Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. Standouts: British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?: We were first introduced to British Sea Power when we were checking out the bands that are coming to the Noise Pop Festival (which we remind you is in two weeks). It's being heralded as the "...first contender for Album of 2008." Not bad, for this indie-rock band from Brighton,......

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. Standouts: 1. Magnetic Fields - "Distortion" - From what we can tell, Magnetic Fields are a huge hit in San Francisco as their two-night stint at Noise Pop 2008 has been sold out since December. (The only way to get tickets is to buy a badge!) Now we haven't had the pleasure to actually preview/review this album, but with a......

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. Standouts: 1. Sia - "some people have real problems": Back in October, we had the chance to see Sia live at the Fillmore. Her press agent emailed us and told us that she was trying out new songs from her upcoming album "some people have real problems." At first, we were kinda bummed; we wanted to hear the music we......

If you have ever wondered what the SFist staff is listening to, wonder no more. In no particular order, we are listing each staffer's favorite album and song from 2007. We think you'll be surprised at our wide variety of music affections. Here's the list: Christopher Rogers: Song of the Year: ARTIST: LCD Soundsystem SONG: North American Scum ALBUM: Sound Of Silver Album of the Year: ARTIST: Shellac ALBUM: Excellent Italian Greyhound Take the jump......

“It’s been a hell of a year,” Tom Higgenson of Plain White T's told Entertainment Weekly. “But I’m really looking forward to the next one, too.” Plain White T's have received a Grammy nomination for "Best Song of the Year" for the over-played, hugely popular song, "Hey There, Delilah." Higgenson should be worried about writing his next big hit before we start saying, Plain White Who? The second single of their latest album, "Our......

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. Standouts: 1. The Hives - The Black and White Album: The first song, "Tick Tick Boom" opens up with clanging of the drums and guitar tuning following with a huge guitar and drum entrance. Instantly your head starts to bob up and down. As the song progresses the bobbing turns into a rocked-out-90's-head-bang. We absolutely love the climax into the......

Sara Bareilles (Bar - rell - is) -- summer's hottest, as they say, new singer/songwriter -- has gained a broad fan base throughout the U.S. via her extensive touring and #1 selling album, Little Voice, on iTunes, resulting in an impressive debut on Billboard's Top 200 Album Chart at #45. Praised by critics for its depth and honesty, even Rolling Stone raved "Bareilles' writing voice is uniquely her own." Luckily, we were introduced to......

The 3rd annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival kicks off tonight, at the Brava Theatre. Over 40 movies in three days. Check the schedule, grab some popcorn and enjoy the show(s)! 2781 24th St (at York), SF. Get your daily art fix in high style -- check out a rare selection from Picasso's body of work at the W hotel on view from 12-7pm, with a wine tasting from 6-7pm. RSVP for the......

Submit your found photos, letters, objects, grocery lists, etc to found @ sfist.com, or tag them as sfist on Flickr! Tell us where and when you found them and any other helpful info. They must have been found in the Bay Area and their previous ownership unknown. Today's find is a very intense and forlorn love letter found by SFist reader Jeff Webb. Here's his description about the find from his blog: I found this......

All you 9-to-5ers out there who loathe working, Aim Low Kid's got your number. Their debut album, aptly titled, Soundtrack for the New Depression, is a handbook for the thinking working folk. Listen to their track Couple Dozen People and imagine any given day in the Financial District. Since we happen to be engaged to lead singer Daniel Phifer, we get asked what Aim Low Kid sounds like quite a lot. We usually get frustrated......

It's January 1, and here are the best things from the last 365 days....

How do you feel about holiday music? We thought that KOIT started playing their 24/7 holiday programming a little early this year, but we do love randomly hearing Jose Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad" in our car. There are two holiday albums out this year that we've been enjoying. If you're a fan of Sarah McLachlan, you should buy her holiday album Wintersong. The CD has several traditional holiday tunes, but we were pleasantly surprised by......

Here's some good news for all you iPod owners (which would probably be all of you), Apple is finally close to an agreement with the Beatles to sell Beatles tunes on iTunes. And yes, that would indeed rock....

Think you'd rather see a movie than go hear Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the SF Symphony (opening tomorrow through Sunday in the Saint-Saëens Piano concerto, conducted by Simon Bychkov)? Why choose, when SFist is here to give away a copy of Thibaudet's The Movie Album, where you'll hear music from A League of Their Own (no vocals from Madonna, thank goodness, it's only a piano solo album), The Piano (of course), The Pianist (ibid.), the Royal Tenenbaums, and all time San Francisco favorite, Spartacus, by composers like Debussy, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Duke Ellington. Just fill in the form below and a lucky winner will be notified by e-mail tomorrow. ...

It's not too early to make plans for Halloween weekend, and if you want to make this year especially memorable, hop a plane to Las Vegas for the Vegoose Music Festival. It's an impressive lineup of tons of bands in one place: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Mars Volta, The Raconteurs, Cat Power and the Memphis Rhythm Band (we'll see about that), Gomez, Fiona Apple, Jenny Lewis, BRMC, and a bunch of those jammy/jazzy......

In addition to our show reviews, artist interviews, and weekly concert listings, we added a new dimension to our music coverage this year: giveaways! We know you just love to read us talking about music (see: dancing about architecture), but we did our best to put CDs and concert tickets in your hands as well. We hope you enjoyed it. These giveaways would not be possible without the cooperation of friendly music publicists, band reps......

Our concert picks for the week of 7/28-8/3. This week offers you chances to see spanking new UK rockers, hiphop's underground acts and chart-toppers, and yet another show by Tegan and Sara. We love those cute lil' Canadians, but how many times have they played San Francisco this year? Tonight starts early with a free performance by Nine Black Alps at Amoeba. The young lads of the UK's band-of-the-moment will rock you later at Popscene......

We went through the pains of watching Sunday night's GRAMMY Awards telecast so you didn't have to. Ray Charles was unsurprisingly the top winner, but our Bay area homeboys in Green Day made us proud with American Idiot's win for Best Rock Album. Their live performance of the title track was triumphant. Thankfully their use of fireball pyrotechnics elicited more of a rock n' roll fist pump than a cringe. Billie Joe was even invited......

We reckon a good percentage of San Franciso music-lovers will be at Great American Music Hall this week, whether it's at one of the three sold out Arcade Fire shows or Saturday's sold out X show. We commend you, SF, your taste is impeccable. While you're down at Great American, SFist Emily recommends stopping by the box office to purchase your ticket for the Tsunami Relief Benefit on January 28th. A $20 donation gets you......

Like SFist Emily, I'm bad at lists. So I'm just going to relish the chance to write in the first person singular for a moment and break down the highlights and lowlights of the year for me, in no particular order: Best Moment of the Year My Life: Getting married Bravest Mayor/Person Most Wrongly Accused of Losing the Democrats the Presidential Election: Gavin Newsom Senator Who Actually Should Take the Blame: John Kerry Worst......

The nominees for the 47th Annual GRAMMY Awards were announced yesterday in Hollywood, with homeboys Green Day earning an impressive six nominations. That's four less than Kanye West, two less than Alicia Keys and Usher, but one more than Norah, Loretta and Prince. Billie Joe, Mike, and Tré Cool are honored for American Idiot (the album and the single) in the categories of Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Rock Performance By......

This week offers up many new releases that we know you've all been waiting for with great anticipation. Well friends, the wait is over. Exhale and read on. In the we're-so-sick-of-that-song, we're-shocked-the-album's-not-out-already category, we have Gwen Stefani's Love, Angel, Music, Baby and U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Fantasia's Free Yourself is the debut album from this year's "American Idol" winner. You can pick it up with a copy of last year's "AI" winner......