A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Sundazed pressing of Safe As Milk by Captain Beefheart. There is a bit on Marc Maron’s standup album Thinky Pain where, after talking extensively about his vinyl midlife crisis and trying to find the perfect record player how it’s time for him to “understand Beefheart.” “I will never be smart enough or large enough of mind to assess and understand Captain Beefheart. It’s just hanging there.” In many ways, he’s not...

23 Live Sex Acts (Total Treble) There’s no easy way to review an Against Me album anymore; well, not in the conventional sense, anyway. Everyone knows why, so why no talk about it? It’s not easy to review an Against Me! album anymore because Tom Gabel was replaced on the mic by Laura Jane Grace. Does that really make so great a difference? It shouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t; the catch has everything to do with the gift...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the vinyl reissue of Grace Under Pressure by Rush. Perhaps the most important thing that Rush proved when they released Grace Under Pressure is that (to paraphrase what George Orwell wrote in 1984) the best albums are those which reiterate those things of which people were already aware. In this case, fans already knew that Rush had been the greatest and best-kept secret in rock n’ roll for years, and had proven...

As a child, I hated surprises. It was pure torture to know that you don’t know what you thought you knew and as a child know-it-all, this frustrated me. But this past Friday, Say Anything surprised me and all their fans. How? Surprise album! Unexpectedly, the band released their 7th studio album “I Don’t Think It Is” on Equal Vision Records. Their audience of grown-up punks woke up to find another consistently good album released by their favorite band of the...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the vinyl reissue of  …With His Hot Blue Guitar! by Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash with His Hot Blue Guitar! is a tough album to discuss in 2016 because, honestly, what can we say about Johnny Cash and his music which hasn’t been said countless times already? The man had an incredible impact on world culture and his music is such a big part of American culture that it’s simply embedded in its...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the vinyl reissue of Streets of San Francisco by the Swingin’ Utters. Continuing our coverage, we come to Streets of San Francisco, probably the most important release in the Swingin’ Utters catalogue. I’m going to start off by making it clear that I absolutely adore this album, that it’s one of the greatest street punk records ever released, that it’s a perfect example of a band putting all their ducks in a...

Amanda Palmer has teamed up with Jherek Bischoff on Strung Out in Heaven, a David Bowie covers EP. The EP features contributions from Anna Calvi (who sang and played guitar on “Blackstar”), writer/director John Cameron Mitchell (who sang on “Heroes”), and Palmer’s husband, the author Neil Gaiman. Below, stream the full EP, and find more information about the project, including artwork and a statement from Palmer. Stream and purchase the entire EP at Bandcamp for $1 Here’s what Palmer had...

Saturday at SFJAZZ: Malian balafon mastery, music from Afghanistan, & Irish vocal melody. Posted by Kronos Quartet on Friday, February 5, 2016 Kronos Festival 2016: Explorer Series February 4, 5, 6, & 7, 2016 Thurs & Fri at 7:30pm Sat at 2pm, 3:30pm, 5pm, and 7:30pm Sun at 11am Thursday, February 4, 2016 | 7:30 PM Opening Night! Friday, February 5, 2016 | 7:30 PM Only Sound Remains Saturday, February 6, 2016 | 2:00 PM Ritva Koistinen, Fodé Lassana Diabaté Saturday,...

Filmmaker and composer John Carpenter has announced the first U.S. date of his world tour. The famed auteur, whose directorial credits include Halloween, The Thing, and Escape From New York, revealed Wednesday on Twitter that he and his band will be performing his classic film themes as well as new work at the Playstation Theatre in New York City, July 8. Tickets for the show go on sale this Saturday at 12pm EST. This announcement follows the news that Carpenter’s new...

Metallica’s concert at AT&T Park on Saturday, Feb. 6 will be live streamed, a representative for the band announced on Wednesday. The sold-out show is part of CBS Radio’s annual “The Night Before” series of Super Bowl concerts, which in the past has featured artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jason Aldean and Dierks Bentley. Tickets for this year’s set were snatched up in under 10 minutes. The concert, which also features opening act Cage the Elephant, will...