Pop Quiz: Rachael Yamagata

Pop Quiz: Rachael Yamagata

Aidin Vaziri | Time out. Just because everyone is comparing piano-playing singer- songwriter Rachael Yamagata, 26, to people like Fiona Apple and Norah Jones doesn't mean all her songs sound like deodorant commercials. On the contrary, critics are hailing the Chicago native's debut album, "Happenstance," for its deeply personal lyrics, lavish melodies and long-lasting odor protection. We're not making this stuff up. Well, most of it, anyway. We spoke to Yamagata about her roots in drama and her potential future in street miming.



Rachael Yamagata
Q: So if the music thing didn't happen you would pretty much be homeless.
A: Well, I would be a street performer. I could totally be a mime.
Q: Wait, you didn't tell me you could mime.
A: No, but I just did a video where I was in a glass box for 48 hours. So there was a lot of me with my hands on the box, looking out. I got some practice.

Live Review: Santana

Live Review: Santana

Santana at the Warfield on Tuesday, June 22: Aidin Vaziri | Subtract roughly 89 minutes of guitar wankery, 37 minutes of preaching (he could have just said, "Bush sucks!"), all references to the '70s, 12 percent of the mustache, plus that last cover song and, all in all, it was quite a great show. ...

Pop Quiz: Secret Machines

Pop Quiz: Secret Machines

Aidin Vaziri | Are the Secret Machines dangerous? No, they're just a band from Texas that moved to New York to play woozy nine-minute psychedelic rock epics with titles like "First Wave Intact" and "Pharaoh's Daughter." Are the Secret Machines loud? Are you kidding? Have you heard the trio's debut album, "Now Here Is Nowhere"? It sounds like a meteor hitting Antarctica. Are the Secret Machines drug addicts? Probably, judging by the conversation we had with guitar player and singer Ben Curtis.



Secret Machines
Q: Have you ever taken peyote and run around naked in the desert?
A: I think I ran around the desert naked once, but that was in Washington. It wasn't really the desert.
Q: Did you wear body paint?
A: We don't do body paint. It's all or nothing.
Q: Did you see a tumbleweed and think it was God?
A: I mean, I might do that anyway, but I've never done peyote.
Q: Why not?
A: Never been able to find it.

June 13, 2004: 'Queer Eye' Jai Rodriguez, Melissa Auf Der Maur and Summer Tours Preview

June 13, 2004: 'Queer Eye' Jai Rodriguez, Melissa Auf Der Maur and Summer Tours Preview

Aidin Vaziri | In the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, June 13, 2004: A pop quiz with Queer Eye For The Straight Guy culture guy Jai Rodriguez; a feature on with former Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bass player Melissa Auf der Maur; plus a comprehensive looks at this summer's major tours and reviews of new albums by Phish, The Killers and The Delays.

Review: The 2004 MTV Movie Awards

Review: The 2004 MTV Movie Awards

The 2004 MTV Movie Awards: Aidin Vaziri | Everybody knows awards shows are pointless. That's why nobody watches the Oscars without getting a blood transfusion before the credits and another one by the time Phil Collins sings. But what about the MTV Movie Awards? They're supposed to be pointless because they're for young people and young people don't care about anything, especially things like voting and catching venereal diseases. ...

Live Review: Franz Ferdinand

Live Review: Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand at the Regency Center on Friday, June 4: Aidin Vaziri | Their determination paid off. On Friday night, just two years after getting their start with these makeshift shows, Franz Ferdinand arrived in San Francisco to face a hysterical sold-out crowd at the Grand Ballroom at the Regency Center. "It's been a long journey here," singer Alex Kapranos said, surveying the masses. Time is relative when you were born for idolization. The posh setting provided the perfect backdrop for the glamorous but grimy songs on the band's self-titled debut, an album that has already made its members conquering heroes in the United Kingdom and delivered a hit single in "Take Me Out." The disc was released in America only a few weeks ago, but it already felt as if the band, whose music flirts with memories of the Talking Heads and Duran Duran, was charging through a greatest-hits set filled with angular, danceable and reassuringly familiar tracks like "Cheating on You" and "The Dark of the Matinee." ...

June 6, 2004: Avril Lavigne, Slash and Bebel Gilberto

June 6, 2004: Avril Lavigne, Slash and Bebel Gilberto

Aidin Vaziri | In the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, June 6, 2004: An interview with mall-punk queen Avril Lavigne; Q&A with former Guns 'n' Roses and current Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash; plus reviews of new CDs by bossa nova torch-bearer Bebel Gilberto and the awful new greatest hits collection by 311.

Pop Quiz: Slash

Pop Quiz: Slash

Aidin Vaziri | Because the world is so desperate for new material from the Guns N' Roses camp -- in any form -- the premiere album from rock super-group Velvet Revolver arrives under such intense security that journalists are allowed to hear the appropriately titled "Contraband" only over the phone before it hits stores this week.



Slash
Q: So I heard the album over the phone. It sounds just like Nickelback.
A: Oh, come on. I was in a bar in a hotel in London recently and the DJ played our song right after Nickelback and it's definitely nothing like that.
Q: Maybe you should have flown me out to London to hear it for myself.
A: I just wonder if they put the handset right up to the speaker or they have some way of hooking the phone up to the stereo.
Q: I think they take the phone, dip it in the toilet, scotch-tape it to an intern's forehead and then play it through his nose.
A: I have to talk to someone about that.

May 30, 2004: Jamie Cullum, Ron Sexsmith and Melissa Auf Der Maur

May 30, 2004: Jamie Cullum, Ron Sexsmith and Melissa Auf Der Maur

Aidin Vaziri | In the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, May 30: A feature on young British jazz revivalist Jamie Cullum along with a short sidebar on the swarm of New Norahs; Q&A with Canadian singer-songwriter and former mail courier Ron Sexsmith; plus reviews of the new record by former Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur and the latest batch of live dics by Bjork.

Pop Quiz: Ron Sexsmith

Pop Quiz: Ron Sexsmith

Aidin Vaziri | Last year, the curly-haired Canadian singer- songwriter Ron Sexsmith got to play arenas with his friends in Coldplay, but for his stripped-down seventh album, "Retriever," the former mail courier is determined to make it on his own -- even if that means staying poor and unknown forever.



Ron Sexsmith
Q: Chris Martin from Coldplay sang on your previous record and let you tour with his band. Why aren't you a millionaire yet?
A: See, that's the thing. I've opened for a lot of people, and the thinking is that it's a great launching pad. But I've never found that to be true. I win more people over at my own shows, whereas when you're playing those shows at places like Madison Square Garden, it's hard because you're trying to do your set and all you hear is people yelling, "Coldplaaay!"
Q: Maybe it would help if you married a hot actress.
A: Maybe, yeah. L.A. is the town for that, I guess.
Q: Well then, what are you talking to me for? Get out there.