Rendering: Adam Pardee/STAFF. WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — I went out Friday night. In public. With other real humans. It was weird … and pretty great, I must admit. I was doing a story for my day job about local venues and restaurants reopening. I was offered tours and free…

There are a couple ways to listen to the debut of Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth WVH. Mammoth WVH Wolfgang Van Halen Explorer1 Music Group, June 11 7/10 The first comes through expectations of the 30-year-old son of a man who changed rock guitar, and whose band was America’s answer to Led Zeppelin. The son is the third generation of a great musical family and the benefactor of…

Insert Foot, Grimes and Skynet socialists. At least Grimes is trying.  Granted, the Canadian pop singer-songwriter is a bit weird, though that’s a plus in this context. Because only weirdos–at least in some sense–are really worth our extra attention. We don’t expect normal people to grab us by the shoulders and scream…

Liz Phair recently told Variety that you can go home again, only things progress and people change. That was a great way to describe her first new album in more than a decade, the fresh-but-comfortable Soberish. Soberish Liz Phair Chrysalis, June 4 8/10 It’s appropriately clever, honest, a bit…

Insert Foot discovers BTS. Editor’s note: Work with us here… Mr. Insert Foot, in many ways, is like RIFF’s curmudgeonly dad. He’s open to new ideas, but it takes a while! Next month, we’ll talk to him about the 23-member NCT. I was messing around the other day (working)…

The Linda Lindas, courtesy. I’m used to being behind on pop culture, what with me living in a backyard hole the past year, cowering from germs and playing my 1999 version of “Tomb Raider” 20 hours a day. It’s still awesome, by the way, despite being the beginning of…

Insert Foot is Safe In Sound. Original image: Participants take part in a COVID-19 transmission risk assessment study on Aug. 22, 2020 in Leipzig, Germany. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images. The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) and Event Safety Alliance (ESA), in partnership with three other groups with long names…

It may take a couple songs to appreciate The Black Keys’ new record, Delta Kream, a tribute to the Mississippi Hill Country blues influences they wrangled a couple decades ago to become household names in roots rock. Delta Kream The Black Keys Easy Eye Sound/Nonesuch, May 14 6/10 It seems…

Insert Foot vs. the “Friends” top-5 lists. You want to hear something really horrifying?  Sure you do.  I just heard a story of a young woman from this century who argued and almost broke up with her boyfriend last week. The life-altering (not really) dispute started with a conversation over their…

Bennifer is… back? So Bennifer is a thing again. Tom Jones’ new record just hit No. 1 in Britain. “Mortal Kombat” is the No. 1 movie in America. Genesis just announced a reunion tour in the U.S. Yes, that Genesis. Not in the biblical sense, though it’s not clear…