It's likely your first full week back to work after the holidays – and just how does that feel? Painful? Like a dull, numbing pain creeping up your neck? Fix it with fun, like the kind you'll have seeing former Das Racist, Kool A.D. at Elbo Room, doom folk friends Chelsea Wolfe and King Dude at the Great American Music Hall, or producer Jerome LOL at Rickshaw Stop, punk act Kicker at Bender's, or club night Push the Feeling's one-year anniversary show at Underground SF.

Cheer up, Bay Area. There's plenty to hear in 2013.

Here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end: Read more »

Call it the influence of witch house on the folk scene, or don't –  those involved would probably hate that. But it does feel like there have been more and more “darkly spiritual acoustic-folk” acts of late, in the vein of Chelsea Wolfe and Father John Misty (albeit, on opposite ends of the spectrum), and in particular, King Dude, who returns to the Bay for a set of Oakland shows this weekend. There'll also be live sets this week by Lavender Diamond, less moody but certainly as spiritual and folk-infused, and the legendary, if snappier Mountain Goats.

Unrelated, but also performing in the Bay these next few days: Roy Loney and the Phantom Movers, Overwhelming Colorfast, and the Chuckleberries; Dee Dee from the Dum Dum Girls with her boo, Brandon from the Crocodiles; Wooden Shjips, Liturgy, and Barn Owl, at the same show. Plus, it's Chanukah, and the Subterranean Arthouse is celebrating with Yiddish bands and live klezmer. I hope for your sake you get some latkes this holiday season, my first batch was oily, crispy, and vegan – perfect. Read more »

Yes, it's that time of the year again – when I make a faux-turkey. And, I suppose, when many of you eat the real thing. That's cool. Either way, you're going to want to relax, decompress, scream into the abyss after the stress of eating and chatting with the family, or over-indulging at multiple Friendsgivings. This Thanksgiving weekend, you can let your conflicted demons out into the night with Dick Dale, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Cass McCombs, Sébastien Giniaux, Kill Paris, and SISU. Read more »

Kitty Pryde, Maya Jane Coles, Die Antwoord, Tilly and the Wall, La Sera – it's like a pop culture IRL explosion on the streets of the Bay this week. It's the acts that shake up your Youtube trolling, the bands that guest star on teen queen dramas, the darlings of Hipster Runoff, all on the calendar during this first full week of November. Oh, and the irrepressible, Mike Watt. Let the fall sweeps begin. Read more »

The Giants World Series sweep, Halloween endless, worrying about our East Coast brethren. It feels like everyone has ADD right about now, our Twitter feeds overfloweth, and we're all being stretched in a million different directions. The world may indeed be coming to an end. But AU and Zammuto are coming to SF, as are Woodkid, Dark Dark Dark, and R. Kelly's bedroom ballads. Already on our soil we have the SF Symphony's Dia de los Muertos concert, Halloween tricks at Thee Parkside, and even more Nobunny. Read more »

The beauty of Halloween occurring on a Wednesday (next week, of course) is that you basically get a full week of fiendish, costumed, creepy-crawly shows, many of which take place the weekend before, then continue on out through the week days...of horror.

Trust me, you'll be getting a thick list packed with the bulk of those shows in the paper this coming issue. But for Heads Up, I pulled out a few must-sees, including shows without the ghoulish holiday affiliation, but that are still worthy of your eyes and ears: Seattle's Crypts, LA's Flying Lotus, Portland's Red Fang, Brooklyn artist SSION, Jascha singing Caetano Veloso, and more. Read more »

As the seasons change – whatever casual seasonal changes we get here in the Bay – the interminable cycle of music, of bands, of life, spins on. Men of a certain age keep playing (Bob Dylan at the Bill Graham, Iron Lung at the Knockout), local legends fall apart (Uzi Rash is splitting up) and newer sounds enter our consciousness: Coo Coo Birds, Allah-Las. Don't grow too maudlin, there's always another block party around the corner (Clarion Alley Block Party). Read more »

With the xx – at Treasure Island Music Festival – and Nouvelle Vague both in town this week, there's a whole lot of sexy, sex-making music coming. Also popping up in the Bay in the next few days: Dinosaur Jr., Grave Babies with 2:54, Saint Vitus, and Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby.

These shows, as of press time, still have tickets. Lucky you. There is another band in town, however, whose Bay Area stop is long-sold out: Grizzly Bear, the Brooklyn act that was featured in the much-discussed New York Magazine cover story last week, “Is Rock Stardom Any Way To Make A Living?” Read more »

So much to talk about this week, but the biggest news of course is both Hardly Strictly Bluegrass' return – for the first time since the death of founder Warren Hellman – and new venue Preservation Hall West at the Chapel.

Below, you'll get the basic need-to-know info on the shows you must see; but check Tofu and Whiskey, my music column in this week's paper, for the details behind it all. A sort of Behind the Music on the newly constructed Mission venue and the cherished Golden Gate Park fest, if you will. Read more »

Waiting for the second manicure of my life, flipping through trashy magazines with my excitable fellow preeners, I came upon a photo of glittery purple monster Katy Perry; the conversation switched to her skills as a pop singer and place in the cultural zeitgeist (general consensus: the candy-coated songs are terrible guilty pleasures, her candy-coated bosom and infantilizing sexuality are kind of ick). We flipped the page.

Fast-forward several hours and – tickled by intense declarations of love and copious champagne at an intimate ranch wedding – the preeners and I are ecstatically throwing our whole selves into this “Teenage Dream.” Limbs in the air, with broad toothy smiles, we were in it, and without any trace of remorse or snark. Read more »