Rilo Kiley’s remarkable return
On Wednesday, May 7, I ventured to one of the last places on earth where twee appeared to be alive and well: the Rilo Kiley concert at Libbey Bowl in Ojai. Residents of the idyllic town and surrounding enclaves...
My thoughts on “When a Thought Grows Wings”
What happens when the Asian-Canadian thought daughter of our generation goes through a breakup? Luna Li's latest and greatest LP When a Thought Grows Wings (2024) provides a lush, heart-shattering answer. Captu...
Someday I’ll get over this Cowboy Junkies show
Stepping across the red plush-carpeted threshold of Bimbo’s 365 Club on Sunday night felt like turning back seventy years’ time. No longer were we college students adrift in the San Francisco of 2024—we h...
Floating on a cloud of love with Alice Phoebe Lou
Friday, April 12, just before the latest round of rainfall would begin to kiss the streets of San Francisco, synth pop princess Alice Phoebe Lou delivered a heartfelt and cathartic set to an entranced audience ...
Freak the Freak Out!
Last weekend, right on the heels of San Francisco’s multi-day, multi-venue Psyched! Fest, we crossed state lines for a Pacific Northwestern analogue: Freakout Fest in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. The ...
Partying like it’s the late 1900s: the Breeders and Belly at the Warfield
Working as a stagehand at a music venue, you see enough middle-aged men whose bands you’ve never heard of strut across a stage. Thus, attending the Breeders’ 30th anniversary tour of their 1993 album Last S...
Believe the Hype: ALG at Rickshaw Stop
On Thursday night, after submitting my two half-baked Session A finals and thus closing the door on a veritable lifetime of summer school, I slicked my hair back, donned a blazer, and set off towards Rickshaw S...
Floating through “Icy Blue”: new Chammeili album contemplates change
Characterized by dreamy doubled vocals and temperamental time signatures, Berkeley-based indie band Chammeili’s 2022 record Icy Blue provides listeners with a bird’s eye view of the trials, tribulations, an...
Bloom and Grow: Luna Li enthralls all at Rickshaw Stop
Friday, October 14 at Rickshaw Stop saw a radiant, arresting performance by the rising Asian Canadian indie sweetheart Luna Li, accompanied by the playfully moody up-and-coming Los Angeles project zzzahara. Emb...
Mannequin Pussy power: Philadelphia punk band takes Upper Sproul
On Thursday, April 14, indie punk group Mannequin Pussy rocked Upper Sproul, sparking a daytime mosh that triumphed over the gloomy weather conditions and chased the rainy day blues away. This was an unexpected...
Less than Pristine: Snail Mail at the Fox
In the wake of her sophomore album Valentine (2021), an LP that marked a sonic shift in the Snail Mail catalogue, Baltimore’s Lindsey Jordan and her band voyaged west to pay a visit to the Fox Theater on Apri...
Berkeley’s Musical Exchange
In the words of Clem Zimmer, Cal alum and synth punk virtuoso, the Bay Area has a rich DIY music tradition. Zooming in on UC Berkeley and its adjacent co-op houses, backyard stages, and student stomping grounds...
Mitski and me
By the time my friend and I arrived at the Fox for the Mitski concert on March 5, the formidable line was already snaking down the block, terminating on the far side of the adjacent parking lot. With Mitski’s...