It’s midnight, and while I write a monotonous series of buzzes and feedback loops razes through my living room. The cats are wide-eyed and alarmed. These are not the normal noises of everyday life. They are the aural explorations of Spectrum, one of the most prolific projects of Sonic Boom, cofounder of Spacemen 3. When Spacemen 3 split up, it seemed fans diverged as well. Many followed Jason Pierce (aka J. Spaceman), who went on... [continue]

photo by Timothy Norris Local duo The Pity Party is playing the second show of their month-long Monday residency at Spaceland tonight. Much has been made about drummer/keyboardist/singer Heisenflei and her triple-threat instrumentation. But even if she weren’t an octopus, Heisenflei and guitarist/singer Maurice-Richard would still be stirring up L.A. with their smartly sparse songwriting and quirky melodies. We asked Heisenflei, who also runs The Little Knittery in Atwater Village, a few questions before... [continue]

Whether it’s free bands by the river, obscure films at the Silent Movie Theatre or music festivals featuring great non-mainstream bands, Arthur magazine has improved L.A.’s sullied corporate reputation by organizing eclectic, margin-friendly events that embody the magazine’s mission to represent “transgenerational counterculture.” Case in point: Arthur’s Sunday Evenings series at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, which continues this weekend with eccentric songwriter Michael Hurley and next Sunday evening with psych-rock band Wooden Shjips.... [continue]

After I first heard Suicide, many years ago, I immediately launched into a search for more bands that sounded like them. Search forever, no one can duplicate the spectral minimalism of Martin Rev’s entrancing synth lines and drum machine repetitions mixed with Alan Vega’s menacing yelps prickling at you in their infinite reverb. Released in 1977, their first record still holds the punk and new wave world in its grip. Suicide are still going;...... [continue]

You’ve heard it already, “Wow, they’re like 13 years old and in a band!” The Jack Bambis have gotten a lot of attention for their ages – guitarist Indio, bassist Jasper and singer Lia are all 13. Cash, the drummer, shies a few years behind. But the Jack Bambis sound better than a whole lotta crap on the radio being made by people 21 and up (i.e. old enough to know better). Cash graduated... [continue]

Shredding ensued at last night’s LA regional competition of the US Air Guitar Championships at the Key Club in West Hollywood. 16 air shredders competed to represent L.A. in the US Championships in NYC on August 16, and a possible chance to represent the US at the world championships in Finland. The evening was emceed by the now retired Bjorn Turoque , the author of “To Air is Human.” He opened the show with... [continue]

Last night, I went to see The New Year play at Spaceland. I’ve liked The New Year since they were Bedhead in the ’90s, so I was pretty excited about it. The New Year (somewhat inexplicably) have four guitars, but there are still a lot of quiet moments in their sets. Unfortunately, every time one of those moments came, all you could hear was people chatting and squawking about their various BS, so that...... [continue]

Few new businesses get me as excited as new used bookstores. For a city this large, L.A. can certainly afford some new additions. I was happy to hear about Kulturas Bookstore at the corner of Ocean Park Boulevard and 17th Street in Santa Monica. The shop was opened in January by Andrew MacDonald and Irene Coray, who moved here after running the store in downtown Washington D.C. for 20 years. I went in there...... [continue]

On Tuesday night, Zócalo sponsored another in its series of panel discussions, this one titled “Can the LA Times Be Saved?” The discussion was moderated by Kit Rachlis, editor of Los Angeles Magazine. Panelists were Times Editor Jim O’Shea, Managing Editor Leo Wolinsky, General Manager Dave Murphy and Executive Editor of LATimes.com Meredith Artley. There were two related but very different issues at hand: one being the widespread problem of the declining circulation and...... [continue]

If any band has ever made me reconsider the old T-shirt adage, “If it’s too loud, you’re too old,” it’s Japan’s DMBQ. Last time I saw them, it was so loud I felt like throwing up for hours afterward. It was awesome. DMBQ, playing at The Smell on June 8, are a Japanese mishmash of psychedelic hard rock, noise and garage. The sonic mayhem produced by their guitars is so loud it truly defies...... [continue]

The second day of the Bottled Smoke Festival continued last night at Mr. T’s Bowl in Highland Park after a full day of bands at Echo Curio in Echo Park. Mr. T’s was the only portion of the festival that cost money, but $8 got you a lot, including the powerful ambient noises of one-man show Ghosting, instrumental rock by San Francisco’s Tarantel, and the spooky sounds of Humboldt County’s Starving Weirdos played to... [continue]

Portland’s disco-punk duo Glass Candy graced L.A.’s presence twice this past weekend. On Friday night, Johnny Jewel and Ida No played to a sardine-packed crowd of teenagers at Echo Park’s Tribal Cafe, a juice and coffee bar that clears out part of its floor for bands. Everybody danced and yelled out requests and put the band in a chipper mood. On Sunday night Glass Candy played Part Time Punks at the Echo, this time... [continue]

Rumors are flying about the future of L.A. Weekly founder Jay Levin’s latest venture, RealTALK LA. Kevin Roderick of LAObserved posted Friday that the new magazine may be folding due to the inability to make payroll. Today, he posted a note from Levin’s executive assistant refuting the payroll claim saying, “It is true that we are re-organizing even while we prepare our next issue and will have more to report at a later date.”... [continue]

Seven Grand had its official “hard opening” Thursday night. (It “softly” opened last month.) The bar is the latest from 213, which also owns Broadway Bar and Golden Gopher and plans to reopen Downtown establishment Cole’s, aka “originator of the French Dip,” in winter 2007. Seven Grand is in the former home of Brocks Jewelry Emporium, although now it’s stocked with stuffed stag and elk heads, a few hot tattooed- and mohawked waiters, and...... [continue]

Now that the Lakers have been eliminated from the playoffs after last night’s 119-110 loss to the Phoenix Suns, local sports writers weighed in this morning about where to place the blame. Times columnist J.A. Adande joins a growing number of people who are looking to coach Phil Jackson for some answers. Jackson is a Hall of Famer and is considered by many to be one of the best coaches in NBA history, but... [continue]

The Clientele have a new record coming out on Merge on May 8 and that means they’re back on tour! This is the band's chance to redeem themselves for contributing a song to the incredibly lame-looking Keanu-Bullock movie, “The Lake House.” Seriously, though, I saw The Clientele live last year in San Francisco and they were amazing. Their new record, God Save the Clientele, offers more mid-tempo numbers with elegant string arrangements and a...... [continue]

Saturday’s “The Future of News” panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books was quite a raucous event. Panelists were James Taranto, editor of the Wall Street Journal’s opinion website, ABC News political analyst Mark Halperin and Times editor James O’Shea (whose introduction met with hisses and boos). The discussion was moderated by Marjorie Miller from the Times, who opened with the comforting observation that ”we don’t really have a clue about the... [continue]

Saturday’s “New Media: Blogging and Beyond” panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books found bloggers Hugh Hewitt (pictured), Kevin Roderick and Jill Leovy deliberating over the merits of print vs. e-media. The panel was moderated by RJ Smith, a senior editor at Los Angeles magazine. “I got into it because I hate editors,” said Hewitt, blogger at HughHewitt.com and author of Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That is Changing Your World. “Blogging... [continue]

Architect geeks and other assorted party-goers descended on the A+D Architecture and Design Museum last weekend for the opening reception of Crosswired, a performance and installation series featuring design, motion visual art and experimental electronic music. We didn’t really hear anything too experimental, unless it was the deafening “rave” music that was possibly experimenting to see how much pressure our eardrums could take. We did elbow our way through a maze of Skyy 90...... [continue]

Despite all the talk about the Lakers’ newly revitalized motivation after reading about how the Phoenix Suns and their coach put them down in a book about last year’s playoff series, no one realistically expects the Lakers to beat the Suns in this year’s playoffs. Recent projections by four “NBA experts” printed in Sports Illustrated called Phoenix to win in either five or six games. Couple that with the Times reporting Lakers coach Phil...... [continue]