AltWeeklies Wire
Hear Me Howling!new
Arhoolie Records looks forward by preserving the past.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Nicole Gluckstern |
05-31-2011 |
Profiles & Interviews
Laura Veirs Gets Excited for Summernew
Classic finger-picking and Laura Veirs' girly vocals characterize the feather-light songs she's written about sweet summer days on her seventh album, July Flame.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Amber Schadewald |
03-10-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: July Flame, laura veirs
Snap Sounds: Elephant9's 'Walk the Nile'new
Norwegian power trio Elephant9 lays on the acid-laced, "wildly cavorting in fields of fusion" prog (light on the kraut and pop, more in tune with the jazz) on their second long-player, Walk the Nile.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
02-24-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Elephant9, Walk the Nile
Who the Hell is Esinchill?new
East Oakland's best kept hip-hop secret finally gets a deal -- will he get the respect he deserves?
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Garrett Caples |
10-21-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
How Trikont is Saving the World, One Compilation at a Timenew
It's safe to say that Achim Bergmann of Trikont, Germany's oldest independent record label, has an affinity for the underdog. The label's eclectic catalog has been transcending language boundaries and international borders long before "world music" became a Billboard buzzword.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Nicole Gluckstern |
09-22-2009 |
Music
The Mantles Keep it in the Family and Create a Cali Pop Classicnew
Fueled by friendship and romance, the Mantles are relaxed enough to enjoy absurdity, whether it arrives in the form of a shirtless dude in a Yoda mask or entails playing the role of "psychedelic band" and "mid-tempo downer" at a sweltering garage rock party where people are doing cannonballs into a pool.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Johnny Ray Huston |
09-16-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: The Mantles, indie pop
Jarvis Cocker Takes Delight in 'Knowing All This is Crap'new
I could talk to Cocker on a plane, I could talk to him on a train, and I could talk to him about blues music being "used to sell a hell of a lot of cars" in the passenger seat of an Audi tearing back to SF from Point Reyes, via iPhone and earplugs, while tapping on the trusty laptop. He's that good, that much of a closet mensch keeping it as real as a man of style and taste can.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
07-22-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Beyonce: How Much is Enough?new
Entertain a morbid thought: If Knowles were to crash and burn her Thierry Mugler motorcycle breastplate during her current "I Am ... Tour" -- said to out-razzle-dazzle all predecessors with its aerial flips and 70-some costumes -- would she be revered like Michael Jackson?
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
07-08-2009 |
Music
Disco Popsters the Juan MacLean Are Only Human -- More or Lessnew
Although it has taken on a massive life outside of the new album, the teaser single "Happy House" shows what the Juan MacLean is capable of: namely, superb pop that uses dance music's production techniques and structures.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Brandon Bussolini |
06-03-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Thrills and Chills and Disco Ball Spills — That's What the Horrors Are Made Ofnew
In contrast to the easy-sleazy comic-book corn of today's prominent goth-punk purveyors, Primary Colours boasts driving tunes carved from silvery synth textures and Jesus and Mary Chain-like buzz-saw pop that thumps with creative negativity.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
05-20-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Four Tet Jumps Genres, But Its Meaningful Abstractions Stick Like Gluenew
Four Tet's music is sticky. The word works as a description of Kieran Hebden's gluey way of making precious, melodic samples adhere to languid hip-hop beats. It also conveys that Four Tet's sound not only bears down into your memory, it also becomes a medium for memories in its own right.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Brandon Bussolini |
03-18-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Thank You Rides Far-Out Waves of Ambiguitynew
Terrible Two's best quality is precisely that we don't know what to make of it. That's the point of the album and what makes the band a close fit with post-rock's steez.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Brandon Bussolini |
02-25-2009 |
Reviews
Scoping out George Evelyn's Nightmares On Wax ruminationsnew
George Evelyn (a.k.a. Nightmares on Wax)'s music sonically embodies the phrase, "Let's just chill a moment." And despite his scary moniker, most of what Evelyn creates will induce sweet daydreams.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Tomas Palermo |
02-04-2009 |
Reviews
The Amazements Marvel With Storytelling, a Skate Anthem, and Fearsome Songsnew
An Amazements song sounds like little else: they feel Shaggs-y in their odd, homegrown sense of rock, but they definitely aren't making music in a vacuum.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Michael Harkin |
02-04-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: indie rock, The Amazements
Scoping Out the Wild World of Blog Darlings Vivian Girlsnew
Since their self-titled debut sold out its original 500-copy run on Mauled by Tigers in just 10 days earlier this year -- it has since been reissued by In the Red -- the attention has snowballed around their rather meek undertaking to, as Kickball Katy said, "sound like the Wipers."
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Michael Harkin |
11-19-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Vivian Girls
