Upon first glance, Thurston Moore’s Rock n Roll Consciousness appears to be an EP, including just five songs. Those songs, however, stretch and unfold to fill more than 40 minutes with experimental and expansive music that could only be created by Moore. Rock n Roll Consciousness Thurston Moore April…

To say Juliana Hatfield wrote her new album because she was inspired by Donald Trump’s election seems wrong. Motivated. Driven. Determined. Those all might be more appropriate since Pussycat, though beautifully done, appears to give lyrical middle finger to the 45th U.S. president. Pussycat Juliana Hatfield April 28 Recorded…

When RIFF talked to Weezer’s Brian Bell about his band The Relationship last November, to say he was excited about the group’s forthcoming album would have been an understatement. A smile spread across his normally stoic face, Bell beamed when he talked about the music he and his band…

A day before Brian Bell of Weezer drops his upcoming album with new group The Relationship, the band is playing The Rickshaw Stop. The Relationship, Cotillon 8 p.m., Thursday, April 20 The Rickshaw Stop Tickets: $12-$14 “I really just wanted a band of friends. I wanted something to do that was fun,”…

Original art: Vivian Shih Chelsea’s 33rd birthday was going to be one she’d never forget. U2, her favorite band, was performing for two nights in Toronto, Canada, and the California native would be there to see both performances. “That is my happy place. That’s my church,” she said. “I go…

It’s been seven years since Karen Elson released her debut album, The Ghost Who Walks, which was produced by her now-ex-husband Jack White. A lot has happened in those seven years, including her divorce and a very public custody battle over the couple’s two children. So it’s no surprise…

Pressing play on The New Pornographers’ seventh album, Whiteout Conditions, is akin to downing several shots of espresso, then riding out the 42-minute caffeine kick. The album, out April 7, is the first to be released on the band’s Collected Works Records. In the three years since releasing Brill…

Foxygen, Gabriella Cohen 9 p.m., Friday, April 7 The Independent Tickets: SOLD OUT When I call Gabriella Cohen, it’s days into her first major American tour and hours after wrapping a show at a New York club. Our conversation begins with her apologies; she needs to grab a coffee.…

In a world that seems to becoming increasingly isolationist (i.e. Brexit and President Trump), U.K. singer-songwriter Frances is trying to create unity with her music. She just released her debut album, Things I’ve Never Said, which includes the single “No Matter.” Written after the small-town girl moved to London, Frances…

Allison Crutchfield & The Fizz, Vagabon, Joyride!  8 p.m., Thursday Rickshaw Stop Tickets: $12-$14 “I feel so small,” begins Vagabon’s opening song “The Embers” on the full-length debut album Infinite Worlds, which is an interesting choice for an artist with such a strong voice. Vagabon is Laeticia Tamko, who…