Oakland A’s sell-out crowd as they play final game at Oakland Coliseum on Sept. 26, 2024. Eakin Howard/Getty Images. As of Sept. 26, 2024, the Oakland Athletics are dead. The team still has a series on the road before it becomes the “Athletics” with no city, playing in a…

Loki, courtesy Disney+ and Marvel. This probably won’t come as a shock to anyone who’s ever been within earshot of me or read anything I’ve ever written, but I’m a huge nerd. And, since I’m a huge nerd, it probably won’t come as a shock to anyone that I’m…

Following the success of debut LP Anthem of the Peaceful Army, in 2018, Greta Van Fleet suddenly arrived at the golden gates of rock and roll superstardom. But that arrival was met with mixed reactions. Some fans heard the Frankenmuth, Michigan band’s uncanny sonic resemblance to Led Zeppelin—the reverberating echo of Jimmy…

The Yardbirds in 1966. Left to right: Jeff Beck, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page and Keith Relf. Courtesy. Way, way back in the early ’00s, when I was at Diablo Valley College (that’s in the East Bay), I took a lot of random and unnecessary classes to keep…

The Foo Fighters should rename themselves The Old Standbys. No band produces as consistently at a decently high level. Dave Grohl and company can’t be accused of not doing their part to keep rock and roll alive. For a quarter century, they’ve waved the flag of uncomplicated guitar rock,…

Ty Segall, “First Taste.” Ty Segall is a very busy man. The Laguna Beach garage rocker filled last year with Freedom’s Goblins, covers album Fudge Sandwich and his collaboration with White Fence, Joy. First Taste clarifies once again that Segall has yet to spread himself too thin, slathering on his brand of fuzzed-out, dirty…

Last week I finished the yearlong journey through the last half-century of music. It was quite the project; 52 weekly columns each taking on a year and culminating in the best five songs of 2018. Then RIFF’s editor, Roman, asked when I’d have this week’s column in. So… I…

After last week’s expansion to 10 songs from 1970, we’re back to the traditional five. Not because there aren’t as many choices–the shortlist was 19 songs–but because I don’t trust myself to have any future restraint if I don’t. So you’re welcome, because otherwise you’re staring down the barrel of…

So you know how when I started this endeavor I set rules? Five songs per year, one song per band, qualifies in year of release, listed in chronological order? Pretty straightforward, right? For 1970 I’m breaking that first one. I didn’t realize it until this exercise but 1970 was…

It’s 1969 and you know what that means: I have to get something out of the way. Niiiiiice. Now that we’re past that let’s move on to the top five songs as determined by me, with Ash McGonigal and Robin St. Clare back as my panel of experts (and people who…