As always, my intent to send this newsletter out with impressive frequency has failed. Nonetheless, here are a bunch of stories I’ve published since I last barged into your inbox. Thanks for reading. To keep things simple, I’m trying a new format.
Do you dig Keanu Reeves slapping the bass? Read my review of Dogstar’s performance at SF’s Great American Music Hall (January 2024, SF Chronicle)
Like the dulcet tones of Big Thief? I spoke with lead guitarist Buck Meek and his brother Dylan Meek before the siblings played Healdsburg’s Little Saint (January 2024, 48 Hills)
Academy Award nominated actor Michael Shannon loves R.E.M. I spoke with him and bandmate Jason Narducy about playing R.E.M.’s first two albums as part of San Francisco Sketchfest 2024. (January 2024, SF Chronicle)
Another SF Sketchfest feature! I chatted with former Oakland resident and longtime comedian Moshe Kasher about his new memoir, Subculture Vulture. (January 2024, SF Chronicle)
Oakland punk, musician, poet, filmmaker (and a billion other impressive things) Brontez Purnell answered my call to talk about his brilliant new poetry collection. (February 2024, SF Chronicle)
Last fall, I fell in love with the bewitching whistling talents of Molly Lewis when I saw her at a music festival in Oakland. So glad I could pick her brain about her unusual career for the Recording Academy (Grammys) ahead of her debut LP’s release last month. (February 2024, Recording Academy)
I called former SF Chronicle music columnist Joel Selvin to ask him about his fantastic new book about Jim Gordon: the most accomplished rock-and-roll drummer you’ve likely never heard of. That’s what happens when your murder your mother — but the story is so much more than that. This is a must read book, friends! (February 2024, SF Chronicle)
My latest book review for the Washington Post is a positive take on James Kaplan’s “3 Shades of Blue,” which traces the lives of Miles Davis, Bill Evans, and John Coltrane before/during/after the recording of 1959’s seminal “Kind of Blue.” A really accessible entrypoint into a highpoint in the history of 20th century jazz! (March 2024, Washington Post)
I continued my series of speaking with some of today’s finest comedians by talking to W. Kamau Bell for Alta Journal ahead of his return to stand-up for the first time in five years with an eight-week run at Berkeley Rep. (March 2024, Alta Journal of California)
Over the years, I’ve had the honor of speaking to Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney indivdually but it was beyond amazing to get them both on the line for a chat about the band’s incedible 11th album, Little Rope, before they play a weekend’s worth of shows in SF. (March 2024, SF Chronicle)
Thanks for caring! More soon. — ZR