Arcade Fire: Ready To Start

Arcade Fire: Ready To Start

Aidin Vaziri | The world is still reeling from Arcade Fire's Grammy Awards upset earlier this year, when the stage-sagging band of Canadian indie-rock misfits snatched the coveted album of the year prize from under the noses of tireless superstars Eminem, Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. At the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival next Sunday we get to celebrate their unprecedented victory while revisiting the surging highlights of the group's most recent release, "The Suburbs." Bassist Tim Kingsbury called from the road last week to make sure we were prepared.


Tim Kingsbury of Arcade Fire
Q: Five years ago, you were playing for a few hundred people. Now, it's around 50,000. Do you ever miss playing the more intimate spaces?
A: There's things about it I definitely miss. It's taken a while to feel at home in that setting because there's usually such a huge barrier between you and the crowd. I remember the first time we played Coachella we walked off stage and said, "What the hell was that?" But I think we've gotten more used to it.
Q: What are your personal festival survival tips?
A: Sunscreen. Water. Maybe some earplugs. I'll be your mom for a second.
Q: That's very considerate advice.
A: Well, if you get sunburned and dehydrated on the first day you're not going to have a good time the rest of the weekend. We don't want to come there and have a burnt-out crowd. So do it for me.
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Pop Quiz: Ellie Goulding

Pop Quiz: Ellie Goulding

Aidin Vaziri | In just a year, Ellie Goulding went from being a complete unknown in her native Britain to serenading Prince William and Kate Middleton with a private performance at the royal wedding. Goulding's first album, "Lights," was the fastest-selling debut of 2010, and her cover of Elton John's "Your Song" enjoyed a dizzying run up the charts. Now the 24-year-old electro-pop singer has cautiously set her sights on America. She checked in with us last week in preparation for her appearance at the Outside Lands Music and Arts festival in Golden Gate Park on Friday.


Ellie Goulding
Q: You were the only live performer to be asked to play the royal wedding. Did it feel like just another gig or were you biting your nails?
A: I'm notoriously underwhelmed by everything that happens to me. I just thought I wanted it to go as well as possible because it was their day, not my day. I didn't want my nerves to ruin it for them.
Q: I remember reading that your family discouraged you from singing because they said you had a weird voice. All this must be a bit gratifying.
A: I think it was my mom's way of being supportive in a negative, tough-love way.
Q: Did she want to keep your hopes in check in case things didn't work out?
A: No, we just had a weird relationship. I grew up in a household of negativity and pessimism. I always expect the worst. I'm in that mind-set. I don't go crazy when good things happen.
Q: Do you ever leave magazines with your face on the cover lying around when you go home?
A: I don't go home that often, but I know my mom buys the magazines. Some people are everywhere. I'm not that kind of celebrity.
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Outside Lands Festival Turns 4

Outside Lands Festival Turns 4

Outside Lands integrates new elements in 4th year: Aidin Vaziri | It's the final days of preparation for the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival and things are buzzing at the offices of Another Planet Entertainment, the independent Berkeley concert promotion company that produces the huge three-day concert in Golden Gate Park. With Phish, Muse and Arcade Fire topping a bill that boasts more than 70 acts spread across nearly a dozen stages, the organizers expect this year's event to be the biggest yet. "First you book the festival, then you promote the festival, and then you actually have to produce the festival," says Gregg Perloff, as phones ring steadily in the background. "We are so busy." Throw in a variety of new attractions, nearly twice as many local food vendors and a handful of after-hours shows and it's a miracle anyone in this office is getting any sleep. But as the festival enters its fourth year, the promoters feel as if they have finally hit their stride, especially in terms of the music. "We believe we have the best lineup in the world," Perloff says.
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Review: Little Dragon, 'Ritual Union'

Review: Little Dragon, 'Ritual Union'

Review: Little Dragon, 'Ritual Union': Aidin Vaziri | Why get caught up in the '80s revival that's causing an outbreak of saxophone solos in pop music? On its third album, Little Dragon leapfrogs the decade entirely and goes for distinctly '90s touches, favoring skittering drum 'n' bass rhythms, industrial synthesizer effects and the kind of robot-huffing-helium vocals not heard since the heyday of the Sneaker Pimps. Or maybe the Swedish electro-pop troupe, recently given a boost by collaborations with Gorillaz and Big Boi, never outgrew its roots. That's no bad thing. "Ritual Union" balances its inadvertent nostalgia with singer Yukimi Nagano's impeccably cool presence in off-kilter cuts such as "Nightlight," "Seconds" and the rib-rumbling title track.

Pop Quiz: Mickey Hart

Pop Quiz: Mickey Hart

Aidin Vaziri | Mickey Hart, the former drummer for the Grateful Dead, is feeling ambitious. On his new album, an as-yet-untitled collaboration with lyricist Robert Hunter, he's setting the sounds of the entire history of the universe to music. And this isn't just some cosmic concept album - Hart, 67, who sits on the board of the Smithsonian, is collaborating with high-ranking NASA scientists, engineers at Meyer Sound and telescope operators around the globe to transfer light waves to sound waves to jams Deadheads can groove on. This week, the Mickey Hart Band takes a break from recording in Sebastopol to try out some of the new material (along with old favorites) on a brief tour of festivals and small clubs.


Mickey Hart
Q: It's about the whole universe?
A: I've been involved in sampling the epic events of the universe from the Big Bang to now - everything that makes up our lives. It's all about the vibrations of life. In this case they began as light waves, and these light waves are still washing over us. The scientists and Lawrence Livermore and Meyer Sound made them into sound waves. I want to bring these light waves into the human range and use that as a musical catalyst and play with it.
Q: You're going to put all that into one album?
A: You don't put it into one album. We don't make albums anymore, remember? I've been building a stellar library which contains thousands of these songs from the cosmos. Some of them I'll be using on the CD and some of them live. This project can go on and on and on and on. It's never ending, but you have to start somewhere.
Q: So what does the Big Bang sound like?
A: The cosmic low end of the universe is a B-flat. That's one of my key sounds. I couldn't do this work without the beginning of the story. It's just beginning. The universe is infinite. Now I just need another 20 years.
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Gaucho: Bouncin' Around

Gaucho: Bouncin' Around

Gaucho riding high on Gypsy jazz: Aidin Vaziri | With long-running residencies at Amnesia and Tartine Bakery (along with a half-dozen odd shows in between), Gaucho just might be the hardest-working Gypsy jazz band in San Francisco. Next month the group, founded by guitarist Dave Ricketts, will play five shows in five days. We asked Ricketts to promote each one separately while giving us the entire history of the collective, which is currently rounded out by guitarist Michael Groh, bassist Ari Munkres, accordionist Rob Reich, reed player Ralph Carney, drummer Pete Devine and special guest vocalist Tamar Korn. No big deal, right?
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Review: Friendly Fires, 'Pala'

Review: Friendly Fires, 'Pala'

Review: Friendly Fires, 'Pala': Aidin Vaziri | It took a few weeks to rubber-stamp, but if there's just one album worth burning off the final embers of summer with, it's Friendly Fires' "Pala." On its second full-length release, the jittery British dance music trio celebrates high-definition debauchery and escape, fueled by a soundtrack that draws on the more euphoric end of '80s pop. In "Live Those Days Tonight," the band laments missing out on the rave era by re-creating it in fine detail for the future; in the manic "Hawaiian Air," singer Ed Macfarlane suffers through a dreadful flight ("Watching a film with a talking dog") for the payoff of bursting to life on the beach ("Can I take this all in?"); and in the sweltering "Show Me Lights," he dutifully chases the neon in the dark. But it's infinitely joyous songs such as "Blue Cassette" and "Hurting" that will suck in listeners so fully that more than one steak may sit charring on the grill while the chef goes flapping his arms and cavorting around the garden.

Pop Quiz: Norm Macdonald

Pop Quiz: Norm Macdonald

Aidin Vaziri | It wasn't much of a surprise when Comedy Central decided not to pick up Norm Macdonald's "Sports Show" for a second season. Despite the weekly series' respectable ratings, the former "Saturday Night Live" star hasn't had much luck with television since he was dismissed from his duties at the "Weekend Update" anchor desk (anyone remember "Norm" or "A Minute With Stan Hooper"?). But he remains one of the funniest men in the business, as evidenced by his latest DVD, "Me Doing Stand-Up," and frequent late-night appearances on talk shows. Macdonald, 47, is on the road for the remainder of the year


Norm Macdonald
Q: What happened with the "Sports Show"?
A: I always thought that if the word "sports" was in the title we would have trouble because women wouldn't watch it - you're automatically cutting off 50 percent of your potential audience. That might have been part of the problem. We also had the terrible misfortune of going up against a great NBA final game every week. We were doing it on a Tuesday because I was thinking of football season, but we never made it to football season.
Q: After all this time, it feels like people still don't quite know what to do with you. How much of that is your fault?
A: I don't think I will ever find anything. I don't really know anything. I have no strong opinions on any subjects. I don't have a worldview or anything. Every time I think of an opinion, I immediately think of the counterpoint.
Q: You have no business being a comedian.
A: I know.
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Debbie Neigher: Small Wonder

Debbie Neigher: Small Wonder

Debbie Neigher puts life, soul into her music: Aidin Vaziri | At just 5 feet tall, Debbie Neigher isn't easy to spot in a busy Valencia Street coffee shop. I stand in line behind her for a good 10 minutes before I actually see her. But she makes up for her diminutive stature with her oversize ambition. The 24-year-old New Jersey native dropped everything two years ago and moved to San Francisco, having only briefly visited the city once before. After landing a full-time job working with at-risk youth as an art program counselor at Larkin Street Youth Services, she set aside two weeks to make her first album, a self-titled collection of songs that she unconditionally put her life and savings into. "I moved to San Francisco a few months after school," she says. "I figured I already did something reckless, so why not take on something else that felt big and scary?" The gamble paid off. John Vanderslice, the acclaimed local singer-songwriter who has produced albums by Spoon and the Mountain Goats, asked Neigher if he could produce the record after giving her a tour of his all-analog Mission District studio, Tiny Telephone - a task he takes on as infrequently as a lunar eclipse occurs. "I was completely shocked and bewildered," says Neigher, who plays a record-release show at Cafe Du Nord on Tuesday. "I'm still in shock."
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Review: Kelly Rowland, 'Here I Am'

Review: Kelly Rowland, 'Here I Am'

Review: Kelly Rowland, 'Here I Am': Aidin Vaziri | Imagine having to wake up in Beyoncé's colossal shadow every day - knowing whatever you do, no matter how much soul you put into it or what you wear doing it, you will never measure up. It's enough to drive you mental. But enough about Solange Knowles. Beyoncé's former Destiny's Child band mate Kelly Rowland seems mostly unbothered by taking the backseat. She has done it for years. So it's no surprise to find that her third solo album is an unremarkable, pedestrian pastiche of current R&B radio, jumping from unconvincing self-affirmation anthems ("I'm That Chick") to hopelessly submissive hip-hop cuts ("Lay It on Me"). The material exhibits none of the depth or silky sheen of her former outfit or its breakout leader, but instead settles for something a little more crass that not even the outstanding "Motivation," the hit collaboration with Lil Wayne, can repair.

Cults: Who To Follow

Cults: Who To Follow

Cults: Indie pop duo draws flock of followers: Aidin Vaziri | Brian Oblivion, the 22-year-old guitarist for everyone's favorite Brooklyn buzz band, Cults, was feeling a little overwhelmed. The other day he and his girlfriend, singer Madeline Follin, were in the middle of a shoot with Mick Rock, the photographer behind all those familiar images of Queen, David Bowie and Lou Reed. "He's amazing," Oblivion drawled, betraying his San Diego roots while taking a break from his duties in front of the lens. Then he turned back to Rock: "We're going to spend the whole interview talking about you." Just a year ago, the couple were dozing through film classes at New York University and recording songs at home when a friend forwarded their glockenspiel-fueled track "Go Outside" to a couple of influential music blogs. The response was overwhelming. In just a few whirlwind months, the band signed with Columbia Records, released a self-titled record to breathless praise, and toured the world.
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