After her label dropped her previous group, Isobel Beardshaw changed her aspirations from performing on stage to writing music for others. The London resident enrolled in college, where she began singing in bands, wrote her own songs that she performed at open mic nights and found a new following.…

After a seven-year hiatus, Broken Social Scene is back with new album Hug of Thunder. The Canadian collective is as famous for their sprawling, emotional, baroque-pop as their ability to swell from 10 to 19 members onstage, at any given show. These days, they continue to grow concomitantly off-stage as well. Broken…

Sofi Tukker, courtesy Shervin Lainez. SAN FRANCISCO — Their biggest song may be sung in Portuguese, with more on the way in that language, but Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern of New York dance pop duo Sofi Tukker pull inspiration from whatever city or country they happen to be…

Four years ago, Maggie Osburn cut her mother out of her life. Her mom, who Osburn described as bipolar and self-medicating her illness with alcohol, had created a toxic environment for Osburn until she moved to live with her father at 14. Her sister continued to live with their…

On rowdy rocker “Toy Gun,” off A Giant Dog’s fourth album, Toy, singer Sabrina Ellis and her bandmates may as well be singing about Donald Trump. A Giant Dog  Great Apes, Mare Island 8 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 29 Hemlock Tavern Tickets: $10. “The ‘Toy Gun’ character, we all know that…

Photos: Dawn Heumann On Sunday night in San Francisco, the smell of smoke floated into my bedroom. A few minutes later, I was glued to the news, learning of the massive firestorm engulfing my beloved childhood stomping ground of Sonoma County. It was 1 a.m. I knew my parents…

No sentient soul could ever accuse Needtobreathe of laziness. Long before the band hit the road on its own headlining tour, the Grammy-nominated band opened for Train, Collective Soul and Taylor Swift. The band has crisscrossed the country, played international tours and braved outdoor festivals like Forecastle and Bonnaroo…

Cheap Trick. Photos: Chloe Catajan and Paige K. Parsons SAN FRANCISCO — The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival brought out the “golden” in Golden Gate Park last weekend. Following a sullen week marked by the massacre at a Las Vegas country music festival and the death of rock icon Tom Petty,…

Fletcher, courtesy. Like many others, Cari Fletcher didn’t sleep a wink on the night of Oct. 1 after seeing footage online of thousands of people running from a shooter on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel. The new Jersey-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter, who goes by FLETCHER, was…

After Scottish rock band Trashcan Sinatras first found success with their 1990 debut album, Cake, their music spent three months on the Billboard 200 chart, led by jangly single “Obscurity Knocks.” Trashcan Sinatras 8 p.m., Monday, Oct. 23 The Chapel Tickets: $22-$25. The new wave band struck gold again with…