Story of an artist: The life of cult singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston Annie Wynner December 6, 2024 indie, indie scene, Indie-Rock, Music History, Rock "The best thing you can say about me is that I have been and I always will be in the twilight zone, and I'm serious. I live a different life. I'm lonely, but it's not just being lonely. It's the things that I s...
Sleater-Kinney: Navigating a “Modern Girl” sound with 30-year punk roots Peri Zoe Yildirim-Stanley October 10, 2024 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, Indie-Rock, Punk, Rock, San Francisco My experience on Friday, October 4th, Day 1 of San Francisco’s annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival starts with a harrowing journey, full of twists and turns (literally, physically turning around and w...
Sun Room: The Final Breaths of a Carefree College Lifestyle Megan Darzynkiewicz and Eliza Scheer April 22, 2024 Berkeley, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, indie scene, Indie-Rock, Local, music, Reviews Last Thursday (April 11, 2024), I had the privilege to catch a performance by the band SUN ROOM as they made a pit stop in Northern California, playing two shows in Sacramento and Berkeley. This weekend, th...
Only in Your Wet Dreams: A Double Feature on Snow Wife & Wet Leg Jenai Johns-Peterson April 17, 2024 dance, EDM, indie scene, Indie-Rock, LGBTQ+, Pop, Reviews, women in music Skydiving off of a building. Skinny dipping with your best friend. Committing arson in the dead of night. Have you done any of these actions that I cannot legally condone? No? Well, neither have I. This, howeve...
The chaos of catharsis: Doom Loop Festival, starring Yeule Rushaad Mistry and Selina Yang March 21, 2024 indie, indie-pop, Rock, San Francisco, Shoegaze Doom Loop at the Regency Ballroom wasn't your standard music festival—some six-stage, three-day festival with name-brand flags and sponsored water stations. Instead, Doom Loop was a one-night, five-act festiv...
Love like religion: A Dollface album review Katie Hulse March 18, 2024 Creative Writing, Album Preview, Album Review, Columns and Opinions, folk, indie, indie scene, indie-pop, music, Music Composition, Opinion, Pop, Reviews, women in music, women's music Hana Bryanne released her debut album titled Dollface on September 15, 2023, at twenty years old. It was written entirely by Bryanne and produced by Carter Jahn and Maxwell Bienert. Its namesake deriv...
“Stuffed and Ready” for Cherry Glazerr Heidy Barrera March 18, 2024 indie, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Previews, Rock, women in music How long can you hold onto your teenage angst? More specifically, how long can you hold onto the image of being a teenage angst band? If you’re looking for a quintessential rock sound, Cherry Glazerr is th...
It’s a basement blitz with the Lemon Twigs! Gianna Caudillo December 17, 2023 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, Rock, San Francisco San Francisco’s glitter-faced, mini-skirted, tailor-made crowd is alive and well, and the place to find them is in the Castro, clad in cheeky Beatles buttons and stomping through neon-lit basements in velvet ...
Freak the Freak Out! Nico Chodor and Sophia Shen November 13, 2023 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, Metal, Rock, Shoegaze 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 ...
A Triumphant Return: Palehound at The Chapel Sinead de Cleir November 9, 2023 Rock, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Previews, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, indie scene, Photos, Reviews, San Francisco, Shoegaze On March 10th, 2020, Palehound played at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco for their headline tour with Adult Mom. The next day, the COVID-19 pandemic was declared and their tour was canceled. For Palehound, this m...
The Mystique of Elliott Smith’s Demise Katie Hulse October 23, 2023 Columns and Opinions, Cultural Commentary, folk, indie, indie scene, Music History, Opinion Elliott Smith is one of the most intrinsically devastating and crucial indie-folk musicians to date, known for his lyrics of absolute despair. The only thing more twisted and heartbreaking than his music is the...
Floating through “Icy Blue”: new Chammeili album contemplates change Sophia Shen January 2, 2023 Album Review 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...
A Rockstar Sometimes, A Mommy Forever Brandon Phan December 20, 2022 Berkeley, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, indie, indie scene, LGBTQ+, music, Oakland, Photos, Reviews “Mommy! Yes, mommy! I love you, mommy!!” the crowd cheers on. It’s pitch black out on a Saturday night, and the crowd is ecstatic to see everyone’s favorite mom perform live at the Fox Theater in Oaklan...
Masonic Boom: Peach Pit Rocks So Hard That Neil Hurts His Neck Nico Chodor December 6, 2022 Berkeley, Columns and Opinions, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, indie, indie scene, music, Reviews, San Francisco Before Thursday night at the Masonic in SF, the closest I had ever come to seeing Peach Pit live was the Tropicalia Festival in 2019. Their self-titled claim to fame “Peach Pit” garnered extreme views on Yo...
25 Years of The Lonesome Crowded West: Modest Mouse at The Fox Theater in Oakland Lucy Gleeson December 5, 2022 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, indie, Oakland, Photos, Reviews The Lonesome Crowded West (1997) is considered by many to be one of the greatest indie albums of all time; last Wednesday, Modest Mouse came to the Fox Theater in Oakland to celebrate 25 years since its release...