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

Google To Announce New Streaming Music Service Wednesday, and It Won't Be Free

Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 15, Google's annual I/O conference kicks off at the Moscone Center here in San Francisco. And according to tech site the Verge, the Internet giant will use the occasion to announce a new streaming music service designed to compete with Spotify and Rdio. Why a music subscrip ... More >>

Noise Pop: Starfucker and Blackbird Blackbird Bring the Beats to Regency Ballroom

Starfucker Blackbird Blackbird Regency Ballroom March 1, 2013 Better than: That second time you saw Phoenix, this time at an arena. Midway through Starfucker's Noise Pop set at the Regency Ballroom, something strange is happening. The band is in the middle of strumming the opening moments to the b ... More >>

National Day of Unplugging: 5 Things You Can Do Instead of Stalking People on Facebook

If the thought of "unplugging" for an entire day makes you feel empty and useless, that's because you are, thanks to all this ubiquitous technology. But guess what, on Friday you will have a chance to hop out of your digital vortex and detox from technology for an entire 24 hours for this year's N ... More >>

Troubled Music Biz Draws More Venture Money

One in every 43 venture-capital dollars in 2012 was invested in music-oriented startups, according to Digital Music News. "Is this a simple case of dumb money," the site asks, "or the beginnings of a totally new industry?" Why can't it be both?

Holy Ship!! Wrap-Up: It Was the Best of Times....

There were a lot of grim faces on Monday morning as the electro-loving masses emerged off the MSC Poesia -- a.k.a. the EDM party boat Holy Ship!! -- and did a slow zombie shuffle through U.S. customs and back into the real world (a.k.a. Fort Lauderdale). Here in the industrial port, the sky was over ... More >>

Napster-Hating Metallica Comes to Jesus, Er, Spotify

Nearly 13 years after suing Napster, the filesharing site that started it all, the grouchy old men of Metallica have had a come-to-Jesus of sorts with the power of the Interwebz: Today, drummer Lars Ulrich announced that Metallica's music will be coming to Spotify. He even gave Napster co-founder a ... More >>

Why Do We Share Music?

Today, I opened Spotify for the first time since spring. Waiting in my inbox was a playlist thoughtfully compiled by one of my closest friends. She sent it to me in August. Now, almost 70 days have passed. In that time, we've spoken on the phone nearly every day and met up at least a couple dozen ti ... More >>

Bob Dylan's Senile Sublime

How Obama and Romney Are Presiding Over the Death of the Campaign Song

Last week in Charlotte, Bill Clinton stepped to a podium in front of his party's delegation and delivered a speech. Maybe you saw it? What I remember are words -- lots of words. Some of them wrapped around statistics, others glaring back at me like bumper stickers on chrome. Clinton's words flowed f ... More >>

Changing Keys: Martuni's Piano Bar Thrives in a Karaoke World

Summer Audio Roundup: Headphones and Amps For Out-and-About Listening

Summer is the season of getting pumped, and that doesn't just mean showing off all the work you put into getting in swimsuit shape. Summer is the season of the pop song, of high energy exploding from every open window, of Carly Rae Jepsen and Japandroids and Rita Ora and Calvin Harris and Passion Pi ... More >>

The Copyright Standoff: Technology Pits Bad Rules vs. No Rules

Top Five Ways (Almost) Every Music Fan Is a Hypocrite

Hypocrisy is as essential a part of the human condition as shit and TV reruns. Our capacity for saying one thing and doing another is stupendous: Find a full, unredacted record, and we bet you'd find examples of self-contradiction even in the otherwise pristinely principled life of Ghandi. Even Moth ... More >>

Facebook's E-mail Hijack Is Part of a Pattern of Arrogance

If it wasn't clear before, it should be now: Facebook doesn't think much of you. Or of me, or of any of its (supposedly) 900 million users. We are products, not customers. The customers are the people who buy the incredibly cheap, often sleazy ads that Facebook sells. The latest datapoint supportin ... More >>

The Tower Records Project Wants Your Help Remembering the Former Record Retail Giant

If you're one of those music fans who actually buys recordings -- instead of, you know, downloading your entire library out of ignorance, stupidity, and/or laziness -- chances are you remember Tower Records, the iconic, Sacramento-based chain whose abandoned locations still haunt certain San Francis ... More >>

Laughs and Drudgery: An Afternoon at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone Studio

SF Weekly Letters

Music Labels Make Life Tough for Spotify

​Patrick Carney of the Black Keys is not a fan of Sean Parker, to say the least. Parker is an "asshole," Carney told NME.com on Monday. It's hard to blame Carney, though his rage might seem a bit misdirected -- or maybe just too concentrated on one person. Parker of course was the guy who brought ... More >>

In Defense of the CD: Why We Should Keep Them Around

In Print: Defending the Lowly CD From Oblivion

From the latest edition of SF Weekly: In Defense of the CD: No one loves CDs. The cool kids today want to either dig through crates of dusty old vinyl or pay four times too much for the new stuff. The even cooler kids spend actual money on godawful cassette tapes. And everyone else under age 40 has ... More >>

KSFO Recalls Andrew Breitbart Saying "Progressivism in San Francisco Has Ruined This Wonderful Town."

The most interesting time to listen to talk radio is a day with fresh news, because it demands actual thinking from hosts who usually just spend hours each week spewing forth librul-hatin' nonsense as canned and same-y as soft-serve coming from a spigot. That's why SF Weekly spent a chunk of this mo ... More >>

SF MusicTech 2012: New Technology Isn't Helping Musicians Make More Money

Yesterday, Japantown's Hotel Kabuki filled up with hundreds of pale-faced tech nerds wearing blazers-and-jeans combos. These inventors and couriers of music technology spent the day arguing about the perks and pitfalls of various technologies at the 10th SF MusicTech Summit. Two highlights from the ... More >>

Why You Should Fake It on Facebook

​I went out on a first date with a girl who is also a recently added Facebook friend. During dinner she kept bringing up things I had already read about on FB, but I lied and pretended like I didn't know because that's creepy, right? At what point am I allowed to admit I FB stalk her? A month? Lon ... More >>

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

Music Links: Drake and Weezy in the Bay, Loud Talkers at Concerts, and More

Drake hangin' with Mistah FAB on the set of his video shoot in Oakland. Photo via SoulCulture.​ So, Drake and Lil Wayne were in the Bay Area last weekend, shooting a video for "The Motto." [East Bay Express] A worthy screed about awful loud talkers during a Weakerthans show at the Independent ... More >>

The Stop Online Piracy Act: The Owner of San Francisco's Burning House Records Explains His Support

​You've probably heard some rumblings about the Stop Online Piracy Act recently. And in all likelihood -- especially if you watch major news channels like CNN -- it's probably all sounded pretty bad and pretty scary. Casey Shafer owns and runs Burning House Records -- an independent, San Francisco ... More >>

Indie Labels Team Up to Launch Discovery Site the New Record, Which Doesn't Quite Work Yet

​Our curiosity was piqued this morning upon hearing that about 30 independent record labels -- including greats like Kill Rock Stars, Sub Pop, Anti-, and Daptone -- have partnered to create a new music discovery site called The New Record. Unfortunately, we've been trying to download MP3s fro ... More >>

Oakland Rapper Kreayshawn Hates Oakland's Best Pizza

​You might know Kreayshawn from the thousands of articles about her on every music blog and reasonably hip magazine (including this one!) Or you might know her from that one song she did -- and when we say "one song," we mean that literally.But you certainly don't know her as this: one of the many ... More >>

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

Facebook's Newest Blight: The Ticker

​Recently, to check to see whether my keyboard was working, I randomly slapped some keys. I happened to have Facebook open at the time and I ended up entering what I typed -- "jmjyttyj"-- into its people search. I got three hits. There is no member named jmjyttyj, but Facebook helpfully pointed me ... More >>

Now You Need to Have Facebook to Sign Up For Spotify

​ Last week's Facebook f8 conference meant a windfall of new users for Spotify, after it teamed with Facebook to allow users to share their music listening. But the increased cooperation also comes at what some call a heavy cost: Starting today, newcomers to Spotify need have to have a Facebo ... More >>

Snoop Dogg, The Killers, and Jane's Addiction Soundtrack the Opulence at a Facebook/Spotify Party (Photos)

Snoop Dogg. Photographs courtesy of Julie Schugard for Spotify​ Open bars of oysters, sushi, wine and cheese, and lots booze. Sound too good to be true? How about adding surprise musical entertainment by the Killers, Jane's Addiction, Snoop Dogg, and Kaskade? Yep, it happened. Last night's p ... More >>

Absolutely Kosher Founder Cory Brown Picks 10 Unsung Releases He (Especially) Loved

​[Editor's note: After hearing this week that Berkeley indie label Absolutely Kosher plans to stop releasing new music this fall, we talked to label founder and owner Cory Brown about what happened and wrote a too-long, very bummed-out piece about it. We also asked if Brown would be interested ... 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.

Andy Samberg Pulls Out His Mark Zuckerberg Impression at Facebook Conference

While the big news out of f8, Facebook's annual conference for developers, was the introduction of Timeline and their partnership with Spotify, Rhapsody, Turntable.fm, MOG and more, what really got the crowd's attention was an intro by Andy Samberg. As spotted over at SFist, Samberg started the c ... More >>

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 >>

Long Live the Triptych: Five Great Series of Three Rock Songs

In visual art, it's called a triptych -- a piece divided into three connected sections or panels. The individual panels could, in theory, stand on their own, but each adds meaning and significance to the other two, creating a single work that is more than the sum of its parts. We don't have a name ... More >>

Top Five Reasons Spotify Kinda Sucks

​Yes, we know, everyone loves Spotify (even us). Yes, we know, free music is really sweet, and we feel pretty spoiled for even bringing this up. But Spotify has a ways to go before it's our favorite music app. Here are five things about the new-to-America streaming service that are kinda sucky ... More >>

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

The 6 Best Ways to Get Kicked Out a Turntable.fm Room

Welcome to your new home.​If you're like half the Internet (the lame half), you're currently infatuated with the newest reason the USA will soon only be known as China's once-great fallen rival: Turntable. This is the website that lets you DJ with friends and strangers instead of working, walk ... More >>

The Summer Anthem: Does It Get Better or Worse with Age?

​We pop music critics are wired in such a way that articulating a love for Aja and Scott Walker is significantly less difficult than articulating the love for the person we share a toothbrush with. We're a revolting phylum, I know. However, one notable exception is Rolling Stone editor Rob Sh ... More >>

Spofity Is Here -- Now! (Really!)

via EngadgetIf you can listen to Thee Oh Sees on Spotify, how bad can it be?​ After years of waiting, something finally came*: Spotify, the Europe-based music subscription service Americans have been drooling over for a long while, is up and running the U.S. as of today. You can go to that lin ... More >>

Spotify Might Be Taking Over Your Facebook Feed Next Week

What the future of your music listening might look like.​ Alright, fine, so we've written that "Spotify is coming soon" post like a million times now -- pretty much like any other media outlet that's excited to get their hands on the music service that makes Europe smile. This is sorta like th ... More >>

Spotify (Finally!) Announces U.S. Launch

​ After years of waiting, Spotify -- the Europe-only music-streaming service that U.S. techies have been lusting after for years -- has finally announced its plans to enter the U.S. market. Yes, really. So break out the champagne and reefer, or whatever. Unless you work for Apple, Rhapsody, P ... More >>

Google Launches Bummer of a Cloud-Based Music Service -- Blame the Big Labels

GoogleUpload your music to the cloud, and play it on all your devices.​ It's on. It's live. And, for a little while, anyway, it's free: Go here to request an invitation to Google's cloud music service, released today under the entirely unthrilling name Music Beta. So what's it do? We ran thro ... More >>

Spotify Is Coming to the U.S. Soon -- You Should Be Excited

What Spotify looks like​Over the past few weeks, streaming music startup Spotify has quietly been signing deals with the major U.S. music distributors as it prepares for a U.S. launch. But now that the Swedish firm has locked up EMI and Sony (with Universal in tow), it's also begun to hire people ... More >>

A Nerdy Love Poem Written Entirely in Song Titles (Pic)

​Well, here's our winner for geeky creation of the day. It's a poem written entirely in song titles using Spotify, a music-streaming service we sadly aren't able to use here in the U.S. To appreciate the full ridiculousness without hurting your eyes, read the large version here.[Geekosystem via Gi ... More >>

Cloud technology and the future of portable music