![The Beach Boys Smile's Sessions [Win SCHWAG]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3834935_lg.jpg)
We must apologize for being absent in recent weeks. Truth is, many of us here at SF Critic have several other ventures going that are starting to take off, and also steal us away from you. We're still here, we just might not be able to post as frequently. But we want to thank you for checking in for following us. As a little token of our appreciation, we have some schwag to share. Oh yes. We have two copies of The Beach Boy's Smile's Sessions CD and a T-shirt, which we'll be giving [...]
![Deadmau5 Meowingtons Hax Tour at Bill Grahman Civic Center [Photos]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3828513_lg.jpg)
This Saturday there was a marathon at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Instead of running shoes and athletic apparel, the Civic was a swarm of glow sticks and massive mouse head masks. Deadmau5 assembled quite the crew of DJs for his Meowingtons Hex show including DJ A-Track, Fatboy Slim and Mötley Crüe's, Tommy Lee. As one might expect, the San Francisco Halloween crowd was eclectic. According to another photographer in the pit with me, this crowd of rolling costumed Franciscans numbered neared 9,000. That's a lot of Mau5 heads. Rocking above a collection of lightboards Deadmau5 didn't just [...]
![Immortal Technique "The Martyr" [ALBUM REVIEW]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3828348_lg.jpg)
If you aren't familiar with Harlem, NY based Immortal Technique, it is likely because he has never signed to a major label and his following has been personally cultivated through independent album sales. Following Revolutionary Volumes 1 and 2 and the Third World , Tech released The Martyr for free online October 27. It has already been downloaded almost 300,000 times in just a few short days. The album opens with a spoken track requesting the free album continue to be dispersed, similar to his Twitter appeals for the same ( [...]
![Immortal Technique "Rich Man's World (1%)" [FREE ALBUM DOWNLOAD]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3821034_lg.jpg)
About 30 min ago, Immortal Technique released the link to download his new album Martyr free of cost. As he stated on Twitter he wants you to share it: "@ImmortalTech As soon as I give you the link please RETWEET it to everyone @ everyone you know and tell them to RETWEET" I spent the last two nights out at #OccupyOakland . I have been teargassed and watched people get shot with bean bags and rubber bullets, which however non-lethal they are, are no fucking joke. That being said, I chose an appropriate track to [...]
Wale and Diplo collaborate on "Slight Work" off Wale's new album Ambition . Lyrically, Wale seems to be heading from "I gots-to-prove myself" to established "I'm pop-star-dance-floor-wrecker." I suppose million fans on Facebook will do that. Diplo seems to mirror Neptunes' (Pharrell) production on the track a la "Grindin" meets "Drop It Like It's Hot." Either way-it's a hot joint that I light any night. Word? Wale - "Slight Work" feat. Big Sean (Prod. by Diplo) by RalphFolarin
![He's My Brother She's My Sister "Lazy Daze" [VIDEO]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3815316_lg.jpg)
Such an appropriate video for Halloween, especially if you, like me, cannot enjoy the only best holiday of the year (and one that doesn't involve wine-soaked family dinners) because it falls on a Monday. Yeah, bummer. He's My Brother She's My Sister describes themselves as "western-tinged, folky, bluesy, rock & roll with a touch of vaudeville glamour." The music is fresh yet holds a retrospective rather than nostalgic influence of the revolutionary sixties and showmanship of late 19th century traveling bands (complete with upright bass). And though many indie whores and [...]
The unlikely combined endorsement of Brian Wilson (Fear The Beard), MC Hammer, Will.i.Am, among the many other celebrities featured in this video (including Willie "The Suit" Brown, Biz Stone, Ronnie Lott, Ashkon), should definitely influence peoples' vote-or at least mine. Nothing says vote Ed Lee more than Wilsons' comparison, "Bruce Lee, Tommy Lee, Sara Lee, Mot-lee..Crew!" Yes. Fear the mustache. Download Mp3 - MC Hammer, Will.i.Am, Ashkon, & Brian Wilson: "Ed Lee is 2 Legit 2 Quit"
![Justice [Interview]: So Justice..](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3836722_lg.jpg)
Photographs by Kelsey Bennett For the French production duo, Justice, four years have passed since their last album and c'est la vie. As Xavier de Rosnay explained to SF Critic writer, Collier Meyerson, backstage before their performance at this year's The Creators Project in New York, "when you make a record the time doesn't matter if it took four years or four month or weeks to make. What matters…is just if it's good." Truer words couldn't be said. Even their disposition was very laissez faire; at one point during the interview, the ASAP ROCKY [...]
![Justice [Interview]: So Justice..](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3812162_lg.jpg)
Photographs by Kelsey Bennett For the French production duo, Justice, four years have passed since their last album and c'est la vie. As Xavier de Rosnay explained to SF Critic writer, Collier Meyerson, backstage before their performance at this year's The Creators Project in New York, "when you make a record the time doesn't matter if it took four years or four month or weeks to make. What matters…is just if it's good." Truer words couldn't be said. Even their disposition was very laissez faire; at one point during the interview, the ASAP ROCKY [...]
![Feist "Metals" [Album Review]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3807008_lg.jpg)
When Feist first came on the scene in 2004 with Let It Die featuring the adorable video for "Mushaboom," I was enraptured. I proverbially wore down the Mp3s in my colorless-screened first generation iPod. The balance of soul, femininity and melody was like an optimistic Cat Power with the same swirling soundtrack riffs characteristic of Broken Social Scene (which she is also a part of.) Feist definitely had a hand in ushering in a lot of the cutsie indie waves that dominated those days. Unfortunately, 2007's The Reminder lost its way. It [...]
![Mayer Hawthorne and The County at Bimbo's 365 [Photos]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3806730_lg.jpg)
Mayer Hawthorne and The County rolled into the famed Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco last Friday in their typical suave style. No big deal, just playing to a packed house. No big deal, just reinventing soul for the masses. Donned in matching bright red tuxedos, Mayer and The County steamrolled through the night, sending their adoring (understatement) fans kicking and screaming. The sold-out crowd, comprised of white, black, asian, young, old and anything in between, was diverse to say the least. That's not too surprising either. Combining a retro soul sound with the attitude of Generation-whatever-they-are-c alling-now (modern?) in [...]
OCCUPY TOGETHER! from David Sauvage on Vimeo . Thanks to FREEwilliamsburg for putting us on to this.
Photographs by Kelsey Bennett Situated next to the East River down under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass (DUMBO) normally boasts a European atmosphere with lingering patrons in cafes, coffee shops and bars speckled with affianced couples getting their photos snapped on its cobble stoned streets. However, this past weekend at The Creators Project those streets were sectioned off for the elite hipster crowd who procured the coveted (and few) free entry passes early, a sure sign they are the culture creators and taste makers the event's sponsors, Vice and Intel , were celebrating. Still nascent and a bit [...]
The Antlers First, a bropology: I sure as hell wasn't going to miss the Niners game Sunday – a man's got to have his priorities in order – though I might have been less okay with my choice had they lost (eat it, Detroit!). As more of a beats and bloops appreciator, I was the outcast in the circle I ran with for most of the weekend, a Day One kinda guy in a flock of Day Twoers. I missed everything up to the last bit of St. Vincent, and boy did I catch flak for [...]
Few things are better than lounging on a blanket in park, drenched in sun and with your friends. Very few things. One of those rare instances would be seeing The Antlers , St. Vincent, Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks , Beach House and Explosions In The Sky while lounging on a blanket in the park, drenched in sun and with your friends. Treasure Island on Sunday was more than expected. It would be trivial to try and quantitate the difference in quality between any of the acts mentioned above; they all are worthy of roses and [...]
First impressions: Treasure Island curates quality songwriters. With such limited space on the two-stage, staggered lineup, there wasn't room in the day for a band to make it in on a fluke or buzz alone. Even the stuff that didn't court my taste was solidly written, and as a result, no stage was a fanless island (ha, ha!). The careful curation lent itself to quality, not quantity – a welcome departure from other seemingly hodgepodge festival lineups. Organizer pat on the back: I never waited in any line for more than three minutes or [...]
I'm fairly certain I'm only speaking for a very small portion of Treasure Island goers, but the lineup for Saturday, a day usually reserved for the more electronic/dancey acts, was my favorite Saturday set out of the last three years. I know the masses were bummed there wasn't an Oakenfold or a Deadmau5 (thought that didn't stop the hard-drinking and pill-popping underagers), but because I am more generally a fan of indie rock and that's the way this year's Saturday show skewed I was a happy little clam for a bonus day (to my Sunday). The lineup was a near [...]
Photographs by Julie Logan Foster the People and Cults, two of indie pop's hottest acts, played back-to-back performances at the Fillmore this past Thursday and Friday. Foster the People headlined as their "Pumped Up Kids" remains steadily atop of the Billboard Charts at #3. In the wake up a dismal performance with Kenny G on the Saturday Night Live , the Hanson-esque pop group were surprisingly good (so we were told). They were preceded by the dulcet, hypnotic sound of Cults, whom you may have heard on the opener for last week's episode of [...]
Oh Treasure Island Festival you seem to appease my bipolar music taste so well I've begun to worry (was that you at my window yesterday?). Sticking to the festival's theme of electronic and dance music on Saturday (can you say "party time") with Sunday "fun-day" geared at indie rockers, expect plenty of basshead tweeners (in between teenagers and young adults) Saturday, while Sunday's plaid wearing spectators will likely pensively gaze out onto the bay during Explosions in the Sky recalling their favorite episode of Friday Night Lights ( RIP). Headliners aside, since many of you have heard of Empire [...]
![Minor Kingdom, Matt Pond PA at Bottom of the Hill [Photos]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3788124_lg.jpg)
Minor Kingdom Matt Pond PA Minor Kingdom and Matt Pond PA came by the Bottom of the Hill on Tuesday night. As with most evenings at the Bottom of the Hill, the music was loud, the beers were cold and the bands brought their right game. Minor Kingdom, a local 4-piece led by Kristian Melom, opened, playing most of the songs off their latest LP, Don't Worry Baby . Matt Pond PA rolled out quickly after and stormed through hits from their slew of albums [...]
SFCritic: Music Blog
![Ed Lee Is...2 LEGIT 2 QUIT [MC Hammer, Brian Wilson, will.i.am, Ashkon]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/youtube/fbdd_Fasz0k_130.jpg)
iamamiwhoami: kin - Teaser
Album Review: alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Azealia Banks – ’1991′ & ‘Van Vouge’
Big Boi & Theophilus London (feat. TRE LUCE) - 'She Said OK'
