San Francisco Bay Area

Shuck and Jive: Drakes Bay Oyster Company Forces a Redefinition of Environmentalism

Pollution Report: San Francisco Can Breathe Easy. No, Really, It Can!

If walking the hills of San Francisco to get to your parked car leaves you totally breathless, well, sadly, it's you, not the city. The American Lung Association this morning released its latest air report, showing that San Francisco has some pretty damn clean air. Not only did we "pass" our annual ... More >>

Tomahawk's Trevor Dunn on Why There Won't Be a Mr. Bungle Reunion

Even if you don't recognize his name, you've probably heard Trevor Dunn's music. In addition to leading his own groups Trio-Convulsant and Mad Love, he's a perpetually in-demand, bi-coastal bassist equally adept at jazz, classical, and death metal. That schizophrenic skill set led him from his stint ... More >>

Muni Tries to Teach Riders the Real Meaning of the Word "Jihad"

As much grief as Muni got over its "Defeat Jihad" ads it ran last summer, it's somewhat surprising to learn that the transit agency would want to risk starting a holy war in San Francisco. According to ABC, for the next few weeks, buses in San Francisco will be carrying more than just passengers - ... More >>

The 10 Best Bay Area Rap Anthems of 2012

2012 was a fertile year for Bay Area rap, a time when the intellectual, the brazen, the sexed-up, and the chilled-out all took center stage at one point or another. There were songs that inspired dances, songs of Bay Area pride and protest, and more of that straight mack flow that still bumps around ... More >>

Top Five New Years Eve Parties in San Francisco

As usual, New Year's Eve in San Francisco looks to be a pretty eventful evening. There's a lot to choose from -- so much that it can be hard to figure out what's good and what's cheesy. To put you on the path away from amateur hour, we've assembled this list for your perusal. Read on -- 2013 awaits.

Thizzler's Bay Area Freshmen 10 Cypher: Local Hip-Hop Tries To Get Its Game On

By RACHEL SWAN Bay Area Freshmen 10 Class of 2011 Star Cypher Rafael Casal, Richie Cunning, Mike-Dash-E, Show Banga, Young Bari, Damey, Young Gully, Lil Rae, Symba, Cousin Fix, Nikatine Da King, Shady Blaze, Erik Tha Jerk, Mistah FAB, Stevie Joe, Big Rich, Bailey Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012 Brick & Mortar ... More >>

See Food: A Guide to Local Culinary Television

The successes of the Food Network and the Top Chef franchise have opened the doors for more food-related television both locally and nationally. Fortunately, with the assistance of DVRs and the fact that certain stations screen full episodes online, gone are the days when you'd have to wait until th ... More >>

Celebrate Bay Area Food at This Weekend's Eat Real Festival

Eat Real Festival Where: Jack London Square, Oakland When: Fri., Sept. 21 - Sun., Sept. 23 Cost: Free Over the past four years, across the bay, an annual institution has been not-so-quietly becoming the Bay Area's premiere food event. Hosted by Oakland's Food Craft Institute, the Eat Real Festival ... More >>

Is "Brooklynization" Killing Regional Music Scenes? Not This One

"What this essay is saying: There is a tidal wave of generic, mushy, apolitical, featureless, Brooklynish music infiltrating the world's stereos. " Over at Washington City Paper, Justin Moyer makes a rather roundabout case that "Brooklynization" -- the centralization of bands, media/blogs, labels, ... More >>

Bay Area Poverty Is Growing Faster in Suburbia Than in Urban Areas

Suburban poverty is a relatively new phenomenon. For the past 60 or so years, the suburbs have traditionally represented the American Dream. Work hard, play by the rules, and it'll all be yours-- the crisp lawn, white fence, two-car garage, little league practice, backyard tree-house, etc -- and you ... More >>

Get Artisan Ice Cream Delivered to Your Door

No need to chase down the ice cream man or head to the corner store for a pint of Ben & Jerry's anymore -- Tin Pot Creamery, a new ice cream company in the Bay Area, makes snagging dessert easier than ever by hand-delivering quarts right to your front door. Pastry chef Becky Sunseri and partner/ f ... More >>

Das Racist's Kool A.D. Drops an Ode to the Bay Area

Chron Ships Your Concerns (And Their Journalism) Overseas

It was almost old news by the time it reached my steps. The Chronicle's delivery person was bringing the newspaper later and later. It slipped back from 6:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. and then 7:45 a.m. -- when I was getting ready to leave for work. One morning I saw the driver launching the paper out his wind ... More >>

Top 10 Reasons Bay Area Indie Bands Move to Brooklyn

Bay Area bands move to Brooklyn. It's just a thing that happens. You've got your Morning Benders (ahem, POP ETCs), your Royal Baths, and now S.F. gloom-gaze outfit Weekend trading Oakland (formerly S.F.) for the hallowed grounds of Williamsburg or Bushwick or Greenpoint or wherever. But why? Why do ... More >>

Cops Nab Pimps and Johns in Prostitution Sting

The SFPD, in conjunction with the FBI, conducted a prostitution sweep last week in which they nabbed seven men across the Bay Area, and rescued 60-plus women who had been working as prostitutes. Two of those arrests were in San Francisco: Jonathon Thomas, a 23-year-old "john" soliciting prostituti ... More >>

Gwar's Oderus Urungus on Eating Crack, Dining on Mexicans, and Cultivating STDs

It must be difficult being billions of years old and living amongst the repulsive society of the human species, but our interview with Gwar frontman Oderus Urungus reveals that he has found certain simple pleasures to temper his hatred. The extraterrestrial heavy metal legend loudly snorted and burp ... More >>

The Bay Area Has Only One Club in the World's Top 100, According to Pollstar. Huh?

Update: Aaron Siuda, vice president of marketing at Live Nation Northern California, says that his firm generally does not report ticket sales to Pollstar. But he said if it had provided numbers, the Fillmore would have been in the Top 10 clubs on the Pollstar list. (Shoreline, also a Live Nation ve ... More >>

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

Author Brian Lew on the Early Days of Metallica and the Bay Area Thrash Metal Scene

Brian Lew Cliff Burton playing live with Metallica for the first time at the Stone in San Francisco, 1983​ See more of our Metallica Week coverage: Six Signs of Metallica's Pervasive Influence on Pop Culture Metallica Kicks off Its 30th Anniversary Week with Notable Guests, Rare Songs, and L ... More >>

Signal to Noise: Five Hot Dance Cuts From Local Producers

With all the music floating around the Internet, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that there are a ton of talented local producers. This week's edition of Signal to Noise is riffing off that theme, with five tracks from Bay Area-related artists that produce in such diverse fields as house, U ... More >>

Comprehensive Guide to CSAs in San Francisco: Meat, Eggs, Dairy, Etc.

A CSA meat package from Marin Sun Farms​Many people tend to think of CSAs only for fruits and vegetables, but in the Bay Area we're also blessed with a variety of meatier options. We've done the work of finding the farmers; now all you have to do is place your order and start up the grill. In ... More >>

Insurgent Hip-Hop: Kreayshawn, Lil B, and Bay Area Rappers Throw Out the Rules

San Franciscans Are Too Negative

Debbie Downer. Born and raised in San Francisco ​How quickly we take for granted our City by the Bay. Nevermind the fact that we live within the beautiful backdrop of iconic places like the Golden Gate Bridge. Forget that we won the World Series last year or that we enjoy sex more regularly than m ... More >>

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

Video Proof That Children Love Nobunny -- Or at Least Squeezing His Nose

Nobunny. With children!​ Awesome of the day, right here: Rabbit-faced Bay Area garage-rocker Nobunny -- a favorite of sweaty rock fans from 924 Gilman to Bottom of the Hill -- is on tour right now. While in Chicago, he appeared (for the second time!) on a children's musical show called Chic-A- ... More >>

DJ Prince Aries Talks Bay Area Rap, Loving Too $hort, and Why Busta Rhymes Is a Jerk

Prince Aries​Prince Aries has been a presence in the Bay Area's hip-hop scene for more than a decade now, holding down VJ duties on the Distortion 2 Static show, throwing local rap parties, and now releasing a mixtape that combines exclusive tracks from the Bay's bright new stars like DaVinci ... More >>

Helpful Advice: How To Survive NOT Going To SXSW

This week, thousands of music lovers, wayward drunks, and music industry folk have descended upon Austin, Texas, for the 2011 South By Southwest music "conference" (yeah, right). If you're still here at home in the Bay Area, the reality that you're missing five days of non-stop free music/beer/b ... More >>

Obama to Make Another Trip to S.F. -- Where the Money Is

California ... where hope awaits Obama​Less than three months after dining with Bay Area high-tech leaders on their turf, President Barack Obama will be making another appearance here in April where he's planning to talk about the economy -- again. White House officials told the Chronicle today th ... More >>

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

Obama to Come to Bay Area This Week to Talk Jobs

Yes, we still can ​The day after Speaker of the House John Boehner called President Barack Obama's budget plan a job killer, the White House announced the president will be making a West Coast swing through the San Francisco Bay Area to address the one thing we really, really need: jobs.The White ... More >>

Zion I and The Grouch Reunite for Sophomore LP Heroes in the Healing of the Nation

​ In 2006, Zion I and The Grouch, two of the bigger names in Bay Area hip-hop, teamed up to deliver Heroes in the City of Dope. The album turned out to be a refreshing collaboration, full of exquisite wordplay and rubbery, hyphy-inspired production. It also served as a return to form for two acts ... More >>

Yule Log Burns On

That's the basic idea...​Is it a sign of the decline and fall of western civilization or, rather, a wonderful thing that one of the Bay Area's highest-rated Christmas TV programs is simply footage of a log burning -- for hours? By now you know: The answer is "yes."  The "holiday log" once aga ... More >>

Green Day's Tour Homecoming Hits Shoreline Amphitheatre

Christopher Victorio​Green Day AFI Shoreline Amphitheatre September 4, 2010 (Far) better than: A skeptical old Green Day fan would expect. "HOME! HOME! I'M FUCKING HOME!" erupted Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong at Shoreline Amphitheatre on Saturday, his first words after ... More >>

'Rapping Weatherman' Nick Kosir Hired By KRON

The rapping weatherman brings it ... to San Francisco​Rich Lieberman's Media 415 site is reporting that KRON is hiring a new weatherman. Now, talent comes and goes (mostly goes) with brutal regularity here in the world of Bay Area televised news. But what makes this internecine media report of a p ... More >>

Fillmore MC DaVinci on the Mixed Bag of Gentrification, and Why His Music Isn't Throwback Rap

Ken TaylorDaVinci​Easily the most surprising and refreshing hip-hop record to come out of the Bay Area this year is the first album from DaVinci, The Day the Turf Stood Still. Not only did that record revitalize this writer's faith in local hip-hop, but praise for the massive debut has come f ... More >>

T.G.I. Frisco: San Francisco's Dearth of Chain Restaurants

Kevin Y./YelpOkay, so we do have an Olive Garden out near S.F. State.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Yesterday at LA Weekly's Squid Ink, SFoodie's sister food blog with the WTF name, editor Amy Scattergood passed along a list from Nation's Restaurant News of America's 15 favorite casual- ... More >>

A Look Back at Michael Jackson's Bay Area Appearances

Michael Jackson never graced the Bay Area with a solo show, though the Jackson 5 did perform its second official concert as a Motown act at San Francisco's Cow Palace on June 19, 1970, appearing as the opening act for Tina Turner and Rare Earth; they returned to the venue in 1972 and 1973. J5 wa ... More >>

Symposium Ponders Future of Local Filipino Cuisine. Could It Be Vegetarian?

Jun BelenAmy Besa of Brooklyn's Purple Yam, conducting a cooking demo. ​It was a busy weekend for Filipino food enthusiasts, as the Asian Culinary Forum hosted the city's first symposium on Filipino food at the International Culinary School in Civic Center. Filipino chefs, food historians, and ... More >>

A Local Resource Guide to Kombucha

anitasarkeesian/FlickrSCOBY doo!​You've asked for it, dear readers, and a lovely New York Times article mentioning our tongue-in-cheek thought that kombucha tea could become the new bacon has caused lovers of SCOBY (the symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast from which kombucha is brewed) from ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

SXSW 2010 Showgoers' Guide to Bay Area Acts

Eight Drinks That Give You the Energy of a Rapper

Janine KahnClick here for a full rapper energy drink slideshow.Even with all the vibrant energy contained in hip-hop, sometimes people need an extra little kick in order to take in the multitude of offerings the culture has to give. That's why rap-branded energy drinks are a good synergy of lifestyl ... More >>

Black electronic acts break beats and assumptions

Ding-Dong! Who Is It? EARTHQUAKE! ... Could Alarm's Ring Reveal Quakes?

Must Work for Free

By not paying their interns, some Bay Area publications may be violating the state labor code

Jackpot

How four tiny Indian tribes, with help from powerful gambling interests, are trying to transform the Bay Area into a slot machine Mecca

Feast of the Senses

The films may have been silent, but the food spoke volumes