Brett Callwood

The 1990s was a fruitful decade for pop culture and art, retrospectively defined by Seinfeld and Friends, Blur and Oasis, Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys, Trainspotting and Pulp Fiction, grunge, hip-hop, the rise of electronic music into the mainstream, and pop-punk. The perception of the “fun, coke and capitalism” ’80s resulted......

The lineup for the 2018 Arroyo Seco Festival, taking place on the grounds surrounding the Rose Bowl on June 23 and 24, was released on Thursday, with Neil Young, Jack White, Kings of Leon and Robert Plant topping a stellar two-day bill....

The barrage of hyper-fast guitar and breathless bass and drums is unrelenting. Dual vocalists Dirty Walt and Flying J stand front and center, bouncing off one another like finely tuned tag-team wrestlers. The songs blur past at a startling rate, leaving the gathered, baying crowd simultaneously ecstatic and battered. This is a Year of the Dragon show, so fasten your fucking seat belts....

The actress who played Little Orphan Annie 36 years ago and, in the process, wrote her own little piece of film history is Aileen Quinn. She now fronts a rockabilly band that goes by the perfectly appropriate name of Aileen Quinn and the Leapin’ Lizards (“leapin’ lizards” being an expression used by various characters in the Annie film as a soft alternative to “holy shit”)....

At first glance, there’s nothing spectacular about the name of the band Professor and the Madman. This is, after all, punk rock, where fake titles, such as "Captain Sensible," are run-of-the-mill, as are outlandish band monikers. Except that there is something different going on here, because Professor and the Madman’s co-frontman Alfie Agnew is a real, live, genuine professor....

Gerald Earl Gillum might have picked a more appropriate stage name. Because, truth be told, the man known as G-Eazy has had to scrap and struggle for every one of his career achievements to date. And yet they’ve been plentiful. He built a solid reputation with two self-released albums in 2009......

While all three men are clearly gifted and razor-sharp MCs, the sum is certainly greater than the parts. Magic happens when they’re bouncing off of one another. And again, this is all happening from their Santa Monica base. They know they’re unusual, and they relish that fact. Not being a hard rock/punk band, or performers of roots music, makes them stand out, and they’re using that to their advanta...