Deerhunter

Goldenvoice Announces First City Festival in Monterey With Modest Mouse, Passion Pit, MGMT, Beach House, More

Every year seems to bring more entrants to the Northern California music festival scene. The latest is First City, a two-day festival this August at the Monterey fairgrounds that will bring out big, indie-leaning names like Modest Mouse, Passion Pit, MGMT, Beach House, Toro y Moi, and Neko Case for ... More >>

Kurt Vile Shows Off Gorgeous Monotony at the Independent, 5/8/13

Kurt Vile and The Violators The Fresh & Onlys Steve Gunn The Independent May 8, 2013 Better than: Listening to high quality Kurt Vile audio files The Fresh and Onlys were in the middle of a solo section, one more about maintaining the song's relaxed atmosphere than impressive technical skill. Thei ... More >>

Live Review, 5/9/12: Lotus Plaza Is a Band of Few Words at Rickshaw Stop

Lotus Plaza Wymond Miles Mirror Mode May 9, 2012 Rickshaw Stop Better than: Listening to Bradford Cox perform "My Sharona," or your Ghetto Cross bootlegs. 1. "Can we borrow a bass?" 2. "This is our last song." 3. "I'm sorry we only learned eight. Next time we'll learn more. Thanks." It's a stand ... More >>

Live Review, 2/25/12: Atlas Sound's Bradford Cox Encounters His Younger Self at Bimbo's

Christopher VictorioAtlas Sound's Bradford Cox at Bimbo's on Saturday.​ Atlas Sound Electric Flower Seventeen Evergreen Carnivores Frank Broyles Feb. 25, 2012 Bimbo's 365 Club Better than: Honestly, I've never seen anything like this. Tonight, and likely at all other Atlas Sound sets, some c ... More >>

Live Review: Starfucker Asks to Be Taken Seriously While Playing in Drag

Starfucker Painted Palms Feelings Jan. 6, 2012 Great American Music Hall Better than: Pyramid or Pyramiddd. Look, we all get it. With a name like Starfucker, it's hard to be taken seriously. Nearly any time the band is mentioned, the absurdity of its name comes up. Critics cite it as a reason wh ... More >>

Drake's Take Care: A First Listen

​ Funny thing about Drake: I'm forced to care. This goes beyond my duties as a music writer; rap now is in a state where someone like Drake or Rick Ross becomes the sun and everyone surrounding becomes an orbiting satellite. I'm a huge fan of co-Money Youngins Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj, and I ... More >>

Saturday Night: The Black Lips Pucker Up for a Sloppy, Sweaty Kiss at Great American Music Hall

Calibree PhotographyThe Black Lips at Great American Music Hall on Saturday.​ The Black Lips Cerebral Ballzy Personal and the Pizzas June 11, 2011 @ Great American Music Hall Better than: Getting peed on at one of those Black Lips shows of lore. The Saturday after the release of their new, M ... More >>

Listening to the Music of Home: Diddy, Deerhunter, and the Field Mice

​The last moment I spent at my childhood home was essentially a re-enactment of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"'s final scene: I smiled regretfully at an empty room, flicked off the lights, and quietly closed the door. Life's weighty moments demand significant gestures on our part. I guess mine aren't ... More >>

This Is Noise Pop: What Not to Miss at S.F.'s Signature Indie Music Fest

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 >>

Saturday Night: Deerhunter Unveils Ghostly Art-Pop at Slim's

Cherrell Johnston​DeerhunterReal EstateOctober 30, 2010@ Slim'sBetter than: Dressing up as Christopher Walken and/or Robert DeNiro from The Deer Hunter for Halloween and making Russian roulette references in front of strangers. There's a certain ghoulishness, something otherworldly and ghostl ... More >>

All Shook Down Festival: Everything You Need to Know Is Right Here

​This is it. We promise. It. The last "we're having a festival and it's going to be awesome and you should come" post. The last one. For this year, anyway.We couldn't resist one final opportunity to guide you, like a friendly Friday afternoon phone tree, through the preliminaries of this Sunday's ... More >>

Bradford Cox Says 'Janelle Monae is the New Bowie'

There's still plenty of juice left in the "Janelle Monae is the new [amazing artist here]" meme -- Lady Gaga comparisons are so earlier-this-week -- and lotsa big names that have yet to weigh in on which of their androgynous musical heroes the Atlanta songstress most closely resembles.  Enter D ... More >>

Five Places We Wish Bands Could Play in SF

Photo at Magowan's Infinite Mirror Maze at Pier 39. Why don't bands play here?​We're blessed with great live music venues here in San Francisco, but sometimes, bars, ballrooms, clubs, and arenas get kinda monotonous. Here are five more exotic locations that would make awesome spaces to see a band, ... More >>

For hundreds of nostalgic fans and bands, cassettes are back

Liars discover a "Sisterworld" in Los Angeles

Coachella in Photos Day 3: Pavement, Gorillaz, Atoms For Peace, Matt & Kim, Phoenix

The last of photographer Christopher Victorio's great shots from the big desert fest down south, Coachella. Full slideshow here. Christopher VictorioGorillaz​ Christopher VictorioJonsi​ Christopher VictorioJulian Casablancas​ Christopher VictorioPavement​ Christopher VictorioPavement​ ... More >>

Last Night: Spoon, Deerhunter, Micachu and the Shapes at the Fox

Christopher Victorio​​Spoon, Deerhunter, Micachu and the ShapesTuesday, April 13, 2010Fox TheaterBetter than: Seeing a show that you haven't been anticipating for months.When I first heard Spoon, I wondered why people thought the band was special. Its members are four white dudes from ... More >>

Openers: Five Bands to Show up Early For This Week

Micachu and the Shapes​Openers has spring fever this week -- with so many so many excellent opening bands performing, we can't possibly pick one to recommend. Instead, here's a great opener for each night this week. Some of these shows are already sold out -- it's pre-Coachella insanity here -- an ... More >>

Hair Metal's Sweetest Nothings: Kip Winger Takes You to the Ballet

Kip Winger showed some tongue at 2008's Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp​I've made no secret of my love for hair metal, and, more specifically, my love for Winger. When it comes to the Spandex Sound, the wussier the better in my book. I loved all the sappy, saccharine ballads by Winger, Slaughter, Giuff ... More >>

Outside Lands Day 1, Pearl Jam, Tom Jones, Black Joe Lewis

Chritopher VictorioTom Jones​Pearl Jam, Tom Jones, Incubus, Black Joe Lewis & the HoneybearsOutside LandsFriday, Aug. 28, 2009Better than: Anything else you could be doing in Golden Gate Park on a Friday night.The opening day of the second annual Outside Lands was, overall, what I'd call a ple ... More >>

Outside Lands Announces Ace Lineup: Beasties, Ween, Tom Jones, Dirtbombs, and More

Soren Solkaer StarbirdSan Francisco's giant music marathon, Outside Lands, announced its lineup this morning, capping its press release with headliners like Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys, Black Eyed Peas, Modest Mouse, and, yes, Dave Matthews Band hitting Golden Gate Park between August 28-30. Also in the ... More >>

Track of the Day: Stag Hare

In the same enchanted forest of reverb and rainbow synths that houses bands like Animal Collective and Deerhunter, Utah's Stag Hare is making a nest out of chimes, shaker percussion, and lots of fuck-with-your-head electronic echoes. The songs come on slow, like a high that's subtle as it drops from ... More >>

How the crash will reshape the music industry

Noise Pop fosters industry while playing it safe

"Secret" Deerhunter Show Wednesday at Rickshaw Stop

Actually from ATL: Deerhunter Noise Pop week is once again upon us, and Rickshaw Stop  talent buyer Dan Strachota has a secret he just can't keep under wraps any longer: a free, all-ages show Wednesday night by "two big-name NYC noise pop bands" (though one is originally from Atlanta). One ... More >>

Unknown facts about Noise Pop performers

Top Ten Indie Rock Albums of 2008

By Michael Roberts In 2008, independent rock returned to the underground, where it belongs. Given the grand catastrophe that is today's record industry, most major-label executives don't have the time or energy to convince music fans they might like something a little out of the ordinary. They'r ... More >>

Last Night: Deerhunter at the Great American Music Hall

DeerhunterMonday, Nov. 22, 2008Great American Music HallWords by Jennifer Maerz, Photo by Chrissy LoaderBetter than: Getting yet another eyefull from Pitchfork about how great Deerhunter is.On record, Deerhunter is a band that can easily sound like precious ambiance. I mean that in a complimentary w ... More >>

Deerhunter

Microcastle (Kranky)

Pretty cult machines: NIN and Deerhunter

Atlas Sound

Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel (Kranky)

SF Weekly Best Albums Of 2007 : Jennifer Maerz Rounds Them Up

Best CDs of 2007

LastNight: Menomena at the Independent Friday, June 8, 2007

Targeted Delays

Deerhunter ups pop's creep factor with reverb to spare

Nursing the SXSW hangover