Minus the Bear

Music Picks: Amanda Palmer & Jason Webley, Tinariwen, Mastodon

Also: Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers, Danzig and others

Music Picks: Shunda K, SebastiAn, Fleet Foxes, Miles Evans Band

Also, Ray LaMontagne, Kissing Cousins, the Kills and others

Top 10 Most Exciting L.A. Indie Labels of 2010

Top 10 Most Exciting L.A. Indie Labels of 2010

This weekend: Sufjan Stevens, Interpol, the Temper Trap, Shakira, Monster Massive, Bobby Brown

Denny RenshawSufjan Stevens​If you take in Sufjan Stevens' shows in Los Angeles this weekend expecting some warm-and-fuzzy orchestral pop from a banjo-toting folkie, you've got another thing coming. In fact, dancing shoes may be in order. Stevens' newest album The Age of Adz is full of insist ... More >>

Music Picks: Batusis, Interpol, Minus the Bear

Also, Taj Mahal, Shakira, Sufjan Stevens and others

Nightranger: Gamer Gauche

Beach-punks and Ballyhoo: Pac-Sun's Seaside Sound and Swag Fest

The weather may have been breezy, but there was a definite warm-up going on at PacSun's Beach Ballyhoo in Santa Monica this past weekend -- warming up for skimpier fashions, warming up for summer sports like skateboarding and biking, and if the considerable showing of punky, pierced tweens was any i ... More >>

Live in L.A.: Make Music Pasadena (with Matt & Kim, Natalia Lafourcade, Warpaint), Opening Night at the Bowl, Freestyle Fellowship, Jamie Lidell, Erykah Badu, Billy Joe Shaver

Warpaint​Pasadena is used to its parades, but on Saturday its denizens will be traipsing around Old Town to get an earful of music rather than an eyeful of rose pedals. What's impressive about the annual Make Music Pasadena is how many constituencies the festival is serving over one day. With ... More >>

Live in L.A.: Jack Johnson, Sweethead (and famous friends), Noodles, the Like, War Tapes

Jack Johnson​Surf's up, and so is Jack Johnson's domination of the saleable-sappy-soft-surf singer-songwriter market. The 35-year-old Hawaiian feel-gooder's new album is called "To the Sea" (perhaps you've heard the cloying single "You and Your Heart"), out next week, and that's where Johnson ... More >>

Minus the Bear Show Tonight at Glass House Postponed

Due to a family emergency, Minus the Bear has postponed tonight's show at the Glass House in Pomona. Tickets will be honored for the make-up date.

Music Picks: Evelyn Evelyn, Booker T. Jones, Kaki King, Pete Rock

Also, the National, Entrance Band, Noodles, Bunbury and others

Live in L.A.: Nas & Damian Marley, Shout Out Louds, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Minus the Bear, Everest, Casxio

​"Distant Relatives," the meeting of the musicial minds of Nas and Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, has already earned some well-deserved plaudits. Indeed, there's a lot to like on the album (released this week), with the New York City rapper's tightly wound narratives twined with Marley's thick Jama ... More >>

Music Picks: Jail Weddings, Summer Darling, Roky Erickson, Jonathan Richman

Also, Bajofondo, Massive Attack, Minus the Bear and others

SXSW Roundup: KCRW Jason Bentley on Bad Mixes, Bad Bands and the Best Booze/iPhone Battery Ratio

Jeff MillerJason Bentley playing the Virgin Freehouse, SXSW 2010​KCRW's music director Jason Bentley is one of the patron saints of bands at South By Southwest. Countless bands playing the fest got their start from DJs at the station, and Bentley himself has championed dozens of them on his da ... More >>

Mountain Goats, The Annuals, Natural History Museum, 6/6

The Mountain Goats, The Annuals, Natural History Museum, June 6 It's packed again for First Fridays at the Museum. There's a line of people waiting to get into the room the Annuals are playing in - some are just trying to make sure they get in before Mountain Goats play, but North Carolina's The ... More >>

Rock Picks

For the week of Nov 3 - 9