Thursday night's Of Montreal show at Bottom of the Hill was a great party, and we enjoyed seeing them at such an intimate venue. When we bought our tickets last month, both Gold Chains and Enon were billed to open the show, both of whom we hadn't heard from in a long time. Enon ended up canceling, and Gold Chains was solely in charge of getting the party started with his new cohort Miss Tiny. ...

This week's giveaway comes from The Finches, a local duo who play endearing folk pop. The songs are refreshingly gentle and Carolyn's voice rings with a true sincerity. See them Saturday afternoon at 2pm when they play a free in-store at Amoeba, or celebrate their CD release at Cafe Du Nord on Wednesday night with The Moore Brothers, Colossal Yes and The Mantles. We're giving away a copy of their brand new CD Human......

Our concert picks for the week of 9/1-9/7. Former Bare Jr. frontman Bobby Bare Jr. is helping us start September off right by dishing up his country and blues with dark humor at Bottom of the Hill this Saturday. Enter for your chance to win a Bloodshot Records prize pack including Bobby's From the End of Your Leash CD, plus Bloodshot stickers, temporary tattoos and a convenient bottle opener/keychain. (Our contest-o-tron will pick a winner......

The Bay Area should be proud of at least two high profile record releases from local artists this week. Oakland's own The Lovemakers drop their major label debut Times of Romance on Interscope Records, and San Francisco's John Vanderslice keeps it real by releasing his latest, Pixel Revolt, on indie stalwart Barsuk Records. Even if you can't afford to rush to the CD store on Tuesday, we wouldn't want you to go without some local......