The piano man is also a guitar man I’m not ashamed to admit that somewhere among my Jon Brion, Of Montreal and Vampire Weekend albums, you’ll find a bunch of Billy Joel CDs. Although I wasn’t even born when he first hit the airwaves, I’ve always had a soft spot for his music. Since I didn’t get to see him perform during the days when he was releasing and performing new music, I was......

I've always been intrigued by other "best of" lists, but this year I decided to take it to a whole new level. I e-mailed a handful of bands that I've seen this past year in order to unearth what exactly captivated them in '07. As music listeners, it is our duty to take a keen interest in our favorite musician's influences. After all, they rocked our little world, might as well see what rocked their......

Friday night marked the final performance of Of Montreal's LA stint and it will never slip from my memory. I felt like I was tripping on acid. I had the worst cold I've contracted in years, surely that didn't help, and random imagery (Dave Navarro, grizzly bears, cartoon heads, and iTunes-like visualizers) was in full effect throughout the night. Between MGMT's psychedelic, synth-laden set, Grand Buffet's abrasive, hilarious antics, and the filming Of Montreal's......

A listing of LAist picks for music in Los Angeles tonight. Includes Of Montreal, Poncho Sanchez, The Walkmen, Coheed & Cambria and more......

Thursday night was a busy one and I probably could've used more of a decompression stop between the Hotel Cafe and the Avalon to give my brain ample time to switch genres, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. It all began at 7 p.m. at the Hotel Cafe with Amy LaVere. I immediately knew I liked her when she took the stage with an upright bass that had a Bass (fish) sticker in the middle......

Joanna Newsom - "Monkey and Bear" Joanna Newsom @ Disney Hall ZZ Top @ The Greek Of Montreal, Grand Buffet, MGMT @ Avalon Loudon Wainwright III, Joe Henry @ El Rey M.I.A., The Cool Kids @ The Wiltern Ben Harper, Piers Faccini @ Orpheum Rhino Bucket @ Knitting Factory Dave Mason @ House of Blues, Anaheim Eek-A-Mouse @ Galaxy Theatre Jesu, These Arms Are Snakes @ Echoplex She Wants Revenge, Kenna, theSTART @ Henry......

Of Montreal - "Gronlandic Edit" Of Montreal, Grand Buffet, MGMT @ Avalon Phantom Planet, The Hives @ Staples Ween @ The Wiltern David Allan Coe, Dos @ Knitting Factory Gram Parsons @ Amoeba Valient Thorr @ Spaceland Ben Harper @ Orpheum Great Northern, Robbers on High Street @ Echoplex Peanut Butter Wolf @ El Rey Ima Robot, The Airborne Toxic Event @ The Roxy Hello Stranger @ The Viper Room Mason Jennings @ Troubadour......

The Pogues @ The Wiltern - Tonight ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead, Dethklok @ UCLA - Tonight Redd Kross @ Echoplex - Tomorrow The Polyphonic Spree, Rooney @ Henry Fonda - Tomorrow Yo La Tengo @ The Ivar - Tomorrow Low Versus Diamond @ Viper Room - Tomorrow The Bronx, The Mercy Killers @ Safari Sam's - Tomorrow Rodrigo Y Gabriela @ Henry Fonda, 11/3 Yo La Tengo......

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......

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......

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......

Björk - Volta (Atlantic) Bone Thugs -N- Harmony - Strength & Loyalty (Interscope) Barbara Streisand - Streisand: Live In Concert [2 CD] [LIVE] (Sony) Keren Ann - Keren Ann (Blue Note) Brakes - Beatific Visions (Rough Trade) Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls (Too Pure / Beggars) Elliott Smith - New Moon [2 CD] (Kill Rock Stars) The Clientele - God Save the Clientele (Merge) Page France - Page France and the Family Telephone......

The Jesus and Mary Chain, Gogol Bordello, Bjork, Sonic Youth, Peaches, Arctic Monkeys, Stephen Marley, Of Montreal, Silversun Pickups, Satellite Party, Julieta Venegas, Noisettes, Amy Winehouse and others @ Coachella Gwen Stefani, Lady Sovereign @ Gibson Pigeon John @ Malibu Inn Grant Lee Phillips @ The Troubadour I See Hawks in L.A., Horsepainters, Amy Farris @ The Scene The Cinematics, The Heavenly States, Le Meu le Purr @ Spaceland Apes of the New Millennium,......

Now that the line-ups have been announced, I'm happy to follow Sloane's lead and speculate on what my day will look like. By using the Coachella scheduler, The Coachooser, I simply turned off blocks of bands I wasn't probably going to be interested in seeing, and turned on blocks of bands that I liked. On Friday there were 19 acts that I kept turned on, and by leaving each set just a little early,......

Of Montreal, The Blow @ The Troubadour Blitz, Channel 3 @ The Knitting Factory The Spazmatics @ Dragonfly Take 6 @ Catalina Bar & Grill Skylar Wolf, Wesly V @ The Rainbow Foot Foot, New Thrill Parade, Oh Home @ The Smell Rum Boogie, Ultra High Frequency @ The Good Hurt Venus Envy, Jessie Von Presley, Dead Engine Kids @ Viper Room Her Grace the Duchess, The Guilty Hearts, The Husbands @ Alex's Bar......

Anavan, Crooked Cowboy, Bob Bellerue, Bizzart @ Il Corral (fundraiser - go) Brian Wilson @ Long Beach Terrace Theater (final all Pet Sounds concert) Robbers on High Street, Lemon Sun, Mezzanine Owls @ The Echo (6pm) Of Montreal @ Avalon Cherryholmes @ Citrus College The Chieftains @ Cerritos Center The Briefs @ Alex's Bar (LA Derby Dolls afterparty) Shirley Caesar, Angie Stone, Kelly Price @ Galen Center RTX, The Binges, Year Long Disaster, HDR......

Of Montreal @ El Rey Cold War Kids @ Spaceland Everclear, Jonny Lives @ House of Blues Rodrigo y Gabriela @ The Troubadour Bob Forrest @ Silverlake Lounge (5:30pm) Veruca Salt, Run Run Run, OK Stranger @ Safari Sam's The Briefs, Black Fag @ Alex's Bar Ozomatli @ The Canyon The Bobs @ McCabe's Whitestarr, Hollywood Roses @ Viper Room Carbon Leaf, Toby Lightman, Slackstring @ Roxy Noterock, More Gooder, City Slickers @ On......

This might be a good week to give your piggybank the ol' smasheroo and excavate your couch cushions for awol monies. The CD player NEEDS your donations. Don't delay. Rush out now in a buying frenzy. Here's a glanceable list of new noteables and rightous reissues being handed down today. Ten octzillion more after the jump... Arbouretum - Rites Of Uncovering (Thrill Jockey) The Bird & The Bee - Bird And The Bee (Blue......

Wanna' know what's hot and fresh on our playlists? Look no further. Here's the 411 on what your favorite LA-centric blog is listening to. Whether it's sick and twisted or straight up embarrassing to mention -- it's all here: Lisa, Music Editor: The new Shins - Wincing the Night Away, the new Of Montreal record, Talking Heads - 77, Lily Allen, Randy Newman good old boys, Velvet Underground Loaded, and a mix my friend......

Beck, Queens of the Stone Age, Redd Kross, !!!, Blonde Redhead, Of Montreal, The Like, The Blood Arm, others @ LA Weekly Detour Fest, Downtown LA Monsters Are Waiting, AfroBeat Down, The Japanese Motors, Jesca Hoop, others @ Eagle Rock Music Fest, Center for the Arts The Killers @ Wiltern Paul Simon @ Santa Barbara Bowl E-40, Too $hort @ Orange Pavilion Saccharine Trust @ Mr. T's Bowl Margaret Cho @ Largo Willie Clayton......

We track an award-winning TV writer who worked on Good Times to a homeless shelter and see a Little Old Lady get a jaywalking ticket because she can't get across fast enough (in the same post!). Poets invade Metro and an LAist contributor's new book asks WWJB. Gothamist gets down with the immigration rally and their readers want to be heard. The anniversary of the Mets' 1986 World Series is celebrated via a RBI Baseball......

FRIDAY • Of Montreal, Tilly & the Wall and Grand Buffet will be performing tonight at the Vanguard Theatre (not the Ex Plex!). Tickets are $10 and the show starts at 8 PM. • The Fold at El Cid has The Dilettantes (featuring Joel from The Brian Jonestown Massacre) with Electromagnetic and Random Aok. Tickets are $7. • The second and final night of The Pixies at The Wiltern features shows at 7:30 and......