You'd think Cupid had put the kibosh on former Texas Is the Reason bassist Garret Klahn's new project. Dean, Bar Pink's dedicated sound jockey, fords the challenge of balancing Klahn's acoustic with John Herguth's electric …

There’s something touching about being allowed into Mario Orduno’s circle. It’s not the first time Art Fag’s 36-year-old founder’s been approached by a journalist. After a couple weeks of postponements and awkward pauses, he admits …

Robert Wyatt, an art-rock category-confounder who sometimes lists toward the traditional, weaves seemingly disparate strands into this set of haunting sob-songs, jazz standards, and originals. Cello, alto sax, and strings throw washes of color behind …

Several people jumped when Joe Mariglio coaxed claps of thunder and ominous roars from a laptop at North Park’s Thumbprint Gallery in December. For Mariglio, a Ph.D. candidate at UCSD, the merging of digital audio …

Bloodflowers cut into the first song like it's a Porterhouse, they've all been starving, and all they have is a jagged plastic knife. Like heavy metal, but it's less predictable ’cause it's mostly three times …

I'm hoping there's no statute of limitations on how many pieces including Hector Penalosa and the Escovedo family I can write. Because if these guys continue pumping out seminal So. Cal. rock 'n' roll fluids, …

Textured, moderately echoed/fuzzed guitar meshes with Quinn's I-have-a-caramel-in-my-mouth vocals and wide-(NYC)-eyed intonations irresistibly. Yeah, it sounds kinda ’90s, but in a "I miss the verve and innocence we took for granted" way. Liz Phair's thoughts …

"There's more than four people here — this is awesome!" exclaims Mark ("Harpo") Delguidice, responding to a sizable conflagration of four-to-the-floor tribes that refuse to retire on their respective reservations: to hell with fickle trends …

A lot of women like the Dragons — so many that even though I've staked out a prime spot, I regret running outside for a smoke — when I return, 10 minutes before show time, …

I'd like to think that everyone has moments of nearsightedness. That eases my chagrin at the knee-jerk wince evinced earlier this year when Crushed Stars were making waves with "99 Red Balloons." The wince was …

Home Video looks about to start. A film projects the sandstone of Horseshoe Canyon onto a sheet behind the stage — unusual imagery to introduce synthesized and guitar/drum amplification pumped so deep my blood cells …

After setting his axe down, Dirty Beaches' Alex Zhang Hungtai sticks a finger in his ear and wiggles it, blurting, "Fuck!" The feedback demons he's attempting to exorcise did little to deter paeans to empty …

The guy next to me, who's wearing a kilt, says he's hoping for a Pink Floyd buzz from Asteroid No. 4. We're pretty psyched about the Lovetones, whose frontman, Matthew, shows how a Brian Jonestown …

Was he really kickin' his habit? Although KC was cranked out during interludes from the nut house he was thrown into for heroin fixation, Pop's ferocious as ever (possibly fortified by the coke David Bowie …

Who's gonna chuck one of rock's MVPs (Faces, Stones, Jeff Beck Group) outta bed for eating crackers? Music bearing Wood's brand has been a window into all-nighters with the major talents he calls friends. Shining …

TV Buddha's have been dealing with evenings like the one in New Orleans — when both audience and promoter no-showed — by posting tongue-in-cheek vlogs documenting an often dismal American debut. While the Israeli trio's …

That karma business gets some serious testimony via Paul Collins. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for the Baja Bugs: despite a more-than-competent, high-spirited tour of Beatles arcana, few onlookers deign to tap a foot for "a …

Maybe there's a message here for musicians determinedly gigging, recording, and self-promoting. Something about breaking up — and releasing nothing for 17+ years — has proven a brilliant gambit for Scottish post-punk/garage brats Frances McKee …

She's almost an alien in this So-Cal watering hole: no makeup, no push-up bra, no "work done." Pale and gaunt, hers is the only shadow on the stage as she sets up; gracefully, methodically. She …

Besides 'tweens, who's going to heart the precious, Petit Prince-like line drawings speckling the cover and insert? At first, an audio scrapbook to one's youth...from a late-20-something...seems an odd, perchance navel-obsessed construct. And at the …

Elana's bowing her fiddle faster than the speed of light; Whit Smith's right arm is producing rhythms so tight you could bounce a nickel off 'em; Jake Erwin's slapping, tapping, and barely touching his standup …

Mark Twain might be dazzled and confused by the smattering of electric instruments in Lovett's large band, but he'd recognize a tent show, for which about 1000 people sit waiting in stiff plastic chairs. Cobalt's …

A frosty-haired woman resembling the one who taunted Henry Chinaski in Barfly stares at the band, barely moving her hips. Friends and family crowd the stage, tapping on cameras. Black Bone Child's trek from Austin …

Cameron and Vashti say Golden Triangle's L.A. tour stop was "a mess," partly 'cause the venue pocketed some of the band's earnings. Setting up at the Pink isn't being easy, either. There's some protracted fiddling …

Something about truly insane rock 'n' roll turns a crowd into one flailing, orgiastic organism — sharing space, joking about collisions, unafraid of looking foolish. Even before Ty pulls a fan onstage — placing the …

Hoarse vocals delivering 12 mid-tempo or slow, contemplative songs with well-trodden folk-rock structures usually earn a quick "No" from this quarter. McGraw grapples with grand topics: the death of a loved one and/or the Meaning …

A shaky figure swathed in dingy fabric limps through a crowd of Memorial Day revelers and passionate devotees. Mirroring his disappointing late ’70s experience, the entrance proves premature — turns out Science Fiction has finagled …

It's Sunday night. Little more than wind whips around the remains of the Festival of the Arts: a few drunks and strung-out vagabonds; porta-potties; ungainly street sweepers. A guy's yelling across the street as I …

The roller coaster of on, off, and in-between following the 1994 departure of yang element Al Anderson, along with the '09 passing of seminal member Steve Ferguson, have been intense bubble busters. After rejoicing at …

If pop-rock is the accusation, L.A.-based Lemon Sun is guilty of rock, a.k.a. serious dance-hall chops. Promptly sifting through the crowd to clamber onstage after a fierce swamp-rock outpouring from Leopold and His Fiction, the …

What initially presents as a rather unremarkable collection of subdued sounds with thoughtful, poetic words rewards re-listens by gradually fanning out like a deck of lovingly drawn oracle cards. Guitarist/singer Itai Faierman ("storyteller" seems as …

In a March BeatCrave interview, Lanterns guitarist-vocalist Lowell Heflin expressed the band's collective admiration for the Ramones and the Clash, then went on to share how the local foursome got "really hard..." into Sonic Youth …

Everybody was nodding their heads to the bounce and gazing at the ridiculously boyish bassist who could be a Cowsills grand-kid and the keyboardist/maraca-shaker who could impersonate Weird Al Yankovic -- the band's certainly visually …

I've been listening to boring, pretentious claptrap and exhaustively intense rock all afternoon on about three hours' sleep (don't ask). Buried near the bottom of my review pile is this EP. I've spaced that it's …

Through indifference or ignorance, Santiago has been busking at the southern end of the North Park Farmer's Market (Queen Bee's usually claims the north side). Santiago needs money and players for a new conjunto; there's …

While No Bunny's Tower Bar stop pulled some bodies from opener and second act Bare Wires and So Cow, once the Baths hit the stage it was getting crowded. For Thee Oh Sees about 40 …

"PhD-holding members of Glimr make new record in a particle accelerator; drink bourbon from Ankle the Mimic's prosthetic leg" slightly paraphrases the hype with which this blazed into view. While I might not have known …

I've thrown at least half a dozen verbal tomatoes at the trend of young girls screeching their lyrics -- unless it's through the mouthpiece of Joplinesque talent, I want to run for cover. Finally, there's …

Pics and footage from Golden Triangle shows come across as, in no particular order: the beginning of an orgy; a Wiccan gathering; an out-of-control, audience-participation performance-art installation; and, well, a punk-rock show. So, does Double …

If you're one of those people who hears old-timey, country-fied sounds and opines, "I've heard that -- Beverly Hillbillies theme music," you'll want to skip to the next review. But if you're interested in windows …

With the immediate intimacy of her sweet, classically trained voice, Foster sounds nearly as depressed as A. Camp on the Cardigans’ “Step On Me” or “Nasty Sunny Beam.” Lacking A. Camp's sense of humor and …

With his goatee and hat, smoking a cig for all his photos, the intently hip Kottarashky, aka Nikola Gruev, is a Bulgarian architect by day. On this debut, he's mixed a compelling collage of his …

Much as I want to get behind a band from my old Maryland stomping grounds (Wheaton, Rockville), I'm as bored as I am impressed by Hotspur. My feelings really don't apply -- these guys have …

When Lisa and I exited the Ruby Room, we couldn't decide between triple espressos or permanent bunks in Titicacaman's parallel universe. With the mildly strangled, dreamily idiotic vocals of an erotic asphyxiator, he took us …

I Have Hands should appeal to Residents fans who need something to embellish their burns and to know-it-alls who've "heard everything." The Bran Flakes is a mix/mash-up creature conceived between 'zinesters in 1992. The resulting …

Great band name. Great CD title. Great Consequence of Sound report of TNL shut down by the NYPD for rocking so loud it was disrupting the concentration of neighboring CMJ Festival performers (if John Cage …

Gotta love a group claiming Don Knotts as a member. Gotta listen beyond "The Stadium Moves," which sounds like other disillusioned musicians...but these reference T. Rex and the Merseys, so leave the CD in the …