It all started as my dog and I waited for my boyfriend to make a quick beer run. I was leaning against the car with the passenger door open and my dog beside me. You approached from the liquor store with a wobbly, zigzagged gait to profess your love for me—if I…
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by
André Jaquez on November 2, 2017
This San Francisco quintet crafts sweeping tracks full of jangly, upbeat guitars, circus pomp and glittering synth flourishes. Ditching their former moniker Foreign, the band rebranded last fall. Now, after six months of recording in a basement, they just released their self-titled EP—a four song set of emotionally resonant Y2K psychedelia reminiscent…
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We all had that antsy feeling, wondering what the heck was taking so long to get off the plane. But there’s rules of the road (air?), and as I stepped into the aisle—after dutifully waiting my turn for the rows ahead of me to exit—you blatantly ignored them. You blitzed ahead and…
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André Jaquez on November 1, 2017
As the fearless, freewheeling frontman of metal giants Iron Maiden, no obstacle was too high for the leaping and bounding Bruce Dickinson. In 2014 that all changed when doctors discovered a large cancerous lump in his tongue. Dickinson’s 40-year career manning the cockpit for Iron Maiden—quite literally; he is the band’s singer…
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André Jaquez on November 1, 2017
Taking their name from the classic John Hughes flick Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, one of Orange County’s original ska punk bands rise again with energy to spare. When the Southern California ska punk scene broke into the mainstream with acts like Sublime leading the pack, Save Ferris earned their way with an…
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André Jaquez on November 1, 2017
These Berklee alums know how to hit their listeners right in the feels. In a flush of pop brushstrokes, A R I Z O N A create infectious electronic dance music, which they perform with live instruments, following a growing trend in the EDM world. The trio’s detailed production sounds like a…
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André Jaquez on October 31, 2017
Ask Charles Yan where he comes from and he won’t start with his birth. For him, it all goes back to China’s Cultural Revolution. Yan’s father fled his homeland as Mao Zedong was consolidating power—only to land in Vietnam. When government forces there “repurposed” his home, he and his family fled again, this…
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André Jaquez on October 27, 2017
Imagine doo-wop’s comedic Coasters switched their electric guitars for flugelhorns and theremins and you’re getting close to understanding what this California Pops Orchestra program is all about. In between turns at the rostrum, pops maestro Kim Venaas dishes out deadpan one-liners—like Mitch Hedberg in a tux. The orchestra, along with special guest…
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André Jaquez on October 27, 2017
Rumbling onto American stages during the mid-1960s, the Rolling Stones were the dangerous alternative to the bubbly Mersey Beat sound of their contemporaries The Beatles. Anyone who knows anything about The British Invasion knows that. The only question is, whose side are you on? Join in the enduring rock & roll debate…
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André Jaquez on October 27, 2017
Growing up in the Cypress Village projects in West Oakland is tough. Especially when you go from hustling candy bars to pushing work. Unlike the stripped-down beats and absurdist view of street life trotted out by his hyphy predecessors, Stalin takes a bleaker, more serious tone over gooey beats that borrow from…
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