Indie Rock and Indie Pop

SF Weekly Letters

Veronica Falls Sweetly Pound Through Rickshaw Stop

Veronica Falls Brilliant Colors Golden Grrrls Tuesday, March 26, 2013 Rickshaw Stop Better than: Being a punchline in a nasty Jello Biafra song. When they aren't flirting with a death over some unresponsive lover -- which they do quite well, even if as a half-joke -- Veronica Falls ruminate over t ... More >>

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 >>

Live 105 Announces Two-Day Not So Silent Night With Jack White, the Killers, M83, More

Just when you thought the season of multiple-day megaconcerts had ended, here's Live 105 with its largest Not So Silent Night concert ever. The two-day minifestival will take place Dec. 7 and 8 at Oracle Arena, with headliners Jack White and the Shins on Friday and the Killers and M83 on Saturday. C ... More >>

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

Dirty Projectors' Amber Coffman on the Band's Search for Simplicity

See also: * Dirty Projectors' 'Swing Lo Magellan': A First Listen Try as a journalist might, the Dirty Projectors' Amber Coffman cannot be talked into overthrowing her bandleader, Dave Longstreth. This isn't the worst thing, seeing as Brooklyn's reigning art-rockers -- the band Coffman sums up as ... More >>

The Upsetter: The Perils of Liking the Flaming Lips

[Editor's note: The Upsetter is a new weekly column exploring music news and pop history from a perspective that is both bewitched and bothered. Here, Andrew Stout will explode the old clichés of rock journalism to make room for some new ones.] My wife, who three years into our marriage fell in lo ... More >>

Live Review, 5/8/12: Death Cab Grows Up with Magik*Magik Orchestra at the Fox

Death Cab for Cutie with Magik*Magik Orchestra Youth Lagoon Tuesday, May 8, 2012 Fox Theater, Oakland Better than: Your prom and your fifteen-year high school reunion, if they happened at the same time Last night's Death Cab for Cutie concert, the first of a three-night stand at the Fox in Oakland ... More >>

Five Cover Songs That Are Better Than the Originals

As musical pairings go, they don't come much more oddball than Mastodon with Feist. But -- we can't quite believe it either -- on Record Store Day (April 21st), the unlikely collaborators are releasing Feistodon: a split single that will feature Mastodon covering Feist ("A Commotion") and vice versa ... More >>

Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum Adds S.F. Show, Goes on Sale Today

For some of us, the name Neutral Milk Hotel carries a near-mythic heft, an exalted reputation earned in the wake of the 1998 indie-rock album In the Airplane Over the Sea and other records. And it's a good time of year to be a NMH fan: Jeff Mangum, the main dude behind Neutral Milk Hotel, was alread ... More >>

Live Review, 2/21/12: The Hold Steady's Craig Finn Leads a Good, Depressing Time at Bottom of the Hill

Craig Finn Sad Baby Wolf Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012 Bottom of the Hill / Noise Pop 20th Anniversary Opening Night Better than: Seeing The Hold Steady. Ask a local, or a bring a notebook with you to a show, and they'll tell you: Noise Pop is as much about discovering new music as it is about venue-hopp ... More >>

Live Review, 1/25/12: "Siri, Did the iCrowd Enjoy Seeing Modest Mouse at the Warfield?"

Modest Mouse Talkdemonic Jan. 25, 2012 The Warfield Better than: Working in an Apple factory. Barker-in-chief Issac Brock's band Modest Mouse played at the Warfield last night, some special event related to the giant Macworld confab going on downtown. The show drew a crush of bearded dudes and lea ... More >>

One Last Spin: A Look Back at the Year in Bay Area Music

Dinosaur Jr.: Show Preview

Is This the Coachella 2012 Lineup?

Coachella 2012 is still more than four months away -- so naturally, it's time to start hyperventilating over rumored lineups for the first year the festival will stretch over two weekends. One "leaked" lineup appeared last week on StarzUncut, a celebrity gossip website with more than 58,000 Twitter ... More >>

Seek the Booty: 10 Artists to See at Treasure Island

Watch: New Bay Area Band Waters Plays a Hushed "For the One" on Ocean Beach

​ Waters is the new project from Van Pierszalowski, the ex-frontman of a long-running Bay Area indie rock band called Port O'Brien that put out its last record in 2009. (Many of Port O'Brien's former members are off working on different projects -- Caleb Nichols, for instance, is leading Grand ... More >>

Friday: Two Door Cinema Club Woos the Teens at the Warfield

Dean SchafferTwo Door Cinema Club at the Warfield​Two Door Cinema Club Sept. 23, 2011 The Warfield Better than: Dancing suggestively. Okay, we know we shouldn't harp on this, so we'll just say it straight out and then leave it be -- Two Door Cinema attracts a young crowd, and that's that. We ... More >>

Yuck Leads a Roadtrip to Nostalgia at the Independent

​ Yuck Unknown Mortal Orchestra July 26, 2011 @ The Independent Better than: Listening to Yo La Tengo records and wishing you were 16 again. Barely post-adolescent British kids Yuck released a self-titled debut album this year on Fat Possum, and holy shit, do I love it, and holy shit, does i ... More >>

Announcing SF Weekly's All Shook Down Music Fest 2011, Featuring Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles performing a sold-out show at the Warfield earlier this year.​ Hey, San Francisco, the All Shook Down Music Fest is returning for 2011. Different place, different vibe, same goal: To put some of the best local musicians together in one showcase, capped off with a big headliner. ... More >>

The Fiery Furnaces: Show Preview

Win Tickets to TV on the Radio April 30 at the Independent

Join them in S.F.!​Ladies and gentlemen, it is true: We have a pair of tickets to give away to TV on the Radio's show April 30 at the Independent. You know you want to go. And if you don't, well, let us just say that we saw them at SXSW (brag alert!) and you want to go. The band is touring in supp ... More >>

France's Revolver on Learning English From the Beatles, and Why It's Tough to Cover Elliott Smith

Revolver ​Maybe America isn't ready for Revolver. Or maybe Revolver isn't ready for America -- after all, its Myspace page is still partially in French. This Paris trio sounds like what would happen if Franz Ferdinand was on Saddle Creek Records, replacing bass guitar with cello to create a d ... More >>

Forgetters Reignite Jawbreaker-Caliber Angst at Bottom of the Hill

The Forgetters at Bottom of the Hill last night. Pics by Rae, whose camera broke upon arrival, leaving us no choice but to subject you to Blackberry photos.​Forgetters January 27, 2011 @ Bottom Of The Hill Better than: Living under the false hope that Jawbreaker are going to reform one day. The ... 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 Top 10 Best Big Concerts I Saw in 2010, with Gaga, Green Day, Sir Paul, Pavement, and LCD Soundsystem

It just didn't seem right to lump in Oracle Arena and HP Pavilion fare with the cozy goings-on at S.F. dens like Bottom of the Hill and even Great American Music Hall. So, in search of an even comparison, I'm breaking it up: Today, here are the best concerts I saw with more than 5,000 of my fellow h ... More >>

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 >>

San Francisco Love Story

Before founding Belle and Sebastian, Stuart Murdoch came here to get healthy. He left with songs, skills, and a promise to return with a band.

Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch Loves S.F., and Why a Music-Based Dating Site Doesn't Work

Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian​In SF Weekly's print edition this week: A look at the impressive lineup for this weekend's Treasure Island Music Festival.My exclusive interview with Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch:  "He didn't know then that this city would shape the course of ... More >>

Saturday Night: Arcade Fire Hurls Mics, Swordfights with Drumsticks, and Remembers Grandpa Vino at the Greek Theatre

Christopher VictorioArcade Fire's Win Butler looking stoic during "No Cars Go"​Arcade FireCalexicoOctober 2, 2010@ The Greek Theatre, BerkeleyBetter than: Living in the suburbs.Drumstick battles, microphones hurled into the crowd, pianos turned into standing platforms, a rolling tom-tom that ... More >>

Fang Island: Show Preview

Wavves' addictive surf-punk makes it king of the beach

The Arcade Fire Announce Greek Theater Show Oct. 2

​You were scared there for a while, weren't you? You checked the tour dates on the Arcade Fire's web site a while back, saw that the last ones scheduled were for the East Coast and Europe, and worried that the band would neglect to play out here on the West Coast anytime soon -- that it ... More >>

Crystal Castles: Show Preview

She and Him offer a second volume of new oldies

Coachella in Photos: Jay-Z, She & Him, Perry Farrell, Boots Riley, More

We had our own little Coachella last week in SF, with shows by MGMT, Beach House, Faith No More, Charlotte Gainsbourg, the Dead Weather, Passion Pit, Spoon, and Atoms For Peace, among other Bay Area gigs. But photographer Christopher Victoria went to the actual Coachella down south and sent us the f ... More >>

Last Night: Passion Pit, Mayer Hawthorne, & Bear Hands at the Warfield

Eric Lawson​Passion Pit, Mayer Hawthorne, Bear Hands Thursday, April 15, 2010 The Warfield Better Than: Having a solo dance party in your room while blasting Passion Pit. Musically, it doesn't make a lot of sense to put Bear Hands, Mayer Hawthorne, and Passion Pit on the same bill. Bu ... More >>

Beach House's pop euphoria

Slumberland Records Anniversary

Inspired by Leonard Cohen, Tegan and Sara remain obsessed with affection

New Tegan and Sara Video: "Alligator"

Twin sisters Tegan and Sara spend much of their songwriting obsessing on the nuances of love lost and found. The duo's latest video, "Alligator," brings levity to the lyrics about crying big alligator tears with images of the sisters playing around giant igloos made of yarn bags (and making snow an ... More >>

Fool’s Gold goes global from L.A.’s eclectic metropolis

It's a Family Affair

Pickups Amnesia: Verizon Droid Launch at Bimbo's 365 Club

View more photos in "Silversun Pickups & Metric @ Verizon Droid Launch."Indie rock music met tech at last Friday's Verizon Droid Launch at Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco, where Canadian Band Metric and Silverlake band Silversun Pickups played to celebrate the launch of Verizon Droid, an iPhon ... More >>

Treasure Island Music Festival, Day One

It takes an iron will and a penchant for risk to submit to the risky calculus of the day-long music festival. In the weeks leading up to the Treasure Island Music Festival, there was no doubt that the lineup would yield something for just about any modern music fan from dreaded dubstep nodders to ho ... More >>

Dirty Projectors continue to rise above

Girl Scout

D Tour

Shout at the Diabo

Seasoned Cat