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REVIEW: Dua Lipa struts to victory at the Masonic
Photos: Paige K. Parsons SAN FRANCISCO — It’s been quite a year already for rising pop superstar Dua Lipa. The London-born songstress scored her first No. 1 hit in the U.S. with the viral single “New Rules.” She heads into next week’s BRIT Awards with five nominations, and is…
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Noise Pop: Enter Shikari’s Rou Reynolds gets melodic, looks inward
Courtesy: Jennifer McCord In their native England, where all five of its albums over 15 years debuted within the Top 20 on the U.K. chart, genre-morphing post-rock, punk and emo band Enter Shikari has graduated to headlining arenas. On tour in the U.S. this month, in support of 2017’s…
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Noise Pop: Palehound returns with A Place I’ll Always Go
Just a week-and-a-half shy of her North American tour, Ellen Kempner of Palehound starts to make necessary preparations for takeoff. Her checklist includes logistical tasks like counting merchandise and searching for a rental van. But other key essentials include squeezing in as many cuddle sessions as she can with…
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Q&A: Banners on the cusp of making a big splash
Are you getting excited about the return of American Idol to TV even if you’ve never watched a single full episode before? The music of U.K. singer-songwriter Banners could be the reason why. Catch Banners on tour this spring, with a West Coast swing in the works for April or…
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Valentine’s Day: The Lovemakers and Breakdown Valentine feeling the love
Olivia Barchard of Breakdown Valentine (L) and Lisa Light of The Lovemakers photographed on Jan,. 28, 2018. Photos: Chloe Catajan Lisa Light of The Lovemakers leads me and Breakdown Valentine’s Olivia Barchard into her music studio with a bottle of champagne in hand. Inside, the walls are painted a…
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David Duchovny tries to learn from his past on new album Every Third Thought
On TV series Californication, actor David Duchovny played a novelist fighting writer’s block and myriad other distractions that kept him from putting words to a page. In his own life, Duchovny, best known for his role as Fox Mulder from The X-Files, has overcome those obstacles as a writer.…
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INTERVIEW: Rick Springfield goes back to his roots with ‘The Snake King’
Rick Springfield photographed at Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco on Jan. 20, 2018. Alessio Neri/STAFF SAN FRANCISCO — Before he was a heartthrob on General Hospital, pined for “Jessie’s Girl,” wrote 17 Top 40 hits and sold more than 25 million albums, Rick Springfield was an Australian teen…
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Introducing Lauren Ruth Ward: L.A. rocker shreds on guitar and with shears
Courtesy: Damian Borja Cutting other people’s hair uses a different part of the brain than cutting one’s own. So says indie rocker Lauren Ruth Ward, for whom cutting hair is a passion equal to making music. Ward’s first customer was herself, and over more than a decade, she learned…
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Q&A: Epic Rap Battles bring feudal hip-hop to SF Sketchfest
Before unboxing and haul videos, before disembodied hands very quickly mixing ingredients, before whatever it is Logan Paul did, there was YouTube’s first class of breakout stars. Taking advantage of early streaming video’s Wild West freedom, they pushed the limits of creativity, producing everything from Star Wars comedy to excessive foods.…
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Interview: First Aid Kit returns ready to rebuild from ‘Ruins’
First Aid Kit, courtesy. After touring the critically acclaimed third album, Stay Gold, in 2014 and 2015, sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg—First Aid Kit—burned themselves out. The duo, which rose above the indie circuit for the first time, had been writing, recording or touring its songs for years. And…
