Future Twin frontwoman Jean Yaste likes to start things.
Not just the leader of the San Francisco garage, lo-fi rock band, she also opposes condominium development in The City, is involved with the group that took over land in Albany and converted it to a guerilla farm, and is co-founder of an all-female moped gang.
Read More
Singer-instrumentalist Francoise Cactus of the eclectic French-German duo Stereo Total may not be Mother Goose, but she’s got her share of enchanting tales.
Given the last name La Hove at birth, the performer says her adopted surname has a fabular origin: her obsessive-gardener mother, who brought outdoor plants in for the winter.
“She always put all the cactus in my room. I was really afraid when I was small, thinking, ‘Oh, no. If I move in my dream, I’ll be stabbed by all this cactus!’” she says in a charming Burgundy accent.
Read More
At first, chuckles Charlie Reid, he and his twin brother, Craig, thought it was a prank. But the phone call the Scottish duo — also known as folk rockers The Proclaimers — received in 2002 from playwright Stephen Greenhorn was on the level.
The writer told them he had a concept for a musical using The Proclaimers’ songs, including the enduring hit “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).”
Read More
Members hail from Sweden, dress in hooded cloaks, are led by a skeleton-masked frontman named Papa Emeritus II and, on their new sophomore CD, “Infestissumam,” they offer goth-metal dirges such as “Idolatrime,” “Monstrance Clocks” and “Body in Blood.” What’s not to love about the theatrical juggernaut called Ghost B.C.? Bandmates are not atheists, insists one of the perpetually anonymous members known as Nameless Ghoul. “But aesthetically, the younger me wants there to be a physical devil because he’s cool!” he says.
Read More
San Francisco musician, DJ and producer Dub Gabriel celebrates the release of his fourth solo album, “Raggabass Resistance,” with a party at the Elbo Room on Sunday.
Fusing electronic experimentalism and groovy reggae, “Raggabass Resistance” is the sound of a three-year global odyssey, with diverse guests such as Major Lazer and Snoop Dogg producer Blakkamoore and David J from Bauhaus and Love & Rockets.
Read More
Labeling a band an institution — implying it is past its prime — is a dangerous game. But if any group is capable of wearing the tag without insult, it’s Built to Spill, playing a two-night stint at Slim’s this weekend.
Led by chief songwriter Doug Martsch, the Boise, Idaho, group’s devotion to all things guitar — from fuzzy, distorted riffs to angular and precise compositions — has created the template for indie rockers of the past two decades and is embraced by new groups such as California X and Cymbals Eat Guitars.
Read More
From the outside, George Watsky looks like any other American kid. His boyish face shows 19 of his 26 years. But when the Los Angeles-based rapper opens his mouth, he spits a verse out faster than you can do a double take.
Watsky is headlining The Fillmore on Thursday, a monumental show for the San Francisco native.
“When I was first discovering music and my passion for rapping and performing, the Fillmore is where I went to see shows,” he says in online posts.
Despite his young age, Watsky has been fighting an uphill battle for years to get him where he is today.
Read More
When London teens Chilli Jesson and Sam Fryer met by chance at Britain’s Reading Festival a few years ago, neither had a clue how to write a song.
So they chose a quirkier path into showbiz: They formed their own talent agency, Thursday’s Children, named for the day they got paid at their straight jobs.
Read More
Oakland-based Ensemble Mik Nawooj is known for breaking traditional musical boundaries and taking audiences beyond labels such as jazz, classical and even hip-hop.
The concept comes to the fore in “Death, Love & Life: A Chamber Hip-Hop Orchestra,” which debuts Saturday at Brick & Mortar in The City.
Unraveling along a lush musical landscape of a seven-piece chamber orchestra, two rappers and an opera singer, the work delves into emotional and psychological waters as it chronicles joy, suffering — and the possibility of transcending beyond the mundane.
Read More
The City’s infinite microclimates can make it hard to experience seasons, but a Bay Area gem near Suisun Bay offers the perfect springtime ticket.
Running through April 28 — and possibly later, depending on Mother Nature — are the Western Railway Museum’s 12th annual Spring Wildflower Train Rides.
Read More
URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/archive/17541/17541?page=2%2C0%2C0%2C1&type[story]=story
