by
Nick Veronin on March 9, 2016
It’s doubtful that any of us ’80s babies realized it at the time, but we soaked up a lot more than words like “shoryuken” and meme-worthy phrases, like “all your base are belong to us,” while we sat cross-legged on the floor, frantically tapping our plastic Nintendo and Sega controllers. It would…
Continue reading »
by
John Flynn and Tad Malone on March 2, 2016
San Jose Jazz Winter Fest is bringing 24 live performances from veteran and emerging jazz acts, as well as student groups. Here is a selection of some of the most interesting musicians playing at this year’s gathering.
Continue reading »
by
Andrew Lentz on February 3, 2016
It’s early afternoon and Rival Sons guitarist Scott Holiday is calling from a hotel room in Winnipeg—or “Winterpeg” as locals call it. “It’s even too cold for Canadians here,” the lifelong Southern Californian jokes. It’s amazing what sun worshippers will put up with if it means their band gets to support Black…
Continue reading »
The Super Bowl is here—here being, you know, the South Bay—‘a.k.a. Silicon Valley, the global hub of technological innovation, and home to Apple, Google, Facebook, the social media and mobile revolution. But if you were to ask the NFL exactly where the Broncos and Panthers are set to face off, they’d just assume…
Continue reading »
by
Karla Kane on January 20, 2016
Sim Castro, leader of San Jose band The Albert Square, says in some ways his group’s new album, I (Assume I) Know What I’m Doing, is “a record about fear.” Over the course of its 13 tracks, Castro ponders, among other things, “fear of growing up and not having your shit together;…
Continue reading »
by
Andrew Lentz on January 20, 2016
Talking to guitarist Ricky Dover, Jr., is a study in contrasts. On the phone from Nashville where he and the rest of his blues-glam trio, The Tip, call home, he’s all Southern gentleman. On stage, the Knoxville native is an axe-mangling fool. With a shaggy mane and mirror shades, he’s the epitome…
Continue reading »
by
Mike Huguenor on January 18, 2016
“It’s a tough match-up for sure,” Drew types to me via text message. The match-up he is referring to is between a bird dressed like Han Solo, and a princess, wearing a sparkling tiara and wielding a parasol. The bird is Falco, a character from Nintendo’s Star Fox video game franchise. The princess…
Continue reading »
by
John Flynn on January 6, 2016
thouDirtbag Dan bustles about his high-ceilinged studio in an industrial block just outside of San Jose’s Japantown. He points out a psychedelic mural of a shark by a local artist on one wall and mismatched grey curtains stapled to another. The latter serve as the backdrop for his battle rap podcast. It…
Continue reading »
The lights went out and the cell phone screens lit up, as Abel Tesfaye—b.k.a. The Weeknd—took the stage at The SAP Center Sunday night. Under a brooding, red-light-district-red spotlight, the mad king of R&B appeared—standing inside a cage and behind a string of velvet ropes—like a cordoned off work of art, or…
Continue reading »
by
Nick Veronin on November 25, 2015
One might presume that while playing alongside three of the most revered musicians in all of rock & roll history, the biggest concern anyone would have would be staying on beat. But according to Jason Bonham, the most important thing is far more abstract than that.
Continue reading »
