Photo: Jon Ching The music of San Francisco band Dangermaker may sound happier than it did in the past. The four piece pulls heavily from influences like The Killers, Interpol and their late ‘70s predecessors. It was a conscientious effort the band made by naming their last two EPs,…

Machineheart performs at BottleRock 2016 at the Napa Valley Expo. Photos: Roman Gokhman. Stevie Scott’s name is the cherry on top of the sundae. The singer-songwriter and her band, Machineheart, is heavily influenced by Fleetwood Mac, and the comparisons made by music fans and critics are rivaled only by the band’s…

Atlas Genius. Roman Gokhman/STAFF and Jon Ching. Several thousand music fans who watched Atlas Genius play at BottleRock on May 28 didn’t know that the band considered cancelling their fiery performance. Singer-guitarist Keith Jeffery had a hay fever attack shortly after arriving in Napa the previous day. The pollen…

Jamie N. Commons. Photos: Jon Ching. Blues rock singer-songwriter Jamie N Commons is a man of many talents. Least-known among them is the ability to slip in and out of his native English accent and into his adoptive American Midwest and Southern tongues. That’s what happens after your father…

The Struts. Photos: Jon Ching English rock quartet The Struts acknowledge that the glam superstar musicians of the past are major influences on their own sound, look and on-stage presence. But to theatrically inclined frontman Luke Spiller and co., there is a major difference between the glam-rock of Europe…

Photos: Roman Gokhman Earlier this year, Provo, Utah, alt-rock quartet The Moth & The Flame released their second album, called Young & Unafraid. Many of the songs were already upwards of a year old at that point, which has Brandon Robbins (vocals, guitar), Mark Garbett (keys), Andrew Tolman (drums)…

Fantastic Negrito, courtesy. Today is a momentous day for Xavier Dphrepaulezz, in a life full of them. There was the day he was given a multi-million dollar signing bonus by one of the biggest label heads in the world. The day he blew the rest of the money, and was…

Rose’s Pawn Shop performs at BottleRock Napa 2016 in Napa, California. More than a decade into the Americana and folk revival movement, bands like the Lumineers have grown to headline festivals and sell out amphitheaters with a now all-too-common mix of fiddle, foot-stomping drums, banjo, guitar and crowd-friendly chant-alongs.…

Photo: Molly DeCoudreaux The afternoon sky is overcast in San Francisco’s Mission District as indie rock and pop quintet Heartwatch gathers at the home of guitarist-keyboardist Eric Silverman to rehearse. The band is gearing up to play in front of another huge crowd: BottleRock Napa Valley. It’s potentially their most-significant…

The producers of the BottleRock Napa Valley festival scored big when they booked Stevie Wonder, Florence and the Machine, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to headline the 2016 event, which takes place May 27 to 29 in downtown Napa. Even the undercards are impressive, with Grouplove, Death Cab…