Paul Simon

Bouncer Falls in Love With Lolinda

Signal to Noise: Benoit & Sergio Pick Five Influential Songs

There really isn't anybody else like Benoit & Sergio. Based out of Washington D.C. and Berlin, the duo has spent the past couple years supplying dancefloors with strange athems that combine '80s pop appeal with slick tech-house aesthetics, leading some publications to describe them as Ricardo Villal ... More >>

Top 10 Best Places for Fried Chicken in San Francisco

These days it seems that chefs must constantly compete to remain relevant in modern culinary culture. Especially in San Francisco, where food trends roll in and out with the fog. But no matter the direction the most recent current shifts or what the latest fuss is about, there will always be a place ... More >>

Bob Dylan's Tempest: A First Listen

Bob Dylan is 71. Always-strong critical showings from such septuagenarian contemporaries as Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, and Tom Zé still don't even come close to his towering impact. After all, they weren't presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He's probably the only musician in America ... More >>

The 50 Best Rolling Stone Special Issues Ever

A magazine that you sometimes see in the waiting rooms of tire stores, Rolling Stone remains tirelessly dedicated to reporting on its own place in the history of the teensy sliver of music that its publisher enjoys. To that end, the august rag is forever publishing important lists ranking the best m ... More >>

Q&A: Philip Glass on Collaboration, Minimalism, and His Henry Miller Library Benefit Show with Joanna Newsom

Popular, influential, and cult musicians come through San Francisco every day. But it isn't every day when an event comes along that you know will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and serve a good cause. On Monday, Philip Glass' Days and Nights Festival and local promoter (((folkYEAH!))) presen ... More >>

Black + White For A Night

Popular, influential, and cult musicians come through San Francisco every day. But it isn't every day when an event comes along that you know will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and serve a good cause. On Monday, Philip Glass' Days and Nights Festival and local promoter (((folkYEAH!))) presen ... More >>

Kool and The Gang's Robert "Kool" Bell on Opening for Van Halen

It was shocking enough when Van Halen announced live dates with David Lee Roth this year. But the group's choice of pop-funk favorites Kool and the Gang as opening act only raised more eyebrows. Maybe it isn't that strange, though: When we saw the two bands together earlier this year at Madison Squ ... More >>

Before Rufus Wainwright's "Out of the Game": Top Five Music Videos Where Celebrities Lip-Synch

Rufus Wainwright, dapper dandy and San Francisco favorite, just released a music video for the title track of his forthcoming album, Out of the Game, which is slated for release April 23. The video features a prim and surprisingly ordinary (dare we say, boring and predictable) Helena Bonham Carter a ... More >>

Paul Simon Will Headline This Year's Black and White Ball

Paul Simon is the marquee name leading the 2012 Black and White Ball at Davies Symphony Hall on June 2. Whether he'll perform career-spanning hits, selections from his recent Songwriter album, or both, hasn't been confirmed. But regardless of the set list, Simon and his touring musicians will have o ... More >>

Lights Down Low: Show Preview

Paul Simon is the marquee name leading the 2012 Black and White Ball at Davies Symphony Hall on June 2. Whether he'll perform career-spanning hits, selections from his recent Songwriter album, or both, hasn't been confirmed. But regardless of the set list, Simon and his touring musicians will have o ... More >>

The Top Five Weird And Wonderful Music Scenes Championed By Diplo

The second installment in the Blow Your Head compilation series, released today, underscores Diplo's status as the world's most persuasive musical archaeologist. Released on Mad Decent, the record label run by the DJ, producer, and former darling of M.I.A., it focuses on the newly-created sub-genre ... More >>

The Subversive Beauty of tUnE-yArDs

The second installment in the Blow Your Head compilation series, released today, underscores Diplo's status as the world's most persuasive musical archaeologist. Released on Mad Decent, the record label run by the DJ, producer, and former darling of M.I.A., it focuses on the newly-created sub-genre ... More >>

Last Night: The Tallest Man on Earth and The Nurses at The Independent

Joseph Schell​The Tallest Man on Earth and The NursesThe IndependentMay 09, 2010Better than: Pie. But not momma's homemade pie. Nothing beats that.Here are a few things fans who came to The Independent learned about The Tallest Man on Earth:- He knows how to make music. From the moment h ... More >>

Last Night: Vampire Weekend and Abe Vigoda at the Fox

Photo of a previous Vampire Weekend show by Moses Namkung​Vampire WeekendThe Fox TheaterApril 19, 2010Better Than: getting bitten by a vampire wearing high-tops, skinny jeans, and shaggy bangs.Last night, the Columbia grads of Vampire Weekend, led by frontman Ezra Koening and his impressive falset ... More >>

Spanish Harlem Orchestra

Photo of a previous Vampire Weekend show by Moses Namkung​Vampire WeekendThe Fox TheaterApril 19, 2010Better Than: getting bitten by a vampire wearing high-tops, skinny jeans, and shaggy bangs.Last night, the Columbia grads of Vampire Weekend, led by frontman Ezra Koening and his impressive falset ... More >>

What Song Should Be the Giants' Late-Inning Theme? Your Input Is Requested.

​Yesterday, the Chronicle's Henry Schulman penned a truly entertaining article about how former Journey frontman Steve Perry is peeved because the Dodgers play "Don't Stop Believin'" when the team needs a rally in the bottom of the ninth -- and Perry is a Giants fan. Any article in which Perry utt ... More >>

Political Satire, Like Prostitution, is Being Ruined By Amateurs

THIS is how you make fun of progressive supervisors! I have a message for the four new Supervisors: Hello. My name is Benjamin. And my job is to say much, much, funnier things about you than anybody did last night. Last night, of course, was the "Roasted Supes" party, which is a vaguely cle ... More >>

Top Ten Americana Albums of 2008

By Noah W. Bailey Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen ... More >>

Afropop in 2008

By Noah W. Bailey Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen ... More >>

Last Night: Treasure Island Day 2

By Noah W. Bailey Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen ... More >>

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Vetiver

To Find Me Gone

R. Kelly and the Fall of the rock empire

To Find Me Gone

Islands

Return to the Sea

Tortoise and Bonnie "Prince" Billy

The Brave and the Bold

Misc. Reviews

If it's kinda, sorta music-related, we'll review it. This Week: The Dick Cavett Show -- Rock Icons DVD.

BeatBox

The pioneering Platinum Pied Pipers give neo-soul its due; "The Club Scene" at the Endup is the real deal

Various Artists

Songs From the Street: 35 Years of Music

Kiss Me, Sons of God

Gigantic nearly deifies They Might Be Giants -- and why not?

Amy Allison

No Frills Friend

Radiohead

Hail to the Thief

A New Tune

After September 11, some new songs just don't sound the same

The Best Ambassador Money Can Buy?

Republican mega-donor Howard Leach is reportedly headed to France. At least we're not sending him to an important country.

Various Artists

The Best of Broadside 1962-1988: Anthems of the American Underground From the Pages of Broadside Magazine (Smithsonian Folkways)

Listen to the Movie

Almost Famous rings in your ears -- and heart -- long after it's over

Meet Virginia

From the slums of Brazil, Virginia Rodrigues has emerged as one of the world's most enchanting voices

Night & Day

From the slums of Brazil, Virginia Rodrigues has emerged as one of the world's most enchanting voices

Poetic Injustice

From the slums of Brazil, Virginia Rodrigues has emerged as one of the world's most enchanting voices

Riff Raff

From the slums of Brazil, Virginia Rodrigues has emerged as one of the world's most enchanting voices

Second Time Around

From the slums of Brazil, Virginia Rodrigues has emerged as one of the world's most enchanting voices