It is no exaggeration to call 2013 the “Era of Lera” in contemporary art.
Lera Auerbach, the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s featured composer this week, is also a virtuoso pianist, poet, novelist (in English, Russian and German) and painter; her operas and ballets are being produced internationally; and she is an active member of the Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum.
Read More
“Love Lust Faith + Dreams,” the new fourth recording from Jared Leto’s alt-rock outfit 30 Seconds to Mars, is nothing if not apocalyptic.
It opens with deceptively jazzy horns of “Birth,” but downshifts into Wagnerian epics like the fallen-empire study “Conquistador,” the morbid piano dirge “End of All Days,” the rattlesnake-percussion “Northern Lights,” and the majestic single “Up in the Air,” with the brooding lyric “Is this the end I feel, up in the air, f****d up on life?”
Reflecting on the magnum opus, the singer laughs.
Read More
Unabashedly intellectual San Francisco producer Kastle hears a huge “Boom!” from somewhere close to his Dolores Park apartment.“That was big,” he says. “I thought this was a nice neighborhood.”
Read More
Cutting-edge neo-soul stylist Janelle Monáe, who dreamed of having an entire orchestra as the wind beneath her futuristic songwriting wings, is overjoyed to be performing with the San Francisco Symphony Thursday night. The concert will feature intricate, Fritz Lang-inspired tracks from her records “Metropolis: Suite 1 (The Chase)” and “The ArchAndroid,” and perhaps an upcoming third, “The Electric Lady” (already known for the new single “Q.U.E.E.N.” featuring Erykah Badu). Monáe, who typically wears a dress suit, will be perfectly attired for the occasion.
Read More
For Daryl Hall and millions of others, living with Lyme disease is serious business. But the mood was lighthearted as the pop singer, minus partner John Oates, blasted through his hits at a benefit for the Bay Area Lyme Foundation at a gorgeous Portola Valley estate.
About 300 people attended the fun and lavish dinner bash Sunday at the home of Laird and Sherry Cagan. Sherry Cagan, one of several founders of the foundation, also has Lyme disease.
Read More
Listeners don’t need to know the narrative behind her new fourth effort, “Once I Was an Eagle,” to fully appreciate it, according to English neo-folk chanteuse Laura Marling. But she’s happy to recount it.
Read More
As a kid, Olly Murs heard the adage that only two career paths that could lead a lad out of England: becoming a rock star or a professional soccer player. He was counting on the latter.
“Football was something that I loved massively,” he says of his years playing semi-pro for Whitham Town. “I used to just work 9 to 5 at a job and play football, and it was a non-league team, but I was trying to break into professional. I never had anything else to look forward to, really.”
And then? The accident. And everything turned bleak.
Read More
San Francisco-based house-DJ duo on the rise Bells & Whistles returns to South of Market nightclub Harlot today, part of the busiest year ever for young Zack Yakovlev and Yanick Rieffel. Bells & Whistles plays the “Sound” night at the swanky club alongside Lisbona, supporting PBR Streetgang. Expect good times, fierce-looking ladies and some deep house, Yakovlev says.
Read More
Sometimes discretion is simply the better part of valor — just ask Paula Cole. After winning a 1997 Grammy for best new artist — and composing the addictive theme song to “Dawson’s Creek,” “I Don’t Want to Wait” — the Berklee-schooled singer-songwriter saw the writing on the wall. “There was a huge change in the culture,” she says.
Read More
On her BRIT Award-winning 2007 debut, “Made of Bricks,” Kate Nash was a Strawberry Shortcake-faced English teen who traded in whimsical sung-spoken folk ditties.
She’s grown up.
Now 25, she’s got a new fashion sense, a Rogue-from-“X-Men” hairstyle, a bratty all-female backing band, a punk album called “Girl Talk” (penned after her breakup with The Cribs’ Ryan Jarman), and an acting career in movies such as “Syrup,” “The Powder Room” and “Greetings From Tim Buckley.”
Read More
URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/archive/17541/17541?type%5bstory%5d=story&quicktabs_6=0
