When you spend your entire career exposing the dark side of the human psyche and don’t pay for it with your life, something’s got to give. You either have to lighten up to give some contrast or continue on and risk the very real possibility of being viewed as a mawkish, two-dimensional sham. People will usually cut it short and just call you a joke. Last year found Nick Cave cutting loose from his Bad Seeds to jam out some...

Testament, Sadus, Laaz Rockit and Vicious Rumors all on the same bill. Believe it or not, this show did not take place at The Stone in 1986, but at The Independent on March 30, 2008. How can that be, you may ask? Well, the San Francisco metal scene has experienced a bit of a revival as of late, and living in the heart of this great city I have been lucky enough to witness it all for the second time...

Ministry shows have always been hit or miss for me. After witnessing their all-out assault on San Francisco in 1990 for the Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste tour (complete with a drunken El Duce), they’ve let me on more than one occasion with their lackluster shows of their later years. Understanding that this is claimed to be Ministry's last tour (hence the name of the tour: C U LaTour), I thought it might be good to see them...

A few months ago, in my discussion of bootleg albums, I made the distinction between bands who play the same set every night, and bands who mix it up, play a different show for every audience. Now I need to make another distinction, between bands who merely alter which songs they play on given night, and bands who alter how they play their songs. That is, bands who actually improvise on stage. Improvisation is, of course, one of the fundamentals...

While other big-draw names in music have rebelled against the major-label machine recently by releasing their music independently just to prove (maybe even to themselves) that they can (Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are the biggest names to do so), Raconteurs masterminds Jack White and Brendan Benson chose to flex their muscles and throw their weight around a little in a totally different way: two weeks before its ultimate release, the duo shipped their side project’s new a lbum, Consolers...

I have to admit I didn’t know much going into this show. My friend and resident GC staff photographer Muhammad Asranur has been talking about this show for weeks—he and the fine folks at Anak Negri Productions pulled hard to get White Shoes and the Couples Company all the way here from Jakarta (their first trip to the U.S.!). So after their performance at SXSW a couple weeks ago, their only other U.S. performance besides the SF show, I headed...

I saw a brief preview for this before U23D and was immediately intrigued. Scorsese + Stones? Slam dunk, right? However, I don’t know, it just did not live up to my expectations. First off, when it comes to classic rock, I’m more Bowie than Stones so maybe I was at a disadvantage to begin with. However, I’m not unaware of how mega this band is. If U2 is a brand, the Rolling Stones are like the McDonald's of rock. I...

There were two lines formed at the front of the Mayan entrance for Monday night’s sold-out Justice show: those who were 21 and over and those who were not. The majority of the audience, for lack of a better word, were kids. Piled like sardines in the front of the stage on the floor, the night belonged to them. I can only imagine that many came out of it thinking that it was the best show they’d ever seen. For...

Let’s commence the start of music video reviews with one fantastic song. I’d have to say, the first few times I heard this song, I truly did not get it. What in the shit does "DVNO" stand for? Well, someone out there knows, as the song was featured in the mediocre new movie Hitman. At least people in the music industry know good music when they hear it, because they obviously don’t know good acting when they see it. Justice...

I won’t lie, I expected to be bored. I’m the kind of person who can go see a band I absolutely worship, but if the show gets too long I start to tune out. I love U2 but I knew U23D was a concert flick and those are my least favorite type of music movies. I’m much more of a documentary person. However, this film was edited wonderfully. The 3D isn’t too over the top so it’s not like Bono...