Janelle Monáe performs at Outside Lands in San Francisco on Aug. 12, 2018. Photo: Shawn Robbins. If you read part one of my list of the top 50 albums of the year, you may already be disappointed by some of my choices, especially with Robyn’s comeback album making a “premature” appearance…

Blood Orange Kyle Kohner’s top 100 list countdown continues with numbers 75 through 51. Catch up with part one first and then dive in. 75. “This Is America” – Childish Gambino Inciting reactionary essays and theorized debates, Childish Gambino creates a piece of music that transcends a contagious chorus.…

Wrekmeister Harmonies It’s finally here… the time when music nerds scramble to compile all of the albums they enjoyed during the year! This was a particularly strong year for music of all types, both mainstream and independent. I even had a hard time narrowing down my favorites down to 50…

Death Grips As this year comes to an end, we had our own man in the band, Michael Massaro of San Francisco garage rockers GRMLN, pick his five favorite songs of 2016. “Plastiglomerate & Co.” — James Ferraro In Far Side Virtual, James Ferraro used more sounds coming from 1980s synthesizers to…