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Friday, April 15, 2016

All Your Favorite Artists Kicked It With Obama At The White House Today

Posted By on Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 4:24 PM

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I think it can be definitively stated that today was the most lit day the White House has ever seen. According to a barrage of Twitter and Instagram posts, it appears that many (if not all) of the biggest names in hip-hop hung out with Obama today to discuss My Brother's Keeper, an initiative to help build opportunities for young men of color. 

Peep the list below to see what rappers/singers were at the event and check out their social media posts proving it.

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Premiere: Listen to San Francisco Band NRVS LVRS' Up-Tempo Dark-Pop Single, "End Of The Night"

Posted By on Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 4:17 PM

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I know there's no such genre as "night music," but I sure wish there was. It's hard to explain, but there are some songs, be they rap, pop, or rock, that just sound like, well, the night. They're dark and slightly eerie and have an almost sinister, seductive vibe to them. Travis Scott's "Antidote" and Grimes' "Oblivion" are two songs that comes to mind when I think of "night music," as well as basically everything by M83. 

"End Of The Night" the newest single from San Francisco band NRVS LVRS (short for Nervous Lovers) is another prime example of what I'd call "night music." It's crepuscular and opaque, with a grimy layer to it that thinly disguises the vein of pop running through the song. Lead singer Andrew Gomez's rumbling, baritone voice is a perfect match for the song's up-tempo, electronic melodies, giving "End Of The Night" layers of complexity and texture that make you scratch your head and ask yourself, "Wait, is this pop or rock?"  (Fun fact: The microphone that Gomez uses, which is purportedly well-suited for those with low voices, is the same model that Michael Jackson used to record "Thriller.")

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A Slightly Different Character: Alex Turner On The Last Shadow Puppets, Shifting Mindsets, And Jetlag

Posted By on Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 1:30 PM

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Alex Turner needs a nap.

“I’m riding a really fucking wild wave of jetlag,” the co-frontman of The Last Shadow Puppets confesses to me a few minutes into our interview. He blames his recent jaunts between Heathrow and JFK for the bad case of fatigue, then insists it’s nothing serious. “We don’t go on ‘til ten. I’ll get some inner eyelid inspection,” he says, his half-Sheffield, half-Chateau Marmont drawl slinking through the syllables.

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Premiere: Berkeley Rapper Caleborate — Who Sounds Crazy Similar To A Young Kanye West — Surprises Us With Two New Singles Today

Posted By on Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 12:25 PM

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It's pretty insane how far the Berkeley rapper Caleborate has come in the roughly five years since he started rapping. Originally from Sacramento, the twentysomething MC made his first rap at the age of 17 at the behest of his brother, who is also a singer (named Cash Campaign). In 2011, he started school at the Academy of Art University, where he took full advantage of the school's resources (studios, mics, recording equipment) to work on his first album, using beats culled from YouTube and elsewhere on the internet. A rookie endeavor, of course, and one that Caleborate has described as a "guerilla style" of producing music, but you've got to start somewhere, right?

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Thursday, April 14, 2016

All The Sales, Giveaways, and Free Shows You Need to Know About For Record Store Day (Saturday, April 16)

Posted By on Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 2:40 PM

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Record Store Day is this Saturday, April 16, so if you're a vinyl-head hopefully you've saved up and cleared your schedule for this annual music lovers holiday. Some stores are offering free goodies along with a purchase, while others are throwing in-house shows. Check out the list below to find out what's going on at record stores throughout the city this Saturday. 

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Wil Wagner of The Smith Street Band Got Wasted Last Time He Was In S.F. — Wonder What Will Happen This Time...

Posted By on Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 12:35 PM

IAN LAIDLAW
  • Ian Laidlaw
One of the last times Wil Wagner — front man for The Street Smith Street Band — was in San Francisco, he saw a Dead Moon cover show at Bottom of the Hill and well...got pretty drunk.

So, when the band’s booking agent said they were playing a show at the same venue on its current tour, Wagner was excited.

“I’m like a local,” the 25-year-old joked to SF Weekly after sound check at the band’s tour stop in Chicago. “I’ve had the tater tots there, I know what’s going on.”

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The Diacritic Collective on Their Organic Origins, Making People Groove, and House Party Aesthetic

Posted By on Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 11:15 AM

From L to R: Chuck Lukezic (holding Paco), Paco Luongo (in frame), Lily Ackerman, Alex Blackstock, Stanislav Nikolov, Petko Nikolov (holding Ian), Ian Comfort (in frame)
  • From L to R: Chuck Lukezic (holding Paco), Paco Luongo (in frame), Lily Ackerman, Alex Blackstock, Stanislav Nikolov, Petko Nikolov (holding Ian), Ian Comfort (in frame)

While it’s fun to spend a night out in a club incoherently bonding with your friends while taking multiple shots of mystery elixirs, sometimes the best nights consist of a few good drinks with friends sharing records in a living room. For Diacritic Collective, the idea of forming a local crew came after a handful of nights of doing just this into the early morning. After deciding to graduate from living room DJs to official venues last fall, they had their first public show last November at Mercer with Tyson Ballard headlining.

“The idea was to preserve the coziness and casualness of our home sessions, and we feel like we accomplished that there,” writes the group. The collective, consisting of members Chuck Lukezic Paco Luongo, Lily Ackerman, Alex Blackstock, Stanislav Nikolov, Petko Nikolov and Ian Comfort got together to answer some questions for us about their sound, being a collective, and what they want to accomplish this year. They host The Loft this Friday, April 15 at Public Works.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Composer Benoît Charest Talks Making The Soundtrack for The Triplets of Belleville And His Upcoming "Cine-Concert" Performances

Posted By on Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 1:10 PM

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In the early 2000's, the Canadian composer Benoît Charest started working on the score for an animated French film called The Triplets of Belleville. Little did he know that the film and one of his songs ("Belleville Rendez-vous") would be nominated for two Academy Awards and win both the Canadian Genie Award for Best Motion Picture and the BBC Four World Cinema Award. He also probably didn't expect that 13 years after the film was released he'd be traveling the world playing the soundtrack live during film screenings. 

If you're anything like me, you've already seen The Triplets of Belleville, can remember the theater and friend that you went to see the film with, and you also own the soundtrack. The film, which chronicles a grandmother's journey to save her grandson from the French mafia with the help of three singers called the Triplets of Belleville, is easily one of the best animated films of the last century. (And, if it weren't for the fact that Finding Nemo came out the same year, it probably would have taken home the Oscar for Best Animated Film. Damn you, Nemo!)

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Premiere: Listen to Dario Slavazza's Dream Pop Ditty, "Ocean Eyes"

Posted By on Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 11:01 AM

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With the first single off his upcoming EP, Guilty Steps, San Jose native Dario Slavazza is shaping up to be one of the next big singer/songwriters to come out of the Bay. "Ocean Eyes," premiered here today, is a whimsical, down tempo, dream pop ditty, replete with delicate keyboards, solid guitar chords, and ambient electronic melodies. The song is about love and longing for the sea, the coast, and a specific person, and was inspired by the time Slavazza spent in Santa Barbara while in college.

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Tuesday, April 12, 2016

This Is What Our Politicians Listen To

Posted By on Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 1:25 PM

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If you're interested in learning a bit more about your state Senator or House Rep, look no further than Spotify. On Monday, the streaming service released curated playlists from 20 politicians that give the public an idea of what the hell they listen to in their free time. (Spoiler alert: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand listens to Adele and Arcade Fire; Senator Cory Booker has a weakness for Tupac and Bone Thugs; and Representative Paul Ryan has a thang for Metallica and Rush.)

Check out the full list here and if you never listened to Obama's Summer Playlist, give it a listen here

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