When she’s not giving a middle finger to middle America or “glamorizing terrorism,” M.I.A. is living the good life. A very good life, if the tour rider posted today on The Smoking Gun is any indication. While most of her ‘demands’ are hardly cause for a public outcry (there’s plenty more fodder…
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After fading into nowhere in particular, the celestial blues of Mazzy Star will be heard once again. As promised, the California band is releasing a new album this year and traveling the length of their native state, playing at some predictably unusual venues.
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Steve Palopoli on February 8, 2012
Andy Kuntz remembers when arcade games suddenly became the hottest nostalgia item in Silicon Valley. It was during the dotcom boom, when the coin-op craze was gone and seemingly forgotten, and home consoles already ruled the video-game industry. Kuntz and his brother, Chris, were running T Minus One, a company that rents,…
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Aaron Carnes on February 8, 2012
Doing the unexpected is nothing new for Talib Kweli and Res, the duo behind alternative R&B/hip hop group Idle Warship, which comes to Pagoda Lounge in San Jose on Saturday. Kweli has made a name for himself as a conscious-underground rapper with a sound all of his own. Back in the mid-90s…
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The controversy over M.I.A.’s middle-finger salute at the Super Bowl may not have been exactly the publicity Madonna was looking for when she signed on for the halftime show. But if there’s one thing we know about Madge, it’s that she’ll take publicity any way she can get it, especially with the…
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Monkey and Drunken Starfighter drew an eclectic and energetic crowd to The Bank in Saratoga on Friday. Metro photographer Christine Kelly was there to catch the action.
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There’s a word for what the Lolita in Lana Del Rey suffers from—and it comes from the author of her avatar, Vladimir Nabokov—the Russian word toska, a “sensation of deep spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause, a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick…
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The Mumlers is one of San Jose’s greatest exports. Lead vocalist William Sprott, spoke with us about his music, his escapades in Oakland and life in general. He performs next at a solo show at Swedish American Hall on February 24th as part of the Noise Pop festival.
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I caught John Doe at his last South Bay show, at Streetlight Records last year. What struck me more than ever before was how much this guy embodies all the DIY, music-of-the-people ideals that punk rock was supposed to stand for.
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SoCal producer prodigy Dibiase remembers when L.A. became a beat mecca in 2005. Flipping his own first beats as a teenager growing up in Watts, he wasn’t too long out of high school when he started getting invited to events like Sketchbook, the weekly Tuesday night gathering of up-and-coming talent at the…
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