Royal Teeth, courtesy. Royal Teeth are going places. When I first saw them play in February, their opening set stole the show. I spoke to vocalist Nora Patterson and guitarist-vocalist Gary Larsen recently. Their first headlining set in San Francisco is June 29 at Bottom of the Hill. Their…

Free Energy, courtesy. Many bands would use the opportunity of a light crowd to work on new songs and timing, play it safe and get back on the road quickly. Slim’s was noticeably under-attended Saturday night for Philadelphia-based power pop quintet Free Energy. That’s a bit surprising, since their 2010…

Eleanor Friedberger, “Personal Record.” On her second solo album since sidelining the Fiery Furnaces, Eleanor Freidberger is still chasing ’70s nostalgia. The singer-songwriter wrote and polished these 12 songs while touring in support of 2011’s “Last Summer,” and while they may be more personal, they are by no means…

Mumford and Sons perform at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley on May 30, 2013. Roman Gokhman/STAFF. BERKELEY — “How many of you are students?” Marcus Mumford surveyed the packed crowd at UC Berkeley’s Greek Theatre Thursday night, the second of three consecutive sell-outs for London folk-rockers Mumford & Sons. “How…

LL Cool J performs during the Kings of the Mic Tour at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif. on May 25, 2013. Roman Gokhman/STAFF. LL Cool J may be one of the elder statesmen of rap, rhyming since his 1985 platinum debut, but he has been out of the…

Steven Drozd and Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips interviewed at BottleRock 2013 Napa Valley in Napa. Photos courtesy: Paige K. Parsons. The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne and multi-instrumentalist/music arranger Steven Drozd won’t mince their words. Their new album, The Terror, is their darkest offering yet. “Dark” isn’t…

Big Deal, “Dream Machines” I’ve been a bit hooked on Big Deal since their 2011 album, Lights Out. While that album was good, though, it didn’t have a stand-out song. Not like “Dream Machines,” off new album June Gloom (out next month). This song has both the band’s signature…

Oona Garthwaite and OONA, courtesy. We chatted with with Oona Garthwaite about her new project OONA, with Dave Tweedie before their show at Rickshaw Stop on May 17. Your song “Metropolis” was just played on So You Think You Can Dance, and it wasn’t even your first one to…

Midi Matilda performs at Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco on May 17, 2013. If the only time someone has seen San Francisco’s Midi Matilda was at last year’s Live 105 BFD, when the guitar and drums synth-pop duo struggled with gear malfunctions through the first half of a short…

LL Cool J, courtesy. Last week I interviewed rapper-actor-Grammy host LL Cool J. The big issue swirling around him lately has been the controversy over “Accidental Racist,” the song he recorded with country singer Brad Paisley. I briefly go into that in my story. But since space is at…