Patti Smith performs during Stern Grove Festival at Sigmund Stern Grove in San Francisco on Aug. 13, 2023. Photos: David Jones. SAN FRANCISCO — After 50 years of making records, touring and raising a ruckus as a punk icon, you’d forgive Patti Smith for taking it easy here and…

In this shitbag year of 2020 A.D. (Absolute Deception? Assembly of Dicks? All Duck?), a punk rocker with a brain fine-tuned to sweet melody, about to turn 60 all while still raking musical muck—is literally beautiful music to the ears. Not that anyone should expect anything else from Bob Mould.…

Titus Andronicus. Courtesy: Ray Concepcion. Patrick Stickles isn’t in the greatest of moods. He answers the phone outside the Crocodile in Seattle, where Titus Andronicus played the night before. The band’s van is broken down and he and his bandmates are stranded. Stickles nursing a slight hangover from the night…

Bob Mould performs at Noise Pop at The Fillmore in San Francisco on March 2, 2019. Photos: Gary Chancer. SAN FRANCISCO — Looking a bit like a shop teacher in jeans and a flannel shirt, Bob Mould unleashed a torrent of distortion from his guitar as he launched into a…

Listening to Bob Mould‘s latest solo album, Sunshine Rock, during a rainstorm is a strange experience. Sunshine Rock Bob Mould Merge Records, Feb. 8 It’s very much what the title says it is—a rock soundtrack to a warm summer evening. The guitar riffs and the vocals evoke early ’60s beach…

Bob Mould performs at the Independent in San Francisco on May 14, 2016. SAN FRANCISCO — Banter isn’t really Bob Mould’s thing. He often says little between songs, preferring instead to let the performance do the talking. Even when he walked off stage at the end of Saturday night’s…