Ian Port

SF Weekly Letters

SF Weekly Letters

The 10 Best Bay Area Hip-Hop Records of 2012

It's been another big year in Bay Area hip-hop, with one huge collaboration album from two local greats and lots of strong releases from young local upstarts. So before the world ends, let's round up the 10 best Bay Area hip-hop/rap records (including albums, mixtapes, etc.) of 2012. Main Attrakion ... More >>

Noise Pop 2013 Early Lineup: Amon Tobin, Toro Y Moi, Thao Nguyen, and More

There's a chill in the air and the skies are intermittently cloudy, so it must be getting close to time for the Noise Pop festival, right? Well, yes: Today, organizers announced the first installment of the lineup for the festival's 2013 edition. The big names so far are Amon Tobin, Toro Y Moi, Rogu ... More >>

Amazing CGI Music Video Has Misanthropic Robots Taking Over San Francisco

What would happen if District 9 happened in the City the by the Bay? It'd look something like this new clip for "My Revenge," from local rockers King Loses Crown. The super high-quality clip shows a San Francisco ruled by robots -- they're in the Japanese Tea Garden, on the streets of the Mission, i ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

SF Jazz Announces Lineup For First Concert at New HQ, Feat. McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, and Bill Cosby?

A few months ago, we updated you on the progress of construction over at 205 Franklin Street -- the fancy new headquarters of SF Jazz -- which is set to open on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, Jan., 21, 2013. Today, the nonprofit announced the lineup for artists that will performing at the very fir ... More >>

R.I.P. Matthew Africa, Beloved Oakland Hip-Hop DJ

We're just getting word via Facebook and other sources that beloved local hip-hop DJ Matthew Africa passed away this Monday in a car accident. He was 40. His sister, Julia Africa, posted the following on Facebook: My brother, Matthew Africa, was killed in a car accident on Monday afternoon. He and ... More >>

Noel Gallagher Claims Rock Stardom Will Go Extinct, Apparently Hasn't Heard of Other Forms of Stardom

Aw, look: Another one of Oasis' Gallagher brothers uttered a statement that managed to be arrogant, ignorant, and fuddy-duddy all at the same time! This time it was the elder (and usually saner) one, Noel, speaking to the U.K.'s Sunday Express about the impending die-off of that rare and vital spec ... More >>

Top 5 Awesomely Silly Dancing GIFs From the Outside Lands Festival

One thing crowds at San Francisco's Outside Lands festival do pretty well is get down. Despite the relentless wind, heavy fog, and numbing temperatures, we saw plenty of good moves last weekend -- and some ridiculously silly enthusiasm from certain crowd members. (It helped that Big Boi stuck to p ... More >>

Hear Le1f's "Wut": A Hot Track From an NYC Rapper Who Is, Oh Yeah, Openly Gay

Being a black male who raps and is open about his sexuality is still a big, controversial deal in post-Frank Ocean 2012, if the headlines and blog comments surrounding New York rap breakout Le1f are any indication. But before we get into that whole ugly issue of rap's latent homophobia, let's deal w ... More >>

Watch: Exray's Make a Vintage Sci-Fi Dystopia for "Ancient Thing" Video

Shot on grainy Super-8, in what appears to be the industrial flats of Oakland and, later, some dilapidated agricultural building, Exray's new video might at first seem like another indie spin through nostalgialand. But actually it's far weirder: There's a robot -- or maybe it's some mechanical creat ... More >>

Fiona Apple Announces New Bay Area Shows in Support of 'The Idler Wheel'

Hey, Fiona Apple is leaving her house and hitting the road to support that new album whose title begins with The Idler Wheel and continues for 20 more words that you can't remember. That mouthful is certainly one of the most anticipated releases of the year (and it's out tomorrow!), so it's a bit ex ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Oakland Metalheads High on Fire Pull out of Mayhem Tour; Matt Pike to Enter Rehab

Only days after slaying a sold-out Fox theater with stoner-metal legends Sleep, Oakland heavy music figurehead Matt Pike has had to pull current band High on Fire out of its slot at this summer's Rockstar Mayhem Festival as he prepares to enter rehab for alcohol addiction.

Win Tickets to See Twin Shadow, Tanlines, and Dirty Ghosts at Rdio's Private Party This Thursday

Tomorrow night -- Thursday, June 7 -- music streaming service Rdio is throwing a party at the Independent that will feature live sets by moody pop artist Twin Shadow, Brooklyn dance-pop breakouts Tanlines, and S.F.'s own Dirty Ghosts. Rdio is based in San Francisco, so it's only natural that the com ... More >>

LCD Soundsystem Doc Shut Up and Play the Hits Coming to Make You Wistful For One Night Only

So of course you didn't get to go see LCD Soundsystem's final three-hour kiss-off at Madison Square Garden last April, aka the most important music event of your stupid, short lifetime. Okay, maybe it wasn't that important. But if you were a fan, missing out on LCD's farewell probably felt a little ... More >>

Watch: S.F.'s Still Flyin' Gets Spooky in the New Video for "Spirits"

Pretty much every song on S.F. outfit Still Flyin's new album, On a Bedroom Wall, conjures ghosts of the '80s. But none do so quite as literally as this new video for "Spirits," an uptempo, get-on-the-floor burst of crystalline, synth-laden dance-pop. Bandleader Sean Rawls plays a regular dude (or i ... More >>

Listen: SF's YR SKULL Drops "Canyons" Ahead of This Friday's Free Show

S.F. producer/DJ YR SKULL -- known in real life as Drew Marcogliese -- has been making a name for himself at local shows for a while now. He's also a resident at the free Push the Feeling party at Underground SF in the Lower Haight -- a monthly that returns this Friday with live sets from electronic ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

SF Weekly Letters

Woodsist Fest Will Bring Real Estate, Thee Oh Sees, the Fresh & Onlys, and More to Big Sur

Bay Area residents need but the slightest excuse for a weekend getaway down to Big Sur, sure -- but for local fans of woolly indie rock, the annual Woodsist Fest is pretty much the best justification imaginable for that two-hour drive. The festival takes place over a weekend at the Henry Miller Libr ... More >>

Noise Pop Adds Wye Oak, the Dodos, and More to 2012 Festival Lineup

Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack​ Noise Pop isn't like other music festivals, which usually announce their entire lineup at once. Instead, the bills for San Francisco's premiere indie music gathering are announced over months, giving fans continuous excitement -- and perhaps a little anxie ... More >>

Go Out Drinking with SF's the Frail in the Intoxicated New Video for "Frenemies"

Just the start of a normal day in San Francisco...​ Our fair city has something of a reputation for being filled with what we might charitably call lushes. (Others might call them "drunks." Or "regular people.") This David Dutton-directed clip for "Frenemies," by S.F. indie-dance outfit the Fr ... More >>

Get Intimate as Girls' Perform "Love Like A River" For an Empty Room

​ Watch this: "Love, Like a River," the closing ballad off of Girls' latest album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, played beautifully in a room with no audience. That's the whole idea behind the For No One series, which has also featured Titus Andronicus and Neon Indian. But playing to a lonely house ... More >>

Watch DJ Shadow's Blood-Boiling New Video, "Border Crossing"

The Occupy Wall Street Everywhere protests are stealing headlines this week. But for many, immigration and border politics remain one of the most backwards and unjust issues facing the country. Count among that group the Bay Area's DJ Shadow, whose new video for "Border Crossing" qualifies as a bloo ... More >>

Hear a Sample of Lou Reed and Metallica's "The View," Which Doesn't Seem Like the Best Thing Ever

​ We could make a lucrative IPO with all the hype Lou Reed has expelled about his upcoming album with Bay Area metal stalwarts Metallica. But if the one sample of Lulu that's leaked so far is any indication, the Reed self-praise machine might just be blowing a bubble the size of Bakersfield. ... More >>

S.F.'s Girls Make Their TV Debut on Jimmy Fallon, with Backup Singers

Girls on TV Tuesday night.​ Musical performances on late-night shows are always a crapshoot, but San Francisco's Girls sounded great in their TV debut on Tuesday's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The band played two songs from its new (out this week!) album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost -- "Honey Bun ... More >>

Hear Thee Oh Sees' Meandering, Caustic New Jam, "Carrion Crawler"

​ Oh friends, what a special year 2011 must be to earn two, yes, two (!) new albums from San Francisco titans of garage-rock Thee Oh Sees. First, in the spring, came Castlemania. Next, on Nov. 15, we shall receive another full-length, titled Carrion Crawler/The Dream. Why? Who? Where? These a ... More >>

BAM Magazine Is Coming Back -- As a Website

BAM's July 7, 1978 issue​Remember BAM? If you followed By Area music between, oh, 1976 and 1999, you probably read it all the time. And if you didn't, you'll get a chance to -- there's a revived version coming to the web in a couple of weeks. Some background: BAM was a free biweekly print mag ... More >>

Surprise! Friday's Rickshaw Stop Special Guest is tUnE-yArDs (Not Muse)

Relax, Merrill, the secret's out!​ So yeah, the hackers fucked with Muse's Facebook page, duped us, and disappointed you. But look at the bright side: The special guest for Friday's Outside Lands night show at the Rickshaw Stop is no longer a secret -- and it's awesome! Cue the ukuleles, drum ... More >>

All Shook Down Music Fest: Download Our Free Pre-Party Mini-Mix

​ Our All Shook Down Music Fest is coming up quickly -- it's this Saturday at the Regency Ballroom, in case you haven't gotten tickets yet. We're sure you're as excited as we are to see Crystal Castles, Mistah F.A.B., Maus Haus, and more. But just to send your anticipation to even greater hei ... More >>

Exclusive Premiere: Mister Loveless' Taut New Rock-Out, "Nineties Children"

​ And in comes a good new thing from a rising local band: Mister Loveless' new single "Nineties Children," a fierce exploration of (what else!) coming of age in the Clinton years. We introduced you to these dudes last year, after they opened for the Wedding Present and went on to play our firs ... More >>

Let the Cassette Tape Die Already

And stay dead! (Photo via.)​ In its July issue, Wired magazine takes note of a disturbing trend: The apparent unwillingness among young, music-loving cool types to let the cassette tape die a complete and much-deserved death. Noting that 2010 saw both the last new car ship with a tape player ... More >>

Premiere: Watch Antonionian's Entrancing New Video for "Into the Night"

​ You can feel the Prince vibes oozing out of "Into the Night" -- easily our favorite cut from Antonionian's self-titled Anticon debut, out last year. Yet somehow Oakland's Jordan Dalrymple winds a little teutonic synth-pop around those obvious phat funk grooves and pinchy vocals, and the resu ... More >>

Tonight's Dredg Show at Great American Music Hall Canceled

Dredg: Not talking much at dinner tonight.​ Update: The canceled Dredg show is now just a free show by opener the Trophy Fire. Anyone can come, no ticket required. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show is at 8. Bad news: Due to the sudden and last-minute loss of singer Gavin Hayes' voice, tonig ... More >>

Tonight: Moon Duo Plays Free Aquarius In-Store Show, Then Bottom of the Hill

Free show tonight!​They don't call it Monday Funday for nothing. There'll be plenty of fun at 6 p.m. tonight at Aquarius Records on Valencia Street, when S.F.-via-Colorado outfit Moon Duo brings out its droney, fuzzy gaze for a free show. After that, Moon Duo headlines Bottom of the Hill for a non ... More >>

Hunx and His Punx' New Video for "Bad Boy" Is Shitty-Awesome

And it gets better.​Yes, we used the word awesome in a headline. But this here new clip for "Bad Boy" is pretty awesome ... in a shitty, Desperate Living kind of way. We spoke with Hunx's Seth Bogart the day after he and the band filmed this vid, and while his original comments didn't make ou ... More >>

Death Cab For Cutie's Live, Single-Take Video for "You Are A Tourist" Not a Total Disaster

​We told you yesterday that the emo-pop all-stars in Death Cab for Cutie were planning a little stunt: Filming a scripted video for new single "You Are A Tourist," live, in a single take, and broadcasting it online via UStream. The first-of-its-kind shoot -- featuring what appear to be dozens ... More >>

Wanna Talk to Thao and Mirah? All You Gotta Do Is Buy Their New Album

​Okay, Kill Rock Stars, we really, really hope this isn't some kind of April fool's stunt. You're going to break a lot of Bay Area hearts if it is. What are we talking about? A new little note on the KRS website that says the first 200 people who preorder the new collaboration album from Thao Ngyu ... More >>

Get a Haircut in Birds and Batteries' New Video For 'Strange Kind of Mirror'

​Birds & Batteries singer Mike Sempert has this voice. It's sweet, yet kind of bitter, and totally memorable. And it perfectly suits the longing indie-pop made by this San Francisco Bay Area quartet. If you haven't heard Birds and Batteries do its thing before, this new video for "Strange Kind ... More >>

Video: We Talk to Young Prisms About Playing Bottom of the Hill, Touring Europe, and their New EP

​Back in January, S.F. psych-gaze quartet Young Prisms celebrated the release of its debut album, Friends for Now, at Bottom of the Hill. We liked their "beautifully stoned"-sounding album enough that we thought it was worth telling you about back then, and we even showed up at the gig to ask the ... More >>

Experience Gozzard, the Most Mind-Fucking Local Metalheads You Haven't Heard Of

Gozzard. Whoa.​File this under things we're kicking ourselves for missing: a performance last night from local fantasy metal outfit Gozzard at the Blue Macaw. Now, we're sometime-metalheads over here at All Shook Down, but the attraction of this four-piece freakshow goes far beyond a mere cha ... More >>

New S.F. Service Feeds You Indie Music One Spoonful at a Time

​So how do you stay up on new music? Everyone has their own methods, some of which (listening to KUSF, R.I.P.) are more effective than others (trying to read Pitchfork reviews while hammered). Today, a new web service started up here in San Francisco to help: It's called mySpoonful, and the b ... More >>

The Year in SF Music: Stories We'll Remember From 2010

​From SF Weekly's latest print music section: Is Lil B God, the Devil, or Paris Hilton?: Rap in 2010 had no voice more prolific or polarizing than Berkeley's Lil B. After some local success with post-hyphy quartet the Pack, B subchristened himself "the Based God" and showed the world what it ... More >>

Petition To Stop Rave Ban Questions Meaning of 'Prerecorded' Music

But what does it mean to "rave"?​Well, that didn't take long: Only days after we reported (last week) that S.F. Assemblywoman Fiona Ma has introduced a bill to ban raves in California, a petition has popped up online to head her off at the, uh, DJ booth. As of this writing, the effort on Chan ... More >>

Monday Morning Hangover: Bay to Breakers, Oysterfest & More

Good morning! How's that Bay to Breakers hangover treating you? Oh, you woke up in a cardboard box wearing half of your Where's Waldo costume and you're still drunk? Well, you should probably find a place to take a shower. You're late for work.Joe Schell​The race turned costumed-drunken boozefest ... More >>

Monday Morning Hangover: An Embarrassment of Riches

As the Summer(ish) months start rolling in, it seems the possibilities for weekend distractions multiply exponentially. This past weekend offered an embarrassment of riches: comedy, music, art and bawdiness abounded. Gretchen Robinette​Yo La Tengo and the Sic Alps played the Fillmore Saturday and ... More >>

Monday Morning Hangover: Fighting and Loving

Most weekend's in this city are all about love (or sex, at any rate) and this weekend was no exception, aside from the knock-down drag-out fights. Pro-Wrestling Revolution's Lucha Libre enthralled a crowd of about 200 people with a no-holds-barred spectacle of flying fists and spandex clad bodies. B ... More >>