Zach Bryan performs at Oakland Coliseum in Oakland on May 31, 2024. Steve Carlson/STAFF. OAKLAND — Not even the I-880 chicken and beef special could stop Zach Bryan from playing to the biggest crowd of his life. While a semi crash on the freeway spilled raw meat all over…

May Erlewine, courtesy Michael Poehlman. This week we feature the haunting memories of Mothé, collaborative synth-pop of Dreamer Boy, comforting vocals of May Erlewine, psychedelia of Mt. Joy and Post Animal, and the soul pop of Valerie June. Mothé, “Terrified” — Spencer Fort previously clocked some time on the indie…

Photos: Mike DeWald, Roman Gokhman and courtesy. NAPA — As a nearly full moon set Sunday night, the man of the hour—or the weekend—took the stage on the final day of BottleRock Napa Valley. Bruno Mars had been the buzzed-about headliner at BottleRock from the moment the festival lineup was announced…

  Mt. Joy has been enjoying quite the breakout year. From appearing on Conan, to releasing its debut album last week, the folky Pennsylvania duo is no longer just practicing contemplative acoustic pop songs like “Silver Linings” and “Jenny Jenkins” together in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Mt. Joy…

Every week there’s a plethora of new music at our fingertips. Artists on platforms like 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’ve pooled our resources to find some of…