Comets On Fire

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

Q&A: How Howlin' Rain Survived a Four-Year Hiatus, Worked with Rick Rubin, and Finished The Russian Wilds

Howlin' Rain​ By DAVE GIL DE RUBIO When Howlin' Rain's Ethan Miller answers the door of the Brooklyn flat he's borrowing from a friend, the disheveled hair and wildly scraggly beard he's sporting gives him the look of a modern-day Rip Van Winkle. In many ways, the analogy fits, given that it' ... More >>

Howlin Rain: Show Preview

Howlin' Rain​ By DAVE GIL DE RUBIO When Howlin' Rain's Ethan Miller answers the door of the Brooklyn flat he's borrowing from a friend, the disheveled hair and wildly scraggly beard he's sporting gives him the look of a modern-day Rip Van Winkle. In many ways, the analogy fits, given that it' ... More >>

The Fresh & Onlys Announce New Album, 'Play It Strange,' Out Oct. 12

​San Francisco psych-pop outfit the Fresh & Onlys today announced that its third album, Play it Strange, will come out on the In The Red label October 12. Unlike previous F&O albums, Play It Strange was recorded outside the band's home-side recording space, at San Francisco's Louder Studio ... More >>

Sic Alps is the opening act of choice for indie elder statesmen

​San Francisco psych-pop outfit the Fresh & Onlys today announced that its third album, Play it Strange, will come out on the In The Red label October 12. Unlike previous F&O albums, Play It Strange was recorded outside the band's home-side recording space, at San Francisco's Louder Studio ... More >>

A 2010 Playlist for Outer Space (Update on Carl Sagan's '77 List)

New York's Vulture blog recently posted a link to the music Carl Sagan helped provide for robotic probes Voyager 1 and 2 back in the early days of space exploration. According to Lapham's Quarterly, Sagan was part of a curatorial crew that etched a soundtrack perfect for galaxy viewing into a "12-in ... More >>

Openers: Arrive Early For Nice Nice

Owen Richards​Not that we're complaining, but the annual Noise Pop festival, which officially kicks off tonight, brings good bands to a city that sees a quite a few good bands on a regular basis. Perhaps a more unique contribution is the promoters' keen curatorial eye: See, among many suitable exa ... More >>

Rock Mountain High

Owen Richards​Not that we're complaining, but the annual Noise Pop festival, which officially kicks off tonight, brings good bands to a city that sees a quite a few good bands on a regular basis. Perhaps a more unique contribution is the promoters' keen curatorial eye: See, among many suitable exa ... More >>

10 Things to Do This Weekend For Under $10

Ashley HarrellSantacon, 2008​Talking about how goddamn cold is in in San Francisco is free, but that got old on Tuesday. Now it's Friday and you need other ideas for how to entertain yourself and your buddies on the cheap. Here's our list of recommendations below. Mi Ami w/ Inca Ore, Jozef Van W ... More >>

Our picks from Noise Pop’s local launch pad

Ashley HarrellSantacon, 2008​Talking about how goddamn cold is in in San Francisco is free, but that got old on Tuesday. Now it's Friday and you need other ideas for how to entertain yourself and your buddies on the cheap. Here's our list of recommendations below. Mi Ami w/ Inca Ore, Jozef Van W ... More >>

Crystallized Psych

Ashley HarrellSantacon, 2008​Talking about how goddamn cold is in in San Francisco is free, but that got old on Tuesday. Now it's Friday and you need other ideas for how to entertain yourself and your buddies on the cheap. Here's our list of recommendations below. Mi Ami w/ Inca Ore, Jozef Van W ... More >>

Frisco Freakout makes a California scene

Ashley HarrellSantacon, 2008​Talking about how goddamn cold is in in San Francisco is free, but that got old on Tuesday. Now it's Friday and you need other ideas for how to entertain yourself and your buddies on the cheap. Here's our list of recommendations below. Mi Ami w/ Inca Ore, Jozef Van W ... More >>

New Comets on Fire Side Project

Ashley HarrellSantacon, 2008​Talking about how goddamn cold is in in San Francisco is free, but that got old on Tuesday. Now it's Friday and you need other ideas for how to entertain yourself and your buddies on the cheap. Here's our list of recommendations below. Mi Ami w/ Inca Ore, Jozef Van W ... More >>

Bay Area Picks for SXSW

Ashley HarrellSantacon, 2008​Talking about how goddamn cold is in in San Francisco is free, but that got old on Tuesday. Now it's Friday and you need other ideas for how to entertain yourself and your buddies on the cheap. Here's our list of recommendations below. Mi Ami w/ Inca Ore, Jozef Van W ... More >>

Rick Rubin Digs Howlin Rain's Distorted View of the '70s

Ashley HarrellSantacon, 2008​Talking about how goddamn cold is in in San Francisco is free, but that got old on Tuesday. Now it's Friday and you need other ideas for how to entertain yourself and your buddies on the cheap. Here's our list of recommendations below. Mi Ami w/ Inca Ore, Jozef Van W ... More >>

Noise Pop Preview: Film fest spotlights a headbutter, headbangers, and Hollywood punks

Ashley HarrellSantacon, 2008​Talking about how goddamn cold is in in San Francisco is free, but that got old on Tuesday. Now it's Friday and you need other ideas for how to entertain yourself and your buddies on the cheap. Here's our list of recommendations below. Mi Ami w/ Inca Ore, Jozef Van W ... More >>

Australian for Rock

Ashley HarrellSantacon, 2008​Talking about how goddamn cold is in in San Francisco is free, but that got old on Tuesday. Now it's Friday and you need other ideas for how to entertain yourself and your buddies on the cheap. Here's our list of recommendations below. Mi Ami w/ Inca Ore, Jozef Van W ... More >>

Folk of the Apocalypse: Six Organs of Admittance

Ashley HarrellSantacon, 2008​Talking about how goddamn cold is in in San Francisco is free, but that got old on Tuesday. Now it's Friday and you need other ideas for how to entertain yourself and your buddies on the cheap. Here's our list of recommendations below. Mi Ami w/ Inca Ore, Jozef Van W ... More >>

Sixties Flashback

Sounds of the Summer of Love echo through today

Baseball season! San Francisco's musical farm team down south

Sounds of the Summer of Love echo through today

Underground Conspiracies

Mission Creek Music Festival is a must-hear

Choogle Your Own Adventure

The Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound paints a bright apocalypse

Death gets reanimated in the hands of Gob Iron

The Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound paints a bright apocalypse

16 Brash Bitches

The Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound paints a bright apocalypse

Music Live, Worth the Drive

Hot summer concerts for tastes all along the codger spectrum

Noel's Noise

Comets Echoplex master has a side project of his own

The Big Bang

Entering Comets on Fire's blazing parallel universes

Wack Attack

Resipiscent brings the noise

Getting zoned with Psychic Ills

Resipiscent brings the noise

Catching Fire with Comets Side Projects

Resipiscent brings the noise

All That Noise

San Francisco's top-shelf noise scene serves yummy pancakes

And You Thought They Sucked

These bands actually rule -- just like the Grateful Dead does

Dead Like Me

Attempting to survive 11 straight hours of the Grateful Dead

This Week's Day by Day Picks

Attempting to survive 11 straight hours of the Grateful Dead

Hear This

Brooklyn's psych-freaks Oneida will rock you like a hurricane; Three Piece Combo gets weird like its show-mates Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

Hear This

Freak-folk Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear roars into town; G. Love takes to the Warfield sans Special Sauce

Six Organs of Admittance

School of the Flower

The Gospel Truth

Exquisite noise at Slim's

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

The People's Theater

Barbarians inside the gates

OK Then

A dozen local musicians find a silver lining in the election results. Seriously.

Hear This

Mark Mallman packs two days worth of energy into an hour's worth of rock; Alternative Tentacles turns 25 in style

Bouncer

Comets on Fire: so cool, so hot, so misunderstood

Music Awards Nominees

Comets on Fire: so cool, so hot, so misunderstood

Bouncer

New music venue the Rickshaw Stop is a welcome addition. Its "Funtime Talk Show" is not.

Comets on Fire

Blue Cathedral

Ferociously Stoned

Remember when psych rock thrived in S.F.? Of course you don't. You were high. But Comets on Fire will jar more than your memory.

Hear This

The apocalyptic acid-rock attack of Comets on Fire

Pop Philosophy

Channeling stupidity, and exploding nicely