Gary Clark Jr., “JPEG RAW.” Gary Clark, Jr. makes it clear with his new album that he doesn’t want to be only a blues guitar prodigy anymore. JPEG RAW Gary Clark, Jr. Warner, March 22 8/10 Get the album on Amazon Music. His fourth album, JPEG RAW, arrives five…

Chance the Rapper performs at Blue Note Jazz Festival at Silverado Resort in Napa, Calif. on July 30, 2023. NAPA — The final day of Blue Note Jazz Festival brought headliner Chance the Rapper as well as Gary Clark Jr., PJ Morton, Mos Def, Rakim and DJ Jazzy Jeff,…

Insert Foot is woke on Joey Chestnut, “Luke Cage.” A few independent thoughts on Independence Day. As I brace myself for the annual Joey Chestnut Coney Island puke fest (I can’t even eat one hot dog without feeling like I committed a health crime unless I ate it at…

Gary Clark Jr. performs at BottleRock Napa Valley at the Napa Valley Expo on May 25, 2019. Shawn Robbins/STAFF. Last week I declared that it’s Black History Month until I say it’s not, then explained how white people stole rock and roll from Black people. I got quite a…

Gary Clark Jr. performs at BottleRock Napa Valley at the Napa Valley Expo on May 25, 2019. Shawn Robbins/Staff. For those who haven’t been reading this column for its entire two-year run, the reason it’s called “RIFF Rewind” is because for its first year I listed the top five…

Lizzo performs at The Fillmore in San Francisco on Nov. 9, 2017. Staff photo. As regular readers of my column are well aware, I don’t much like the Grammys. Sure, occasionally Fantastic Negrito or Weird Al wins a trophy, and they absolutely deserve it. But they win the non-televised…

Neil Young (& Promise of the Real) perform at BottleRock Napa Valley at the Napa Valley Expo on May 25, 2019. Photos: Shawn Robbins, staff and courtesy. NAPA — BottleRock Napa Valley’s Saturday headlining slots covered the generational and cultural spectrum. On one corner of the grounds, you’d find a…

A fan once asked Eric Clapton how it felt to be the greatest guitar player in the world, who answered, “Ask Prince.” It was a surprising response. Since Eddie Van Halen, the world has mostly imagined guitar heroes as long haired white dudes who smell vaguely of weed. In the…

At 54 years old, and 26 years after his most famous band’s debut, guitarist Tom Morello is releasing The Atlas Underground, an album of collaborations with a variety of contemporary musicians. The Atlas Underground Tom Morello Oct. 12 This stage of Morello’s career recalls Santana, who released 1999’s Supernatural at…

Every week, there’s a plethora of new music at our fingertips. Artists on platforms such as Spotify and Bandcamp are plentiful, and the radio offers a steady deluge of new singles, but who has time to sort through all that? RIFF does! We pooled our resources to find some of the best…