Steely Dan

Sylvie Simmons: S.F. Music Journalist, Rock 'n' Roll Detective

America's Cup Is Here: The Top 7 Things Every San Franciscan Needs to Know About Yacht Rock

Yacht Rock is a kind of smooth, soft rock made by men with pretty voices in the late '70s and early '80s. It's called "yacht rock" now (it wasn't then) because it's pretty much the ideal soundtrack for a crisp, smug, Topsider-wearing day on the water. Given that San Francisco is now in the throes o ... More >>

The Best of SXSW Music: Wednesday 3/14/2012

​If you're familiar with chaos theory, which in its basic form is the attempt to find patterns in the random acts of shit on Earth, then you may understand the difficulty that comes with describing a full day at SXSW. To break down the bright, scintillating chaos, Village Voice Media's roving musi ... More >>

Q&A: How Howlin' Rain Survived a Four-Year Hiatus, Worked with Rick Rubin, and Finished The Russian Wilds

Howlin' Rain​ By DAVE GIL DE RUBIO When Howlin' Rain's Ethan Miller answers the door of the Brooklyn flat he's borrowing from a friend, the disheveled hair and wildly scraggly beard he's sporting gives him the look of a modern-day Rip Van Winkle. In many ways, the analogy fits, given that it' ... More >>

Blow Gage with Ralph Carney's Serious Jass Project's Seriously

​Listen to this while high: Ralph Carney's Serious Jass Project's Seriously. ​ Behind the buzz: The subject line of the publicist's email mentioned something about Tom Waits' saxophonist, but the magic name of Ralph Carney dispelled any incipient attack of the whatevs. I mean, we're not talking ... More >>

Destroyer, Nine Albums In, Remains A Singular Band, Plays Monday at Great American Music Hall

Ted BoisThe answer, my friend, is blowing in my hair​ In the past ten years or so, there's been a proliferation of "bands" that are essentially one person, and whoever accompanies him or her on an album/tour. Perhaps it's a way for performers to "distance" themselves from being pigeonholed by a ... More >>

Jon Cohen (of The Jon Cohen Experimental) Answers The Call Tonight at Elbo Room

Their flower power is no match for my glower power​ After a decade or so ensconced in Montreal's honor-festooned indie rock scene, including stints with The Dears and The Social Register, Jonathan Cohen started his own eponymous collective. Not that "The Jon Cohen Experimental" should conjure ... More >>

Win Free Tickets to Tonight's Neon Indian Show!

Neon Indian sending out those chill waves live.​You know how to read, right? Of course you do--you're looking at this blog. Well, go ahead and double check that headline if you want, but yes, we are indeed giving away tickets to the Neon Indian and Prefuse 73 concert that's going down tonight at M ... More >>

Concept Concert

Stars perform their hook-heavy new record from start to finish on their current tour.

November Book Events: Howard Junker, Joshua Clover, Lierre Keith, and William S. Burroughs

Stars perform their hook-heavy new record from start to finish on their current tour.

Yacht Rock party

Stars perform their hook-heavy new record from start to finish on their current tour.

Hey DJ! Friday Q&A: Kool Karlo & Haightin' Clayton

 ​As you'll learn from today's DJ Q&A, Kool Karlo & Haightin' Clayton are quite fond of skate mags, plastic watering cans, and making Tuesdays into the new Fridays. (But they can also keep Fridays as the new Fridays, if you check Clayton out tonight.)The pair pull San Franciscans out ... More >>

Prince Paul Plays PST

Prince Paul Legendary producer Prince Paul (De La Soul/Gravediggaz/Handsome Boy Modeling School/Stetsasonic) drops through 330 Ritch's "PST" tonight for a rare DJ set.In case you don't know, PP is the guy who basically invented the alt.rap genre with his wacky, bugged-out production work on De La's ... More >>

John Vanderslice

Romanian Names (Dead Oceans)

Hey DJ! Friday Q&A: DJ Fender-Rose

What are your thoughts on Christopher Cross? Hall & Oates? Men with beards so tickly that kissing them makes you giggle? If you answered with a blush to any of these mentions, get thyself to the Attic on a Tuesday night, where you'll be swimming in soft rock with the Sailing DJs. Much like their u ... More >>

William S. Burroughs 95th Birthday Party Tonight at the Beat Museum

Photo courtesy of RE/Search Publications Next time you run across a brat of schoolchildren -- "brat" being the collective noun for any assemblage of kids under age 11 -- try to imagine which will be the first to get his or her mind blown by seminal William S. Burroughs books like Naked Lunch. How wi ... More >>

Slow Food Rocks Interview: Lillie Belle Farms

Photo courtesy of RE/Search Publications Next time you run across a brat of schoolchildren -- "brat" being the collective noun for any assemblage of kids under age 11 -- try to imagine which will be the first to get his or her mind blown by seminal William S. Burroughs books like Naked Lunch. How wi ... More >>

Half-Naked Twister, Steely Dan, Comic-Con and a Reality TV Overdose: Your Monday Morning Hangover

Photo courtesy of RE/Search Publications Next time you run across a brat of schoolchildren -- "brat" being the collective noun for any assemblage of kids under age 11 -- try to imagine which will be the first to get his or her mind blown by seminal William S. Burroughs books like Naked Lunch. How wi ... More >>

Saturday Night: Steely Dan at the Greek

Photo courtesy of RE/Search Publications Next time you run across a brat of schoolchildren -- "brat" being the collective noun for any assemblage of kids under age 11 -- try to imagine which will be the first to get his or her mind blown by seminal William S. Burroughs books like Naked Lunch. How wi ... More >>

Night Day: Calendar Picks for 6/11

Photo courtesy of RE/Search Publications Next time you run across a brat of schoolchildren -- "brat" being the collective noun for any assemblage of kids under age 11 -- try to imagine which will be the first to get his or her mind blown by seminal William S. Burroughs books like Naked Lunch. How wi ... More >>

Hey DJ! Friday Q&A: Baron Von Luxxury

Photo courtesy of RE/Search Publications Next time you run across a brat of schoolchildren -- "brat" being the collective noun for any assemblage of kids under age 11 -- try to imagine which will be the first to get his or her mind blown by seminal William S. Burroughs books like Naked Lunch. How wi ... More >>

Reports from the Road: Bun B's "II Trill" release party

Photo courtesy of RE/Search Publications Next time you run across a brat of schoolchildren -- "brat" being the collective noun for any assemblage of kids under age 11 -- try to imagine which will be the first to get his or her mind blown by seminal William S. Burroughs books like Naked Lunch. How wi ... More >>

Why? Covers Bob Dylan

Photo courtesy of RE/Search Publications Next time you run across a brat of schoolchildren -- "brat" being the collective noun for any assemblage of kids under age 11 -- try to imagine which will be the first to get his or her mind blown by seminal William S. Burroughs books like Naked Lunch. How wi ... More >>

Texas spitter Scarface Tells SF Weekly His Top '07 Albums

Photo courtesy of RE/Search Publications Next time you run across a brat of schoolchildren -- "brat" being the collective noun for any assemblage of kids under age 11 -- try to imagine which will be the first to get his or her mind blown by seminal William S. Burroughs books like Naked Lunch. How wi ... More >>

Swedish Indiepop Crooner Jens Lekman's World of Sound

Photo courtesy of RE/Search Publications Next time you run across a brat of schoolchildren -- "brat" being the collective noun for any assemblage of kids under age 11 -- try to imagine which will be the first to get his or her mind blown by seminal William S. Burroughs books like Naked Lunch. How wi ... More >>

Justice At Mezzanine: Dance Party of 2007 or Millennium?

Photo courtesy of RE/Search Publications Next time you run across a brat of schoolchildren -- "brat" being the collective noun for any assemblage of kids under age 11 -- try to imagine which will be the first to get his or her mind blown by seminal William S. Burroughs books like Naked Lunch. How wi ... More >>

Hammond B3 master Reuben Wilson Jams the Beastie Boys

Photo courtesy of RE/Search Publications Next time you run across a brat of schoolchildren -- "brat" being the collective noun for any assemblage of kids under age 11 -- try to imagine which will be the first to get his or her mind blown by seminal William S. Burroughs books like Naked Lunch. How wi ... More >>

Definition-Defying Display

North Beach Jazz Festival splits the genre wide open

The Big Bang

Entering Comets on Fire's blazing parallel universes

The Minus 5

The Minus 5

And You Thought They Sucked

These bands actually rule -- just like the Grateful Dead does

Please Rock the Yacht

What Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, and the rest of the world's yacht rockers have to teach us

You Kill Me

Kentucky noir onstage

Power Chord Broker

Hangin' with President Clinton, drafting ultra-important documents -- Chris Gallagher has moved on from such trifles. Now he just wants to write purty songs.

The Post-Jaded Life

Singer/songwriter Bart Davenport dares to ditch irony for the downright soft

Joe Ely

Streets of Sin

Untitled

In his first column, Garrett Kamps ponders the big questions

Clem Snide

Soft Spot

Hammer of the Gods

With a handful of artists, "classic rock" is not

a pejorative

SF Weekly Music Awards 2002

A galaxy-spanning journey through space and sound!

Gary Wilson

You Think You Really Know Me (Motel)

Pop Philosophy

New East Bay Music Venues

Beat Scientist

Experimental rapper Doseone is too weird for the hip hop faithful -- but indie rockers love him

Grievous Angels

The Court and Spark might be the Bay Area's best new country band, if only it played country music

Bluesman's Blues

Paul Pena,who's played with everyone from Jerry Garcia to B.B. King, is coming out of the musical shadows, thanks to the award-winning documentary Genghis Blues. He's also blind, and sick, and entirely tired of living.

Reviews

Paul Pena,who's played with everyone from Jerry Garcia to B.B. King, is coming out of the musical shadows, thanks to the award-winning documentary Genghis Blues. He's also blind, and sick, and entirely tired of living.

SFO3 1996

Paul Pena,who's played with everyone from Jerry Garcia to B.B. King, is coming out of the musical shadows, thanks to the award-winning documentary Genghis Blues. He's also blind, and sick, and entirely tired of living.