We’re coming in from the cold. As the Bay Area emerges from some of the chilliest weather we’ve seen all year, two major Californian summer music festivals—Coachella and BottleRock—have announced their 2015 lineups. AC/DC, Jack White and Drake top the two-weekend, six-day bill at the Indio Polo Grounds this year, while Imagine Dragons, No Doubt, Robert Plant and locally bred Fritz Montana have signed on to rock the bottle up in Napa. Continue reading »
Like many fledgling comics struggling to make a name for themselves in stand-up, Pablo Francisco worked the open mic scene hard. But not all would-be comedians have been fortunate enough to have the kind of secret weapon that Francisco stumbled upon one evening at a gentleman’s club.
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Fresh off a plane from New York City, Matt Fazzi of the locally bred Happy Body Slow Brain, says it’s good to be home for the holidays. Though he now lives in Queens, NYC, Fazzi grew up in San Jose and says he is looking forward to spending time with his friends and family, and perhaps even playing a little music hometown.
“It’s the place where pretty much every band I’ve ever played in has practiced—with the exception of Taking Back Sunday,” the multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter says of his childhood home in the city’s Evergreen neighborhood, which, he adds, produced more than its fair share of raucous rock & roll. “Thank god for my neighbors.” Continue reading »
When it comes to truly prolific bands, examples abound. From The Rolling Stones to Radiohead, we all know and love groups with deep catalogs and decades-long careers. But few veteran bands have flown so gracefully under the radar and for so very long as CAKE. How fitting is a name that means to collect and stick, to “cake onto” something, for a band that has managed to cling to massive notoriety while just barely dipping into the mainstream of radio rock for over more than 20 years? Continue reading »
Earlier this month, as he and his friends were having drinks in San Francisco, Cory Althoff was bemoaning the fact that he’d need to cut his night short if he wanted to make it back to his own bed in Los Altos. It was either that—or, if he wanted to stay out past the last Caltrain back down the peninsula—find a local friend with a couch.
It was a decision with which Althoff was all too familiar. Continue reading »
Sony Pictures has decided that Kim Jong Un is not the boss of them, announcing that they will release The Interview, and the locally owned Camera Cinemas is jumping at the chance to screen the film, which they will begin showing Christmas Day. Continue reading »
The King of Crunk got his party on at Pure Lounge in Sunnyvale on Thursday, spinning a set of club bangers and spraying the crowd with champagne. Our photographer CJ Supnet was there to capture the action. Whether you made the scene or not, you’re gonna want to peep these photos. Continue reading »
It’s that time of year again. Cold weather, warm clothing, an effigy of Santa Claus with a strap-on dildo flying through the air.
Wait. What?
“The whole vibe of the night gets weirder every year,” Limousines frontman Eric Victorino says of the San Jose electro-pop duo’s annual Christmas bash. He can’t quite recall which year the strap-on-equipped Santa was flung out into the crowd, but he remembers that last year “some girl showed up almost naked.” Continue reading »
For more than a decade, Steve Hays has been spinning records at bars and clubs from the peninsula up to San Francisco. The Redwood City man now hosts regular nights at The Patio in Palo Alto and Slate in San Francisco, and says his gigs are only getting better. Hays recalls one particularly good night when his show drew 700 people—many of whom came specifically for him—to the Z Space gallery in San Francisco.
That would be a good show for any up-and-coming local EDM producer. But for a karaoke DJ? Well, that’s something else altogether. Continue reading »
Despite some dazzling math rock chops, and a growing fanbase, local singer, songwriter and guitarist Yvette Young is still green when it comes to playing in a band. Her new math-prog rock group, Covet, makes their South Bay debut this Saturday at Homestead Bowl, playing their second show ever. Continue reading »
