Little Daylight performs at the Independent in San Francisco on April 21, 2013. Roman Gokhman/STAFF. Three friends bond over a shared love of electronic music and decide to start a band — a common enough origin story. But for Brooklyn’s Little Daylight, success began to trickle in before playing even…

Haim performs at the Fillmore in San Francisco on April 9, 2014. Paige K. Parsons and Roman Gokhman/STAFF. “XO.” The Beyonce song was slated and typed in as the encore opener to Haim‘s short set at The Fillmore Wednesday evening. But the show had a different feel. It was…

Bastille performs at then Warfield in San Francisco on April 10, 2014. Photos courtesy: Jon Ching. Four times since July 2013, England electronic pop quartet Bastille has passed through the Bay Area. And in that time, the band’s local fan base has grown exponentially.  From a room of about 200 at…

The 1975 performs at The Fillmore in San Francisco on April 17, 2014. Roman Gokhman/STAFF. Matty Healy describes his life, at this moment, as a series of surreal situations strung together by his and his bandmates’ tales of other surreal stories: being approached by David Bowie; opening for the…

Daniel Lanois and Emmylou Harris perform at the Warfield in San Francisco on April 5, 2014. Roman Gokhman/STAFF. Check out my most-recent Q&A with Daniel Lanois, and stay tuned for a full story about the ‘Wrecking Ball’ tour and album re-release in Paste Magazine. Daniel Lanois and Emmylou Harris…

Lorde performs at the Fox Theater in Oakland on March 27, 2014. Roman Gokhman/STAFF. Photos and a video from the March 27 Lorde concert at the Fox Theater in Oakland. Lorde performs at the Fox Theater in Oakland on March 27, 2014. Lorde performs at the Fox Theater in…

The Soft White Sixties, courtesy. BERKELEY — Octavio Genera, frontman and vocalist for San Francisco soul rock quartet The Soft White Sixties, sits in a plush chair in front of a futuristic dashboard of mixers and video monitors worthy of clandestine agency’s control center. The Soft White Sixties, No,…

Royal Teeth, courtesy. Louisiana pop sextet Royal Teeth will make its third San Francisco stop within a 12-month stretch Thursday, when it headlines at the Chapel. Still touring in support of 2013’s Technicolor debut album, Glow, harmonizing vocalists Nora Patterson and Gary Larsen (also a guitarist), bassist Joshua Wells,…

Augustines, courtesy. It’s the tail-end of December, and Augustines’ singer-guitarist Billy McCarthy is on the road, about to embark on a solo road trip from Texas into the deeper South, hoping to end up somewhere in the Caribbean. Since the band broke from its touring cycle for 2011 debut,…

St. Lucia performs at the Independent in San Francisco on Feb. 5, 2014. Roman Gokhman/STAFF. Having bounced around the globe over the past few years — from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Liverpool, and to Brooklyn — being evicted from a recording studio that was transformed into luxury condominiums wasn’t much…