Clockwise from top left: Laces, Electric Youth, Cat Clyde, Madi Sipes and the Painted Blue, DYGL and Mika. Madi Sipes & The Painted Blue, “Heavy Heart” — Madi Sipes’ soulful vocals against the trio’s rich, slow-burning synthpop are to your ears what satin sheets are to your skin. It’s invigorating…

Travis Hayes performs at Noise Pop at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on Feb. 28, 2019. Photos: Karen Goldman. SAN FRANCISCO — Fans of indie rock singer-songwriter Travis Hayes got a slightly early listen to his new album Sleepless at Bottom of the Hill on Thursday night. Hayes played the…

Conan Gray performs at Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco on Nov. 7, 2018. Photos: Joaquin Cabello. SAN FRANCISCO — On his first-ever tour stop in the Bay Area, Conan Gray proved to have the whole performing thing down. The Texas YouTuber and musician bounced all over stage as he filled…

Madi Sipes & the Painted Blue. RIFF Photo. NorCal soul and R&B trio Madi Sipes and the Painted Blue releases its debut EP, Sex and Sadness, tomorrow. Today, the band shares another taste off the five-track record. Sipes, drummer Caleb Koehn and bassist Nick Cunningham have been hard at work, even…

Madi Sipes and the Painted Blue photographed at the Great American Music Hall on June 3, 2017. Photos: Jalen O’Neal. Long-distance relationships are hard, as any couple can attest. But anyone doubting whether R&B and soul trio Madi Sipes and the Painted Blue can find success with singer-guitarist Sipes…

Photos: Paige K. Parsons SAN FRANCISCO — Two-thirds of the way through Adia Victoria‘s set at Bottom of the Hill Saturday, the South Carolina-raised, Nashville-based singer-songwriter busted out a song sugarcoated in French. Victoria’s genre was already not easy to pinpoint–a cross between garage rock and scuzzy, reverb-drenched soul–but, after she…