FILM: In Being Michael Madsen, the titular star "turns the tables on notorious paparazzo, Billy Dant, by hiring a trio of documentary filmmakers to chronicle Dant's life, loves, and troubles." Crafty! The film also stars David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, and Virginia Madsen. Screens at The Roxie. READING: Michael Layne Heath and William Taylor Jr. read in honor of Abraham Lincoln's birthday (and of being our first gay Republican president!) at Dog Eared Books. *......

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......

It's that time again. (We can't believe it's already Monday.) As usual, there is great music going on every night of the week so make sure you take the jump to see our daily recommendations. We've been counting down the days to see Sara Bareilles since we heard about this tour back in December. It's here. Finally. Bareilles will be opening for James Blunt in the VH1's "You Oughta Know" tour. There's no way you......

Those goddamn, dirty, lovable hippies known as the Grateful Dead -- i.e., Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Phil Lesh -- reunite tonight in honor of (our future president) Barack Obama. Looking to snare to what Joe Garofoli refers to as, "California's gray-haired ponytail vote," the Dead is backing Obama. Minus, Jerry Garcia, of course, since he is now most literally a dead head. Billed as a one-time-only event, although they got back together briefly......

Not again. We just hope it's not that contagious staph infection that's going around. Eek. The Lenny Kravitz performance originally scheduled for Saturday, January 19th has been postponed due to illness. Rescheduled show information forthcoming. Patrons are encouraged to hold-on to their tickets. Refunds available at place of purchase. Lenny Kravitz with special guest Lissie Saturday, January 19, Doors 7:00 PM/ Show 8:00PM The Warfield (982 Market Street, San Francisco) Photo courtesy of flickr user:......

Q.) What are theees "Queens Of The Stone Age?" A.) That'd be a band that makes hip-shakin' heavy rock 'n roll for adults....

Judging by the audiences' volatile reactions, She Wants Revenge did everything in their power to give the audience what they wanted: a spectacle (with some music). About half-way through their hour and a half set, a fight erupted. (This isn't the first time, we hear, that fights have started at one of their shows.) The lead singer, Justin Warfield asked, "Can't we all just get along?" and then continued singing their synth-pop Depeche Mode influenced......

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. Standouts: 1. Dashboard Confessional - The Shade of Poison Trees: Acoustic is back. Chris Carrabba returns to his "roots" with the new release of The Shade of Poison Trees. Basically if you are a long-time Dashboard Confessional fan, then you already know all about this album and probably have already pre-ordered it. As a newer fan of Dashboard Confessional we......

-- Peter Bjorn & John: That damn hipster cum first-dance-at-your-wedding song! Grrr. But if that's your bag, have at it. Show starts tonight at 8 p.m. at the Warfield, 982 Market; $25-$28. -- DJ Deezel and Another Jerk: Rock steady, punk, clever hits, dance-y tunes, and more flood the dance floor tonight -- plus comedy open-mike in the back room! -- starting at 9 p.m. at Annie's Social Club, 917 Folsom (at Fifth Street);......

-- New Pornographers: Yay, the New Pornographers! We heart them ever so. Seriously. Heart them yourselves tonight as they perform along with Lavender Diamond and Fancey at 8 p.m. at the Warfield, 982 Market; $25-27. -- Laughing Liberally Local 415: Political comedy showcase featuring Joe Klocek, who performed on Comedy Central's Live at Gotham, and Diane Amos (AKA: the Pine-Sol lady!), who has appeared on Comedy Central, A&E, and at SF Comedy Day. Show......

We'll confess to having never really listened to Wolf Parade; maybe we got them confused with Mice Parade, and we've always though Wolfmother sounded pretty derivative, so they just fell through the cracks for us. But one of the two lead songwriters in Wolf Parade, Dan Boeckner, has a band with his wife Alexei Perry called Handsome Furs which we're really liking. It's a little dark and dire while still being melodic and engaging; we......

Sept. 11, 2007 -- Megadeth at the Warfield....

-- Brazilian Independence Day Celebration: Help celebrate Brazil's independence from Portugal by getting drunk, listening to master drummer Jorge Alabe, maybe doing a forbidden dance or two, and much more. The festivities start at 7 p.m. at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding, Alameda; $15. -- Peaches Christ Retrospective: Not only does she liven up the stage at Trannyshack and host Midnight Mass, but Joshua Grannell (a.k.a. Peaches Christ) also makes those newfangled talking pictures,......

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......

-- Giants vs. Brewers: Shouldn't beer be half-priced when we play Milwaukee? Alas. Game starts at 7:15 p.m., AT&T Park, King and Third Streets; $20-$98. -- Graphic Content -- T-Shirt Exhibit: DJ Centipede operates the decks while you buy a nifty one-of-a-kind shirt. Wee! Reception starts at 7 p.m. at Space Galley, 1141 Polk. -- Maureen McVerry: Cabaret star (and one-time Full House guest star according to her IMDB profile) sings songs saluting love......

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......

We are saddened yet not surprised to report that Amy Winehouse has canceled her US tour. Bah! So those of you -- those of us, that is -- who planned on seeing her at the Warfield on 9/21 or 9/22...won't. Due to the rigors involved in touring, Amy Winehouse has been advised to postpone her upcoming September US and Canadian tour dates. All ticket holders may obtain refunds at their point of purchase. Amy's......

Everybody cheer! The locals in Thee More Shallows are releasing a new record this week! They're playing a free set at Amoeba Records tonight at 7pm and the big record release party is on Friday at Cafe Du Nord. Listen to their adventurous song structures, buzzy and fuzzy keyboard sounds and strangely mesmerizing lyrics ("at the night school, night school" has been running through our head all day). Enter to win a copy of their......

What Made Milwaukee Famous just want to make your day a little better with their bouncing rhythms, pop melodies and plinking pianos. What, are you in a mood again? They've got something for that too. Just give them a listen and come as you are on Tuesday night when they play Cafe Du Nord. We're giving away a pair of tickets to one lucky winner. Tonight, the UK invades Popscene with Klaxons and Amy......

SFist interviews Kevin Robinson from Viva Voce, after their stop at the Warfield in San Francisco opening for the Shins...

We've got two contests this week, one to celebrate over a decade of experimentation and the other to to support some stalwart locals. Giveaway #1! On Monday and Tuesday, Blonde Redhead make their gorgeous art rock at Bimbo's with openers Annuals. Annuals weave intricate melodies with ambitious sounds while still giving you hooks to hold onto (and remind us a little of the wonderful Aloha in the meantime.) One winner will get a pair of......

Did you get your tickets to see Menomena on Friday night at Cafe Du Nord? Hopefully you did, because the show is sold out. As we've said before, this record is already on our top 10 of '07, so if you haven't checked the band out yet - what are you waiting for? OK maybe you're broke or you've fallen and you can't get to Amoeba, so we're going to hook one of you......

Today we're going to write about the Web site Wolfgang's Vault, one of those things we were always meaning to write about but never got the chance to. For various reasons which we'll get to later, we're going to write about it today. ...

The first time we saw Imogen Heap was at the rodeo on Austin, Texas, about eight years ago when she was touring on her first album I Megaphone (we'd fished the record out the promo box at the used CD store where we worked and fell instantly in love). Performing a short set for a radio event, she sat alone at her piano and sang "Come Here Boy" with a voice that filled up the......

Since we've been doing a bunch of postings about our super-exciting congressional race, we'd love to come up with some clever title along the lines of "Everybody Hates Chris" but we are coming up with nothing. Sorry-- we're a little jet-lagged these days. Needless to say, we do have some Pelosi & Pals news today as the Washington Post has a big feature on some anti-lobbying bill she's been working on for awhile that could see the light of day if she does become Madame Speaker. Lots of bans on travel and gifts are involved and we'll see what happens the moment she does become Madame Speaker. Our guess is that it'll pass with loopholes a' plenty....

There sure are a lot of fans of The Decemberists, judging by the fact that they're about to play tonight and Friday night here at the relatively giant Warfield Theater. If you haven't heard their new album The Crane Wife, we're giving you a chance to win a copy of it plus a 20"x10" lithograph signed by all 5 members of the band. We'd show you a photo of the lithograph if we had one,......

There's something for everyone in the city tonight. If you want to hear pop rhymes from a new UK export, Popscene presents Lily Allen with Guest DJ Mark Ronson at 330 Ritch. For some glam-cabaret, see The Dresden Dolls and The Red Paintings at Bimbo's for the first of two nights. The National play grim indie rock at Great American. The naughty locals in Luxxury have a sultry CD release at Bottom of the hill......

Did anyone go see G n F'n R last night? Guns N' Roses, we mean. Apparently they're rocking the Warfield for two nights with opener Sebastian Bach. Our younger self is dying inside because this was our dream concert about 12 years ago, and here we are writing about music and somehow we don't have tickets. If you went, please tell us about the show in the comments so that we can all live vicariously.......

Well, we'll tell you right now to use a pencil and not a pen to write this upcoming date down -- supposedly, Guns N Roses (in this incarnation: yes Axl, no Slash) have announced two dates at the Warfield next month, on Sept. 20 and 21, and the tickets ($75 a pop) are slated to go on sale this Sunday, August 20. Given lead singer W. Axl Rose's notorious, errr, let's call it "unreliability," when......

We’ve been on tour of sorts this week, but since it’s for our day job we regret to inform you that there’s nothing very rock about it. We are happy to say that we’re meeting some fellow –ists along the way though. Last night we met and chatted with Kyle and Nicole from DCist. We commiserated with Kyle about the burden of keeping up too many blogs (check out his excellent music blog Information Leafblower)......