There is a song called "The March" in Astra Heights' infectious debut album, Good Problems, that is so insanely catchy that you can't help but wonder why radio stations don't play songs like it any more, and you would also think that a record company would have no problem hawking the song. But I suppose it speaks volumes of the current woeful state of the record business that Astra Heights was dropped by its......

100 years and nine months ago, an American ship called Chesapeake was cannonballed by a British vessel, and not in the Ron Burgundy way. Apparently, the Americans refused to be boarded, the Brits fired and an international incident was born. A century later, our shores are still under assault, but less from the nautical variety and more of the musical kind. Very recently, we have been boarded by British Sea Power, who rocked Spaceland Thursday......

Family, the great little bookstore on Fairfax is celebrating its one-year anniversary with a huge art show that opens tonight at 8pm and you're invited. The show is a "Thank You" to all those who've made Family's first year a success. And what a Thank You it is - the 26 artists they've assembled for this celebratory art show are impressive and reflect everything about the store that we love - eclectic and slightly off-kilter,......

Part of an ongoing series. Last Sunday, local electronic pop duo Electrocute (MySpace), perhaps best known for their song "Bikini Bottom" on the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie soundtrack, concluded their February residency at Spaceland (MySpace) in Silver Lake. The lineup included Totally Radd!! (MySpace) and Har Mar Superstar (MySpace). This month, the artists who've shared their stage include Punk Bunny (MySpace), ARP (MySpace), Laco$te (MySpace), The Lady Tigra (MySpace), and B.R.A.M (MySpace). Tonight, Electrocute performs......

Love Pretzels? Love Indie Rock? Often find yourself torn between these two passions like the protagonist in some kind of terrible 80s R&B song about adultery and not wanting to be right? If that's you, then your tactile sensations love triangle is over. Tonight, Classical Geek Theatre and LA Underground are bringing together the sweet sound of indie rock and the soft salty goodness of some of LA's best Pretzels. It's at the Scene bar......

LAist contributer Osmany Rodriguez found a few fresh new Banksy paintings near the New Beverly Cinema. As you may already know, Banksy is the elusive guerrilla street artist responsible for some of the most interesting art in the city (not to mention the entire world). He's a trickster figure who never shows his face, but joined Steve Jones in the Indie 103.1 studios earlier this week (that's how we know he's been in L.A.......

If you're like me and you hate pro football, or if you're looking for something to do after Football Team A defeats Football Team B in the field of Superbowly Combat, go to The Scene in Glendale tonight, and see NYC based Indie Pop Band Murder Mystery, along with LA's The Tartans and Oxnard's Maria. So why should you brave the rain and the perils of Glendale? Well if you're like me, you're in need......

The Airborne Toxic Event at soundcheck (see more photos here) | Photo by Koga/LAist It's the fifth Thursday of the month and this is your last chance to see The Airborne Toxic Event in their January Spaceland residency. KROQ and Indie 103.1 both added their song "Sometime Around Midnight" to their rotations last week and Airborne hears this is the first time in about 15 years KROQ has done this with an unsigned band......

Portland based musician and known as "the Stephen King of Indie Pop," Chris Robley and his band -- Fear of Heights -- play at Mr. T's Bowl tonight in Highland Park. Plenty of MP3s to check out of this indie-pop folk band below. Mr. Lif & The Perceptionists @ The Knitting Factory Jessie Evans, Von Iva, Deadbeats @ Silverlake Lounge Chuck Berghofer Midnight Jazz Band @ Charlie O's (Valley jazz club, not downtown one) The......

On Monday night, local artist and Downtown resident Elizabeth McGrath (formerly of Tongue) and her gothic country band Miss Derringer (MySpace) performed as the headliners of Indie 103.1 (MySpace)'s Check One Two Mondays at The Viper Room in West Hollywood. Opening for Miss Derringer were James Wilsey (MySpace) and Linda Strawberry (MySpace), with The Idyllists (MySpace) performing afterwards. Later this month, Miss Derringer will embark on a West Coast tour, and open for Bad......

It's uncommon that a rapper takes the name he used for over 6 years and transforms it into an indie-rock band, but founder Yoni Wolf is known for breaking the rules and getting great results. Operating within the Anticon collective Why?'s sound is self described as "smart, shimmering, sweetly soured" and front man Yoni's delivery as a "candytime-dissonant, singsong-suicide style". Anyways, this is a special intimate performance previewing material from the band's forthcoming album,......

What will Hike The Geek do?!?! In order to face up to budget-balancing woes and a state-wide financial crunch, Governor Schwartzenegger has proposed to close 48 different national park sites, as well as cut funding to many school, health care, and criminal justice programs. Parks in the L.A. area like the Will Rogers State Historic Park, Topanga State Park, and Pio Pico State Historic Park in Whittier will all be shut down, affecting many......

You know it's a light week when I lead off with the DVD of a TV series. The Tudors wasn't great television, but it was pretty good and Natalie Dormer was fantastic as the doomed Ann Boleyn. Am I the only one who confuses Shoot 'Em Up with Smokin' Aces? War is Jet Li's last martial arts flick...until the next one. Weird Science lasted two whole seasons? Amazing. Consumer alert!: Indie Sex is mostly......

1. The Obvious- My parents and sister are the most important people in the world to me. They support me in every boneheaded endeavor I partake in, and believe me, there are tons. It's astonishing how many, actually. 2. My friends. Once again, totally obvious. Once again, they're totally awesome. Much love to Porter House, SLC, Shalhevet, AU, and everyone who fits into all, some, or none of those categories. World rockers, each and every......

Two of the four big summer three-quels hit DVD shelves today. Neither is worth your money. Better to spend it on La Vie en Rose, featuring one of the best performances in years by the amazing Marion Cotillard. Better yet, make it a French double-feature and pick up Paris Je T'Aime, too. If you haven't yet, invest a weekend watching Berlin Alexanderplatz. And, yes, it will take the whole weekend. Christmas and South Park......

There are many different ways you could have heard of Tinariwen by now - even if you don't keep up with world music, you could have heard Henry Rollins play them on Indie 103.1, or read that they opened for The Rolling Stones, or heard that Thom Yorke was inspired by one of their guitar riffs while writing 'The Clock' on Eraser. Not your usual buzz band, Tinariwen are part of a nomadic desert......

When Low vs. Diamond's lead singer Lucas Field sauntered on the stage and meekly opened the show with "Life After Love," I knew immediately that despite the head bobbing and dancing from a few, LvD’s live act would neither expand upon its sound nor translate to the crowd what exactly they were trying to do....

Destiny's Child vs The Cardigans - "My Favorite Name" About a year and a half ago we introduced you to Indie's mashup DJ Paul V. as he was celebrating the one-year anniversary of Bootie LA, the monthly dance party fueled by the current day's mashups. Since then Bootie LA has moved from the Echo to Safari Sam's but the party hasn't missed a step. Matter of fact, tonight Bootie LA is welcoming French mashup......

Two really good bands (that taste great together) have announced today that they are heading East. The Art Brut / Hold Steady concert that was originally planned to happen at the Wiltern will now go down at the Music Box at the Henry Fonda on November 7. Art Brut is the crazy British band whose tune "Moving to LA" can be heard on KROQ and Indie pretty much every day, and the Hold Steady......

Yesterday commenced with an LA bang. I started off at the Indaba music loft again because they have been hosting a plethora of good (free!) shows. There's something comforting about watching bands from someone else's living room. I showed up around mid-day to catch one of my favorite LA bands Division Day. Front man Rohner Segnitz and the boys ran through a pleasant acoustic set. With drummer Kevin Lenhart on shakers, Division Day sounded......

There was so much choice at this year's Detour Festival as French Electro duo Justice and British Indie darlings Bloc Party topped the bill however, one couldn't help but compare this year's lineup to last year's, the inaugural year, which featured Beck and Queens of the Stone Age and smaller acts like Of Montreal, Blonde Redhead, Basement Jaxx among others. While sporting more acts and another stage the overall quality or the acts was......

Nearly two weeks ago, I traveled eastward on an excursion to the Lone Star State. I expected Texas to be a hostile experience filled with unnecessarily aggressive, booze-fueled behemoths. You know the truck driving, cowboy kind. My weekend trip proved it to be quite the opposite. I arrived at LaGrave Field, home of Ft. Worth's AAA baseball team, bright and early for the 3rd annual Wall of Sound Festival. Considering all of our Spector......

The pairing of rock and classical orchestration has become an interesting and exciting trend in the past few years. The Los Angeles Philharmonic has become a "backup" band of sorts to the likes of Air, Belle and Sebastian, the Decemberists and now Bright Eyes, providing a unique, one of a kind listening experience that sometimes seems a perfect fit while other times a bit off. The Bright Eyes experience was my first in this......

You’ve heard their tracks on the Blade movies, Zoolander, and Romeo Must Die. You know their work from the theme song to Bones. You’ve gamed to their music on Dance Dance Revolution and Gran Turismo 4. You’ve even listened to their radio show on Indie 103.1 (on Community Service on Friday nights 10 pm-midnight). But most notably, if you’re any kind of electronica fan, you’ve ardently followed their music for a decade since the......

"Yeah, I do think this one sounds grittier, but the songwriting on both are kind of dark. On the first album, some of the songs are immediately catchy, where some of the people don’t realize it’s dark and on the second one, the music can be a bit darker, immediately."...

Quote of the week: 'Who are YOU?" said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, 'I - I hardly know sir, just at present - at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.' – from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Good Benefits The Players Toast Awards at the......

1. Go running on Los Feliz Blvd in the evenings, to get the anger out. (It's well-lit, fairly level, and a little exhilarating with all the cars rushing by. Just mind the sprinklers at 8.) 2. Hang out in Studio City or Burbank, etc. There's something oddly cheerful and reliable about that area. 3. Make frequent, unapologetic Pinkberry and gelato trips. 4. Go to the Griffith Observatory and see the Planetarium. That is some uplifting......

Day Two of the Sunset Junction was even hotter. Hot Hot Heat, Buzzcocks, and She Wants Revenge continued the heat on Sunday. There were plenty of indie hipsters, shirtless gay men, junk food, amazing street art, cheap carnival rides, and of course photographs from me.......

Thursday night I got to see an old favorite local band and my new favorite local band at the same show at Echoplex. How could I resist? Irving have been off the map a little bit, touring in Germany and dealing with replacing their bassist (as someone in the crowd yelled, "Stupid Seawolf!"), but they are one of the hardest working bands I know, and always put on a good show. So I was......

No, this is not "Go Metro" to a Hollywood venue, only for the concert to get out after Red Line service ends, leaving you to the streets and cabs. This is go Metro to Union Station's Old Ticket Room for a free CANON concert next month on September 8th at 8 p.m.. The catch, your entrance is your metro pass, metro rail ticket or proof of Metrolink fare. Seemingly geared towards transit optional green......