We asked you the other day whether Monsters of Folk were your cup of tea, and the reviews have mostly been positive. Now you’ll get to see them up close and in person to decide. Messrs. James, Ward, Oberst and Mogis are bringing their little indie-folk supergroup to Oakland’s Fox Theater on October 17th.
This is [...]

The first MP3 from Monsters of Folk has hit the blogosphere – “Say Please.” This band practically defines the term “supergroup,” as a band comprised of Bright Eyes‘ Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and singer-songwriter M. Ward is quite impressive, given their already-established individual reputations. The band’s debut self-titled album [...]

Credit is due to Wears the Trousers for this little collection of covers from the bewitching Marissa Nadler. The folk songstress casts shades of neo-folk on both the classic and contemporary, bringing her ethereal grace and quavering vocals to songs originally performed by Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, John Lennon, Radiohead, Bright Eyes, etc. Helping her [...]

We’re very excited to be presenting an evening with three of our favorite Bay Area bands, Geographer, Michael Zapruder and Harbours on April 23 at Cafe du Nord.
Geographer ( Official Website | MySpace )
Building on the overwhelmingly positive response to last year’s debut, Innocent Ghosts, Geographer has been packing shows and building an impressive amount of buzz for such a [...]

Hold Time, M. Ward’s seventh full length album, was released today, although if Ward were to commandeer a time machine to 1958 and release it then, it’s likely no one would recognize him as an interloper.
The album is a sonic throwback on every level. It’s full of reverb-heavy Fender Stratocaster guitar work, and thematically, it [...]

[The Blogmine is a weekly feature where your fearless Stranger Dance staffers dig up all the gold hidden around the blogosphere. Feel free to pass along any interesting stories we may miss.]

Great interview with Scarface, who’s whole tortured gangster persona has always made him one of the more intriguing rappers out there. [The Smoking Section]
Animal [...]