Music as media in Downfalls High
Machine Gun Kelly, or MGK, released the wildly successful pop-punk album, Tickets to My Downfall, in September of 2020. In January 2021, he directed and released a 50-minute masterpiece of a short film, Downfal...
Psychobilly Monsters: The Cramps’ Threefold Relationship with Horror Cinema
An intentionally amateurish garage band. Soulmates side by side, feeding off of each other’s dark, provocative energy. A sonorously tremorous voice layered over a minor-toned psychobilly melody. Macabre and ...
Album Review: King Krule’s Man Alive!
Archy Marshall has grown up. The 25-year-old Londoner behind post-punk act King Krule recently got married, had a baby girl, and moved from South London to Wigan. Hey World!, a short film featuring four new so...
A night of punk and love with IDLES at The Fillmore
Before even walking through the doors of The Fillmore, my friend and I turned the corner to stumble on no other than Danni Miller, lead singer of Surfbort, freshly off stage and finishing a drag in a sequined j...
Revisiting the bizarre career of Jello Biafra
Nothing screams punk rock louder than ripped denim, raw vocals and an unapologetically volatile frustration with the “man.” No one brought this to the US with the same success and political charge as the De...
Chosen family: a night with Better Oblivion Community Center
When I approached August Hall on March 15th, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I was promised a “healing sound bath - live in concert,” but it felt no different from every other indie rock show, comp...
Down in the Trench with Twenty Øne Piløts
Over a year-long hiatus has passed since twenty øne piløts’ electrifying conclusion to their EMØTIØNAL RØADSHØW WØRLD TØUR, and their highly anticipated return to the stage has absolutely delivered. C...
FIDLAR Lives Up To Their Surf Punk Reputation at The Fox
After Dilly Dally gave a stellar performance, I half-expected the full floor to clear out while people waited for FIDLAR to appear. However, my expectations were subverted when, instead, the crowd stood in eage...
Cole Becker of SWMRS talks love for the bay, the clash, and haunted venues
Ask any young music enthusiast if they’ve watched School of Rock and you’ll most likely get a yes. Then ask if watching the film inspired them to start a punk band that would go on to perform on The Late La...
A night of catharsis: IDLES unleash at The Independent
“I’m pretty sure we’re going the wrong way!” I yelled to my friend Jack, panting, as we sat on our bikes on top of an utterly ruthless San Francisco hill. After taking BART into the city, we had managed...
Ween on the green at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2018
“The Boognish is smiling down upon us!”
After what feels like hundreds of tiny, well-placed footsteps through a seemingly endless floor of blankets and lawn chairs, we rejoice with the joy of plane crash...
Pop-punk band The Frights drops new music video “Me and We and I” ahead of new album Hypochondriac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFQEE_N1azA
Known for their charming brand of sarcastic surf-rock, The Frights released their latest music video “Me and We and I” in support of their third studio album H...
The evolution of protest music
In an interview with Melody Maker magazine, Jimi Hendrix once said,
“Anyone can go round shaking babies by the hand and kissing the mothers, and saying that it was groovy. But you see, you can't do this in ...
The Regrettes delight at Bottom of the Hill
It could have been the way Lydia dominated a stage only less than twenty feet wide. Or maybe it was Genessa’s guitar solo in Seashore. Or possibly even the quartet’s cover of "Teenager in Love." Regardless...
Stop and smell the flowers with LILACS.
Austin Corona, the musician behind LILACS., has been writing music for a while now. I first heard something he’d written when his surf-punk band Subpar opened for my friend’s band at a bicycle repair shop i...