Weezer performs at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif. on Oct. 9, 2024. Matt Pang/STAFF. SAN FRANCISCO — A silver capsule appeared onstage Wednesday night at Chase Center. As countdown clocks on giant screens reached zero, the capsule rose slowly, revealing the four members of Weezer, standing on the…

J Mascis, “What Do We Do Now.” There’s a special kind of yearning found in only the best of love letters: short vague sentences, pregnant with meaning, written to be read over and over again like a magical incantation. “Wish you were here,” “Thinking of you,” “You’re living all…

Dinosaur Jr., “Sweep It Into Space.” In the world of rock and roll, desire comes in two forms. First, in raunchy songs like Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” desire is instinctual, libidinous, and destined to be fulfilled. But among bleaker artists like The Cure and The Killers,…

Dinosaur Jr. performs at Slim’s in San Francisco on Oct. 28, 2019. Photos: Joaquin Cabello. SAN FRANCISCO — Last November, when Dinosaur Jr. frontman J Mascis played Slim’s in support of his solo album, the Bay Area was shrouded in several serious wildfires. In a strange case of deja…

R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe realizing he never wrote a song specifically about rolled ankles. But Julien Baker did! Ow. I am, to say the least, breakable. Occasionally my joints just kinda decide not to be joints anymore. For example last weekend while foolishly attempting some light yard work I rolled…

J Mascis performs at Slim’s in San Francisco on Nov. 14, 2018. Photos: Joaquin Cabello. SAN FRANCISCO — A thick blanket of smoke welcomed J Mascis to the Bay Area when he played Slim’s on Wednesday night, and that seemed appropriate. Mascis, former frontman and guitarist for the famously…

J Mascis, “Elastic Days.” In the Camelot of the 1990s alt-rock, J Mascis was a knight seated at King Cobain’s roundtable of grunge—alongside the likes of Corgan, Vedder and Cornell. However, as the kingdom waned, Mascis, the guitarist and frontman for the tinnitus-inducing Dinosaur Jr., wandered from the spotlight…

A year after organizers connected rock and Renaissance, Sound on Sound Fest will return to Sherwood Forest, just east of Austin, Texas. The second-annual event is scheduled for the weekend of Nov. 10-12. Coming off a four-year hiatus of touring and recording, NYC indie rockers Yeah Yeah Yeahs will…