San Jose’s own Bollywood bluesman, Aki Kumar, has long cut a distinct figure in the South Bay. Blending American blues with Hindi lyrics and elements of Indian bhangra, Kumar creates a cocktail like no other before. On 2021 single “Zindagi” (“Life,” in Hindi), Kumar and crew throw Jamaican roots reggae into the…
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Elliott Sky Case on March 9, 2022
Cellist Abel Selaocoe bends parameters of tradition and style as gracefully as his bow bends the strings of its instrument. The South African musician has performed as a chamber musician and as a soloist across the UK, played as part of a virtual celebration of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 90th birthday alongside classical…
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Jay Edgar on March 9, 2022
Exhibit Z in NorCal’s oft overlooked contributions to the hip hop world: Solesides Records. In the early ‘90s, the label and collective helped to first define and then spread the sound of alternative hip hop, bringing the world such luminaries as DJ Shadow and Blackalicious’ Gift of Gab, both of whom changed…
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Beibei Xu on March 2, 2022
Puerto Rican singer and rapper Bad Bunny—Spotify’s most streamed artist for 2020-21—is set to grace the SAP Center this Thursday on his “El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo 2022.” Named after the Grammy winner’s chart-smashing No. 1 album, “El Ultimo” is the North American leg of his first-ever world stadium tour. Celebrated by…
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Jay Edgar on March 2, 2022
Ever since Shannon Taylor’s cinematic take on emo helped give birth to the genre’s much-discussed fifth wave in 2018’s low self-esteem (full album title shortened for space), her project awakebutstillinbed has helped re-establish San Jose as a DIY capital. Taylor is an expert at capturing the audience’s attention; at first listen, any…
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Elliott Sky Case on March 2, 2022
An evening of music, poetry, live painting and more brings BIPOC artists into the spotlight. The School of Arts & Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza presents this First Saturday event, featuring local poets Yosimar Reyes and Arlene Biala, singer-songwriter TÉA and headliner DeAndre Brackensick. Brackensick grew up in San Jose before his…
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Alec Adams on March 2, 2022
Just Friends is a band that has been basking in the light of two suns. Coming up from the DIY punk circuit, their early material could reductively be called “emo with horns,” but they outgrew all their musical limitations basically overnight. Now their music is a whirlwind. The guitars jangle, the horns…
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Bill Kopp on February 23, 2022
Looping—the use of digital equipment to record and play back sounds in real time for musical self-accompaniment—has been around for decades. It’s most often used within the realm of guitarists and vocalists. But Portland, Ore., artist Joe Kye obviously didn’t get that memo: his chosen instrument is the violin.
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Elliott Sky Case on February 23, 2022
Indie-rock outfit Enjambre calls Zacatecas their original home, but the band has lived, developed and flexed their infectious sound in Southern California and Mexico City over the last decade. When the group was unable to tour their album Próximos Prójimos in either country due to the pandemic, frontman Luis Humberto Navejas decided…
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Alec Adams on February 23, 2022
In a few short years, La Santa Cecilia has gone from playing SoCal coffee shops to becoming “the voice of a new bicultural generation.” The LA-based act is often described as a rock band, but effortlessly pulls in bossa nova, cumbia, rumba and tango into its identity without compromising any part of…
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