Nikki Bazar

It's midnight, and while I write a monotonous series of buzzes and feedback loops razes through my living room. The cats are wide-eyed and alarmed. These are not the normal noises of everyday life. They are the aural explorations of Spectrum, one of the most prolific projects of Sonic Boom, cofounder of Spacemen 3. When Spacemen 3 split up, it seemed fans diverged as well. Many followed Jason Pierce (aka J. Spaceman), who went on...

photo by Timothy Norris Local duo The Pity Party is playing the second show of their month-long Monday residency at Spaceland tonight. Much has been made about drummer/keyboardist/singer Heisenflei and her triple-threat instrumentation. But even if she weren't an octopus, Heisenflei and guitarist/singer Maurice-Richard would still be stirring up L.A. with their smartly sparse songwriting and quirky melodies. We asked Heisenflei, who also runs The Little Knittery in Atwater Village, a few questions before...

Whether it's free bands by the river, obscure films at the Silent Movie Theatre or music festivals featuring great non-mainstream bands, Arthur magazine has improved L.A.'s sullied corporate reputation by organizing eclectic, margin-friendly events that embody the magazine's mission to represent "transgenerational counterculture." Case in point: Arthur's Sunday Evenings series at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, which continues this weekend with eccentric songwriter Michael Hurley and next Sunday evening with psych-rock band Wooden Shjips....

After I first heard Suicide, many years ago, I immediately launched into a search for more bands that sounded like them. Search forever, no one can duplicate the spectral minimalism of Martin Rev's entrancing synth lines and drum machine repetitions mixed with Alan Vega's menacing yelps prickling at you in their infinite reverb. Released in 1977, their first record still holds the punk and new wave world in its grip. Suicide are still going;...

You've heard it already, "Wow, they're like 13 years old and in a band!" The Jack Bambis have gotten a lot of attention for their ages - guitarist Indio, bassist Jasper and singer Lia are all 13. Cash, the drummer, shies a few years behind. But the Jack Bambis sound better than a whole lotta crap on the radio being made by people 21 and up (i.e. old enough to know better). Cash graduated...

Shredding ensued at last night's LA regional competition of the US Air Guitar Championships at the Key Club in West Hollywood. 16 air shredders competed to represent L.A. in the US Championships in NYC on August 16, and a possible chance to represent the US at the world championships in Finland. The evening was emceed by the now retired Bjorn Turoque , the author of "To Air is Human." He opened the show with...

Last night, I went to see The New Year play at Spaceland. I've liked The New Year since they were Bedhead in the '90s, so I was pretty excited about it. The New Year (somewhat inexplicably) have four guitars, but there are still a lot of quiet moments in their sets. Unfortunately, every time one of those moments came, all you could hear was people chatting and squawking about their various BS, so that...

Few new businesses get me as excited as new used bookstores. For a city this large, L.A. can certainly afford some new additions. I was happy to hear about Kulturas Bookstore at the corner of Ocean Park Boulevard and 17th Street in Santa Monica. The shop was opened in January by Andrew MacDonald and Irene Coray, who moved here after running the store in downtown Washington D.C. for 20 years. I went in there...

On Tuesday night, Zócalo sponsored another in its series of panel discussions, this one titled "Can the LA Times Be Saved?" The discussion was moderated by Kit Rachlis, editor of Los Angeles Magazine. Panelists were Times Editor Jim O'Shea, Managing Editor Leo Wolinsky, General Manager Dave Murphy and Executive Editor of LATimes.com Meredith Artley. There were two related but very different issues at hand: one being the widespread problem of the declining circulation and...

If any band has ever made me reconsider the old T-shirt adage, "If it's too loud, you're too old," it's Japan's DMBQ. Last time I saw them, it was so loud I felt like throwing up for hours afterward. It was awesome. DMBQ, playing at The Smell on June 8, are a Japanese mishmash of psychedelic hard rock, noise and garage. The sonic mayhem produced by their guitars is so loud it truly defies...