Ian Port

SF Weekly Letters

The Best Shows in San Francisco This Week

Low End Theory @ Mighty, Friday, Jan. 4 Here's one thing that's changing in 2013: Low End Theory, the local offshoot of the L.A. bass music party that's helped launched the careers of Flying Lotus, Nocando, Thundercat and others, is moving venues from 1015 Folsom to Mighty. We'll call that good news ... More >>

Noise Pop Adds Starfucker, Ramona Falls, and More to 2013 Lineup

After last week's announcement of the first batch of artists for the 2013 festival, Noise Pop is back already with more additions. New acts include Starfucker, the Thermals, and Califone, plus a few locals you might've heard of.

The Five Best Shows in San Francisco This Week

Ital @ Public Works, Thursday, Dec. 20 Daniel Martin-McCormick's musical résumé encompasses a mélange of guises and styles -- including post-hardcore freakouts, scorched post-punk dub, and lo-fi disco -- and several monikers, including the local band Mi Ami and the more dance-focused output of It ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

The 5 Best Concerts in San Francisco This Week

Dum Dum Girls @ Fox Theater, Thursday, Dec, 6 Kristin "Dee Dee" Gundred's yelping on Grand Ole Party's stomping blues-punk already cemented her as an indie rock lifer (and worthy Beth Ditto successor). But with Dum Dum Girls, Gundred ushered back into the fold girl-group pop that would pave the way ... More >>

The Top Five Shows in San Francisco This Week

5. The Faint @ Regency Ballroom, Saturday, Nov. 17 The first time you heard The Faint's album Danse Macabre, you probably were struck by how distinctive it was. This album was dance music for people who only listened to indie music -- what a brilliant concept! Not to make you aging hipsters feel old ... More >>

Five Concerts To See in the Bay Area This Week

Helmet, Toadies, and Ume @ The Independent, Friday, Oct. 26 Thus far, eating grilled chicken testicles on television hasn't signified the arrival of a viable new band, but hey, Ume could change all that. The Austin outfit (whose name is pronounced "ooh-may") hung out with professional foodie Anthony ... More >>

Top Five Concerts To See in San Francisco This Week

First Aid Kit @ The Fillmore, Wednesday, Oct. 17 If First Aid Kit's music is proof, Stockholm must be much closer to the American South than any maps have had us believe. In "Emmylou," off January's The Lion's Roar, Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg pay perfect homage to a bevy of America ... More >>

Lady Gaga Announces Bay Area Stop of Born This Way Tour

Gaga is coming! Gaga is coming! Okay, so it's not until early 2013. But today, the freak-queen of gloss-pop, meatsuits, and gender-bending award show appearances announced a new North American leg of her Born This Way Ball World Tour, and it includes a stop -- for just one night -- here in the Bay ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012: The Full, Final Lineup Is Gigantic

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is the music festival that just won't stop growing. We've posted pieces of the lineup as they've become public -- and thought we'd seen most of it -- but it turns out there have been even more artists added. This week, though, organizers promise that they've finally release ... More >>

Top 20 Reasons Why [Your Favorite Musical Artist] Is the Worst

20. Songs They write songs. Songs just suck. Songs are vapid and stupid and tired and derivative and corny and boring and stuff. Why do they even bother making songs? They should just do something else already. Jeez. 19. Some of their songs are even worse than their other songs. Which just goes to ... More >>

We're Looking For Smart Local Writers to Review Concerts. Is That You?

We're looking for a few talented, musically literate freelance writers to help cover the incredibly diverse Bay Area live music scene for All Shook Down. We will pay you money -- more like beer money than rent money, but still -- to go to shows, write down your opinions, and tell our readers what ha ... More >>

The Best of Outside Lands: Sunday, Aug. 12

Jack White Jack White likes the struggle. He's said so in interviews. He believes in hard work. The guiding force of each performance is the feeling that arises as the musicians collectively navigate the particular challenges of each moment on stage. Every show is guaranteed to be different. There a ... More >>

What to See at Outside Lands: Nine Artists

Coachella Cruise: Let's Imagine What Other Music Festivals' Cruises Could Be Like

Our sea legs are still a little shaky from the news earlier this week that Coachella, the annual bare midriff convention of Indio, Calif., is going on a cruise. But then we thought the Bruise Cruise was totally weird. And actually, a cruise boat where Pulp plays and you get to go wine-tasting with J ... More >>

Midi Matilda Is a Rising S.F. Pop-Rock Band You Will Need to Know About Starting Now

In the category of Up-And-Coming Bay Area Bands That Have a Chance of Getting Played on Live 105, make yourself aware of Midi Matilda, an S.F. duo whose new single and video "Love in the Movies" has hit potential written all over it. We're not even jumping the gun or seeing the future here -- Live 1 ... More >>

US Air Guitar Championships: Witness the Madness of People Rawking on Thin Air

Did the 11-year-old in you never quite get over shredding air in front of the mirror to Master of Puppets? Well maybe that's good, because there's a thing called the U.S. Air Guitar Championships, where similarly imaginative virtual noodlers gather every year to face off in friendly competition. Wit ... More >>

Watch: Happy Hour Gets Very NSFW in Stripmall Architecture's Video for "Dusk Drinks"

At what point does a music video stop being a music video, and start being a soft-core porn short with a good soundtrack? Actually, who cares: the ladies in Stripmall Architecture's new video for the slow, grinding "Dusk Drinks" may take things (quite a bit) farther than the standard after-work happ ... More >>

Occupy This Album Is as Massive, Inconsistent, and Powerful as Occupy Itself

Remember all the hand-wringing last year over the so-called disappearance of protest music? As the Occupy movement hit its peak, capturing the attention of the country, commentators and older musicians were accusing contemporary artists of failing to grapple with the major struggles of their time in ... More >>

The Top 20 Greatest San Francisco Musicians: The Complete List

See also: * The Top 20 Greatest San Francisco Musicians: Honorable Mentions Here they are -- the 20 greatest San Francisco musicians ever: 20. Cameron Paul Lists of pioneering American DJs often mention the usual suspects in New York and Chicago, but go back to the '70s and '80s and you'll find ... More >>

Seventeen Evergreen Has a New Album and Is Back to Making Trippy Videos, Thankfully

Remember the last time San Francisco electro-rock duo Seventeen Evergreen released a piece of eye-candy? It was November, and the clip was a yarn-bombing odyssey of a music video for "Polarity Song," which pretty much delighted and freaked out viewers in equal measure. (The idea of being pulled int ... More >>

Ceremony's "World Blue" Video Is One Minute and 39 Seconds of Furious Moshing

Ceremony, an fearsomely powerful Rohnert Park hardcore band, is the newest signing to vaunted indie label Matador Records; its new album, the blistering Zoo, hit the streets today. To celebrate the release, the band is playing a free in-store at Amoeba tonight at 6 p.m. It's also headlining 924 Gil ... More >>

Get a Free Tour of the Fox Theater and Celebrate Its Third Anniversary This Friday

It's kind of a big week for Oakland's Fox Theater: Tonight, Wilco plays its last in a series of three Bay Area concerts -- which, if it's anything like Sunday's show at the Warfield, should be incredible. Then, on Friday, there's a big party at the Fox in honor of the third anniversary of theater's ... More >>

Take a Fuzzed-Out 'Tumble Down' With S.F.'s Terry Malts

Terry Malts is among the local rock bands whose full-length debuts we're most excited about in 2012, and the album's first single, "Tumble Down" oughta show why: With sizzling guitars playing atop a molten bassline and Phil Benson's distantly crackling vocals, the song is textbook indie rock turned ... More >>

In Print: Wild Flag Is More Than a 'Supergroup'

Wild Flag​Wild Flag: The concept of a "supergroup"-- wherein performers with cool and/or exciting pedigrees find themselves in something resembling a "band" -- dies hard. Imagine your favorite musicians playing together! Frequently, expectations exceed results -- a collection of individuals do ... More >>

Dubstep Is Now Officially Soundtracking a Southern Comfort TV Commercial

You're a wild type. A rebel. The kind of person who likes life a little spicier. The kind of person who wants a flash of Tabasco™ lighting up your shot of Southern Comfort™. Like a fling between liquor and pepper sauce, you're a radical -- you probably even listen to that dubstep music. ​ ... More >>

Watch: A Day in the Life KMEL's Record-Buying, Star-Discovering DJ Amen

DJ Amen at Amoeba​ Ever wonder what a day in the life of a local radio DJ is like? Well now you can know: Bay Area hip-hop website Thizzler on the Roof recently put together this short clip that follows KMEL's DJ Amen around for a day -- starting at Amoeba, heading to Papalote, and ending at a ... More >>

Facebook Unveils Partnerships with Music Services, New Social Listening Features

​ Facebook wants to publicize your music listening. The Palo Alto social networking giant unveiled a host of new features at its f8 development conference today in San Francisco -- among them, new ways to tell your friends what you're listening to and check out what they're listening to.

The Killers, Jane's Addiction, and Snoop Dogg Are Playing a "Secret Show" for the Gods of Tech Tonight

​After hearing rumors all day, it appears this is finally actually confirmed: Snoop Dogg, Jane's Addiction, Kaskade, and the Killers are playing a "secret" show after today's Facebook conference, hosted by Napster founder Sean Parker, according to SFist. So after spending the day hearing abou ... More >>

Gojogo's New Chasing the Moon Videos Are Moody and Exhilarating

Gojogo playing at Chasing the Moon​ Chasing the Moon is a monthly video/podcast series put out by producer and engineer Scott McDowell that features local musicians. Always beautifully filmed and recorded (at Hyde Street Studios), the acts chosen vary widely -- past episodes have included indi ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Your Very Own Handpainted Hunx Doll, Only $79.95

They do not appear to be blow-up size, in case you were wondering.​ In case the lascivious Twitter feed, saucy oldies rock records, hair salon/vintage boutique, and upcoming TV show weren't enough, now there's another way to get Bay Area gay-punk agitator Hunx (aka Seth Bogart of Hunx and His ... More >>

Music Links: Exploring "Folder Rock," Fernet Gets a Rap, and More

Julie MichelleHemlock Tavern booker Tony Bedard is a connoisseur of what he calls "folder rock"​ Fernet, the favorite awful-tasting drink of San Francisco, now has its own rap song. [Uptown Almanac] Hemlock booker Tony Bedard explains "Folder Rock" -- the hilariously overwrought language of ... More >>

Is There Something Ironic About Buying Vinyl Online?

We use our newest gadgets to buy some of our lowest-tech gear.​ A colleague today raised this question: Is it ironic, or weird, or even funny, to buy vinyl -- analog music -- online? The issue was prompted by the news of Vinyl Dreams, a new online-only record store started by Michelangelo Bat ... More >>

"A Record Store in Space" Is Back -- with Swarming Copies of R.E.M.'s Monster

​ You will remember A Record Store in Space -- the video comedy project of a few mischievous San Francisco record store employees. We brought you the first chapter of this homemade space opera last year, and now, the crew has finished Chapter 2. Among other things, it features an "irrational d ... More >>

Amazing Local Video Alert: Vir's New Clip for "Down By Law"

​ It isn't that often that we come across a spectacular music video, especially one made by a relatively small local band. But here we go: the clip for new single "Down By Law" from Berkeley post-punk/pysch outfit Vir. The animated vid shows a gloomy, sketched-out dystopia, with heinous monste ... More >>

In Print: Shabazz Palaces Lets Its Idiosyncratic Hip-Hop Do the Talking

From SF Weekly's latest print music section: Yeah, don't expect to see their faces unless you go to the show.​Shabazz Palaces: If there's one thing we're supposed to know about Shabazz Palaces, it's that we're not supposed to know shit. In the two years since recordings by the Seattle-based ... More >>

After the Rapture, Can KUSF DJs Get Harold Camping's FCC License?

​When the rapture comes at 6 p.m. tomorrow, all the good people are going to go to heaven. At least, that's what Harold Camping and his supporters at the Oakland radio station pushing this whole May 21, 2011 date believe. But the members of KUSF in Exile -- DJs who were kicked off the air whe ... More >>

Video: The Wrong Words Have an Oakland Adventure in "Wrong Again"

​More promising local power-pop: S.F.'s The Wrong Words get silly in this new clip for "Wrong Again," a jangly, attention-deficient breeze of a song. The video was shot partly at Down at Lulu's, the Oakland vintage boutique and hair salon haunted by Hunx and His Punx's Seth Bogart. It's a great se ... More >>

Viddy Foreign Legion's TV Lovin' New Video for "Son of a Gun"

Foreign Legion​And from Oakland duo Foreign Legion's April 12 release Night Moves comes this fine slab of YouTube: A clip for "Son of a Gun" that has Prozack Turner and Marc Stretch cruisin' the East Bay hoods with TVs on their heads, telling you why they rule. And why do they rule? We told you be ... More >>

SXSW Music 2011: Hi Austin, Are You Sure This Isn't SXSF?

SF Weekly music editor Ian Port is in Austin this week covering the sun-glazed sound orgy that is South By Southwest. He will try to keep his reports free from from unnecessary personal details, talk of tacos, the phrase "killed it," and the eliciting of excessive jealousy. Please feel free to comme ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Sonny & the Sunsets Announce New Album, Drop New Song 'I Wanna Do It'

​Everyone's favorite local vintage-pop poet/band, Sonny and the Sunsets, announced a new album and dropped a new song today. Hit after Hit will be out on Fat Possum -- the esteemed indie blues label singer-songwriter Sonny Smith joined last year -- on April 12. After the jump, we've got an MP ... More >>

The Black Eyed Peas' Super Bowl Halftime Show: Awful Awful or Just Regular Awful?

Well, it was terrible, of course; the question is really whether yesterday's Super Bowl Halftime show was inappropriately awful or expectedly so. To help you sort through it, we've divided up the goings-on based on whether they met or exceeded our minimal expectations for crumminess. Feel free to di ... More >>

Cheap Shows Will Make Upcoming Tuesdays in January Better Than Regular Days In January

Catch Sparrows Gate in a slightly more convenient venue next Tuesday at Slim's, at the start of the Winter Residency show series.​Wait! Before that post-Xmas, post-smashed-New-Year's-resolution glumness fully sets in, you have a chance to truly attain your dream for 2011. As long, that is, as your ... More >>

SF's Sunbeam Rd. Goes Proggy on New Single 'Circular Breathing'

Sunbeam Rd. performing at Milk Bar in September​The name Circular Breathing makes us think of all sorts of difficult and impressive things, like playing the didgeridoo, the saxophone, and the trumpet while breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. So its a fitting name for the pra ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Noise Pop Slideshows: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and Dizzy Balloon

I don't know you y'all, but we're feeling a heavy Noise Pop hangover from so much back-to-back entertainment over the last week (or, perhaps it's really just tied to that last whiskey we downed during Four Tet on Friday). Before we close out another year of indie pop festival coverage, though, we ha ... More >>