Recent Articles
Music,
Hear This
True story: When this writer was a student of Yusef Lateef's in the early '90s, there was a violinist who brought his dog to class every week. One week we played a blues, and the dog, which had been napping…
by Ezra Gale
October 20, 2010
Tags: Hear This, Show Preview, Yusef Lateef, Adam Rudolph, Dizzy Gillespie, Grace Cathedral
Music,
You might be forgiven for thinking that the history of black–Jewish relations in the United State was one of tension, suspicion, and hostility. For years, the only headlines to include blacks and Jews in the same sentence were ones that…
by Ezra Gale
August 25, 2010
Tags: Music, Feature, Josh Kun, Johnny Mathis, Brooklyn (New York City), Crown Heights, Contemporary Jewish Museum
Music,
The Daptone House of Soul is a squat, two-story brick row house on an anonymous side street in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Graffiti mars the entryway, and cars from the auto repair shop next door block the sidewalk in front. Only a…
by Ezra Gale
June 23, 2010
Tags: Music, Feature, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Gabe Roth, James Brown, Amy Winehouse, Warfield Theatre
Music,
"The Cloud is coming to steal my music collection!" It sounds like a bad horror movie, and yet it might be true. The common way to listen to music has changed relatively slowly over the years, from records to CDs…
by Ezra Gale
January 20, 2010
Tags: Music, Feature, David Hyman, Spotify Ltd., Google Inc., Bob Lefsetz
Music,
Porto Franco Records is devoted to chronicling the Mission District's interwoven underground music scene. The label is the brainchild of father-and-son team Sergei and Peter Varshavsky, who hail from far outside that neighborhood — their family arrived here from Russia…
by Ezra Gale
November 11, 2009
Tags: Music, Feature, Porto Franco, Peter Varshavsky, San Francisco, Charleston (Staten Island)
Music,
Hear This
In the mid-'90s, it looked as though the exploding Latin demographic in the U.S. meant the rock en Espanol genre would storm the pop charts. That didn't happen, though it did make cocktail party fixtures out of Café Tacuba and…
by Ezra Gale
October 21, 2009
Tags: Hear This, Show Preview, Rowan Jimenez, Manu Chao, Oakland, Cafe Tacuba
Music,
Feature
Stay • Smaller is better. Less competition means more space for creativity and collaboration. Identifying the key players and then networking is fairly easy. • San Francisco remains riddled with misfits. You and your band can get as weird as…
by Ezra Gale, Jennifer Maerz, and Shawn Reynaldo
October 14, 2009
Tags: Feature, San Francisco, Jennifer Maerz, Ezra Gale, Dan Strachota
Music,
Chicken Little would have plenty to scream about if she were watching the recent trajectory of the music business. CD sales have dropped off precipitously as the ease of downloading or copying music for free has skyrocketed. Meanwhile, monolithic major…
by Ezra Gale
September 2, 2009
Tags: Music, Feature, James Lamberti, Ethan Diamond, Shawn Grunberger, Oddpost Inc.
Music,
Tanya Tagaq's new album, Auk/Blood, is a portrait of a primeval past that is also quite futuristic. Animalistic grunts and howls mix with beatboxing and sensual gasps, the chorus of which emanates from Tagaq's vocal cords. An Inuit throat singer…
by Ezra Gale
August 12, 2009
Tags: Music, Feature, Tanya Tagaq, Nunavut, David Harrington, London
Music,
While some rock stars have reacted poorly to major shifts in the recording industry (see: Metallica sues Napster and its own fans), others have adapted more shrewdly (see: Radiohead popularizes pay-what-you-can pricing, makes tidy profit). But far beneath the Spin…
by Ezra Gale
April 29, 2009
Tags: Music, Feature, Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails, Ian Rogers, Brad Turcotte
