News just broke that Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame 2018 nominees have just been elected, and Radiohead didn’t make the cut. Bon Jovi did, however. It’s shocking and frankly an embarrassment, but anyone who was at the Fonda Theater in Hollywood Tuesday night understands that such earthly rewards couldn’t begin to concern an aesthetic […]

A “party for the end of the world” is what many-faced music legend Damon Albarn claimed he sought to illustrate for his fifth Gorillaz album Humanz—and not only did collaborator Pusha T remark at Albarn’s eerie hunch that Donald Trump would be elected before anyone in music thought it possible, but we also found out […]

It was the heart-wrenching question every Coachella ticket-holder and BeyHive member was asking this month: How the hell is Beyoncé going to play Coachella when she’s, like, eight months pregnant … with twins? Indeed, the news broke, and at the doctor’s orders, Beyoncé was forced to cancel her headlining Coachella performance. While her due date is […]

2016 has been… demoralizing. Reviewing the reasons why would be redundant, and quite frankly, triggering. We just want to forget. We just want to hide. But like all times of national despair in history, we can at least count on the musicians of the world to stand by us. Frank Ocean came back. System of […]

On the cover of Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’, Kid Cudi is a neon Adonis calmly wading through a black purgatory… or surfing, one might even say. The queasy contrast of depressive lyrics among sugar-pop hooks and glittering synths has been the Scott Mescudi model since Man on the Moon: The End of Day, and […]

Irish singer-songwriter James Vincent McMorrow is about as flashy as his stage name. Awaiting his live show, it’s unwise to expect pyrotechnics or pageantry, because this musician requires little beyond a microphone to move a swath of fans, even one as vast as a full Wiltern Theater. Last Thursday night, in support of his latest […]

In the gentrified crannies of major cities, concerts are often more about the hype behind the performer’s brand name than the actual experience itself, making the path to success especially daunting for underground musicians who haven’t had help from the corporate generators of the music industry. “Free Monday night residency at the the Bootleg Bar” […]

Bob Dylan once said that “passion is a young man’s game.” Patti Smith is not young, nor a man, and yet her passion onstage is more genuine than any modern performer’s. This was evident in her short performance before Bon Iver last Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl. She will be turning 70 years old this […]

In every classroom, public event, or house party in the suburbs, there is always that one distinct iconoclast in the litter that refuses to fit the mold—that one punk, burnout, weirdo, cosplayer, or goth that welcomes the cruel risks of being different for the sweet sensation of individuality. Now imagine that in Orange County, the […]

For anyone in Los Angeles that thinks they know pop music, or who the great vocalists of our time are, there is no conscionable reason to have missed Nao at the El Rey last Wednesday, where the British electro R&B prodigy graced a sold-out crowd of about 800 with a stadium performance. Before the El Rey curtain […]

Scoring a Netflix series is a rare triumph in itself, but it’s not likely that Survive, the Austin analog synth quartet that soundtracked Stranger Things, knew that glowing red logo would become like Coca Cola in the states, and that those four child actors would virtually turn into today’s Beatles. They also might not have […]

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not extremely often these days that a Los Angeles band makes a profound cultural impact on the world. Sure, we’ve got plenty of solo artists, or bands that moved here from somewhere else, but how many bands began here, and also succeed in embodying the culture of the city in […]

Any longtime underground music fan has seen Jamie Lidell slyly manifest himself in several shapes and genres over the years, leapfrogging from sweet singer-songwriter to one-man-band loop wizard, and sometimes disappearing altogether. However, it doesn’t take an alternative R&B connoisseur to have heard some of Lidell’s hits, such as 2005’s unmissable hit “Multiply” and 2009’s […]

On Blonde, Frank Ocean fearlessly balances avant-garde themes and aesthetics with cathartic pop bliss Words: Jamie Lawlor For a minute there, we thought the day might never come, but on that sunny Saturday afternoon, the second studio album by Frank Ocean was finally out. A lot has happened in the realm of black culture since Ocean’s […]

The typical crowd at a Los Angeles concert is not nearly as exhilarating as one might imagine in today’s generation, because let’s face it; most folks are really just powering through an awkward first date or passive-aggressively nudging their way across the pit for a better Snapchat angle. However, there’s something about standing in line […]

Looking Back on “Indie” Culture in 2016 Opinion Feature by Jamie Lawlor Close your eyes and imagine the sounds that accompany each of the following genre titles: jazz. folk, reggae, heavy metal… EDM. Each evokes their own trademark silhouette of rhythms, themes, and instrumentation. Now think of the genre known as “indie” in the same context. […]

Opinion Feature by Jamie Lawlor Every January, there’s that special day on the west coast when the sacred Coachella lineup is announced. We all know the large-font usual suspects by now—the “indie band that still sells tickets off that one hit from 2008,” the “old school rapper you never listen to but want to tell everyone […]