Features
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Interview: Rupa and the April Fishes prepare for bicycle concert tour around Bay Area
Rupa and the April Fishes, courtesy: Hillary Hulteen. SAN FRANCISCO — It’s the afternoon before her San Francisco band’s namesake holiday, April Fool’s Day, and Rupa Marya is taking a lunch break from preparations for Rupa and the April Fishes’ upcoming bicycle concert tour. Marya woke up early this…
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Interview: SF native Hanni El Khatib returns home on the Highway Man Tour
Hanni El Khatib, courtesy: Guy Lowndes. The electricity goes out in the home of new Angelino Hanni El Khatib just as he answers his telephone. “Can you call me back in five minutes?” he asks. “I want to figure this out.” El Khatib resolves his concern in four minutes…
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The Joy Formidable: “It’s not just volume, but dynamic and passion”
The Joy Formidable, courtesy. When Welsh rock trio The Joy Formidable resolved to record the follow-up to last year’s critically praised debut, The Big Roar, the band did not settle on a studio in New York, Los Angeles or their home base of London. Instead, vocalist-guitarist Ritzy Bryan, bassist-boyfriend…
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Interview: Jacob Tilley of Young the Giant on a breakout 2011, next album
Young The Giant, courtesy. Three minutes on stage may have made the difference between emerging success and national attention, or a career as another relatively unknown alt-rock band for the members of Irvine’s Young the Giant. Or, as guitarist Jacob Tilley recalls, it could have meant the end of…
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Vicky Cryer: Louis XIV’s Jason Hill gathers talented friends for new band’s first SF show
Vicky Cryer, courtesy. There are two foremost things you need to know about Vicky Cryer. The first is that the Los Angeles dance-rock collective is not an all-star band. Though it (currently) features the drummers from Muse and Nine Inch Nails, the bassist from The Killers, Julian Casablancas’ keyboardist,…
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Trampled by Turtles: bluegrass inspired by metal and Dylan
Trampled By Turtles, courtesy. Burrowed halfway between Minneapolis and Canada’s Thunder Bay, along Minnesota’s corner of Lake Superior, Duluth is a small city surrounded by forests, hills, streams and lakes. Considering the population is only 90,000, an annual weeklong music festival with 150 local bands may seem out of…
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Interview: Foster the People rides creepy single to stardom
Foster the People, courtesy. This story originally appeared in the Oakland Tribune. A single song completely changed the trajectory of Los Angeles indie pop trio Foster the People. In a little under a year singer-instrumentalist Mark Foster, drummer Mark Pontius and bassist Cubbie Fink went from working odd jobs…
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Interview: Two Door Cinema Club savors its Northern Ireland roots
Alex Trimble of Two Door Cinema Club performs at the Leeds Festival at Bramhall Park on Aug. 28, 2011 in Leeds, England. Photo by Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage. This story originally appeared in the Oakland Tribune. The way singer Alex Trimble sees it, the isolation that came with starting a band…
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Interview: Teddybears keeping their heads
Teddybears, courtesy. This story originally appeared in the Oakland Tribune. Perhaps no recent act has incorporated as many guest vocalists and different genres into its songs as the Swedish hit-making outfit the Teddybears. Instrumentalist-producer-DJ brothers Klas and Joakim Ahlund, along with Patrik Arve, are known in America mostly for…
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Moonalice’s high-tech work pays off with opening slot for U2 show
Moonalice, courtesy. This story originally appeared in the Oakland Tribune. San Francisco psychedelic rock and blues jam band Moonalice can appear as a contradiction. On one hand, its members made their biggest contributions to music in the ‘60s and ’70s. On the other, the band is technologically ahead of…
