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Jaleny Reyes on March 9, 2018
Founded in 1996, Punk Rock Karaoke aims to make you the star of the grimiest dive bar show on earth. Unlike traditional karaoke DJs, these Los Angeles musicians invite aspiring singers to come on stage and perform classic punk songs The Adolescents to X. The process is simple: come to the venue,…
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Yousif Kassab on February 15, 2018
Michelle Zauner is having a moment. As the woman behind indie rock and electronic project Japanese Breakfast, she’s recently collaborated with Bay Area producer Giraffage and enjoyed critical praise for her two latest full-length efforts.
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Mike Huguenor on February 15, 2018
Alt-folk group Blitzen Trapper have gone from self-releasing their music to scoring an endorsement from Rolling Stone, landing major-label support and developing a full-on rock opera stage production based around their music. That’s a hell of a career. The band’s 2017 album, Wild and Reckless, builds off the new material from their…
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Joey Pisacane on January 19, 2018
The Soft White Sixties are true rock & roll revivalists—employing snappy drums, slick guitar and bass lines, and melodic vocals delivered with charisma and precision. Formed in San Francisco by vocalist and lyricist Octavio Genera, the band released their first full-length album, Get Right, in 2014. Since moving to L.A., they have…
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Kevin N. Hume on January 10, 2018
Calling all material girls and boys! Get “Into the Groove” and “Express Yourself” with a live tribute to the Queen of Pop. Featuring members of Oakland-bred indie-dance duo The Lovemakers and El Elle—Lisa Light’s solo follow-up to her turn fronting The Lovemakers. Supporting acts include L.A. Girlfriend, the alt-electro brainchild of Sydney…
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Tad Malone on December 27, 2017
At most family reunions, booze is imperative to survival. One thing’s for sure: there will be plenty of liquor Johnny V’s Family Reunion. Although legendary downtown dive Johnny V’s closed its doors last December because of an improper alcohol license, its spirit of hard-partying fun and loud, live music lives on. The Ritz is…
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In the run-up to this year’s XXXMas Fckfest, Eric Victorino, frontman for South Bay alt-rock heroes Strata and The Limousines, started to hear murmurs through the social media grapevine. “People would get on Twitter and ask, ‘Are you going to do the show this year?’” he recounts.
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Riding a recent hot streak, Chuck Ragan comes to San Jose for a night of smoldering acoustic folk at the Ritz. Inspired equally by perseverance and perdition, the storied singer has managed to establish dual music careers: one in punk with his much beloved band Hot Water Music, and one in folk…
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Back in 1975, before punk was even a fully formed genre, a Cleveland band led by the singer and songwriter David Thomas were fusing garage rock with harsh, glitchy electronics, field recordings, pulsing dance music and avant garde passages of noise. Without Pere Ubu, there would be no Pixies, no Sonic Youth…
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Yousif Kassab on November 24, 2017
Any musical act can talk about growing pains. With each new entry in their discography, a band or artist toils in an endless cycle of experimentation, inadvertently finding what works and what doesn’t. For Charlie Yin—better known by his stage name, Giraffage—some of that experimentation has also involved figuring out what he can…
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