Photos by Jay and Laura; words by Anna.
Outside Lands 2009 could have been a lot of things: a failure, a disappointment, a misplaced attempt to draw a wider range of music fans. The slightly off-kilter lineup largely paid tribute to the ’90s (Pearl Jam, Incubus, Dave Matthews Band, Q-Tip and The Beastie Boys — before [...]

With so many bands (over 90 at last count) ready to diverge on San Francisco for the second annual Outside Lands Festival this weekend, we thought it’d be helpful to provide some playlists so you know what to look forward to.
With that in mind, here is the third and final installment of our daily playlists. [...]

Initial announcements regarding the lineup at this year’s Outside Lands Festival may have received a more varied reaction, seeing as it branches pretty far beyond the more indie-centric lineup of 2008. Perhaps this announcement of the OSL daily schedule will help sway those teetering on the “not-sure-how-I-feel-about-the-Black-Eyed-Peas” fence.
Single-day tickets go on sale here on June [...]

[Roundup of the best Bay Area concerts this weekend.]
Friday:
Band of Horses w/ Drones and A Decent Animal @ Fox Theater Oakland
Paul Weller (of The Jam) @ Warfield Theatre
Tea Leaf Green w/ Or, the Whale @ The Fillmore
Devendra Banhart w/ The Healing Curse @ Mystic Theatre (Petaluma, CA)
Saturday:
Morrissey w/ Kristeen Young, The Courteeners @ Paramount Theatre
Noah [...]

The organizers of Outside Lands announced the initial lineup for the festival’s second year. The three headliners are Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys and Dave Matthews Band. Bay Area acts include The Dodos, John Vanderslice and The Morning Benders. Here’s the full lineup:

After what seemed like a series of odd delays and false starts, the lineup finally got released today for this year’s Coachella Music Festival. It’s a good one. Really good. Headlining each day are Paul McCartney on Friday, The Killers on Saturday and The Cure on Sunday (before you scoff at Friday’s closer, Uncle Corey’s [...]

As 2008 comes to a close, we at Stranger Dance are starting to look forward to what 2009 holds. A number of our favorite artists (Andrew Bird, Bon Iver, Jason Isbell, M. Ward, Wilco, etc.) have confirmed upcoming albums and even more are flirting with the idea.
A few things stuck out to us while compiling [...]

It’s that time of year again — the turkey leftovers are long gone and we’re hearing Christmas music in every store in town, so it must be time for best-albums-of-year lists.
After screaming matches, insults and a fist fight or two, the dust has settled and the Stranger Dance staff stands before you united with our [...]

If you have a few hours to kill and a hankering for good live music, I’d highly recommend heading over to KEXP’s Web site and checking out its live music archive. The Seattle-based independent radio station has been a Web pioneer since the early days of the Internet and does simply fantastic work, both in [...]

One of the things that I love most about music (and art in general, I guess) is that everyone appreciates it in their own way. Ten people can have the same favorite song, album or band and love them for completely different reasons. Be it lyrics, rhythm, melody, harmony, style or something else, people are [...]