Opinion
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Photos: Paige K. Parsons’ nine best—and worst—concerts of 2016
Sufjan Stevens. Photos: Paige K. Parsons. Photographer Paige K. Parsons is one of the most recognizable faces at concert venues throughout the Bay Area. Other photographers frequently remark about her skill of capturing the best possible shot while staying out of everyone else’s line of sight. And RIFF is…
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GRMLN drummer Michael Massaro picks favorite 5 songs of 2016
Death Grips As this year comes to an end, we had our own man in the band, Michael Massaro of San Francisco garage rockers GRMLN, pick his five favorite songs of 2016. “Plastiglomerate & Co.” — James Ferraro In Far Side Virtual, James Ferraro used more sounds coming from 1980s synthesizers to…
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Photos: Ian Young’s Top 16 concerts of 2016
Photos: Ian Young By all accounts 2016 was a shitty year. But amid the chaos were much needed distractions in the form of live music. This year I traveled to Iceland, Chicago, Indio, Los Angeles and Seattle to attend 110 shows and eight festivals, watching and photographing more than 250 bands. Here’s…
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Roman Gokhman’s favorite interviews of 2016
St. Lucia Looking back on my interviews over the past 12 months, the first thing that surprised me was just how busy I stayed: nearly 50 interviews of 10 minutes or longer, about a dozen more than 2015, which had seemed much busier. Interviewing artists is just one part…
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Roman Gokhman’s favorite concerts of 2016: 7-1
This is the final in a three-part series. Read how I’m scoring my list and find out about my “special consideration” acts in PART 1 and 13 through 8 in PART 2. Favorite Shows 2015 | Favorite Shows 2014 Favorite Shows 2013 | Favorite Shows 2012 7 – STURGILL SIMPSON at the Fox Theater – Nov. 19 Two weeks ago,…
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Roman Gokhman’s favorite concerts of 2016: 13-8
This is the second in a three-part series. Read the introduction to learn how I’m scoring my list and find out about my “special consideration” in PART 1. Favorite Shows 2015 | Favorite Shows 2014 Favorite Shows 2013 | Favorite Shows 2012 13 – CHANCE THE RAPPER at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium – Oct. 21 At…
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Roman Gokhman’s favorite concerts of 2016: Introduction
Welcome to my annual countdown of the most entertaining music experiences of the year. I attended 51 concerts this year, up from 41 the year before. Like always, this list is an account of how much I enjoyed the concerts I attended. I’m not attempting to list the “best”…
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The Soft White Sixties: Our new EP, track by track
Soul rockers The Soft White Sixties may have moved from the Bay Area to Los Angeles a year ago, but they have stayed busy. Besides touring seemingly constantly, making several returns to San Francisco, they had time to record a new EP. The Ocean Way was released Friday and has…
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Musical activism will lead the way forward
Chance the Rapper. Matt De Mello/STAFF. The other day I wrote an column on where we, not just as a country, but as a world, go from here. That piece was unique for RIFF. Ours is not a political publication. However, some events transcend politics. Many of us are nervous, some…
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Where do we go after this election?
It’s hard to write this because I am in pain. Not a physical agony, though it certainly feels that way, but instead a mental anguish of what happened during Tuesday night’s Presidential election. Regardless of what side you reside on it is easy to recognize that there are numerous…
