Jay Blakesberg

Warren Hellman at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

​
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass founder Warren Hellman passed away at the end of last year, but the sprawling free music festival he started will continue. And on Feb. 19, Hellman's family and the festival's organizers will hold a sort of mini-Hardly Strictly as a tribute to Hellman. The bill -- which we're announcing first right here -- reads like a list of Hardly Strictly regulars, featuring big names like Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Gillian Welch, Buddy Miller, and more. (See the full lineup after the jump.)

The location for the festival hasn't been decided yet, but Dawn Holliday, Hardly Strictly's booker, tells All Shook Down that organizers are choosing between Hellman Hollow (formerly known as Speedway Meadow) and the parking lots at Ocean Beach. (Concerns over rain make her wary of holding the tribute concert in the festival's usual Hellman Hollow location.)

Also undetermined as yet are the precise hours of the concert. But as they did with Hellman's funeral, organizers are planning to stream the event live. The artists will perform back-to-back on two stages, so everyone in attendance will be able to see every set.

"It's just about the music," Holliday says of the concert. "It's about the joy Warren loved, and every one of these artists was hand-picked because he loved them."

More >>

Christopher Victorio

You could see the Coachella artists... without seeing this.

​
Maybe you hate traveling. Maybe you're broke. Or maybe you're allergic to waiting in long lines under the hot sun while privileged pre-teens gyrate to David Guetta.

There are many, many good reasons not to go to Coachella this year. But even if you can't make one of the festival's two weekends (April 13-15 and 20-22), you can still catch many of its artists when they come to play shows in San Francisco. Our colleagues over at Spinning Platters coined it Fauxchella, the music festival Bay Area dwellers get to enjoy at our local clubs -- and since there are four empty days between Coachella weekends, the local lineup looks especially enticing this year.

With the pixels still fresh on the 2012 Coachella poster -- and with the festival now sold out -- we've put together this initial guide to the S.F. version. It's not complete, since many artists haven't released tour info for the spring yet (we'll be updating this post as those announcements come in). But even now, the prospect of seeing the best of Coachella for the mere cost of a cab ride is very real. Check it out:

Playing Coachella on Friday, April 13 and 20

The Black Keys: May 4 at Oracle Arena.

Arctic Monkeys: May 4 at Oracle Arena (with the Black Keys).

More >>

Christopher Victorio

Radiohead at Outside Lands in S.F. in 2008

​

See also:

* Fauxchella: How to See Your Favorite Coachella Bands Without Leaving S.F.

It's here: The lineup for the biggest music festival in the west, Coachella, and the first year in which the festival will span two weekends, April 13-15 and 20-22. The billing is a blockbuster even by Coachella standards: Some of the 2012 performers include Radiohead, The Black Keys, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, Pulp, M83, The Weeknd (in its U.S. debut), an At the Drive-In reunion, AraabMusik, Florence and the Machine, and more. Hit the jump for the full lineup.

More >>

​As part of its world-shaking, time-exploding, two-decade-ringing-in confab and music festival next month, S.F.'s own Noise Pop is offering up no fewer than five gig slots to bands who apply through SonicBids.com. Yes, that's at least five whole paying gigs in front of breathing humans at S.F.'s biggest club-based indie music festival.

They almost certainly won't be headlining slots, but hey -- more people will likely come than can fit in your rehearsal space or your mom's basement. (Trying really hard not to make a dirty joke about your mom's basement here.) The "why" of this is obvious, right? -- assuming you want people to hear your music -- so check out details on applying, etc., after the jump.

More >>

Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack

​
Noise Pop isn't like other music festivals, which usually announce their entire lineup at once. Instead, the bills for San Francisco's premiere indie music gathering are announced over months, giving fans continuous excitement -- and perhaps a little anxiety. It's only been a week since Noise Pop released the first batch of performers for 2012, its 20th anniversary year,  and we've already learned of more. New performers include Wye Oak, the Baltimore indie-rock duo that's topped several year-end lists so far, and Big Freedia, the New Orleans dance diva project shaking hips across the country. Hit the jump for full list of new additions to Noise Pop 2012.

More >>

South African rap group Die Antwoord is playing Noise Pop's 20th Anniversary.

​
Next year is the 20th Anniversary of Noise Pop, San Francisco's premier club-based indie music festival, and today, we get our first peek at the lineup for 2012. Big names include Die Antwoord, Craig Finn, Archers of Loaf, and Surfer Blood -- and there are almost certainly more to come. Check out the full list of performers released today after the jump.

More >>

​
Coachella 2012 is still more than four months away -- so naturally, it's time to start hyperventilating over rumored lineups for the first year the festival will stretch over two weekends. One "leaked" lineup appeared last week on StarzUncut, a celebrity gossip website with more than 58,000 Twitter followers. The website claims that "an inside source who works for Goldenvoice" leaked this image of what the lineup "may look like." While it notes that not all the artists are 100 percent confirmed, some artists like No Doubt and Radiohead have been reported elsewhere as committed to playing Coachella 2012. Check out the full "leaked" poster and a legible list of the rumored performers after the jump.

More >>

The crowd at Hardly Strictly

​
Hey everyone, it's set-time-o'-clock: The point at which you can start planning which acts you'll see (along with every other mobile human on the planet) at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (Sept. 30 to Oct. 2) and Treasure Island Music Festival (Oct. 15 and 16).

Often set time discovery is an exercise in pain (or in getting yelled at by obsessive Phish fans), but it doesn't have to be.

For Treasure Island, it won't be. If you're going to Treasure Island, you can see every band you want, because there are only two stages, they're not far apart, and their sets don't overlap. Find the set times here, but all you really have to worry about is waking up early enough to catch the shuttle to see the first band you care about. Once you're there, seeing everyone you want is easy.

Now for Hardly Strictly, the free, three-day affair in Golden Gate Park next weekend, things are a little more complicated...

More >>

​
Lots of people, including us, think that this past year's Outside Lands Music Festival was the best one yet. But how does the four-year-old event in S.F.'s Golden Gate Park compare to the world's biggest music festivals?

Hint: We have much better wine, and we care about Foursquare a lot more than most.

That's at least the perspective given by this fascinating infographic from the folks over at Sonos. There's a crop above; check out the whole thing after the jump.

More >>

​
The Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival is an annual tradition -- one of those smaller, several-day multi-venue festivals that help make the live music landscape in S.F. and Oakland so rich. The festival is asking for your help to put on its annual free outdoor show in S.F.'s McLaren park, as you may remember. But now you know what you're supporting: The lineups for this year's Mission Creek Music Festival shows are out, and performers include El Elle, Kelley Stoltz, Lilac, The She's, and many, many more. The festival runs from Sept. 2 through the end of the month on both sides of the Bay. More details after the jump.

More >>