Author Archives: Daniel J. Willis
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RIFF Rewind 1989: The ’90s come early with Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails
Good news! We’ve made it to the ’90s in RIFF Rewind. OK, yeah, it’s still technically 1989. But any list that includes Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails and Faith No More’s “Epic” is basically the ’90s,…
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ALBUM REVIEW: Fantastic Negrito builds on his sound with Please Don’t Be Dead
When the last Fantastic Negrito album, The Last Days of Oakland, came out in 2016, there was a buzz that Oakland’s Xavier Dphrepaulezz could be the Next Big Thing after he had gone from busking…
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RIFF Rewind 1988: N.W.A., Public Enemy and … Enya?
The year 1988 was a great year. For example, Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry Be Happy” came out! And the Taylor Dayne classic “Tell It To My Heart!” Everyone loves both unironically, right? Ok, so not those. But…
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RIFF Rewind 1987: Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard and Michael Jackson
The year 1987 is another banner year! It marks the release of one of the most-viewed songs on YouTube: Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Turns out that was actually a song before it…
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DEVELOPING: Ticketfly hacked, affecting venues throughout Bay Area; client data reportedly leaked
San Francisco-based ticket distributor Ticketfly’s website was reportedly held for ransom Thursday in what the company is calling a “cyber incident.” The outage affects venues across the Bay Area, including The Independent and the UC…
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RIFF Rewind 1986: RUN-DMC, Bon Jovi and… Metallica (yes, again)
Welcome to 1986! The music scene is shifting yet again. Hip-hop is becoming popular. Metal is getting harder. And hair rock is about to reach its zenith. I was tempted to make this another double-length…
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REVIEW: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club bends genres at the Fillmore
SAN FRANCISCO — East Bay natives Peter Hayes and Robert Been of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are very hard to put into a box. For a few songs they’re a psychedelic rock band, led by…
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RIFF Rewind: Shake your body, baby, to the top songs of 1985
The year 1985 was a momentous year in music: It marked the release of Night Rocker, David Hasselhoff’s debut album. It also marked the release of basically every song they played on VH-1 in the ’90s,…
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Low Cut Connie’s Adam Weiner keeping the ‘roll’ in rock
Adam Weiner of Low Cut Connie plays rock and roll music. “You’ve gotta put the ‘roll’ in there,” he specifies. “We don’t consider ourselves a rock band, we’re a rock and roll band. We’re going…
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Wham!, Prince, and Madonna headline RIFF Rewind’s best of 1984
The cuts in this top five songs of 1984 were tough. The Cars’ “You Might Think” and Sheila E’s “The Glamorous Life” are favorites of mine, and I’m sure I’m going to get backlash about…
