Top 11 Bands from the San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area (which includes San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and San Jose, among others) has a rich musical history that includes some of the greatest artists in rock ‘n’ roll history.  There are several articles on Wikipedia that deal with the San Francisco Bay Area music including List of bands from the San Francisco Bay Area (though this list is missing quite a few bands), San Francisco Sound, and Music of California.  Steve at The Otter Limits also put together his own Top 4 Bands from San Francisco post. 

With so many great bands from this area, and that fact that this is one of my longer lists, I’ve decided to include links to videos of my favorite songs by each artist (that I could find videos for at least) instead of embedding videos (to help keep the page from loading up super slow). 

11.  J Church

Favorite Songs:  “Kathi,” “Girl in a Magazine,” “Racked”

10.  Skankin’ Pickle

Favorite Songs:  “I'm In Love With A Girl Named Spike,” "It's Margaret Cho,"  “Gates of Steel” (Devo cover), “Hate,” “My Hair,” “Start Today” (Gorilla Biscuits cover), “Make a Change” 

8.  Journey

Favorite Songs:  “Don’t Stop Believing,” “Faithfully,” “Any Way You Want It” 

8.  Creedence Clearwater Revival

Favorite Songs:  “Fortunate Son,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Down on the Corner,” “Proud Mary”

7.  Rancid

Favorite Songs:  “Radio,” “Salvation,” “Time Bomb,” “Ruby Soho,” “Journey to the End of the East Bay,” “Avenues & Alleyways,” “Disorder and Disarray,” “Roots Radicals,” “Olympia WA,” “Bloodclot,” “New Dress,” “Who Would’ve Thought,” “It’s Quite Alright,” “Fall Back Down,” “Red Hot Moon,” “Memphis,” “Born Frustrated”    

6.  Operation Ivy

Favorite Songs:  “Knowledge,” “Sound System,” “Take Warning,” “Bombshell,” “Unity,” “Vulnerability,” “Bad Town,” “Artificial Life”       

5.  Green Day

Favorite Songs:  “Going to Pasalacqua,” “2,000 Light Years Away,” “Christie Road,” “80,” “Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?,” “Burnout,” “Chump,” “Longview,” “Basket Case,” “She,” “Sassafras Roots,” “When I Come Around,” “F.O.D.,” “J.A.R. (Jason Andrew Relva),” “Armatage Shanks,” “Stuck with Me,” “86,” “Stuart and the Ave.,” “Brain Stew/Jaded,” “Walking Contradiction,” “Nice Guys Finish Last,” “The Grouch,” “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” “Warning,” “Waiting,” “Minority,” “American Idiot,” “Jesus of Suburbia,” “St. Jimmy,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends,”          

4.  The Donnas

Favorite Songs:  “Teenage Runaway,” “I'm Gonna Make Him Mine (Tonight),” “I Don’t to Go to School,” “Get Rid of That Girl,” “High School Yum Yum,” “I Don't Wanna Rock 'N' Roll Tonight,” “Rock & Roll Machine,” “Checkin' It Out,” “Skintight,” “Too Fast for Love” (Motley Crue cover), “40 Boys in 40 Nights,” “Drivin’ Thru My Heart,” “Hot Pants,” “Living After Midnight” (Judas Priest cover), “Backstage,” “Take It Off,” “Too Bad About Your Girl,” “Pass It Around,” “Dancing with Myself” (Generation X/Billy Idol cover) “Save Me,”

3.  Dead To Me

Favorite Songs:  “Don’t Lie,” “By the Throat,” “Something New,” “Special Professional,” “Cause of My Anger,” “Visiting Day,” “Arrhythmic Palpitations,” “Little Brother,” “Ran That Scam,” “Modern Muse,” “A Day Without A War,” “Bad Friends,” “Cruel World,” “Three Chord Strut,” “Fell Right In,” “California Sun,”             

2.  One Man Army

Favorite Songs:  “Another Dead End Story,” “Stuck in the Avenues,” “Fate at Fourteen,” “Big Time,” “The Old Songs,” “Bootlegger's Son,” “Another Night,” “Last Word Spoken,” “The Holidays,” “Victoria,” “It’s Empty,” “S.O.S.,” “All Night Long,” “Leave Me Alone,” “Here We Are,” “Rotting in the Doldrums,” “Sleeper,” “The T.V. Song,” “The Hemophiliac,” “All the Way,” “The Radio Airwaves Gave Me a Lobotomy,” “I.F.H.A. (One Love),” “Let’s Call It an Evening”      

1.  Swingin’ Utters

Favorite Songs:  “No Eager Men,” “Teenage Genocide,” “Windspitting Punk,” “The Next in Line,” “Sign It Away,” “Bigot's Barrel,” “Five Lessons Learned,” “I Need Feedback,” “Twenty-Three,” “39” (Queen cover), “Pills & Smoke,” “The Note,” “My Glass House,” “Glad,” “Dead Flowers, Bottles, Bluegrass and Bones,” “Effortless Amnesiac,” “Kick It Over,” “Good Things,” “Where Are They Now” (Cock Sparrer cover)    

Honorable Mentions –

Filthy Thieving Bastards

Re-Volts

Faith No More

Dead Kennedys

Counting Crows