Colourmusic are the rarest of musical rarities- a band from the isolated hinter portions of America's Heartland (Also known as "The Sticks") that not only doesn't suck, but actually turns out to be pretty great. And not in that sort of special olympics, everyone's a winner, "well, they're good for [insert your tiny state here]" kind of way, but actually, honestly, for realsies good. Kind of like how The Flaming Lips are so good......

If you keep walking west down Hollywood Blvd past the nonsense of Hollywood & Highland, past the tourist and super heroes at the Chinese Theater and down the next block, you will find the Knitting Factory, tucked away beneath what was once a movie theater. Boasting three stages and tons of bands every night, the Knitting Factory comes to us via New York and has hosted some shows this year that LAist had a great......

The L.A. Film Festival lumbers towards its final weekend today and The Director Lunch Talk series has its best interview yet. John Horn talks to Danny Boyle (Sunshine, Trainspotting) at 12:30 p.m. at the Target Red Room. Another free talk is on tap at 7:00 p.m. at the Hammer Museum. It's Been There, Done That: A Conversation with Mickey Rooney. If you've never seen Mr. Rooney talk in person, treat yourself to this program.......

Donning a trademark jumpsuit and moon-man helmet, Cee-Lo Green of Gnarles Barkley emerged on stage at USC's Galen Center to the tune of a surging, epic, space-odyssey instrumental. Touting the merits of Danger Mouse, Feng Shui, and Crown Royal, our weeblesque hero warmed up the enthusiastic crowd with a string of pervasive, electro-rock/neo-soul, head boppers. Threatening that the party might get “off the chain” to a bunch of arty-indie-college-punks was certainly the booze talking,......

How to celebrate the New Year? With sexy aliens and hyper Santa Clauses (including LisaNova as Dalmation Benjamin Franklin) sandwiching The Flaming Lips on stage. With Gnarls Barkley singing Crazy in a jumpsuit. With Cat Power. The balloons (see the video below), the space ship, the aural atmosphere. A good year to begin 2007.......

Why is this LAist reader smiling? Maybe it's because she's going to the Flaming Lips + Gnarls Barkley + Cat Power show tonight at the spanking brand new Galen Center at USC. And she won the sweet new dvd 40 Bands 80 Minutes about the punk rock fest that went down at Il Corral this year. And she won the hilarious new dvd of stand up comedy by Pablo Francisco "Ouch - Live From......

Didn't get everything you wanted over the holidays? We're having two contests with prizes that might tickle your fancy. First, we'd like to give you Goddess Gwen in the flesh, but we are keeping her for ourselves. Instead, we are giving away an entire bag full of Gwen goods - everything pictured above. For that contest, all you have to do is go to a site like YouTube, Google Video, or Buzznet and show......

Just a little reminder, in case you don't scour our archives or come here every hour (for which we forgive you). We're having two contests right now. First, we'd like to give you Goddess Gwen in the flesh, but we are keeping her for ourselves. Instead, we are giving away an entire bag full of Gwen goods - everything pictured above. For that contest, all you have to do is link to a YouTube......

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) –......

Are we allowed to confess that while we are loving SXSW, we are a little homesick? Notebook Los Angeles talks about their weekend and, yeah, we didn't do any of that. We did have some quality sushi at the hotel restaurant, though. Who knew they could make good sushi in Austin, Texas? They informed us that the fish was procured daily. From where? How expensive must it be to get all that fresh fish......