Not So Silent Night, a holiday tradition from modern rock station Live 105, returned bigger and better than ever this year with two days of music at Oracle Arena.

Metro photographer Aron Cooperman made the trip to Oakland on Friday to catch sets from Jack White, the Shins, Of Monsters and Men and more.

More than half of the 20 Bay Area bands competing for an opening slot at Live 105’s Not So Silent Night, featuring Jack Whit, the Shins, the Killers,  M83, Tegan & Sara, Passion Pit and more on December 7 and December 8 at the Oracle Arena, are from the South Bay.

As of this this posting, Curious Quail and Light the Rocket are the two South Bay bands with the most votes. They are neck and neck for 3rd and 4th place. The first place position belongs to Livermore group Hear The Sirens. To win, some of the bands are finding creative ways to motivate their fans to vote. Dogcatcher, for instance, is offering all their albums for free online until the voting ends. Curious Quail uploaded a video explaining to their fans all the reasons why they should vote for them.

Other South bay bands in the running include Drop Dead Sixty, Fossil Tree, INFM, Pounders, Touch My Rash, The Mess, The Oarsmen and UP&GO.

More than half of the 20 Bay Area bands competing for an opening slot at Live 105’s Not So Silent Night, featuring Jack Whit, the Shins, the Killers,  M83, Tegan & Sara, Passion Pit and more on December 7 and December 8 at the Oracle Arena, are from the South Bay.

Voting is still open, HERE.

At age 64, reggae legend Jimmy Cliff is experiencing perhaps one of the greatest bursts of artistic productivity and inspiration in all of his five decade long and counting career. Following the release of his new album, Rebirth earlier this year, the Jamaican native—who recorded his first single 50 years ago—is touring the world, including a performance at Coachella earlier this year and stop at Shoreline Amphitheatre on Saturday for the Harmony By The Bay Festival. The Shins, Tegan & Sara, Dirty Heads and Matisyahu are also on the bill.

As one of the originators of the reggae genre, Cliff has inspired countless other musicians over the years, including Bay Area punk rocker Tim Armstrong of Rancid and Operation Ivy, who was brought aboard to produce and perform on Rebirth.

“When his name came up, I was familiar with it via Joe Strummer of the Clash, and knew that punk music and reggae music had a kinship, because reggae inspired and influenced punk,” says Cliff. “We address social and political issues in our music, and everything just kind of blended.”

GIVEAWAY: Enter to win two tickets for Harmony By the Bay

Though the album has a classic and vintage reggae feel to it, the punk spirit that Cliff mentions comes shining through on two of the tracks, one a cover of Rancid’s “Ruby Soho,” the other an excellent version of the Clash’s “Guns of Brixton,” which features a fitting cyclical connection between all of the artists.

In one verse of the song, which was released in 1979, the lyrics read, “You know he feels like Ivan/Born under the Brixton sun/His game is called surviving/At the end of ‘The Harder They Come,’” referencing the 1972 film that starred Cliff and featured his title song.

“The fact that the last song Joe Strummer ever recorded was with me on my last album—that made it all seem right,” says Cliff.

In choosing the title for the album, Cliff says he was inspired by a number of different things.

Considering the pummeling KFOG has taken in the last few weeks over its morning show catastrophe, perhaps it sees the new Harmony By The Bay Festival as a way to win back some goodwill. The new music event on September 29 at Shoreline will try to fill the void left by the cancellation—after 33 straight years—of Santa Rosa’s Harmony Festival, and is a joint venture between Harmony’s organizers, KFOG and Live Nation. Performers will include The Shins, Tegan and Sara, Kimbra, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Beats Antique, Matisyahu and many more.

In March, organizers of the annual three-day Santa Rosa music festival announced it would not be returning to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds this summer due to financial trouble. However, they left open the possibility the festival would return as early as next year, and wrote in a statement: “Please trust that we have spent many months creatively exploring dozens of promising options in the hopes that we could keep this magical event alive this year. We know this news is a great disappointment to the entire Harmony team and the community at large, and we share your feelings of disappointment. We ask that we work together to move beyond this stage, toward hope and optimism for future Harmony Festivals.”

Apparently, the future is now. This one-day, South Bay version features the same eclectic mix of genres and cultures in its line-up, from the bluegrass of Krauss to reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, with a lot of indie rock in between. Organizers promise “Two stages of diverse music, creative food, crafts, sustainability education, shopping and good vibes.”

Tickets go on sale Friday, June 29, at 10am.

Confirmed Performers:
The Shins
Tegan and Sara
Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas
Beats Antique
Matisyahu
Jimmy Cliff
Kimbra
More TBA
The Dirty Heads, The Givers

The Bay Area gets a boost from Coachella this week as many artists make their way to Northern California venues in the days surrounding the festival in Indio, Calif.

The South Bay only gets one high-profile visit with the Radiohead show at HP Pavilion on April 11, but several other acts are making stops in San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Oakland.

Our friends at SF Station compiled a complete list of Coachella artists performing in Northern California, including performances by Mazzy Star and The Shins in Santa Cruz, Justice in Oakland, and buzz band Gotye in San Francisco. See the full list HERE.