This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity purposes I wake up disheveled from a night of habitual party-hopping in the simplicity of my college neighborhood, wracking my brain for details of the mischief I got into the night before. I check my phone frantically for the time and nervously anticipate the phone call…
Cate Le Bon, L’Rain, Zsela, & Mega Bog @ El Rey Theater [11/29/23] Photos by Lily Stockton November 29, the day that everyone’s highly anticipated Spotify Wrapped drops. As people are recapping their year’s worth of musical experiences and learning that their music tastes belong in Berkeley, California, my Spotify Wrapped tells me that three…
Photos by Sophia Russo If anyone can disrupt a scene and make it their own, it is singer-songwriter Kelela. Kelela debuted her experimental sound with her mixtape ‘Cut 4 Me’ in 2013, where she mixed R&B, house, electronic, and soul to establish her own sound and identity as an upcoming and unapologetically herself artist. Fast…
Life’s playlist is a mosaic of memories, each track painting a different picture. Whether it’s a familiar tune sparking nostalgia, a musical roadmap, or a song that perfectly captured a poignant moment, music punctuates each year’s trajectory. At the end of 2023, our writers reflect on new releases, deep musings, or the beat that made…
My name is Kanchan, I’m 21 years old, and I’m confused. Your twenties are an invigorating time. Fraught with twists and turns, fresh starts and restarts alike, and a never-ending string of existential crises. A time when the people you’re closest to now are people you didn’t speak to two years ago, and the people…
Written by Candace Fernandez I’ve never believed endings to be as finite as their temporal close. Rather, endings seem to work in emotional waves, where moments of memory and irrecollection evade our own realms of understanding and exist in a state of perpetual motion. For Åsa Söderqvist, the Swedish artist behind the musical project ShitKid,…
Photos by Selkie Winter A net packed with balloons in every which way hung above us on the eve to New Year’s Eve at the Chapel. 12/30/24 marked the first night of Lee Field’s New Year’s Eve residency at The Chapel in San Francisco, a two-day affair that did not disappoint. Rich saxophone and booming…
Photos by Sara Gorman and Gabriela Acosta One of my favorite things to do after class is to attend live music. I was lucky to catch a show on Tuesday, January 9th, the second day of Winter quarter. I hadn’t planned to catch this show, but by miracle or perhaps just sheer coincidence, Sara shared…
Photos by Chloe Gonzalez Written by Candace Fernandez The first time I heard about 100 gecs was on a first date. Newly out of high school and still drowning in the melancholia of my adolescence, the music I frequented at the time began and ended at the subdued melodies of Cate le Bon, Billie Marten…
Written by Candace Fernandez As I traverse the mountainous horizon of my apartment’s splintered sidewalk, I find comfort in the indecision that speckles my longing for a furry, withered dandelion. While I ponder which earth-born stubble will suit my afternoon temperament, my gaze is soothed by an indulgence in the irresolution of which flower to…
Photos by Chloe Gonzales 8:10 PM Public transport card? Check. Camera from a decade ago? Yes. 70s fit? Debatable. Lady Apple Tree is someone who I’ve been aching to see ever since she opened for the indie rising star Alice Phoebe Lou. Well, technically she was supporting the opener that night. But she stepped up…
In a sense of oversimplification, poetry is to language as jazz is to music. These respective artistic pursuits hinge on an artists’ courage to abandon established formalities, a nature of creative rule bending that forges the bridge between art and activism with poetry and jazz resting at its center. An artist combining the two seems…
Photos by Chloe Gonzales & Dylan Simmons 10:30 PM I mean we were heading to an event called “Yeah, Yeah, Yas,” I knew what to expect. Drive the freeway, look around the block twice and miss our turn to find the event, stop, take a couple of tries parallel parking, and struggle to find the…
“Think about the average TV Girl Fan. They’re lonely. They’re depressed. They’re morally bankrupt. They’re actually bankrupt. They have no friends. They don’t go outside. They’re addicted to their phones, and honestly they don’t smell very good most of the time! That’s who listens to TV Girl.” As said by none other than lead vocalist…
For me, nothing signals the end of another year quite like music fans and critics alike beginning to release lists ranking the best albums of the year. When looking back on my own favorite projects of 2023, one sticks out above the rest. Something about the shoegaze tinged balls to the walls EDM club tracks…
As I’m walking through downtown Los Angeles on a Tuesday night, all I see are Mexican tamborazos and bandas playing live music in the street with hundreds of people lining up waiting at the Peacock Theater’s front doors with the smell of hot dogs grilling filling the air. When a regional Mexican super star such…
Photos by Chloe Gonzales I wouldn’t say that love is at the forefront of my mind these days, but when I listen to Faye Webster’s music, it’s the only thing on my mind. You know that feeling you get when your crush smiles at you? Your face slowly flushing, the hot blush blooming across your…
Photos by Luna Seng–Lay I’ve always loved the rain. Growing up on the Northern California coast, in the small beach town of Half Moon Bay, there were very few days during the year when the sun shone through without the distraction of the clouds and fog. For my parents, Southern California natives who spent their…
Photos by Lily Stockton Looking at the crowd outside the Shrine Auditorium, it would’ve been fair to assume that they were waiting for a blockbuster movie premiere, not a concert. Fans dressed in identical black cloaks, technicolor Hawaiian shirts, and oversized bolero hats joyfully exchanged fan merch and made conversation. Topics ranged from compliments on…
Photos taken by Luna Seng-Lay In the middle of Koreatown, boxed inside the neon lights of The Wiltern, we waited on a carpeted floor between a pair of ornate art deco walls with gold details and a purple glow. A bouquet of bucket hats, bandanas, and overgrown hair swerved and bobbed while a murmured chorus…
Photos taken by Amber Xu The Fonda Theatre was not prepared for the spectacle that was about to unravel on the night of November 6th. The central stage, flanked by baroque pillars standing underneath an intricate cupola, stood still with its velvet curtains drawn. The crowd slowly rumbled in anticipation as the clock crept forward.…