By Barry Walters, eMusic ContributorThe Los Angeles sister band HAIM — their last name, one that rhymes with "time" — employ rock's instrumentation, but chop it up so finely it stutters like R&B. They're not the first to do… more »
By Tobi Vail, eMusic ContributorOakland's Stillsuit mix experimental noise rock with punk politics, creating a feminist soundtrack to the confusion of sex and violence in a gendered world. Loud treble guitars in weird tunings duel while drums pound away… more »
By Tobi Vail, eMusic ContributorRuby Pins is the recording alias of Lillian Maring, best known as the drummer from Grass Widow. On her debut for Portland label M'lady's Records, she layers her voice and instruments with effects, creating a… more »
By Bill Murphy, eMusic ContributorIt's never easy to walk the precarious line between art and activism, but Boots Riley, frontman and lead conceptualist for The Coup, has kept his balance with a mixture of swagger, charisma, wit – and… more »
By Marissa G. Muller, eMusic ContributorThe contrast between the cover art for Tamaryn's Tender New Signs and their 2010 debut The Waves is telling: A lush array of fuschia petals signifying new life, growth and resilience have replaced the barren,… more »
By Andrew Perry, eMusic Contributor"There's nothing like a broken arm to win your love," coos Jesca Hoop in one of the countless astonishing images from her latest, third album, The House That Jack Built. The Californian singer-songwriter majors in… more »
By Jason Diamond, eMusic ContributorAs a New Yorker, I don't have as much pride in my town's punk past as I should. Sure, I'm a sucker for any Ramones song, I've drank a lot of beers at Dick Manitoba's… more »
By Marc Hogan, eMusic ContributorThey can't all be California Gurls, but Bethany Cosentino has embodied the role as proudly as anyone this side of Katy Perry. Following a stint in New York, the Los Angeles native's debut album with… more »
By Austin L. Ray, eMusic ContributorNathan Williams lives a pretty charmed life, even if the title of his new EP — and the generally frustrated themes of ennui and malaise that pepper much of his catalogue — may indicate otherwise.… more »
By Peter Blackstock, eMusic ContributorRecent transplants to Oregon from Southern California, the Parson Red Heads are well-schooled in West Coast pop, both past and present. If their chiming guitars recall the heyday of SoCal greats the Byrds, their gorgeous… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorIf you passed through a Bay Area record shop in the late '90s, there's a good chance a member of the Living Legends tried to sell you one of their tapes. Proof positive that you… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorInteresting things can happen when you're just a few steps away from the limelight. Left to their own devices in the drowsy college town of Davis, California, DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, Lyrics Born and Lateef the… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic Contributor"I get on the mic and I don't stop rappin,'" Oakland's Too $hort proclaimed on his low-tech, hyper-local 1985 debut cassette, and nearly 30 years later, he's outlasted anyone who wanted to get on after… more »
By John Morthland, eMusic ContributorThere's never been a country music career anything like that of Merle Haggard. Launched soon after he was released from San Quentin, it presented him first as a reckless, paranoid, yet rather proud honky-tonk man,… more »
By Lenny Kaye, eMusic ContributorThis year, the Beach Boys celebrate their half century - silver surfers all. Theirs is a family saga that, in the midst of unrivaled siblings and a belief in the transcendental meditation that is music,… more »
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By Elisa Bray, eMusic ContributorBack in 2006, Cold War Kids set the blogosphere alight with the stripped-back blues-indie numbers "Hang Me Up to Dry" and "We Used to Vacation," sparking a fierce record label bidding war in the process.… more »
By Barry Walters, eMusic ContributorIf you've been following Wavves over the course of the last few years, you know that frontman Nathan Williams is famous for unpredictable behavior: Last year he had a meltdown at a Barcelona music festival… more »
By Jon Dolan, eMusic ContributorGreen Day couldn't get critically arrested or commercially noticed when they first showed up on the Bay Area's early-'90s punk scene. But over the course of a shockingly resilient career, they've found new ways to… more »
By Holly George-Warren, eMusic Contributor"The Grateful Dead isn't an event, it's a process," guitarist/songwriter/vocalist Jerry Garcia once quipped of the band he cofounded and led until his 1995 death. For 30 years, the Bay Area-based group fearlessly meandered the… more »
By Barry Walters, eMusic Contributor"When Jim sang his first songs to me on the beach, I thought, "'We're going all the way with this,'" recounts the Doors 'towering organist Ray Manzarek from the inside of a tiny hotel room… more »
By Ben Fong-Torres, eMusic ContributorThe Doors were open to everything, and that was the key to their success; to their crashing out of the gates in 1967 with "Light My Fire," to their overcoming the excesses of lead singer… more »
By Jayson Greene, Managing EditorMan/Miracle's debut record, The Shape of Things, is a bottled whoop of joy. Its ten songs form one giddy wave of yelping vocals, skittering Afro-pop guitars, clattering drums, clapping hands, and group hollering. You know… more »
By Kevin Whitehead, eMusic ContributorFew musicians brought as much passion to jazz as Charles Mingus (1922-1979). You can hear it all over his music in every period: the power, the lyricism, and the sheer propulsion. He loved independent melody… more »