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Give In to 2000, Man

Robin Lapid September 21, 2025

So why not go back to 2000? A musical time trip might be a balm to dealing with the horrors of the present. Grandaddy, the Modesto-born band who gained traction in the late ‘90s—is happy to oblige me. Touring in support of the 25th anniversary of their 2000 album, The Sophtware Slump, frontman and songwriter Jason Lytle, a skateboarder-turned-musician, offers a nostalgia-tinged complementary American precursor to the creepy, hi-fi fears on Radiohead’s 1997 album OK Computer.

Preview: Grandaddy at Regency Ballroom

Robin Lapid September 12, 2025

It’s time for one of those “I feel old” moments: American indie stalwarts Grandaddy are touring in celebration of the 25th anniversary of their seminal second album, The Sophtware Slump. That album was a mini-masterpiece of its time, suffused with dreamy, disenchanted early aughts melodies, gauzy guitar and keyboard flourishes, and the echoing vocals of frontman Jason Lyttle. It’s their first North American tour since 2004, and it features Pedro the Lion as support on the West Coast dates and Greg Freeman on the East Coast and Midwest. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself staring wistfully into your beer in the dark.

Gruff Rhys, with Chris Forsyth, at Swedish American Music Hall, San Francisco (19 Apr 2025)

The Welsh Ballad of John Evans

Robin Lapid April 21, 2025

Tour Dates 04/21 Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall 04/22 Seattle, WA @ Here – After...

Write About Love, and Music, and California

Robin Lapid February 12, 2025

On a blustery, cold San Francisco night (cold for San Francisco, that is—a frigid 45 degrees), I walked to the end of a long line of well-dressed indie kids of all ages. We were queuing up on Valencia Street outside The Chapel music venue in San Francisco’s Mission District, the neighborhood that just happened to play a part in Nobody’s Empire, the debut novel by Stuart Murdoch, Scottish singer and mastermind behind the twee-pop wonderband Belle and Sebastian. Fans of the band, which dug its deep, pop hooks and its wispy rhymes into the hearts of twee music lovers from 1996 on, also know it as the name of one of their songs and the album it’s on. The book tour promos played to its audience: It was marketed as a night of “readings, songs, live Q&A, and book signing,” and it featured informal chats with moderators and hosts Mike Schulman and Nommi Alouf, the latter of whom figures in the novel as the college radio station DJ who invites the main character on her radio show.