Time to tear yourself away from all the awesome flicks at the SFIFF and get some exercise. Or at least stand up for a bit. Hit Bottom of the Hill tonight to check out Laura Veirs. Even if you are not a pre-teen Texan girl, or super into snow leopards, you’ll probably dig the music. We first interviewed Laura about a year ago-- although she's not offering a free tattoo this time round, her......

Big band, small venue. People begging for tickets at $200 a pop on craigslist. Not a bad situation to be in if you've just released your second EP. Birds of Avalon will be playing tonight at Bimbo's. Sure, they're opening for The Raconteurs (gotta love Jack White and Brendan Benson), but we think you should be there to check out BoA. In addition to some seriously great rock music, BoA has some seriously great......

February may well be our favorite month in San Francisco. Between the Chinese New Year parade, the glorious weather, and Noise Pop, there’s really no better place to be this time of year. Noise Pop officially kicks off tonight. To celebrate we’re reposting an interview with the man behind it all, Kevin Arnold, that we originally ran last year.......

SFist interviews Jeff Ross, founder of Indie Fest...

SFist interviews Kenneth Ryan, Prop Master of the San Francisco Ballet...

SFist interviews Crispin Hellion Glover, who is screening his films at the Castro Theater this weekend. ...

SFist interviews Onion editor, Joe Randazzo...

Ragnar left Sweden to join the SF Symphony as Chorus director in March this year. And did we throw a welcome party for him? Did we ring his door with a cauliflower casserole and a bottle of wine to ease his arrival in the neighborhood? Nope. Nada. We must have been booked when he threw his housewarming or something, but so far, search for him here and you'll find only one single measly hit. Luckily......

By Frances Reade Local psych-rock heavies the Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound pilot a cavernous, abandoned spaceship, where the ponderous echoes of Black Sabbath, Neil Young, the Stooges, and the 13th Floor Elevators reverberate through empty chambers and recombine into mind-frying gamma rays. Equal parts brooding stoner sci-fi, choogling jam-along, thunderous riffage, and Californian-sunset melancholy, the Assemble Head plays the Hemlock tonight at 9 p.m. If the mood should strike, do stop by. In......

As the winners of Live 105's Local Band competition, Maldroid will be opening for Modest Mouse, Jimmy Eat World, Angels & Airwaves, Spoon, and Paramore tomorrow night at the "Not So Silent Night" bash at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Maldroid's sound is a mix between The Beatles and The Hives. They first became popular when their video, "He Said, She Said," won "The Youtube Underground" competition - Youtube's first ever music video competition. They......

SFist interviews Brian Regan...

SFist interviews the Reverend Billy of "what would jesus buy?"...

With over 70 shows since July 1st, MiGGs deserves a break but not until they play one last show in San Francisco. Featured on Monday in "This Week in Le Rock" MiGGs blend an alt/rock, emo, pop and classic rock sound to perfection. They are returning to Cafe du Nord this Saturday night before they take a month off to put the finishing touches of their newest album, Unraveled (which we'll be listening to at......

SFist interviews Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes....

By Frances Reade Eugene Robinson has been the leader of S.F.'s most dangerous art-rock band Oxbow since 1989. We don’t mean Oxbow is "dangerous" as in "Tipper-Gore-no-likey." We mean "dangerous" like “Eugene is known to lurch into the crowd mid-set and strangle irritating audience members into unconsciousness." "Dangerous" as in "the man strips down and brandishes his pee-pee in a threatening manner onstage." "Dangerous” as in… "awesome." Besides slinging 18 years of sweet, sludgy......

SFist interviews local band Social Studies. They rock. ...

We were phoning Marielle Labeque, one half of the Labeque sisters piano duo virtuosos, and being our French selves. We said: “We can talk in French, if you are not afraid…” Right away she interrupted: “No, I am not afraid.” We meant: “if you’re not afraid we’ll screw up the translation” but the attitude was fitting: there’s a definitive fearlessness in the Labeque sisters. We can see it from the engaged way they perform, from......

SFist interviews Bobby of Monster Bobby who is opening for the Pipettes tonight' at Bimbo's ...

SFist interviews Mike Birbiglia and gives away tickets to his upcoming show at Cobb's. ...

We caught Phil Setzer, the violinist for the Emerson String Quartet, being driven down between performances in Santa Barbara and Orange County. We hope it was in a stretch limo, as these guys have won eight Grammy awards and critical acclaim everywhere they go. They are the only chamber music group to ever win a best classical album grammy, and they even got two. So they better travel like the rock stars they are. They'll......

Pierre-Laurent Aimard will play Beethoven's piano concerto No. 3 with the SF Symphony Thursday at Flint in Cupertino, and Friday and Saturday at Davies, led by 33yo Swiss conducting prodigy Philippe Jordan. The pair will go to New-York in December to perform the same piece with the NY Phil, and you can find a little video clip of Pierre-Laurent describing the concerto here. So you now can picture him and his delightful French accent when......

SFist interviews Glenn Kotche about his collaboration with the Kronos Quartet as part of the SF Jazz Fest...

SFist interviews Charlie M. from The Happy Hollows. They are playing the Fillmore tonight with the Silversun Pickups...

We were super-excited when we got the chance to talk with Alex Ross, the New Yorker's resident classical music critic (and blogger). Ross's writing has profoundly affected the way we think about music and music writing in all its genres and forms, and his twin enthusiasm for new classical music of the 21st century along with his deep love of the profoundly musical Icelandic pixie that is Björk always liven up our weekly periodicals reading......

Boss's day interview with Hillary Mendelsohn...

Being paralyzed by choice is pretty much the peril of music lovers in this town. If you didn’t see Beirut’s amazing show last night at the Herbst, you’re probably considering how to check them out tonight. On the other hand approximately half the population of Swedish rockers are performing at The Independent tonight. And well, Swedish bands are just so very hot. Headliners are the Shout Out Louds, whose new album we can’t say......

SFist interviews Jason Poranksi of Beirut, who are performing two nights at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco...

SFist interviews Contributor Julie Feinstein Adams, who write on the wonderful world of food. ...

Someone told us a story of a famous pianist who believed in bringing culture to the people, and went to a factory in Italy to give a lecture in front of a piano. He started to talk about Schoenberg, and after a few minutes, a voice rose from the audience: "Shut up, and play!" Ok, he said, and sat down at the piano, playing the Schoenberg piece. The voice rose again: "Rather, talk!" András......

We had an interview lined up, and were instructed to call his hotel at the agreed time, and ask to be transferred to Christopher Hampton. What? The guy won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay for Dangerous Liaisons, won a Tony award for the libretto of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation of Sunset Boulevard, wrote the script for, and directed tons of movies involving Leonardo di Caprio, Richard Gere or Gérard Depardieu, and he......