Billy Joel didn’t start the fire. It was probably PG&E. A trigger warning for our Bay Area and Northern California readers: This column is an ode to PG&E. As our non-Californian readers may have heard, California was recently in the midst of a full-blown apocalypse. There were hurricane-force winds,…

Oakland Athletics. No juice required. Photo: Sacramento Bee. After so many long, dreary months without baseball, it has finally returned to the East Bay. And to a lesser extent, the rest of the country. In celebration of this momentous occasion, an occasion that should absolutely be a national holiday,…

Who knew that the makers of the first electric guitars did so with ‘This is Spinal Tap’ in mind? Distortion is an electronic effect produced by overloading an audio circuit. This simple excess of electrons is responsible for everything from Chuck Berry’s overdriven twang to Jimi Hendrix’s chewy fuzz,…

  So dreamy Double-length edition again! I try to keep to my rules, but it was looking I’d have to cut either Sex Packets or Flood, and I’m just not going to do that. Turns out way too many of my favorite albums came out in 1990 to cut anything. And,…

Courtesy Da PugletPugs The one day a year when binge drinking is socially acceptable and every asshole with a Guinness in their hand is suddenly one-sixteenth Irish is upon us again. The RIFF team would be remiss in our duties if we did not supply you, our dear readers, with a soundtrack for…

On the one hand, there’s the clichéd image of Butthead in his constant AC/DC shirt. On the other, it’s a wonder to think how many classics guitarist Angus Young and his various bandmates in 40-plus years have written. The Aussie band is one of the most celebrated names in the hard…