DISCUSSION/THEATER: Before Michael Bennett and Bob Fosse rose to fame with shocking original choreography, directorial genius, and having a penchent for abusing dancers, we had Jerome Robbins. The mastermind of steps behind such famous works as Gypsy, West Side Story, and Fiddler on the Roof, just to name a few, will be discussed in length tonight at "Words on Dance Celebrates the Life and Career of Jerome Robbins." The panel discussion will be hosted......

We volunteered to meet and greet sell Noise Pop merchandise to festival attendees who often ended up spending all their money on band merch (as if) and/or beer (or more specifically in Cafe Du Nord's case -- Fernet Branca and Poppy Jaspers). It was quite a fun experience though, and we highly recommend it. Contact them about volunteering at next year's event! Tuesday: Our first Noise Pop night was on Opening Night at the Rickshaw......

LIVE MUSIC: Parenthetically named '80s pop outfit Was (Not Was) is known for the song, "Walk the Dinosaur" And that ditty? Went a little something like this: "Open the door, get on the floor/Everybody walk the dinosaur/Boom boom acka-lacka lacka boom." Bring your favorite Gen-Xer to hear them live at Cafe Du Nord. *FILM: Just in time to make you feel less bad about being single on Valentine's Day is Woody Allen's Annie Hall.......

Rickie Lee Jones: Easy listening-ish jazz and pop/R&B songstress ("Chuck E.'s in Love") sings tonight at 8:30 p.m. at Cafe Du Nord; $30. SOLD OUTThe Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007): "An action western surrounding the private life and public exploits of America''s most notorious outlaw, Jesse James," starring pretty boys Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, and the best actress in the entire stratosphere, Mary-Louise Parker. Screens at 8 p.m.......

-- Unsilent Night: New York-based composer Phil Kline’s holiday concert creates "an outdoor ambient music piece for an infinite number of boomboxes. It’s like a Christmas caroling party except that [you] don’t sing, but rather carry the music, each [member] playing a separate track that is a "voice" in the piece. In effect, we become a city-block-long sound system" So ... there you have it. Tapes and CDs will be handed out to participants.......

-- Comedy, Darling: Sleepover!: Mary Van Note hosts a new monthly underground talk and comedy show, where the stand-up is done in pajamas. Cute! Breaking the hymen of this monthly party is gangbang of hardcore comedic talent, featuring Brent Weinbach, Richard Kiss, Candy Churilla, Chris Garcia, and musical guest Jethro Jeremiah. The funny startsd at 8 p.m. at Edinburgh Castle; $8. -- M.I.A.: "Get crackin' get get crackin'/Get crackin' get get crackin'" [horny horns].......

-- Black Francis: Hefty former lead signer of the Pixies gets the Gen Xers up on their feet tonight, along with Eastern Conference Champions, starting at 9:30 p.m. at Cafe Du Nord; $20. -- Push It!: Rock 'n' roll aerobics care of DJ Spike. Starts at 6 p.m. at Thee Parkside; $5. -- Mulholland Dr. (2001): This different kind of love letter to Hollywood is one of the best moves made, ever. Yes huh.......

R.I.P. When The Lights Go Down In The City November 2004 - September 2007 It was SFist's first editor Jackson West who asked me to write a music column back in '04 and he also came up with the name of it. I thought, it's SF-related and a quote from a Journey song - perfect! For the past three years my aim has been to tell you about the music in San Francisco that......

Never having been huge fans of instrumental music, we were taken by surprise when we listened to Maserati's latest record Inventions For The New Season. Their own entertaining bio describes the music as a "post-psychedelic orgy of hooks molesting the tired cliche of math-prog" and/or "a post-disco drone machine bristling with the buzz-saw sound of 1,000 angry square waves nestled on a California king size bed of shoegaze swirl." We like to think of the......

It's been a long time since we randomly clicked on a band's website and were utterly captivated by the music we heard. We saw Bowerbirds' name and photo in Cafe Du Nord's show listings and were drawn to listen to the songs they stream on their site. It's amazing the beauty you can find sometimes just by turning over a few rocks. The music is homespun and intimate; Phil's gentle croon and the spare......

-- Veronica Klaus: High-art performer and jazz songstress croons alongside her Boom Boom Boys tonight at 9 p.m. at Cafe Du Nord, 2170 Market Street (at Sanchez); $15. -- DMX Krew: Hipsters of SF! Come and dance to this electro beat, '80s-y, rap-ish star at the tres popular club night "Eggs". DJs PJ Pooterhoots and Safety Scissors will also man the decks for your added aural pleasure. It all goes down tonight at 10......

Late August can be a bit of a slow season for touring, whether it's bands not wanting to deal with the blazing heat in most of the United States or record labels holding back tour support until closer to the lucrative fourth quarter releases. The upside is that local bands can sometimes benefit from a venue's slow month, and we're really excited about the chance to see Or, The Whale, Birds & Batteries and Social......

-- Wing: With album titles like Wing Sings Elvis, Wing Sings AC/DC, Dancing Queen by Wing, and Beatles Classics by Wing, it's easy to see why she shot to cult-icon status and became a favorite of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who ended up using her in South Park. See her tonight along with comedian Lisa Geduling at 8:30 p.m. at Cafe Du Nord, Market and Sanchez Streets; $12. -- Urban Capture the Flag:......

-- The Drift!: Soothing yet stirring indie rock-dub-ambient band performs tonight. CJ Boyd, Balmorhea open. Show starts at 9:30 p.m. at Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk; $6. -- Peter Case: Roots songwriter-guitarist performs tonight along with Ari Shine. Music starts at 8 p.m. at Cafe Du Nord, Market and Sanchez Streets; $15. -- This Is England: Set in 1983 England, a 13-year-old lad befriends a group of skinheads one day after getting into fisticuffs. Fun!......

There are no less than three fantastic music festivals all taking place over the weekend of September 14-16. What gives? And how do we choose? Since we live in the bay area, perhaps our decision has been made for us: we're heading to the inaugural Treasure Island Music Festival presented by the fine folks at Noise Pop and Another Planet. The two day festival features 14 bands each day on two stages with mostly hip......

-- KrOB'S Film Farm -- Faust (1994): Jan Švankmajer's version of Faust, using Goethe's and Christopher Marlowe's tales as well as heaps of surrealism, screens tonight at 8 p.m. at Chez Poulet, Cesar Chavez (Army) and Mission Streets; free. -- Minnie Driver: Why should you see her? Well, she has an Oscar nomination under her belt. Granted, it's for the XY-heavy emo-porn shitfest Good Will Hunting -- but Driver's got an Oscar nomination nonetheless.......

The shows coming to San Francisco this week give us an excuse to talk about some of our favorite music of 2007. Perhaps the best album we've heard this year comes from a Texan named Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent. She's a seasoned touring guitarist for Sufjan and the Polyphonic Spree, but at only 24 years old she just released a debut album that's sophisticated, brave and artistically mature enough to make you think that......

-- Rykarda Parasol: Dreamy rock crooner (and fellow beverage taste-tester) performs tonight along with the Dilettantes and Brad Brooks. Show starts at 9 p.m. at Cafe Du Nord, 2174 Market; $10. -- Porchlight: A Storytelling Series' Five-Year Anniversary: Hostesses and superb comedians Beth Lisick and Arline Klatte celebrate their spoken-word comedy showcase's fifth birthday with stories from Kelly Beardsley, Lisa Margonelli, Hemlock Tavern's Anthony Bedard, journalist Sylvie Simmons, Hai Ning Luan, and Matt Gonzalez.......

-- Grey Gardens: Kiki & Herb's Justin Bond hosts one of the most splendidly tragic documentaries every made, about life inside a rundown East Hampton mansion with Jackie Kennedy Onassis' eccentric aunt and cousin. Little Edie look-a-like contest happens before the show. The psychosis starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Castro Theatre, Castro and Market Streets; $6-$9. -- Pundits With Punchlines: South Asian comedians highlight this night of comedy. Samson Koletkar, Hasan Minhaj, and......

-- The A’s: Oakland play at home against the Baltimore Orioles. Game starts at 7:05 p.m. at McAfee Coliseum; $9-$44. -- "Blow-Up": DJ Jefrodisiac and Emily Betty’s "indie-pop-disco-noir" (noir?) monthly dance club brings out hipsters of every ilk. But that doesn’t mean that you still can’t have a good time. Vin Sol & Morse Code, the Lovemakers (DJ set), Codebreaker, and Disco Nat make special guest appearances, and resident DJ Richie Panic and MC......

Prolific, ornery, talented, unpredictable, easy on the eyes, genius, bastard - there are many ways to try and describe Ryan Adams, but at this point if you've heard of him, you've probably formed some sort of opinion. In his new single "Two" he sings: "I got a really good heart, I just can't catch a break." Whether or not you buy that, we're still loving his new CD. Easy Tiger is built on the......

-- Joan Osbourne: She's famous (or just known for) her one-hit confection "One of Us," but her first effort was an overall amazing album. At least as far as the Liz Phairian ouvre goes, we think. She performs with Victoria George at 8 p.m. at Slim's, 333 11th St. (at Folsom); $26. -- Natural Born Hooker: The all-caps happy counterPULSE Theatre brings us the in's and the out's of one man's ten-year journey as......

-- "Not guilty," says you know who. [Chron, Examiner, ABC 7] -- Beautiful, steel, and glassy Rincon Hill (and its streets) want a little love, too, you know? [RinconHillSF] -- The Cesar Chavez/Mission Street condo debate goes on (and on). SF Board of Supes decide tomorrow. [Beyond Chron] -- Crunchy New College is on accreditation probation because of "sloppiness." Whoops. [SFGate, via SFBG] -- Although we're partial to show tunes and a good five-hour......

-- Queer Jitterbugs Salsa Series: Come learn and/or showoff your salsa moves at this weekly Monday night dance class/party. Perfect for those of you who want to do something on a Monday night, but don't want to deal with DJ-heavy dance clubs. The dancing goes from 7p.m. to 9 p.m. at Julie's Supper Club, 1123 Folsom (at 7th St.). -- Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox: Ultra-pepperminty "all-purpose" soap -- the one with the the loony,......

Next Thursday, July 19th, Sonic Youth perform 1988's double album Daydream Nation in its entirety at Berkeley Community Theatre. The acclaimed album is lauded for its artistic vision and flowing dynamics from lulling instrumentals to all-out noise. We have a pair of tickets for one lucky winner to (re)discover the underground masterpiece. Watch the video for "Teen Age Riot" and enter to win. (Contest ends 7/15. Winner will be notified via email.) Tonight catch brazen......

Our top 5 moments at Feist's Fillmore show on Tuesday, June 26th:      5. Hearing a cash register clang at the back of the venue in the middle of the set, and realizing that the sold-out crowd was perfectly silent. San Francisco concertgoers can really take their music seriously. You stay classy.      4. Instead of playing to the crowd, Feist literally played the crowd by dividing us into three sections (by type of shoe......

We don't say this lightly, because there are really a lot of great artists coming out of the Bay Area, but we do have a current favorite: Birds & Batteries. We've been telling you about this co-ed quartet for a little while now, and our expectations for their new record were really high. Thankfully it's good news: we love I'll Never Sleep Again. It's still the B&B we met on their last release, but this......

We've got two giveaways this week, and the first one is particularly near and dear to our heart. We're halfway through 2007 and already thinking about what might make our annual list of top 10 records. One album that's sure to make the cut is Menomena's Friend and Foe. The band is back to play live this Friday night at the Independent with opener All Smiles, a.k.a. Jim Fairchild. We've known Jim since way back......

SFist interviews Laura Veirs...

We've got a really cool giveaway this week. Everyone knows who Rufus Wainwright is, right? Please, tell us that you do. He's still crooning luxuriously behind the piano, wearing fabulously tailored suits and hasn't aged a day since his auspicious self-titled debut nearly ten years ago. His brand new record, Release the Stars, is hot off the presses and he's coming to play a special show at Nob Hill Masonic Center with Sean Lennon......