Lil Jon at the Democratic National Convention. While usually I find political party conventions to be like high school pep rallies but with less passion and charm, the Democratic National Convention this week was pretty great. The first three days, at least. Day 4 kind of bothered me. I’ll…

Hope and Tim Walz, courtesy Twitter. When Kamala Harris was choosing a running mate, a running joke was that it had to be a white guy to appeal to the nation’s white guys. I, as a progressive East Bay guy who’s actively supported women for a variety of offices…

Ilona Maher of Team United States runs with the ball against Team Great Britain during the Women’s Rugby Sevens Olympics quarterfinal match at Stade de France in Paris on July 29, 2024 Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images. The Olympics are happening again and, while you may be expecting snark…

Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris at the San Francisco Pride Parade on June 30, 2019. Gary Chancer/STAFF. Back in 2020, when Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris to be his Vice President, I wrote a column featuring artists from her father’s home country of Jamaica. I was excited that someone…

DEFENCES, courtesy. DEFENCES and Drug Church bring the metal, Wild Pink and We Are Wolves bring us some joy, while The Backfires and StrateJacket show again that rock’s not dead. Wild Pink, “The Fences of Stonehenge” — Artist John Ross’ message with this song describes a previous Wild Pink…

Kendrick Lamar performs during Outside Lands Music Festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2023. Matt Pang/STAFF. Back in 2018, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I listed my top five or so songs from every year since 1967 in this column. I then went on…

Phoenix performs at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley on Sept. 8, 2018. Photo: Paige K. Parsons. July 14 is Bastille Day; basically, the French version of the 4th of July in the United States. But that comparison doesn’t really do it justice. With all due respect to the Founding…

Deep Purple, “=1.” For a band that’s been around for more than 55 years, Deep Purple has been on a bit of a hot streak for the past decade. Its three albums of original material over that span—-2013’s Now WHAT?!, 2017’s inFinite and 2020’s Whoosh!—weren’t just artistic achievements for…

The Doors (from bottom to top: Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger and John Densmore) stand on the stairs of a lifeguard tower in 1969. Photo by Henry Diltz/Corbis. On July 1, the Supreme Court ruled that if the President of the United States can justify something as an…

Tupac Shakur performs at the Regal Theater in Chicago in March 1994. Photo: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images. Back in May, rather than covering uplifting songs about how important mothers are, my Mother’s Day column consisted of songs that you should not play at your mom’s party. Since I am fair,…