In This Issue

RUMORS OF THE San Francisco music scene's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

I heard the talk, checked the chat on the message boards, witnessed the hand-wringing in Joel Selvin's recent San Francisco Chronicle story on the alleged death throes of Bay Area music. Sure, you have to admit the music industry is bruised, battered, and hurting all over. Anyone who subscribes to the blockbuster mentality favored by major entertainment conglomerates has got to be worried – where are all of the new Madonnas, Britneys, 'N Syncs, and hell, even Journeys hiding?

All I can say is that mind-set has got to change. Major labels blame their heavy losses on file sharing, but music lovers point to other causes – say, a dearth of artists who cut through the noise and make meaningful art on those very labels, which seem to have long divested themselves of worthy performers and less than immediate earners who didn't bring the numbers during the corporate consolidation of the greed-is-good late '90s

But that's almost beside the point. Regardless of what you think of file sharing and home recording, almost anyone who goes to shows at venues with less than a 1,000 capacity, local house parties, or warehouse performances will say that Bay Area music – and particularly "underground" rock and its many permutations – is as exciting as it's ever been. That's what this week's cover story is about.

Of course, our standards are markedly different from those held by the mainstream industry. We're not scanning the Billboard charts and getting teary because there are few San Francisco bands at the top; we're not scrutinizing, key-word alert here, the industry. I'm not crunching numbers and looking at commerce; I'm listening for the art. So when I go to a house party in a band's basement and see a hundred or so kids crashing around in an impromptu, uncoerced, and unhampered quasi mosh pit (the kind of experience you can't purchase at, for instance, Hot Topic) or when I take in a show like Nate Denver's recent performance at the Hemlock Tavern and sample a sensibility that's both genius and naïve, a little Goth folk and a little gangbanger, I feel like the scene is healthier, more vibrant, and more hopeful than it's been in years.