Sebastian Bach, “Child Within The Man.” Sebastian Bach is best known from his stint as lead singer of Skid Row, the glam-styled metal band of the late ’80s and early ’90s or, depending on your age and musical tastes, the Tiki from “The Masked Singer.” But as metalheads know,…

Dethklok performs at The Masonic in San Francisco on April 24, 2024. Chloe Catajan/STAFF. Wednesday night, for the first time since 2018, I paid money for a concert ticket and didn’t write about the show afterward. I’m spoiled. As a writer for RIFF, I can get press tickets to…

DARUMAS, courtesy. This week we have multinational bands in Darumas and Calva Louise, throwbacks in Bones Owens and Night Laser; Evangeline covering her father, and synth-driven pop by Willow Kayne. Darumas, “Darumá” — Everything about this one is good. Darumas is a funk trio with a Latin influence and fantastic…

Black Sabbath (Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward) in 19970. Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage. Does it make me, a sober person, a hypocrite to write a 4/20 column? No. It’s not my fault all the best music is either about or made by people on pot.…

“Star Trek: The Next Generation.” I love Star Trek. “The Next Generation” was a major part of my childhood and all the new series are just fantastic, no matter how much the worst nerds badmouth them. So obviously, yesterday I celebrated First Contact Day. The holiday is in honor…

“COWBOY CARTER.” I don’t really like modern country music, at least the mainstream country that gets radio airplay and genre awards. Even beyond my issues with its exclusionary practices and politics, nearly all of it feels derivative. It’s been so insular for so long it’s gone full Habsburg. So…

Does Avial celebrate Holi? Look, I’ll address the elephant in the room: Last week I used a holiday as an excuse to highlight bands from another country, and this week I’m also using a holiday to highlight bands from another country. I’ll own up to that. But it’s not…

My Bloody Valentine, courtesy. Welcome to what’s apparently the third annual St. Patrick’s Day list of Irish bands in which I specifically and intentionally don’t include U2! For those just joining us, our illustrious editor Roman Gokhman is a U2 fan in the same sense that Stan was an…

High Desert Queen, courtesy Stacey Lovett. This week we have soul from Casii Stephan, old-school Southern rock from Little Feat, hard rock by High Desert Queen, Kate Clover and The Idoru, and an outside-the-box history lesson by Kev Bev. Casii Stephan, “Can’t Handle Me” — It’s incredibly hard to find…

Frank Zappa performs in Rotterdam, Netherlands on May 24, 1980. Photo by Rob Verhorst/Redferns. In my capacity as a data journalist, I go to a lot of conferences, and it’s become a tradition in this column that I mark my travels with a column about artists from each city.…