Site of former sea shanties, as well as Alestorm’s current ones. There’s always some tension between our illustrious editor Roman Gokhman and I when it comes to this column. He, being the King of RIFF, cares about stuff like SEO and reader interest and boring things like that. I,…

The road to sedition: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), autocrat Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey. In my defense, last week when I wrote about having a glimmer of optimism about 2021 I did specifically…

Illustration: Skott Bennett/STAFF. None of us here at RIFF would blame you if you just wanted to forget 2020 ever happened. We certainly do. But one of the few brights spot was that some pretty good music came out, so if you decide you want to find the year’s…

Here comes—let’s be realistic here—the slightly less overcast sun, with the Beatles. You’re reading this in 2021. That means you made it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m under no impression that 2021 will immediately be all sunshine and rainbows. We’re still in the midst of a plague that should…

Editor Daniel J. Willis’ reaction to just about everything this year. Here’s his 2020 in review. The last couple years I’ve done a column of the Worst of the Year in Music. This is not a normal year. It’s been so bad that the worst of music is, at…

Taylor Swift, courtesy: Beth Garrabrant. Way, way back in 2018, long before the sickness came, I had the crazy idea to list my five (or so) songs of every year from 1967 to the then-present day of 2018. Amazingly, I actually did it. It was a lot of years…

First Avenue in Minneapolis photographed on May 19, 2020. Photo: Todd Johnson. While most headlines about the newly-passed, long-awaited second round of COVID relief are focused on the $600 individual payments, it also includes help for the nation’s independent venues. According to a joint statement by Nancy Pelosi and…

Pearl Jam performs at Oracle Arena in Oakland on Nov. 26, 2013. Roman Gokhman/STAFF. First off, yes, I’m doing the Christmas column nearly a week before Christmas. It’s the last pre-Christmas column. Blame the concept of time. Anyway, at the risk of going full Grinch on you, I can’t…

Sasha Spielberg (Buzzy Lee), Courtesy. Reached by phone several week ago, Sasha Spielberg, whose album Spoiled Love as Buzzy Lee comes out Jan. 29, had to take a pause from her big activity of the day: painting dogs. Spoiled Love Buzzy Lee Future Classic, Jan. 29 “Paintings of the dogs,” she…

K.Flay performs at the Fox Theater in Oakland on Sept. 7, 2019. Chloe Catajan/STAFF. Last week, I went through my 2020 Spotify Wrapped playlist. It was made abundantly clear what everyone who reads this column, or in fact has ever spoken to me for more than three minutes, could…