Cass McCombs

Folk Singer Jessica Pratt Is Still in Her Own Head

Bob Weir's Fancy New TRI Studios Is Holding a Contest For a Free Day of Recording

Earlier this year, we told you about Grateful Dead member Bob Weir's state-of-the-art recording facility in San Rafael, Tamalpais Research Institute (TRI). TRI is furnished with a Meyer Sound Constellation system, which allows the acoustic properties of the room to be altered with the touch of a but ... More >>

Jerry Garcia 70th Birthday Tribute Includes Huge Guest Roster, Will Be Streamed Online

The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia would have turned 70 this Aug. 1, 2012, and to celebrate, fellow Dead member Bob Weir and a ton of other musicians are throwing Move Me Brightly, a Garcia tribute show that will be live-streamed from Weir's own TRI Studios in San Rafael. The list of musical guests f ... More >>

Live Review, 5/25/12: Cass McCombs and Michael Hurley Folk Out at Great American

Cass McCombsMichael Hurley Friday, May 25, 2012 Great American Music HallBetter than: Folk-playin' street performers on the stoops of Haight-Ashbury. The night began with a quiet, hollow Great American Music Hall, and ended with a room full of young, cool, and pretty buzzed San Franciscans watching ... More >>

Cass McCombs: Show Preview

Cass McCombsMichael Hurley Friday, May 25, 2012 Great American Music HallBetter than: Folk-playin' street performers on the stoops of Haight-Ashbury. The night began with a quiet, hollow Great American Music Hall, and ended with a room full of young, cool, and pretty buzzed San Franciscans watching ... More >>

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2011: Robert Plant, Thurston Moore, Broken Social Scene, and More

Broken Social Scene is one of more than 90 acts playing Hardly Strictly Bluegrass this year.​ The lineup for this year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is out, and good luck figuring out whom to call the "headliner." For the festival's 11th year, organizers have put together another insane ... More >>

The Lion Sleeps Tonight: A Musical Tribute to the Berkeley Mountain Lion

This too shall pass​The Berkeley Police Department shot and killed an errant mountain lion early yesterday morning. In the minor controversy that has ensued over whether they should have made more of an effort to tranquilize her before pulling out the patrol shotgun, we've already lost sight of th ... 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 >>

'In a Cloud' Captures SF's Best Folk Pop Freaks. We Q&A its Mastermind.

​Man, San Francisco is so strong on the indie music front these days. And that's not just empty cheerleading. Our pop bands (Girls, The Dodos) are getting prime festival slots and lots of press love, while experimental psych-garage act Sic Alps has been asked by industry heavies (Sonic Youth and Y ... More >>

Track of the Day: Cass McCombs

​A little Monday morning romance for you. The best track off Chicago troubadour Cass McCombs' new album Catacombs is a dreamy ditty called "Dreams Come True Girl." The song opens with McCombs pining for a lover who melts away "all the troubles in my past." With a woo-worthy chorus of "you're not m ... More >>

Last Night: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Girls at the Rickshaw Stop

Sandy KimGirls: None of those females are actually in the bandThe Pains of Being Pure at Heart, GirlsTuesday, July 21, 2009Rickshaw StopBetter than: Being at Popscene in the late '90s.There's a point in every great band's career when its hometown crowds realize something has changed, and definitely ... More >>

Global Beat Junkies

Gang Gang Dance embrace Bollywood and Chinatown

Slicing the '60s

Papercuts' bittersweet California pop

Award Show Guide

Americana/Folk/Country DJ/Turntablist Electro/Electronic/Experimental Hard Rock Hip Hop Indie Rock/Noise Pop Jazz Soul/R&B World Music Music Video

Love Machine

A boy and his Casio set up shop in Heartbreak Hotel