The Kooks and The Morning Benders showcase a plateful of indie pop rock goodness at The Echo on February 8, 2008....

Sure, you could always stay in and watch reruns of [insert name of your favorite show here], but why bother when you have these things happening tonight to get you through hump day. WORDS The West LA Chapter of the Sierra Club hosts a lecture by UCLA Professor David Haake who’ll focus on the question, “Do green choices make financial sense?” The evening will also offer steps on how you can reduce your carbon......

I am thankful for… Thanksgiving - even though I think it’s a stupid holiday, and I pretty much hate all the food associated with it - for giving me the opportunity to spend the day with family that I love and actually enjoy being around. I am thankful every day that I am able to make a living being creative and doing something I love. (Except for when I’m on strike) I am thankful......

For many of you, this week is all about Turkey Day. For others, it's still all about The Strike. For me? This week will go down in history not because of the strike or Thanksgiving, but because the most awesome video game of all time, Rock Band, was released yesterday. I got my kit set up and ready to go within minutes, and began rocking out almost immediately. First impressions? The drumming element is......

MGMT Oracular Spectacular Columbia Records Release Date: October 2nd, 2007 (digitally) When Vanwyngarden and Goldwasser, the visionaries at the helm of MGMT, met at Wesleyan University back in 2002, neither of them could have expected a four record, six figure deal from Columbia Records. Let alone being hand picked by Steve Lillywhite. Yet somehow they managed to keep those monstrous figures from tingeing their ingenuity. MGMT's Oracular Spectacular is a wondrous, synth-laden extravaganza that......

Various Artists Kurt Cobain About A Son Music From The Motion Picture Barsuk Records, released 9/11/07 The loud-quiet-LOUD bipolarity and creepy darkness of Kurt Cobain's music comes across loud-and-clear in this excellent collection of grunge, punk, and blues that make up the music of Kurt Cobain About A Son. The fact that no actual Cobain material is used in this makes it even weirder, and if you ask me, better. It makes you miss......

Yesterday, September 20th, was the day that Mychal Bell was to be sentenced after being found guilty as an adult on the charge of aggravated battery. Prosecutors were asking for a sentence of 22 years at one point, then reduced it to 15 years. Last Friday the appeals court overturned his conviction. The court determined that Bell, who was 16 at the time, should not have have been tried as an adult. In spite......

And you shall know Mr. Bowie by the size of his purple spandex package… The 35mm reissue of the 1986 Jim Henson/George Lucas magnum opus, LABYRINTH, is now playing at the Nuart Theatre. The new print will continue showing in all its goblin glory until Thursday August 2nd. Tonight, there is a post-show Q&A with the entire Froud brood -- Brian Froud, the conceptual fantasy designer, Wendy Froud, the puppet designer, and baby-actor extraordinaire,......

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......

While rightly lauded for originating The Office, I think Extras is Ricky Gervais' true masterpiece. I mean, how can you possibly top Harry Potter flicking a rubber into Dame Diana Rigg's hair? I'll tell you how--have David Bowie improvise this song for Gervais' hapless Andy Millman. Unfortunately (really unfortunately), Gervais decided against another season of the show, but Season 2 is now available on DVD. Buy it. Watch it. Live it. What else is......

Believe it or not, but glampop rockers Poison have been on Capitol for 21 years now. And if that doesn't make you feel old, next year, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" will be 20. To celebrate their new album Poison'd (a collection of newly recorded cover songs, which drops today), the band played a short set to about 40 people in the famous Studio A at Capitol Records. They opened with a version of......

Oh when the saints, go over there... Oh when the saints go over there... Bonde do Role - With Lasers (Domino) The Afghan Whigs - Unbreakable: A Retrospective (Rhino) Disco Deutschland Disco: Disco, Funk & Philly Anthems From Germany 1975-1980 (Marina) Rjd2 - Third Hand [Instrumental] [LIMITED EDITION](XL Recordings) Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full [Bonus CD] (Hear Music) The Aggrolites - Reggae Hit L.A. (Hellcat) Elvis Presley - Elvis at the Movies [REMASTERED](RCA)......

On June 5, Virgin/EMI will release The Best Of David Bowie 1980-1987: Sight & Sound. It's one of those CDs with a DVD snuck in there. 19 audio tracks of Bowie’s best '80s jamz like "Blue Jean" , “Let’s Dance,” “Modern Love,” and “China Girl”. Plus 15 videos from that era plus DVD release debut vids for “The Drowned Girl” and “When The Wind Blows.” Virgin/EMI will also re-release the Bowie classic Young Americans,......

The Ataris - Welcome the Night (Sanctuary) David Bowie - Station to Station [VCT] (Virgin) David Bromberg - Try Me One More Time (Appleseed) Bobby Conn - King for a Day (Thrill Jockey) Dean & Britta - Back Numbers (Rounder) Delorean - You Can't Win (Yep Roc) John Denver - Essential John Denver (RCA) Dr. Dog - We All Belong (Park the Van) Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue [30th Anniversary Edition]......

I humbly present this week's offering of classic crooners, underground rappers, David Bowie, heavy metal, art rock, prog rock, and even a little yacht rock. 'Tis a pity we are built with only two ears. Rock Age of Nemesis - Terra Incognita (Magna Carta) *America (feat. Ryan Adams, Ben Kweller, and Adam Schlesinger) - Here & Now (Burgundy) Isabelle Antena - Carpe Diem/Les Derniers Guerriers Romantiques (LTM / Boutique NL) Atrophy - Socialized Hate......

Leah (pronounced Lay-uh) is a great blogger. Born in Canada, she's been blogging since she was 14. We wont hold it against her that she lives in Austin. With her husband. Here's Leah top ten best movies of 2006: 10. Monster House Even though this is a kids movie, I'd be lying if I said it didn't give me the heebie jeebies. 9. Hard Candy I wouldn't watch it again but it was intense......

So my first movie review for LAist turns out to be for a totally New York movie. That’s ironic, or something. Not that you know it’s set in New York, per se, because it’s mostly interior shots and they never really say where it is. But you’d kinda be able to guess after a while, because pretty much every character is like Woody Allen without the jokes: whiny, navel-gazing in a neurotic way (as opposed......

Tonight on Rockstar: Supernova, rocker -- and we use the term very loosely here -- Zayra took the stage wearing a gold lamé (and lame) jumpsuit, platform shoes, a tophat and mascara. Her spooky look reminded LAist of Malcom McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. But we're not here to critique her outfit. We're here to critique her singing: It sucks. Zayra sounded like an off-key Shakira wannabe. She was supposed to be singing David......

Rocket, pictured, is an all-female party-pop group from Hollywood who are as cute as they are adorable. How you can resist a dual-guitar attack? But then add to that mix the lead singer whaling on the key-tar and then tell me you've seen it all. A throw-back to the girl groups who sing about it being their party and they'll cry if they want to -- without actually crying at all -- Rocket write......

Any apprehension about seeing the Raconteurs at the Fonda last night disappeared when they took the stage. On the album, each song sounds like a different band trying on a new style. But in person, they're tight, unified and rock nice and hard and loud (are your ears still ringing a little too?). On tour the band (Jack White, Brendan Benson, Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler) is supplemented with a fifth member who mostly......

Londonist prepares a Happy Birthday bath for Buddah this week and then things get all cliched. A madman goes on a rampage while axe-wiedling and London's mayor warns an American diplomat to avoid the kitchen if the heat bothers him so much. LAist has finally come around to purchasing tickets for Clipper Train. Hyper local dating sites are spamming L.A. neighborhoods and the fascinating Dame Darcy talks with LAist about art, the city and earthquakes.......

We hope everybody had a great time at Coachella. Really. Secret Machines is the pick of the week....... Mon 5/1 – Mark Olson & Gary Louris @ Troubadour ($25) – This should appeal to the y’Alternative / No Depression fans. The two main guys from the Jayhawks back together. Also at the Troubadour on Tuesday. Also on Mon - Sunset Rubdown @ the Echo. Tues 5/2 - The Brokedown / Tony Gilkyson @ Silverlake......

It's time to redeem '80s era David Bowie. Look at the adorable floppy yellow hair, the highwaisted yellow pants. He's always been a handsome devil, that Bowie, and his 1983 look is very 2006 fashion forward. LAist and the friendly folks at Filter are giving away 2 DVDs. Just fill in the form below. Three songs from "Let's Dance" are on this concert DVD, recent re-released with a bonus documentary. There are tons of......

The Flaming Lips At War with the Mystics (Warner Bros.) – As much as we loved The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots we're glad they're trying some new things on this one. While it's not as stylistically consistent as their other albums, there are enough quality songs to recommend it. Catch them live at the Hollywood Bowl on 7/23. Irving Death in the Garden, Blood on the Flowers (Eenie Meenie) –......

As LAist posted earlier this week, ready or not, Christmas is just around the corner. (See your local Starbucks baristas in their spiffy new red shirts hawking who knows what.) And so what if it's not even Thanksgiving? Does anyone really care? Well, we do. And we don't just have a bone to pick with retailers. We're also kinda ticked off at a few local L.A. radio stations. In particular, KOST 103.5 and KZLA......

The biggest problem with being a Vegan or vegetarian is finding variety. Sometimes we feel like an insomniac switching past the same channels at 3 am... everything looks/tastes the same. "Healthy" shouldn't be synonymous with "boring." If it is, the chef is usually stubborn or ignorant. Thankfully, Westwood's cramped, but creative Native Foods shatters two myths at once: (1) Vegan food tastes bad and (2) it's expensive. Their entire [non-dairy] menu includes earth- and......

--!> Inara George is most easily categorized in that cliche-titled-yet-venerable tradition of the Singer-Songwriter — with Topanga native creds to boot. But her art isn’t that simple. Songs from her latest release, All Rise, are at times quiet, gentle, and sparse, while other moments create an intense richly lush melodic landscape that is very much steeped in local history and feeling. Inara is the kind of slightly ethereal artist most accessible to detractors of the......