act you shouldn't miss at Outside Lands​Outside Lands Must-Sees: You're obviously going to catch the headliner sets at this weekend's Outside Lands Festival, so we'll assume you're already more than familiar with Arcade Fire, Muse ... More >>

Top 5 Ways to Ruin a Perfectly Respectable Career, Featuring Kings of Leon

Is it really so hard to be Kings of Leon? That's a question that countless arena-rock sobsters have been asking themselves in the wake of the Followill clan's tour cancellation, a move which disappointed fans, upset beer manufacturers, and may damn near bankrupt Live Nation. Rather than revel in the ... More >>

5 Things to Like About the Outside Lands Festival Schedule

Outside Lands: Now without (hopefully) the painful decision-making!​ The schedule for this year's Outside Lands festival hit the web earlier today. But you can stop gritting your teeth and clutching the edge of that desk: Although many festival schedules are an exercise in painful decision-mak ... More >>

Saturday: Mister Loveless Gets the "Nineties Children" Grinning at Bottom of the Hill

Mister Loveless at Bottom of the Hill on Saturday.​ Mister Loveless Saturday, July 24 @ Bottom of the Hill Better than: Getting your ass kicked around in any other setting. It's quite possible that every Mister Loveless review written has contained the same two words: "Joy Division." It's a ... More >>

Outside Lands Announces Local Food and Wine Lineup w/ Flour Water, Ritual Coffee, More

Christopher VictorioBecause this will make you hungry.​ Outside Lands has always made an effort to bring in highlights of the local food and wine scene to festival goers. Every year the offerings get a little bigger, and this year's festival is no different. For its return to a three-day forma ... More >>

In Print: Roach Gigz's Big-Ring Ambition, the Sway Machinery's African Adventure, and More

Roach Gigz​Roach Gigz: In 2008, the San-Francisco-born rapper Roach Gigz visited New York City. He went out to Southside Jamaica, Queens, the area 50 Cent and his G-Unit crew mythologized in rhyme. He visited Harlem, where he bought two small pet turtles for $10. And he fueled his trip by wolfing ... More >>

In Which We Attempt to Review Lil B's New 676-Song Mixtape, and Only Partially Succeed

Three download files, a Word doc of tracklisting, and 676 songs: Lil B's insane new mixtape.​He claims to be Justin Bieber's cousin. He only has sex in space (or Japan). He samples Coldplay, Arcade Fire, and Radiohead several times each. He has eight different songs called "Suck My Dick." He's Lil ... More >>

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and lows from the last week in S.F. music

The Grammys Are Coming. Here's a Drinking Game to Get You Through Them

​Yes, the Grammys are nothing more than a promo summit for what remains of our broken conglomerate record labels of yore. Columbia, EMI, Warner Bros., Capitol, Atlantic, Interscope, et al. like to believe they still hold some influence over the masses, and as long as we can sit here comfortably an ... More >>

Pitchfork's Best Albums List: What It Got Right and What It Got Wrong in 10 Sentences, Pt. II

​Yesterday, we offered our own take on Pitchfork's list of the best albums of 2010 -- or at least the parts of it that had been revealed so far. Today, with the web site's top 20 albums made public, we offer 10 more sentences of agreement, disagreement, and generally glib mischief. Our own list of ... More >>

Facedating: How To Politely Decline a Facebook Request

​I recently went on a few dates with a young woman and after the third date she found me on Facebook and sent a friend request. It's not as if I have any highly incriminating photos of me tongue kissing a Labradoodle (on Facebook), but it is quite a window into what I'm doing in any given week. I ... More >>

Things We'd Like To See Google Do for Music: NextBuzz, the NextMuni for Buzz Bands

Nice nails.​So Google's new Instant Search function has the web-literate world all atwitter over why, exactly, we need Google's new Instant Search function. Self-involved music scribes that we are, we got to wondering how this technology could benefit us directly, and after many hours of fitful br ... More >>

Magic Kids, ZineFest, Prince vs. Michael, Doin' It in the Park, and More

Magic Kids plays Bottom of the Hill this Sunday​It's Labor Day! Meaning: an extra day to your weekend, 10 percent more texts than usual and even more chances to nurse epic hangovers. Have fun San Francisco, you deserve it. Here's our list of fun things to do this weekend for less than a ticket to ... More >>

Fitz and the Tantrums Play to a Tame Crowd at Popscene

​Fitz & The Tantrums @ PopsceneSeptember 2, 2010 Better than: Refusing to allow Thursday to function as the new Friday. Fitz and the Tantrums are an anomaly in the indie music scene. All the super-serious Canadian post-rock bands, shy-spoken Midwestern pretty boys, and unmovable ... More >>

Lunar Eclipse

Woods returns to its indie-rock roots

Green Day, Rogue Wave, The Dodos, Morning Benders to Play Lollapalooza

The Morning Benders​While it isn't exactly a Bay Area takeover of the Chicago festival, local indie acts are making a strong showing in the 2010 Lollapalooza lineup, which was just announced last night. Rogue Wave, The Dodos, and the Morning Benders all made the cut to play the Grant Park sta ... More >>

CD ripping services put record collections in the 21st century

Wolf Parade

At Mount Zoomer (Sub Pop)

On Comics: Page Diving

A heavy metal snob separates the shredders from the posers

Night Day: Calendar Picks for 5/13

Soundtrack to Your Future Unemployment!

Surf Rock Safari: The Cuban Cowboys

Open Letter to Magnetic Fields Audience

Noise Pop Preview: Quick Picks

Struck by Lightning, Man Becomes Obsessed with Song

LCD Soundsystem: the planet's party-starting pro

Saturday night... Spoon at Café Du Nord

French electro-rock luminary Richard Pinhas graces the States

Getting a wee bit homesick for B’Snacks

Scissors for Lefty bring back the fun

Payback's a cinch

Islands

Return to the Sea

Q&Atcha

Talking shop with frontman Colin Meloy, of the newly signed major-label hopefuls the Decemberists

A&R Q&A

Never mind the guys in Wolf Parade, here's an interview with their A&R guy

Hear This

A fervent melodic-emo torch goes out, Of Montreal reveals its happy/malevolent juxtaposition, and Michelle Shocked does it her way

Noise Pop 2005

The Game

OK Then, 2004!

A dark year for America resulted in a great year for music

OK Then, 2004!

A dark year for America resulted in a great year for music

CD Gift Box