Nicole Atkins starts this week off strong with some soulful tunes from the Jersey shore over at The Independent, starting at 8pm. She's crazy-cool and has a voice of gold. If you're more of a rocker, than get to Cafe du Nord early to see Cold Hot Crash and Filter play. It looks like the only way you can buy tickets is at the door and there's not too many of them. A Fine Frenzy,......

In the middle part of the 19th century, a thick set of whiskers were an essential facial feature of every man of Victorian respectability. These were not simply expressions of pride or masculine peacock vanity, but due to a whole rainbow of reasons, ranging from the fact that Man had been created in God's image, to the "fact" that beards protected the wearer against tuberculosis, and even that shaving led to immorality, murder, and......

Join us tonight at the Fillmore, where Sia (one of our favorites) will be headlining. We saw her at the end of last year and the show was definitely fantastic; we highly recommend checking out tonight's show. Her latest album, Some People Have Real Problems, is stellar and has garnered critical success jumping to #26 on the Billboard charts, selling more than 20,000 copies and finishing ahead of fellow press darling Kate Nash (all in......

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,......

Lucas (1986), Say Anything (1989), My Bloody Valentine (1981): The first film has socially-retarded Corey Haim falling head over heels in love with a sensitive football player, Charlie Sheen, or something like that; Cameron Crowe's tale of teenage love and angst has John Cusack causing egregious noise pollution when he holds up a ghettoblaster pumping out a Peter Gabriel ballad; and the final film has a murderer in a small coal mining town killing......

The Coachella 2008 line-up was announced last night. The reason you didn't hear anything about it was because they announced it in Mexico City, something to do with creating international ties. “This is really a way for us to get closer to our fans throughout Latin America who have been supportive of Coachella for the past 10 years,” says Goldenvoice’s Paul Tollett. Super; we just care about the line-up. We instantly checked to see who......

Back in December, The Lovemakers, a glam-rock outfit from Oakland, decided to stay put and forego their national tour to record their next full-length album entitled "Love is Dead." (For a band called "The Lovemakers," that's quite a title!) According to their blog, they've also decided to "be a 3-piece [band] again for the next while live. Scott, Lisa and Michael Urbano on drums. Back to basics. Very cool. Very fun." What we didn't......

If you haven't decided what you are doing to celebrate the New Year, it's okay - it seems that limited tickets are still available to tonight's biggest shows. We have a feeling they will go quick. If you don't like crowds, you can check out Radiohead's New Year's Eve bash on your couch with a bottle of booze. For the partiers, there are several options ranging from $8 at Hotel Utah to $100 at Cafe......

Yikes. The same flu that hit us earlier this month, seems to have taken The Psychedelic Furs out of commission; they've canceled all three of their end-of-the-year shows including tomorrow night at the Mezzanine. This means that our Saturday night plans have been thwarted. Boo. We were planning on dancing the night away with the local glam-rock band, Persephone's Bees. Whatever happened to the mantra, "The Show Must Go On"? With other cancellations this week,......

Gearing up for the big New Year's Eve bash, several artists are playing mini-residencies (two or three night stays) this weekend including: Cracker, The Radiators and ALO. If you schedule correctly, you could probably see everything that you want. Though New Year's Eve has some rocking concerts, we are going to cover those shows later in the week. For now, let's focus on Popscene's continued success in picking the perfect bands for their Thursday night......

Earlier this month we mentioned that The Decemberists' five-night engagement at the Fillmore was canceled. It was going to be the highlight of our week, but we guess tofurkey will just have to do. This week, our picks are Travis who are playing with Maximo Park at the Fillmore tomorrow night. Friday night at the Fillmore, The Drones (listen to "Shark Fin Blues" here) are opening for Band of Horses, an indie-rock band based......

Tonight, for one night only, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will be featuring two sneak previews of Dirty Country, a highly entertaining documentary about the underground world of raunchy music, directed by Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, founders and hosts of the Found Footage Festival, which sold out four shows at the Red Vic last month. Dirty Country, which won the Audience Award at this year's South By Southwest, is part of Yerba......

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......

-- Figurines, Dappled Cities, Union Trade: Rock bands -- with a little easy-listening thrown in there for balance! -- bust it out starting at 9 p.m. at Bottom of the Hill; $10. -- Custom Made Theatre's Silent Auction on the Stage: Bid on trips, theater tickets, and mighty fine art, and much more (just like dem rich do!) but in a more accessible setting. Fol-rock band the Jiffy Lube Allstars -- featuring Jason Garrison,......

-- Shadow Circus Vaudeville Theatre: (In)famous night of underground "circus arts, burlesque, music, and puppetry" begins at 9 p.m. at Fat City; $10. -- Rogue Wave: Oakland indie-rock band performs with Port O'Brien at 9 p.m. at Bimbo's; $15. -- Oslo, A Modern Machine, Desole: LA-based Oslo has got serous buzz right now. Which means the place will get crowded with hungry hungry hipsters, so get there early. Music starts at 8:30 p.m. at......

-- Lez Zeppelin and Dolorata: Lesbian-y Led Zepplin cover band and indie-rock band perform in SOMA. Doors open at 8 p.m. at Slim's, 333 - 11th Street (at Folsom); $18. -- Jeff Garlin: Jeff from Curb Your Enthusiasm! We heart you ever so! And your total bitch of a wife! (On the show, that is.) He does stand-up tonight along with Rick Overton and Marc Herson at 8 p.m. at Cobb's Comedy Club, 915......

The Arcade Fire came through Mountain View's Shoreline Amphitheatre last Friday. We have the pictures to prove this. A suddenly-rather-popular independent rock band, it's surprising that this little-group-that-could is suddenly playing arena-size venues. And what does The Arcade Fire sound like? Figure that the group's music is like some sort of 10-person raucously ad-hoc mix-up of Neutral Milk Hotel, Slipknot, Springsteen's E Street Band, and The Coen Bros' Hudsucker Proxy shrieking songs of broken/renewed faith......

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. Standouts: 1. Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails Red Wine (w/ Bonus DVD): Hands down, one of the best CD's of 2007. Eskimo Joe released "Black Fingernails, Red Wine" as their debut single in the US in August. Their CD already went quadruple platinum in Australia (it was released in 2006). The quiet application of the piano combined with the melodramatic......

-- The Arcade Fire: LCD Soundsystem and Wild Light open for this white-hot -- that's right, white-hot, or so we hear -- Canadian indie-rock band. Music starts tonight at 7 p.m. at Shoreline Amphitheatre, 1 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View; $19-40. -- High School Musical: You know what? We watched this on Disney and it sucked us in. Sad, yes. Absorbing, for sure. Ray of Light Theatre and School of the Arts (SOTA) put on......

-- "Zombie Prom": Halloween approaches, and soon Walgreen's and Rite-Aids will start stocking fun-size 100 Grand and Lik-M-Sticks. But until that glorious day arrives, check out this Zombie-themed dance club night in SOMA. DJs Glamtasm, Dire Delorean, and the Reverend Dusty Danger spin psychobilly, surf, garage, dark glam, rock, and more. The dead rise at 9:30 p.m. at Club Hide, 280 Seventh Street (at Folsom); $15 if dressed in prom or zombie-ish attire, or......

-- Aaah! Rosebud: This re-telling of Citizen Kane involves a "an evil sled, competitive curlers, an aspiring diva, and soul-devouring zombies." See, if Wells had jus incorporated those things into Kane, he might have won the Best Picture Oscar. The curtain goes up at 8 p.m. at New Langton Arts, 1246 Folsom (at Eighth Street); $20-$25. -- Squaretape, Little Yellow Perfect, and Downtown Harvest: Local synth-rock band, Little Yellow Perfect; Squaretape, whose latest album......

-- Scott McCloud: Experimental and wildly popular comic artist and novelist (Making Comics) speaks tonight at "Evolution of the American Comic Book". Rory Root (owner, Comic Relief) and Andrew Farago (curator, Cartoon Art Museum) also speak. Starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Commonwealth Club, 595 Market; $7-$20. -- End of Summer Slam Jam for Teens: Are there words prettier than "back to school"? Maybe. But when we start seeing back-to-school commercials and such, we......

-- 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:......

SFist Wendy's favorite SFIFF film fest movie yet! It doesn’t get any better than this. Really. We headed to the Clay Sunday night, very relaxed and content as it was, having spent one of the most beautiful days ever up at Stinson Beach (never mind all the flies, anyone know what the story was with those flies!?), and now happily anticipating the latest SFIFF romance Once, featuring Glen Hansard, the lead singer of the......

Butoh dance is a post WWII form of modern Japanese performance art seen as a combination of dance, traditional Japanese theater, and mime, and which is described as provocative and shocking. Sounds like fun! The local Japanese dance group Theater of Yugen presents an evening of Butoh dance tonight, featuring nature-themed performances, along with music by new music ensemble the Nanos Operetta. 2840 Mariposa (between Florida and Alabama, near Project Artaud), 8 p.m., $15. Other......

Last Week's Winner: SF Weekly Nothing's good enough for the SF Weekly this week: Cutting Ball Theatre's Woyzeck doesn't cut it for Chloe Veltman; Frances Reade compares Kemble Scott's hot-selling novel SoMa to Showgirls (not meant as a compliment); in an article compelling for its title, alone, Flaccid Nostalgia, Music Editor, Jennifer Maerz lays into the Mother Hips with the "you asked for it" gambit, "They want me to write about this band - I......

As promised -- when we find people defending Newsom, we diligently write 'em up in the column we call.... Who's Defending Newsom Now! Who's swinging for the mayor? --The mayor himself!: Before heading out to Switzerland this week, Gavin sat down with the gay-focused Bay Area Reporter (picture features a blue tie) for a chat about what's going on with him. Beyond the now-standard complaint that the Chronicle is out to get him, Gavin also......

MacWorld. Keynote. It's Steve's time. Look, the long-desired iPhone. How does Steve Jobs choose to showcase the new phone's music technology? By playing The Beatles' "Lovely Rita, Meter Maid." That's so gangsta. Why? This staged moment is Steve's announcement/flaunting of the fact that the long war between Apple Computers and The Beatles is effectively over. Steve won. And now the world's greatest rock band is Steve Jobs' prop. Apple Computer and The Beatles' Apple......

First, the swanky: The MoAD Vanguard presents Preview at the Clift Hotel, (495 Geary St. at Jones) an evening of art, music and dance for a cause - the cause being MoAD and the arts of the African Diaspora. From the PR: groove to the global sounds of DJ Cecil (Relevant Sound, Bembe) while taking in the artwork of Amanda Williams, April Banks, Rah Crawford, Rosalind McGary, Emmanuel Pratt and Sydney James. Preview is......

Yay, Civic Center Mike's back from Palm Springs! And what should he stumble upon while wheeling his suitcases out of the BART station but Bill Clinton's Yes on 87 Rally! (87 is the tax the oil companies for alternative energy proposition. Yes arguments here, No arguments here.) You have to check out Mike's post from the scene, it's hilarious. Here's some of our favorite Mike-style zingers (we're leaving a bunch of them for you......