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SF Weekly Letters

Exploring the Free Party Phenomenon with Matthew Dear at 1015 Folsom

1015 & Blasthaus presents Matthew Dear Friday, Feb. 1, 2012 1015 Folsom The past couple months have seen a new kind of party rise at 1015 Folsom. The old behemoth of San Francisco nightlife has recently taken to opening its doors for free, letting in lots of budget-minded clubbers to events that wo ... More >>

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10 Great Songs About Cheating on Your Lover

Depending on your perspective, cheating's a little bit naughty, a whole bunch of fun, or one of the worst things you could possibly do to another human being. Here are our 10 favorite songs about not being able to keep it in your pants when you're supposed to. "Cry Me A River," Justin TimberlakeThe ... More >>

Destiny's Child Return -- And Wander Straight Into a Boring Wine Bar

At the end of last week, when we found out that new Destiny's Child material was coming our way, we literally did a happy dance. Would this new single be an I-am-woman-hear-me-roar triumph, like "Survivor"? Would it be an iconic dance party classic, like "Bootylicious"? Or would it be a sassy modern ... More >>

G.O.O.D. Music's Cruel Summer: A First Listen

Kanye West has officially become the bad guy, people. He's rich, he's rude, he's entitled, he's a rock 'n' roll legend who's awaiting a legit artistic backlash any year now, and he's also a smart businessperson. After Taylor Swift-gate and record sales of his third Pazz & Jop-winning "masterpiece" f ... More >>

Martuni's: San Francisco's Last Piano Bar (Video)

This week's cover story takes readers inside the dimly lit chambers of Martuni's, the last true piano bar in San Francisco. This vestige from another era is a piano bar taking on a karaoke world and a place that delicately balances the act of appearing to never change while, in fact, changing consta ... More >>

Singers: Here's How to Advertise Your Celebrity Perfume

These days, everybody and their back-up dancers has a fragrance out, as if the ability to sing also comes with innate perfumier abilities. For those of you considering a career in pop mega-stardom -- and, therefore, the fragrance business -- here are some tips on how to sell that all-but-inevitable ... More >>

Live Review, 7/16/12: Frank Ocean Meets a Sea of Support at the Regency Ballroom

Frank Ocean July 16, 2012 Regency Ballroom Better than: Streaming Channel Orange Last night, it felt like the most natural move in the world to hear Frank Ocean sing, "You run my mind, boy . . . Running on my mind, boy." It was in a new song called "Forrest Gump," part of a sonic concept that cou ... More >>

Justin Bieber's Believe: A First Listen

Like my colleague Andrew Stout, I have mostly managed to avoid Justin Bieber for what I'm pretty sure are good reasons. He's a typical "innocent" white male singer trying to represent universality to nonwhites and nonmales. Then there's his musical blandness: bits that crept through my defenses of " ... More >>

Grass Widow: Post-Punk Innovation in Three Voices

The Top 10 Best Music Biopics

The news that Alan Rickman will be portraying Hilly Kristal in a new CBGB biopic half excited us, then half scared us yesterday. He'll be good, but Lordy, who is going to play Debbie Harry? And The Ramones? Those are big shoes to fill... So we comforted ourselves with this -- a list of our top 10 fa ... More >>

How Wallpaper. Got a Record Deal, Local Artists Tackle Nick Drake's Pink Moon, and More

From SF Weekly's latest print music section: ​Wallpaper. Gets a Record Deal: It was around 10 o'clock on a Friday night in December when Ricky Reed walked into a meeting at the Sony Music building in Beverly Hills with no idea what to expect. Less than 36 hours later, Reed -- the creative for ... More >>

Jay-Z's 'Glory': The Start of a Sensitive New Era for the Former Hustler

Jay-Z certainly spent much of his career trying to convince everyone he was a grownup. The metrics by which adulthood were measured seemed, ironically, a little juvenile. But it wouldn't be 'button downs' or investing in sports teams that would make the case - it was fatherhood. As hip-hop continues ... More >>

Seventeen Evergreen Tells the Story Behind That Dazzling Video for "Polarity Song"

Seventeen Evergreen's Nephi Evans and Caleb Pate in the video for "Polarity Song"​ You've heard of yarn-bombing, yes? Well, in Seventeen Evergreen's video for the single "Polarity Song," an entire store full of people get yarn-bombed into one fantastical psychedelic universe. It's a capitvatin ... More >>

S.F. MusicTech Summit: Will People Still Pay for Songs in Five Years?

From left, J Sider of RootMusic, Jack Conte of Pomplamoose, Lincoln Parish of Cage the Elephant, and cellist Zoe Keating​ After spending all day at the S.F. MusicTech Summit, I'm sitting at my laptop, listening to an MP3 -- and not posting about it on any of a handful of social networks. Al ... More >>

Jay-Z and Kanye West Are Bringing the Throne to the Bay Area This Fall

The Kings will cometh.​Now that the hype from the Royal Wedding has finally died down, it's time for the Kings to arrive. The self-proclaimed kings, that is -- Jay-Z and Kanye West, now collectively known as the Throne, will bring their upcoming joint tour through the Bay Area this fall. Will ... More >>

GoGo Squeez: Fruit in a Pouch

W. Blake Gray​We were biking around on the Great Highway recently during Sunday Streets when we spied this booth offering free samples of something called a GoGo Squeez. The Go-Go's​As you can see, the booth seems to offer multiple flavors. "Do you have Belinda Carlisle flavor?" we aske ... More >>

Top Five Reasons to Hate Bono (Other Than That Stupid Spider-Man Musical)

It was impossible to know, back when Rattle and Hum or The Joshua Tree came out, what Bono would one day turn into. He's been making it incredibly difficult to like him for about 15 years now, but -- woomp, there it is -- he just found a way to put a cherry on top of all that annoying behavior: He a ... More >>

Tom Jones Appears On American Idol Finale To Zero Fanfare. We Call BS.

Last Wednesday, the masochists amongst you may have caught the American Idol grand finale, during which baby-face baritone Scotty McCreery was crowned champion. The build-up to the announcement was nothing short of epic, featuring, as it did, performances from Lady Gaga (who's on the show so much at ... More >>

Pomplamoose Calls the Tune

No record deal? No CDs? No problem. How Pomplamoose is modifying the music industry.

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 >>

Looking for drag that turns spectacle into art in S.F.

The Sounds of 2010

What we'll remember from the year in S.F. music.

How Pomplamoose Made Me Hate Christmas, Hyundai, and Pomplamoose

Just, please, make it stop.​Editor's note: Mike Seely, who helms a sister publication of ours called Seattle Weekly, has a problem. A problem, that is, with the Hyundai holiday ads that feature Marin County husband-and-wife duo Pomplamoose. In the heat of an "Up on the Housetop"-induced fury, See ... More >>

Five Songs So Distasteful They Make Us Want To Puke in Our Mouths

Last night a new reality show premiered on E! called "Bridalplasty." That's right, "Bridalplasty" - twelve vaguely psychotic (and clearly morbidly insecure) women competing for their dream wedding, and -- good god, we can't believe this is actually happening -- the plastic surgery of their choice. I ... More >>

They Might Be Giants, Street Food Fest, Rock Make, Booty Bassment and More

They Might Be Giants play Stern Grove for free this Sunday​Celebrate San Francisco this weekend. We have awesome bands, awesome fests and awesome non-summer summers. Check out our list of top ten things to do for less than a cocktail costs at some fancy-pants L.A. club. Locals only: Alamo Square ... More >>

Local Frequency: Q & A w/ Birds & Batteries

​Birds & Batteries is a band that can't be pigeonholed. The electro-country-pop-indie-you-name-it group finds inspiration from every genre, every sound; they're reluctant to single out a sound they won't play--except maybe heavy metal. If it's appropriate to bring in polka, polka there shall b ... More >>

Stupid Fight Determines Who Has the Dumbest Twitter Fans

​The Internet allows people with too much time on their hands to do something they enjoy above all other pleasures: to make fun of other people with too much time on their hands. Such is the deal with Tom Scott's Stupid Fight, which "scientifically" determines who's dumber (another favorite human ... More >>

The 10 Creepiest Reality TV Shows of the Decade

As 2009 comes to a close, it's important to remember it all - lest we forget. While other outlets sift through the best and brightest moments of the decade, we here at the SF Weekly would like to pay homage to the most bizarre phenomenon of our time, reality television (as we might have some experie ... More >>

Top 10 Onstage Gaffes of 2009

We'll admit there's more than a little schadenfreude going on in this list of the best onstage gaffes of 2009. But why else would Al Gore have invented YouTube if not to feed our obsessive need to see celebrities get taken down a peg? Here with, our favorite of the year's music-related missteps, cau ... More >>

The Price Is Fright

Chron Clueless About the Current State of Radio

Radio GaGa? No, Lady Gaga Interesting article on Bay Area radio Music Directors in today's Chron. When I say interesting, it's because the information presented runs counter not only to what's currently happening with the commercial radio industry, but is written in such a way to suggest that writer ... More >>

Netta B. Freaks Berkeley, Oakland, SF

Erban Image PhotographySex Shooter: Netta BrielleBay Area R&B/Hip-hop singer/MC Netta B  (aka Netta Brielle) is on fire. Her new video "Dirty Boyz" premieres today, and tonight, she headlines "Electrik Rebel Sounds: The Concert" at La Pena in Berkeley. On Saturday, you can catch her at O ... More >>

Ten Things to Do This Weekend For Under $10

Anna CondaWe're back! Ten Things was on vacation for the last two weeks and we've returned, well, broke. So we are more than happy to round up all the fun stuff to do this weekend for those who are feeling down to their bottom dollar (and we all know those bottom dollars should be saved for beer). S ... More >>

Last Night: Mission Street Food Mash-Up Night

(Palermo vs. Tokyo by Chef Ian Muntzert)Notes and Photos by Tamara Palmer We've written previously of our love of Mission Street Food, the brainchild of Bar Tartine line chef Anthony Myint that began life as a truck in October and now takes place most Thursday nights at Lung Shan (2234 Mission). G ... More >>

Spinning Blues Into Lies

Cadillac Records can't handle the truth.

Charo says "Cuchi Cuchi" to flamenco

JUSTICE Up For MTV Award: Tweens Discover Coke

Talib Kweli Eardum CD Review: Grade -- C

Weekend Guide: Ultra Gypsy, Scott Wells & Dancers, Dudley Perkins and Georgia Anne Muldrow, so much more

Modern R&B balladeer Ne-Yo slides into S.F.

Crisis in Suburbia

From highbrow to hardcore: Matthew Barney, Björk, and the digicamarazzi

Hear This

The final farewell of Destiny's Child, the return of Olivia Tremor Control, and some girl named Kelly Clarkson

BeatBox

Greg Davis and Signer bring tweaked beats to the Hemlock; All-star DJs show up for "Get Selected!," an SF DJ competition

Best Sneering Sports Guy

Gary Radnich

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Proofs Positive

Real Life Resolutions