Trending
Words + Guitar (+ Beats + Skronk)
What mattered and what splattered in pop, 1997
December 31, 1997
Recent Articles
News,
Feature
Though he's only made albums for the past 10 years, Pokey LaFarge mines a wayback sound that feels much older. Some may call it retro, while others might deem it old-timey, but neither of these quite hits the mark. There's…
by Sam Prestianni
September 30, 2015
Tags: Feature
Music,
Hear This
Rising Appalachia’s singing sisters Chloe Smith and Leah Song dig into the mountain string band traditions with a 21st century pickaxe. Think Gaia hippie love meets conscious hip-hop meets modern primitivism. Releasing a half-dozen albums and globetrotting for years on…
by Sam Prestianni
May 20, 2015
Tags: Hear This
Music,
Hear This
Veteran New York City saxophonist Tim Berne plays a mystical kind of avant-garde jazz that aims to transport listeners to uncharted soundscapes. Channeling the massive power, geometric shape-shifting, and pan-cultural fusion of avant-garde pioneers like Ornette Coleman, Anthony Braxton, and…
by Sam Prestianni
April 29, 2015
Tags: Hear This
Music,
All Shook Down
Ask old-school San Francisco rockers about Faith No More, and you'll elicit that swoony glaze in the eyes of nostalgic bliss. Pioneers of genre mashing, FNM blasted onto the burgeoning alt-rock scene of the mid '80s with a fresh,…
@All Shook Down
by Sam Prestianni
April 15, 2015 @ 2:50 pm
Tags: Show To Know, faith no more, the warfield
Music,
All Shook Down
The Devil Makes Three January 31, 2015 The Fox Theater in Oakland If we were worried the Devil Makes Three had lost the hunger that catapults indie musicians from folk-punk cult heroes to international rockstars, our concerns were laid to…
@All Shook Down
by Sam Prestianni
February 2, 2015 @ 10:21 am
Tags: Over the Weekend, Devil Makes Three, Fox Theater, Live Review
Music,
All Shook Down
Kitka Wintersongs Saturday, Dec. 20, 2014 Old First Church, San Francisco If saccharine Christmas carols about Rudolph and Frosty make your chestnuts grow cold, then Kitka's for you. At the Bay Area choral group's annual "Wintersongs" celebration at Old First…
@All Shook Down
by Sam Prestianni
December 22, 2014 @ 8:11 am
Tags: Over the Weekend, Live Review, Kitka, local
Music,
Hear This
Oakland's T Sisters mine a vocal tradition that likely dates from the earliest campfire jams: sibling song-making. From first-wave country superstars the Carter Family to bluegrass pioneers the Monroe Brothers, folk music's legendary heroes have often taken advantage of the…
by Sam Prestianni
November 18, 2014
Tags: Hear This, The Chapel
Music,
Hear This
Daniel Lanois is best known as a world-class producer. His credits include pop-progressive luminaries (U2, Peter Gabriel) and Americana masters (Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris). Given this stylistic range, one might expect the Canadian musician's latest album, Flesh and…
by Sam Prestianni
November 11, 2014
Tags: Hear This, Great American Music Hall
Music,
Hear This
It's disconcerting when you realize one of your favorite folk rock bands — let's say, Charleston duo Shovels & Rope — is hardcore Christian. At first glance, Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst come across as a lovable pair of…
by Sam Prestianni
November 4, 2014
Tags: Hear This, The Fillmore
Music,
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass founder Warren Hellman has sadly been gone for three years, but his epic gift to the city of San Francisco continues to thrive. This annual free festival in Golden Gate Park draws roughly half a million concertgoers…
by Sam Prestianni
September 30, 2014
Tags: Music
Music,
All Shook Down
In the past 15 years, Nashville string band Old Crow Medicine Show has refined its sound from ramshackle to radio-friendly, but there's still plenty of fire in frontman Ketch Secor's fiddle and a joyful noise in at least half…
@All Shook Down
by Sam Prestianni
September 18, 2014 @ 3:24 pm
