Bon Iver

"Pandora's Promise": Rethinking Nuclear Power

Change of Oldies: Shannon and the Clams Sharpen Vintage Pop to a Raw Edge

Change of Oldies: Shannon and the Clams Sharpen Vintage Pop to a Raw Edge

Chocolate Cheez, Fried Pickles, and HSUS is the Devil (Says Pork Industry)

​ Guys, I wasn't even kidding, Annie Oliverio made us vegan chocolate dessert cheese! Can you believe it? I, for one, cannot believe it. And I can't wait to try it! Provided I get my ass off the couch and make it! See Also: - Buy Salsa, Support Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts - Vegan Butterfin ... More >>

Rock Music Is Too Serious, Or Why We Still Need the Vaselines

If the U.S. was an emoticon, it would be that frowning, teary-eyed yellow face. If it was a meme, it would be "Sad Keanu." According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which measures overall national contentment, Americans are becoming increasingly miserable. The index scores the well-being ... More >>

Frank Ocean: The Only Band That Matters

Frank Ocean. Even his name sounds like it was dreamed up, because it was. Ocean is 2012's Clash, its Radiohead, its -- if you insist -- Animal Collective. From his no-name-on-the-cover mystique to the 10-minute opus, pre-career record company troubles and a grassroots indie following, he's an altern ... More >>

Usher's Looking 4 Myself: A First Listen

For some reason, I've always managed to ignore or miss Usher. "You Make Me Wanna..." is a classic, of course, but I managed to resist the supposed charms of "Yeah!," "Burn," "Love in This Club," and "Lil Freak." This year the Diplo-produced "Climax" stopped me dead in my tracks. So I'm willing to be ... More >>

A First Listen to The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Feat. Ke$ha, Erykah Badu, Bon Iver and More

I loved, loved the Flaming Lips' Embryonic, and find The Soft Bulletin to be a pretty magical cornucopia. Pretty big fan of 1995's Clouds Taste Metallic as well. Yet I've never considered for even a second if the Lips could be one of my Favorite Bands. They might've struck gold three-ish times, but ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Coachella in Your Backyard: Nine Good Local Shows That Aren't Sold Out

Indie on Top: Noise Pop Celebrates 20 Years of Independent Music

The Grammys: A Timeline of Madness and Misery

The 54th Annual Grammy Awards happened yesterday. Which we're sure you know already. If you missed it, however, you may have missed some of the weirdest details. So here, for your convenience, is a timeline of events. Get comfortable, 'cause this thing was a three-and-a-half-hour carnival of absurdi ... More >>

Absorb More Best of 2011 Picks (Including Ours) in Noise Pop's New Podcast

Most people write out a year-end list; wisely, Noise Pop makes a podcast out of the project. The crew at S.F.'s best-known indie concert promotion outfit polled a host of artists, bloggers, DJs, and music writers about their favorite songs of 2011. The result is a recording that includes a wide vari ... More >>

The Year in Music Booze: Six Artist's Beverages That Made 2011 One Long Hangover

Rock 'n' roll culture died in 2011. It's got nothing to do with your opinion of Bon Iver, but everything to do with Rolling Stone. The former leading voice of modern music upheld its immaculate reputation this year... by starting an official wine club. It's filled with bottles branded with imagery f ... More >>

Live Review: The National Converts to Arena Mode at Bill Graham Civic

Matt SmithThe National at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Saturday night. ​ The National Local Natives Wye Oak Dec. 3, 2011 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium Better than: Seeing any other American rock band. "Anyone got extras? [To his partner] Hey, whatcha got?" "Just a hard dick and some bub ... More >>

Is This the Coachella 2012 Lineup?

Coachella 2012 is still more than four months away -- so naturally, it's time to start hyperventilating over rumored lineups for the first year the festival will stretch over two weekends. One "leaked" lineup appeared last week on StarzUncut, a celebrity gossip website with more than 58,000 Twitter ... More >>

Album of the Year: Handicapping the Race for the Best Record of 2011

It's almost November -- the month when music scribes pull their ears out of whatever Sonic Youth/Public Enemy/Kate Bush playlist they normally exist to and begin cramming for that all-important professional exercise: The annual Best Of list. Picking the 10 or so best new albums of the year and placi ... More >>

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

Bon Iver Turns Up the Volume at the Greek Theatre

Joseph SchellBon Iver's Justin Vernon at the Greek Theatre last night.​ Bon Iver Other Lives September 22, 2011 Greek Theatre Better than: Thursday night network TV premieres (but don't forget to set the DVR). The Campanile bells of the University of California at Berkeley, solemnly tolling ... More >>

Absolutely Kosher Founder Cory Brown Picks 10 Unsung Releases He (Especially) Loved

​[Editor's note: After hearing this week that Berkeley indie label Absolutely Kosher plans to stop releasing new music this fall, we talked to label founder and owner Cory Brown about what happened and wrote a too-long, very bummed-out piece about it. We also asked if Brown would be interested ... More >>

Bon Iver: Show Preview

In Print: Jimmy Eat World Revisits Bleed American, and More

Jimmy Eat World​Jimmy Eat World: In 2001, four friends from Mesa, Ariz., made an album called Bleed American -- a set of sentimental, earnest, and immensely relatable pop-punk anthems. Teenagers everywhere shoved the CD into their car stereos as they snuck out past curfew; the album went plati ... More >>

Limp Bizkit's Gold Cobra: A Catalog of Disaster

​ Why did I choose to subject myself to Limp Bizkit? Because with the myriad of styles coming back -- think LinnDrum R&B ballads featuring on Bon Iver and Frank Ocean releases; the meaty '90s alt of Yuck and Male Bonding; the retrospective thrash metal of Kylesa -- it seem just about every era ... More >>

Young Widows Talk Recording in a Funeral Home, and Why Experimentation is Necssary

Nick ThienemanYoung Widows perform Friday at Thee Parkside​ An unusual recording environment helps add mystique and character to a record. Nine Inch Nails made The Downward Spiral in the Beverly Hills house where the Sharon Tate murders happened. Bon Iver fans have that great visual of Justin ... More >>

Gayngs at the Independent: Sexier (and Obviously Weirder) Than Your Prom

Gayngs at the Independent​Gayngs White Hinterland June 1, 2011 @ The Independent Better than: Your actual prom, including the hotel room after-party Picture a prom night in the early 1990s, in a glittering hall with a live band that plays soulful, heart-thumping music, cajoling the entirety of t ... More >>

todayokay Talks Star Wars, Record Deals and Sexual Chocolate

​ When I met with band todayokay at Dolores Park Café, it was hard at first to picture the laid-back bunch producing the enormous sounds on display on their EP, All This Weaponry. Even the band's seemingly benign name doesn't quite fit with the affrontive album title. But as its members each chim ... More >>

The Ghosts of Outside Lands Past

Now that this year's Outside Lands lineup has been released in full and stayed true to its lil-bit-hippie-lil-but-hip-hop roots and the folk vs. funk vibe, will you be forking over some coin when the tickets go on sale tomorrow? How do you think this year's lineup fares with those of previous years? ... More >>

Last Night: The Tallest Man on Earth and The Nurses at The Independent

Joseph Schell​The Tallest Man on Earth and The NursesThe IndependentMay 09, 2010Better than: Pie. But not momma's homemade pie. Nothing beats that.Here are a few things fans who came to The Independent learned about The Tallest Man on Earth:- He knows how to make music. From the moment h ... More >>

A Bracing Dip

Phil Collins: Indie Hipsters' Non-Guilty Pleasure

Peter Gabriel may be courting indie rock with his reciprocal covers albums Scratch My Back and the forthcoming I'll Scratch Yours - featuring the likes of Bon Iver and the Arcade Fire - but don't discount indiedom's growing love for his old Genesis cohort Phil Collins. The recent rise of chillw ... More >>

Bon Iver

Ken Will Help You Move

Bon Iver

Blood Bank (Jagjaguwar)

MP3 of the Day: Uzi & Ari

(Photo by by Serina Nielson) Strange when an indie record store in Salt Lake City lists among its most popular releases a relatively unknown band from San Francisco. But in the Jan. 22 issue of Rolling Stone's "local favorites" column, the Bay Area's own Uzi & Ari's Headworms was listed amo ... More >>

Top Ten Americana Albums of 2008

By Noah W. Bailey Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen ... More >>

Getting 'Touchy' in 2008

MP3 of the Day: Live Bon Iver

Mix-CD fans take their hobbies public in bars and galleries

Schedule Outside Lands trip with playlists of our favorite artists

Megafaun's Megaharmonies

Outside Lands adds single day tickets

Outside Lands Festival Adds Marquee Names to Its Lineup: Wilco, Manu Chao, and Beck, and many more

Beck, Primus, Ben Harper Added to Outside Lands Lineup

SXSW highlights: David Banner, Bon Iva, MGMT, Clockcleaner, and Dark Meat

Bon Iver

For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar)

Bon Iver, Yeasayer, Lou Reed no show: Day 1 at SXSW