Van Halen

Super Diamond, S.F. Neil Diamond Tribute Band, Turns 20

The first time Randy Cordero covered a Neil Diamond song, he did it as a lark, never dreaming that it would become his full time job for the next 20 years. "In 1988, I was the singer and songwriter of a regular rock band," Cordero recalls. "Sometimes I'd do open mics, playing my own songs solo, with ... More >>

Top 21 Bay Area Metal Albums of All Time, #21-11

Thrash. Thrash. Thrash. Yes, thrash is what the Bay Area metal scene is famous for. But it doesn't all begin and end with blistering riffs -- our local bands have churned out plenty sludgy stoner metal as well, and even some very heavy shit that's damn near unclassifiable. It's all here on our list ... More >>

JEFF the Brotherhood Churns Out Dumb Fun at Bottom of the Hill, 10/11/12

By NATE WAGGONER JEFF the Brotherhood Diarrhea Planet Colleen Green Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012 Bottom of the Hill Better than: Wayne's World 2... and maybe the original Wayne's World as well. A JEFF the Brotherhood show at Bottom of the Hill offers the kind of transcendent, joyfully dumb and bizarre ... More >>

Live Review, 5/30/12: Kurt Vile, Black Bananas, and True Widow Freak Out the Fillmore

Kurt Vile and the Violators Black Bananas True Widow Wednesday, May 30, 2012 The Fillmore Better than: The indie rock variety show that it could have been. And here is Jennifer Herrema, a veteran rocker formerly of Royal Trux, then of RTX, which now calls itself Black Bananas, sashaying her way ar ... More >>

Screaming Females Talk Guitar Solos, Steve Albini, and What 'Punk' Means to Them

Marissa Paternoster is the kind of singer and guitarist who makes a writer want to deploy all kinds of ridiculous language: "face-melting," "fire-breathing," "guitar-goddess," "shred-queen," etc. Paternoster, you see, is 5-foot-1, she fronts a fearsome power trio from New Jersey called Screaming Fem ... More >>

Van Halen's A Different Kind of Truth: A First Listen

​Van Halen is about one thing: revenge. Eddie brought in Sammy to get rid of Dave, flirted with Dave again to get rid of Sammy, brought in Gary Cherone to clear out the building, trained his own son to replace his most loyal member, and brought Dave back in for now. Don't be surprised if he cans h ... More >>

Ke$ha's Top 10 Best Outfits Ever

Ke$ha plays Oakland's Fox Theater tonight, and if it's anything like her show at the Warfield earlier this year, everyone is in for a massive, glittery, fantastically chaotic treat. Aside from everything else, we can't wait to see what she's wearing -- the fashion pages rip her apart with regularity ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Exclusive: Rebecca Black's Secret Debut CD Tracklist!

This is her moment, we just live in it.​In her brand-new single "This is My Moment," YouTube superstar Rebecca Black continues her great artistic project: applying the stream-of-consciousness narrative mode to pop-songs built for kickin' it in the bouncy castle. 

Queercore Band Limp Wrist on Playing Live Again and Life as a Gay Punk

Karoline Collins Limp Wrist​The song "I Love Hardcore Boys, I Love Boys Hardcore" is a given at most Limp Wrist shows. The brief, screamy hardcore anthem was written early in the band's career (late '90s) but it remains a mainstay, a memorable chant that crowds of sweaty punks cheer for. Not that ... More >>

March's Literary Events

Guest Playlist: Come Out & Play SF

This weekend marks the inaugural Bay Area iteration of New York's (and one time Amsterdam's) beloved Come Out & Play Festival, a weekend's worth of sportive mischief in and around the Panhandle and the Upper Haight. Full-contact location-based Scrabble? Check. Unusually polite ninja fighting? Ch ... More >>

Scorpions say goodbye with one last power ballad

In Print: Francis & the Lights' iPad Album, Sammy Hagar is a Joke, All Shook Down Fest

Francis Farewell Starlite​Does the album matter anymore? Does anyone care? Do you know what a CD is? Okay, kidding on the last point (kinda), but clearly the music industry is looking for some new, marketable format to sell to music lovers. After all, CD sales ain't what they used to be, and it do ... More >>

Trashcan Sinatras Q&A: Paging Barry Gibb

One of Scotland's finest musical exports, the Trashcan Sinatras, will play at Slim's on Tuesday, June 1. We asked the band a few pertinent questions. Barry Gibb, if you're reading this: Get in touch. -- Vicky Walker Izumi KamazawaTrashcan Sinatras bring the swing ​ SF Weekly: What are we draggin ... More >>

Pay for Play

Superstar session drummer and Dadaist marketing genius Josh Freese (Devo, A Perfect Circle, the Vandals) sells himself, his famous friends, and all-you-can-eat shrimp at Sizzler to promote his new album.

Underwear Night at 440 Castro

Catch a ride on the ridiculous: Yacht Rock hits S.F.

(Air) Guitar Heroes: A Look at the SF Finalists

Readers Respond to Article on SF's New Seismic Standards, or Lack Thereof

LastNight: Arcade Fire Ignites Indie-Rockalypse at Shoreline Amphitheatre, CA.

Band of Brothers

Presenting the 27-year career of Stone Vengeance, the most ass-kickin' metal band ever to come out of Bayview-Hunters Point

Dieter Gone Wild

Infiltrator tries to break into porn using the "German Method" and a pitch for pornographic bowling

Dead Like Me

Attempting to survive 11 straight hours of the Grateful Dead

BeatBox

Enjoy beats and bites at "Scratch: Dinner, Beats, & B-Boxing"; catch Cut Chemist cooking up crazy turntable concoctions

Bouncer

Bringing your dog to a bar can be fun, but you never know who's going to wander up in search of heavy petting

Still They Ride

A newly minted star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame offers an occasion to look back on the career of Journey. That's right, Journey.

Hot Dark Metal Revival

Forget Black Sabbath. Don't even mention The Darkness. Dirty Power will lead the hard rock revolution to come.

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, August 18, 2004

New Year's Repetitions

Somehow it found me: Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Body Workout. And work out I did.

SF Weekly Music Awards 2003

Americana DJ/Selector/Turntablist Electronic/Electro Hard Rock/

Metal Hip Hop/Rap Jazz Latin/

International Lifestyle Music New Genre/Beyond Pop Punk Rock/Indie Rock Soul/Funk/ R&B

If music be the brandy of the damned, then we're drunk off our asses

Make Sure There Aren't Any Squares at My Funeral

Punk hero Matty Luv passes on

Pop Philosophy

Riffage.com riffs its last, so the Great American Music Hall’s for sale. Again.

Bad to The Bone

With an unorthodox take on classic rock, The Bone has become the Bay Area's newest radio sensation

SF Weekly Wammies 2000

Your choices of the top local bands

Dealing With the Devil

How two Van Halen fans became major label electronica stars and lived to tell about it. So far.

Riff Raff

Letters

Re-Kronikled

SF Weekly's Wammies '98

Sex Bomb

Girls Against Boys proves that everything new is old again

Hear This

Grope for Merit

How the Melvins have perverted the indie process with Honky

The House of Tudor

White Trash Nation

The stereotype may be racist and classist, but that hasn't kept a generation from embracing the white trash aesthetic -- a disposable culture populated by trailer parks; junk cars; big hair and gaudy makeup; loud, angry music; and empty beer cans -- and i

Slap Shots

Let It Bleed

Royal Trux crafts noisy anti-rock that stinks of death and decay