Whoever did the booking for the Village Voice 4Knots Festival at South Street Seaport knocked it out of the park. It was a fantastic, eclectic mix of bands and genres, both local and far-flung, performing on two stages, all of whom were immensely talented and put on great, highly entertaining sets. Luckily Mother Nature cooperated as well, a day that had been forecast for intermittent thunderstorms turned out to be clear blue skies with a great breeze off the East River.

So, Widespread Panic played a show at Red Rocks on Saturday night. Honestly, for those of you who have seen them in that setting before, that’s about as good of a review as you need. All it would take is one glance at the set list, particularly from the second set on, to know that it was a spectacular evening.

Sometime in between The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” and Kanye West’s “Stronger,” electronic music officially became pop again. Long relegated to the support role after the death of new wave in the 80s, the keyboardist became a more prominent player (pun absolutely intended) in a band once again. Often just an add-on in a guitar-driven musical landscape, the keyboardist now plays the riffs, front and center. The buzzing sawtooth that starts Phoenix’s “1901” and the glossy bounce that propels Passion Pit’s “Take a Walk” are what gets stuck in people’s heads these days.

Fore·cas·tle (f’ok_sol) n. ~ A superstructure at the bow of a ship where the crew is housed. Hard at work in the unruly sea, it is a place workers gather to unwind after a hard day of labor. Simply put, it is a place where people come together.

Acclaimed independent and innovative band THE STRING CHEESE INCIDENT have launched their summer tour and have confirmed that they will be releasing an album of new material in early 2014.  The dates began this past weekend with a show at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival (6/21) and continue this weekend with three shows in Rothbury, MI at the Electric Forest Festival.

Once again, a beloved Jerry Week San Francisco tradition—Grateful Dead Tribute Night at the SF Giants—returns on August 5 at AT&T Park, as the World Series Champions take on the Milwaukee Brewers.

Seesaw reunites force-of-nature blues-rock vocalist Beth Hart and guitar hero Joe Bonamassa for a second album of choice covers from various musical eras. As with their first outing, Don’t Explain, the project is in collaboration with producer Kevin Shirley (Joe Bonamassa, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Black Crowes).

More energized and focused than ever before in their near 25-year career, roots-music troubadours Donna the Buffalo released their first studio album in five years, Tonight, Tomorrow and Yesterday, Tuesday, June 18, 2013 via Sugar Hill Records. The album debuted at #20 on the Americana Music Charts, and this past week rose to #10!

Friday, October 18th, BONOBO returns with his band behind his critically acclaimed album, The North Borders! After completely selling out the House of Blues with support from Shigeto and an afterparty at Primary for a rare DJ set, BONOBO brings his band to the historic Riveria Theatre!Presale tickets sold out in less than 30 minutes through Bonobo's official website.

With the release of their eighth studio album, Behind Beyond, via their own imprint label on July 9, 2013; Northern California's the Mother Hips will celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band.