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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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As a kid, Julie Edwards constantly had her grammar corrected by her talk-show-host father Steve Edwards, who now anchors “Good Day L.A.”
“I couldn’t say, ‘Everyone has their own thing.’ It had to be, ‘Everyone has his — or her — own thing,’” says the drummer, who rebelled by dubbing her new duo, with guitarist-vocalist Lindsey Troy, Deap Vally.
“But one day, someone told me the theory that every form of communication works,” she adds. “It doesn’t have to be proper. So spelling and grammar are for elitists — the world belongs to the common people!”
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U.K. jungle music legend Roni Size returns to San Francisco on Saturday for a stripped-down, hyperkinetic drum and bass set with MC Dynamite.
The 44-year-old Bristol resident’s first visit to The City in two years will precede his Sunday set at the gargantuan Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio.
Don’t worry about him saving something in the gas tank for his sweltering desert date.
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French-born, London-based art rocker Jehnny Beth isn’t content with her new, all-girl, quasi-goth combo Savages, nor her sidelined duo with longtime beau Johnny Hostile, John & Jehn, nor the record label they run together, Pop Noire — about to issue the Savages’ debut recording, “Silence Yourself.” She knows it sounds corny, but the singer, who also acts, really wants to direct feature-length films.
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Rafal Blechacz made headlines in 2005 when he became the first Polish pianist in 30 years to win the prestigious International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. It was an especially captivating victory, because no second prize was awarded that year. (San Francisco’s Garrick Ohlsson is the only American winner.) The 27-year-old virtuoso appears this weekend in a Chamber Music San Francisco presentation. It’s his third visit to The City, after sold-out concerts in 2008 and 2011.
How do you prepare for concerts?
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Organizers of the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival today announced the lineup for the sixth-annual three-day concert in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.
Paul McCartney, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails and Phoenix are among the headliners at the festival, scheduled from Aug. 9-11.
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Nashville, Tenn., musicians Georgia Middleman and Gary Burr and their writing partner created their new album, “Finally Home,” with at least one major goal.
“We didn’t want it being perceived as Kenny Loggins doing a country album,” says Burr, one-third of Blue Sky Riders, who play the Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley on Friday.
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