Indie Rock and Indie Pop

Seapony: Show Preview

The Killers and M83 Rule Day 2 of Not So Silent Night, 12/8/12

The Killers, M83, Passion Pit, Tegan and Sara, Grouplove, Imagine Dragons Live 105's Not So Silent Night Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012 Oracle Arena Better than: The Not So Silent Night lineup from 10 years ago, which featured Moby, Disturbed, Sum 41, Papa Roach, Good Charlotte, Jurassic 5, and the Donnas. ... More >>

Dum Dum Girls: Show Preview

Live Review, 9/1/12: Yeasayer Makes Sense of New Album Fragrant World at the Fox Theater

Yeasayer Daughn Gibson Sept. 1, 2012 Fox Theater, Oakland Better than: Seeing Animal Collective (seriously -- deal with it). If you (like I) missed the memo, Yeasayer has apparently become a divisive act. After 2010's Odd Blood brought the experimental Brooklynites widespread acclaim, last month's ... More >>

Frank Ocean: The Only Band That Matters

Frank Ocean. Even his name sounds like it was dreamed up, because it was. Ocean is 2012's Clash, its Radiohead, its -- if you insist -- Animal Collective. From his no-name-on-the-cover mystique to the 10-minute opus, pre-career record company troubles and a grassroots indie following, he's an altern ... More >>

Return to Barbarism: The Jesus and Mary Chain's Unforgettable Fury

There are stories -- half-lies, probably -- that seem to stir each time the Jesus and Mary Chain pack the van up for another tour. (The band plays the Fillmore tonight.) They tell of the violence that used to stalk the Glasgow band back in the early days. You won't find these details in press releas ... More >>

A First Listen to The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Feat. Ke$ha, Erykah Badu, Bon Iver and More

I loved, loved the Flaming Lips' Embryonic, and find The Soft Bulletin to be a pretty magical cornucopia. Pretty big fan of 1995's Clouds Taste Metallic as well. Yet I've never considered for even a second if the Lips could be one of my Favorite Bands. They might've struck gold three-ish times, but ... More >>

Best of Coachella Weekend One: Saturday, April 14

See also: *The Best Of Coachella: Day One *"What My Spirit Hood Means To Me": Coachella-Goers Explain *Coachella Preview 2012: Everything You Need to Know About the Performers*Radiohead, Weekend 1: No Alarms, No Surprises Radiohead certainly had the most pre-festival buzz for Saturday, but once we ... More >>

Coachella in Your Backyard: Nine Good Local Shows That Aren't Sold Out

Noise Pop 2012: A Handy Guide to Our Complete Coverage

Christopher VictorioParty's over... 'till next year.​ Well, kids, it's over. Noise Pop's 20th anniversary has come and gone, leaving lots of sold-out shows, earsplitting climaxes, elated Tweets, credit-limit-busting cab fares, and wicked hangovers in its path. As we try to get this ringing out ... More >>

A Cold-Stricken J Mascis Talks About Dinosaur Jr. Playing Loud, SF Hippies, and the Relative Inferiority of Bug

Dinosaur Jr. plays the Fillmore this Thursday.​ The person whose job it is to get musicians to say interesting things over the phone already faces something of a challenge when interviewing J Mascis, singer-guitarist of Dinosaur Jr., and O.G. slacker of legendary proportions. Since the '80s, M ... More >>

Seventeen Evergreen Tells the Story Behind That Dazzling Video for "Polarity Song"

Seventeen Evergreen's Nephi Evans and Caleb Pate in the video for "Polarity Song"​ You've heard of yarn-bombing, yes? Well, in Seventeen Evergreen's video for the single "Polarity Song," an entire store full of people get yarn-bombed into one fantastical psychedelic universe. It's a capitvatin ... More >>

Treasure Island Day One: Chromeo and Cut Copy Get the Wild Crowds Moving

Christopher VictorioChromeo at Treasure Island on Saturday​ Cut Copy Chromeo Death From Above 1979, Battles, Dizzee Rascal, YACHT, The Naked & Famous October 15, 2011 Treasure Island Music Festival Better than: Any wanna-be Studio 54 club experience The genius of Treasure Island Music Festiv ... More >>

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

Broken Social Scene To Go on Hiatus After October S.F. Shows

Broken Social Scene at Treasure Island last year.​ Canadian art-rock collective Broken Social Scene is coming to the Bay Area at the beginning of next month for two shows on Oct 1: One at the free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, and one at the not-free Fillmore. But while we've grown used ... More >>

Sizzle & Fizzle: Outside Lands Edition

Yeasayer Provide A Memorable Departure From Indie Rock Monotony, Smith Westerns, Not So Much

Joseph SchellChris Keating of Yeasayer​Yeasayer Smith Westerns May 26, 2011 @ The Fillmore Better Than: Every other afternoon set at the Pitchfork Music Festival Indie rock bands like Yeasayer are a dime a dozen on the modern touring circuit. Feel like augmenting the typical guitar, bass and ... More >>

Broaden Your Horizons with a Free Sampler from the Mission's Porto Franco Records

Seth Ford Young has a moody take on Satie's "Gnossienne #1"​Pause the MGMT, get over your Fleet Foxes obsession, give up on Lady Gaga, and shove this in your ears instead: A new Spring 2011 Sampler from the Mission's own Porto Franco Records, featuring a bunch of talented local artists making the ... More >>

S.F.'s Papercuts Make a Dreamy, Stunning Sub Pop Debut

A Stoned Moan with J Mascis and Several Shades of Why

​ This week's joint: J Mascis' Several Shades Of Why ​Behind the Buzz: To Dinosaur Jr. fans, the idea of a J Mascis acoustic album fails to spring unbidden into the mind's ear. On blunderbuss masterpieces like 1987's You're Living All Over Me, mainman Mascis founded a durably influential heavy ... More >>

Win Tickets to See Dom and Melted Toys This Wednesday at Rickshaw Stop

Dom performing in NYC. Pic by Rob Harvilla.​As far as recent, ecstatic synth-rock anthems go, it's hard to beat Dom's "Living in America." The song sounds more MGMT than MGMT has sounded since, well, Oracular Spectacular. (Just admit it, you kind of miss "Time To Pretend.") "Living In America" gro ... More >>

DeVotchKa: Show Preview

Arcade Fire's Grammy Upset: Indie Kids Win the Big Award

​When Arcade Fire, led by gregarious frontman Win Butler, won Album Of The Year at the 53rd Grammys in an upset last night, it sparked a firestorm of online discussion and sent the indie community, led by tastemaker publication Pitchfork, into a virtual priapism. The Best Album Grammy usually ... 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 >>

Stopping piracy: How ultracheap downloads could save the music industry

Canada's PS I Love You Spread the Love Stateside on First Tour

Vanessa Heins​San Francisco, meet PS I Love You. They're new here, and they're psyched to meet you. The Kingston, Ontario duo of Paul Saulnier and Benjamin Nelson are a few dates into their first U.S. tour, weathering the ups and downs of the road and bringing their clamorous caterwaul to the ador ... More >>

Grab the First Single From Weekend's Debut Album, 'Coma Summer'

Brian Vu​When will shoegaze go out of fashion? If bands like San Francisco's Weekend keep making songs like "Coma Summer," not for a while. Like the pioneers of the genre, My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain, Weekend bury its vulnerability and its hooks in barbed-wire blankets of feed ... More >>

You've Gotta Give 'Em Hope

10 Bands To See at Outside Lands This Weekend

A stage at Outside Lands 2009​It may not be the greatest Outside Lands lineup ever, but this weekend's big-honkin' music (and wine and food!) festival packs a bicycle basket-full of bands we're stroked (heh, we mean stoked) to see. Here, in no particular order, are 10 of them, plus a few honorable ... More >>

We Read the Arcade Fire Reviews (And Collected Their Best Lines) So You Don't Have To

Are you a yea, or nay?​I came this close (<-->) to committing my own gushing, laudatory thoughts on the Arcade Fire's new album The Suburbs (out today) to type. Then I saw how many other gushing, laudatory thoughts had already been published, blogged and tweeted. So rather than walk you ... More >>

Built to Spill and Fauxbois at Slim's

Joseph Schell​Built to SpillSlim'sJuly 15, 2010Better than: if Paul McCartney went indie (yup. I went there)When Doug Martsch sings, it's unclear whether he wants to woo the mic or eat the mic. Either way is fine with his fans -- as long as he's singing, and as long as the band keeps playing. At l ... More >>

Best Albums of 2010: We Roundup the Lists

Jason NocitoBeach House tops many critics' Best of 2010 lists​Music publications love to compile their personal (though not always eclectic) tastes into easily digestible lists of loves, hates, bests, and worsts, and that's largely because music fans love reading them. While some tastemakers wait ... More >>

The Prids Are All Right

The Ghosts of Outside Lands Past

Now that this year's Outside Lands lineup has been released in full and stayed true to its lil-bit-hippie-lil-but-hip-hop roots and the folk vs. funk vibe, will you be forking over some coin when the tickets go on sale tomorrow? How do you think this year's lineup fares with those of previous years? ... More >>

Concert preview: Roky Erickson & Okkervil River

Over the Weekend: Yo La Tengo and Sic Alps at the Fillmore

Yo La Tengo, Sic Alps April 24, 2010 The Fillmore Better than: Art rock is supposed to be. "All I can say is that I hope you all get an opportunity to play this place," Ira Kaplan gushed at one point Saturday, acknowledging the tour-de-force conclusion to Yo La Tengo's three-night stint at the Fil ... More >>

Yeasayer pushes into new weird pop

Concert preview: Jonsi

December's best holiday music events

A Place to Bury Strangers

Boom Riggins

Bon Iver

J. Tillman slips out from under Fleet Foxes’ radar

The Dodos 

Time to Die  (Frenchkiss)

Track of the Day: Yo La Tengo

Steve Gullick​Yo La Tengo is one of those bands that fell into a deep slump for a number of years. After sparking the indie rock imagination early on, they released a number of predictable, zzzz-inducing records that made few waves and broke little new ground. I say all this as a set up to their n ... More >>

Last Night: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Girls at the Rickshaw Stop

Sandy KimGirls: None of those females are actually in the bandThe Pains of Being Pure at Heart, GirlsTuesday, July 21, 2009Rickshaw StopBetter than: Being at Popscene in the late '90s.There's a point in every great band's career when its hometown crowds realize something has changed, and definitely ... More >>

New Dodos Record Due This Fall

Big news from the Dodos camp this morning. The local indie pop act finished up work on its third full-length, Time To Die, which will come out September 15, while also expanding its membership by one. Time to Die was recorded in Seattle with famed producer Phil Ek, the man behind many of the big Nor ... More >>

King Sunny Adé's legnthy reign

British Sea Power

Almost Gold

The Jesus and Mary Chain: From required records to artificial rip-offs