The best albums of 2020 include (clockwise from top left): The Jayhawks, Lady Gaga, Royce da 5’9”, Poppy, MisterWives, The Weeknd, Donna Missal, Caleb Landry Jones, Songhoy Blues and Homeboy Sandman. Welcome back to RIFF’s top album countdown! If you’re here just to complain about the order or lack…

The best albums of 2020 include (clockwise from top left): Benny the Butcher, Sault, The Soft Pink Truth, Jacob Collier, Lucinda Williams, Jahari Massamba Unit, Bruce Springsteen, Loyal Lobos, Soccer Mommy and Crack Cloud. Welcome back to RIFF’s year-end album roundup! If you’re joining us just now, you’re here…

Tom Morello performs with Prophets of Rage at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on Sept. 13, 2016. Morello will join the Save the Senate streaming event to fundraise for Fair Fight. Paige K. Parsons/STAFF. A host of artists are poised to perform at a one-day music festival with proceeds…

The best albums of 2020 include Washed Out, the Mountain Goats, Ethan Gruska, Tom Petty, Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown, Logic, The Strokes, Moses Sumney, Fleet Foxes, Willie Nelson, Yves Tumor, Nicolas Jaar, Ed O’Brien, Charli XCX and Blackpink. After nearly a decade of living through 2020, we’re finally…

Pickup Sessions, courtesy: Living Jazz. Living Jazz, an Oakland organization devoted to the empowerment of people through music, has partnered with the West Oakland Food Pantry to provide live music to people waiting in line to receive food at the pantry. The series is called Pickup Sessions and the…

Megan Thee Stallion, courtesy. Apple on Wednesday announced the winners of the second annual Apple Music Awards, recognizing musicians who have had an impact on global culture. Awards were again handed out in five categories, with winners selected through a process that reflected Apple Music’s editorial perspective and popular listener opinion…

By Thomas Richards The everchanging Australian group King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard keeps its reputation of being one of the most eclectic bands intact with its 16th full-length album, K.G. This being the first album released after the departure of band manager and drummer Eric Moore, some were…

The UC Theatre photographed on Sept. 27, 2020. Onome Uyovbievbo/STAFF. The National Independent Venue Association has reorganized, with a separate nonprofit National Independent Venue Foundation (NIVF), whose mission will be to partner and fundraise through individual, corporate and foundation donations to expand upon NIVA’s mission to save music venues, as…

The Fox Theater, closed, on the afternoon of March 17, 2020, the first day of a shelter-in-place to combat coronavirus. Roman Gokhman/STAFF. The Fox Theater in Oakland is hosting a drive-through dood rive in support of Berkeley Food and Housing Project, and the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center. It will…

System of a Down. Clockwise from top left: Daron Malakian, John Dolmayan, Shavo Odadjian and Serj Tankian. Courtesy. System of a Down, which recently lobbied the U.S. government to denounce attacks on Armenian people living in a disputed region in neighboring Azerbaijan, has released two new songs. It is the…