Molly Bergen

From the depths of rural Mississippi, ukulele in hand, Dent May is here to rock your world - or perhaps just to seduce you with his croon. Harking back to the 1950s era lounge music, with a little Jens Lekman and some 1960s Tropicalia thrown in for good measure, Dent May is gunning single-handedly to bring the ukulele back. No longer will it be considered a plaything of hula girls and frat boys on spring break. It will be taken seriously... okay, maybe not. But it’s definitely fun to dance to, and Mr. May has crafted a wonderful debut album, “The Good Feeling Music of Dent May and his Magnificent Ukulele”, that pays homage to those great ukulele players that came before him.

If recently you have had the misfortune of having your heart ripped out and stomped on the floor into little bitty pieces by someone you love, boy have I got an album for you. The young songwriter, Jessica Lea Mayfield and her band played at the Troubadour on Thursday, and man alive, does she ever feel your pain. In a dark purple dress, that matched the vibe of her music, Ms. Mayfield launched into her...

Photos by Mike Rosati via The Stone Foxes Myspace. For those of us still sad about the Black Crowes' disappointing last album, or wishing that Creedence Clearwater Revival was still making records, San Francisco's The Stone Foxes might just save you from the mountain of booze, you've been saving up in these hard times. A pack of cherubic youngsters that sound like men twice their age who've lived twice as hard, (and recipients of...

Photo curtesy of Loney Dear via MySpace. On Wednesday night Swedish songwriter Loney Dear (otherwise known as Emil Svanangen) will be playing with Andrew Bird at the Orpheum Theater. For six years Loney Dear has been writing, recording, and producing his own albums. He started in his house in Stockholm and slowly grew a steady following through word of mouth. The name Loney Dear refers to the word "lone" which is an ode to...

Maia Hirasawa at Maison 140 I Photo by Benjamin Hoste for LAist. I'm used to conducting interviews at the back of 7-11s or at Target or a local coffee shop. So when I was told to meet Maia Hirasawa at a swanky little hotel in Beverly Hills called Maison 140, which requires that I mention it in the article in order for me to take pictures there (Mentioned!) it felt odd. Not just odd,...

Photos by Kristy Sparow via Airborne Toxic Event's Myspace Los Angeles' local heroes, The Airborne Toxic Event, are coming back to town for a giant homecoming show at the Henry Fonda on Thursday. Over the past year this band has launched itself into the musical stratosphere with their self-titled album which has earned constant rotation on the now deceased Indie 103 and KROQ radio stations. Mikel Jollett founded the band after one hell of...

"Dude, are those earplugs?! What kind of pussy are you?" mocked Fat Mike of NOFX from atop the stage at the Henry Fonda Theater last Thursday. "Holy shit and they're orange!" an observation that probably made the unfortunate soul in the front row blush to the roots of his mohawk. This weekend was NOFX's triumphant 25 plus year reunion gigs. What was once a fringe band on the Los Angeles punk scene have emerged as...

A caped avenger with a Queens of the Stone Age T-shirt were among the fans who raced to the front of the stage as soon as the doors of the Henry Fonda Theater opened on Wednesday. The lady in question wore her cape with a grace that even Dracula would have envied. Among the other die hard Eagles of Death Metal fans included several men who greased their hair like the lead singer, Jesse Hughes....

Photos by Jessica Duston/LAist I went to the Troubadour on Tuesday night on a mission. I was going to try and solve once and for all one of rock n' roll's great mysteries. Why is Razorlight so huge in Europe? Razorlight first emerged on the scene in 2004 with their debut album Up All Night. That album reached number three in the charts in the UK and barely cracked them here despite good reviews. So...

In 2005 the Living Things exploded out of St. Louis with their major record label debut Ahead of Lions. Their ferocious, unapologetic rock instantly won them praise by critics and fans. Unwilling to take what was happening under the Bush administration, the Living Things wrote songs that grabbed politics by the throat. The band is made up of three brothers, Lillian Berlin, Eve Berlin, Bosh Berlin, and their friend Cory Becker. Shortly after their...