It is always unnerving as a fan when an artist you like experiments with his genre. We always want them to ride that line between doing something new and different and changing their sound completely. We want something fresh, but also something we can recognize. So when an artist jumps genres, we get nervous. Don't get me wrong, experimentation is essential for any sort of artistic growth to occur. We don't want to hear the same song over and over again or even the same album twice, but at the same time we worry about the unknown. Will it be a successful leap like Nelly Furtado's foray into dance pop? Or will it crash and burn like Garth Brooks' disastrous attempt at reinvention as Chris Gaines? Her Space Holiday (otherwise known as Marc Bianchi) made the leap with his latest album XOXO, Panda and the New Kid Revival in which he changes his sound from the light synthetic, electronic pop of his previous five albums and ventures into the world of alt-country and folk. more ›

As the year enters week two, organizations are programming newer music, that which was composed in the last century. This weekend, the Los Angeles Philharmonic began their Concrete Frequency series to an excellent start wth Aaron Copland's "The City" played to film and Edgard Varèse's "Amériques." After the concert, hip-hop violinist duo Paul Dateh and inka one (we interviewed Paul him this summer) played in the lobby by the cafe while Breakestra funked up the BP Hall. more ›