Features
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INTERVIEW: Buzzy Lee, aka Sasha Spielberg, on writing music and painting dogs
Sasha Spielberg (Buzzy Lee), Courtesy. Reached by phone several week ago, Sasha Spielberg, whose album Spoiled Love as Buzzy Lee comes out Jan. 29, had to take a pause from her big activity of the day: painting dogs. Spoiled Love Buzzy Lee Future Classic, Jan. 29 “Paintings of the dogs,” she…
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INTERVIEW: Rozzi gazes through “Orange Skies” to raise climate awareness
Rozzi, courtesy. San-Francisco-born Rozzi found musical inspiration through the climate tragedy of wildfires and hopes to use it for positive change. The powerhouse vocalist penned what became the haunting ballad “Orange Skies” back in 2019 as a reaction to the Southern California fires. Rozzi breathed in the thick smokey…
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INTERVIEW: Heart’s Ann Wilson celebrates compromise as core American altruism
Ann Wilson of Heart, Courtesy: Criss Cain. Ann Wilson of Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Heart is still a West Coast woman at heart, but she’s lived with her husband in northern, rural Florida for four years. On her street, almost every house has a Trump sign. If…
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‘America’s Got Talent’ winner Brandon Leake has big goals for himself, south Stockton
Brandon Leake at Edison High School in Stockton, Calif., on Nov. 2, 2020. Onome Uyovbievbo/STAFF. Stockton’s “America’s Got Talent” winner Brandon Leake is still waiting for the opportunity to receive his full prize of winning the show in September and performing in Las Vegas. But that hasn’t stopped Leake…
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INTERVIEW: Irish singer-songwriter Imelda May ready to rebel
Imelda May, Courtesy. When Irish chanteuse Imelda May first wrote “11 Past The Hour,” the initial taste from her forthcoming album—she was writing about herself. This was before the pandemic forced everyone into their homes. Somewhere along the line, the song about awakenings and finding safety and love went…
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SF Symphony ventures virtually with Esa-Pekka Salonen, collaborators
Esperanza Spalding performs in “Throughline: San Francisco Symphony—From Hall to Home.” Other artists highlighted include Bryce Dessner of The National and violinist Pekka Kuusisto. Courtesy: SF Symphony. After Esa-Pekka Salonen was named to fill the shoes of Michael Tilson Thomas as music director of the San Francisco Symphony in…
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INTERVIEW: Almost Monday eager to make up for lost time after the pandemic
almost monday, Courtesy: Cole Ferguson. This was going to be a breakout year for San Diego pop trio almost monday. In a way it still is, thanks to the streaming and radio success of runaway hit “broken people.” Still, after beginning 2020 by opening for AJR, almost monday were…
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INTERVIEW: French artist Marina Kaye finds love in the time of corona
Marina Kaye, Courtesy. It’s 9 p.m. in Geneva, Switzerland; an appropriate time to hop on a video call with self-proclaimed French dark pop singer-songwriter Marina Kaye. The artist, who just recently announced her return with long-gestating third album Twisted, is well-known in Europe for writing sometimes melodramatic, sometimes vengeful,…
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INTERVIEW: Puscifer charts course for ‘Existential Reckoning,’ mysterious livestream
Puscifer, Courtesy: Travis Shinn The shroud of mystery surrounding experimental rock outfit Puscifer is fitting for the uncertain and unsettling times of a pandemic crossed with mass civil unrest. The band, whose core is made up of Maynard James Keenan (Tool, A Perfect Circle), Carina Round and Mat Mitchell,…
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Concord’s Carlos Alazraqui on reviving ‘Reno 911!’ and ‘Rocko’s Modern Life’
Carlos Alazraqui, Courtesy: Comedy Central/Everet. You think you know Carlos Alazraqui as Deputy Garcia on “Reno 911.” He played the character for the first five seasons and, despite being killed off in an explosion offscreen before season six, he returned for the seventh season, now airing on Quibi. “Yeah,…
