Chris Martins

Oxnard rapper and Stones Throw artist MED doesn't eff around. When it comes to dropping singles, he goes straight for the broad-theme anthem, and always with a West Coast bent. On "Where I'm From," he brings in the big guns -- L.A. soul revivalist Aloe Blacc and blunted beatsmith Oh......

L.A.-born big beat kings Crystal Method are doing a hometown set at the Avalon on Friday night and West Coast Sound has got a an exclusive remix of their latest single in honor of the occasion. In its original iteration, "Sine Language" is a moody, synthesizer-driven 6-minute slab of heavy......

In a brand new video from L.A.'s Laco$te, beautiful Korean-American singer Xenia Shin gets trapped in a brightly colored wonderland clearly inspired by K-pop culture, while her bandmates pull the strings from a cyberpunk dungeon. The song itself is a clanging, glitchy, synth-strewn and sexy number called, well, "Numbers," and......

There's been movement from the highly anticipated Nite Jewel and Dâm-Funk collaboration, Nite Funk. This, from Dâm's Twitter about an hour ago: *Announcing the 'official' twitter account 4: NITEFUNK (@NITEFUNK). This is where U can stay up on the goin' on's w/ our forthcoming EP. *RT The two first came......

San Francisco's Aesop Rock returns to rap with a stunner of a remix (and video) in which he name-checks Sailor Moon, does the sprinkler, and "butchers" the work of Philadelphia psych-rock band Grimace Federation. The original is a Jaga Jazzist-like instrumental, but in Aes' very capable hands, it becomes a......

Good news for the weird uncles: Despite previously held suspicions to the contrary, there is room for you in the age of social media. (Not creepy uncs. They've already had their day.) Thank Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, a good Twitter citizen who frequently updates with lines like "Little cat......

In a just-released Brazilian short documentary on L.A. beat pioneer Nosaj Thing, the artist explains what he has in common with Mozart and what, to him, is a sign that the local scene is thriving. For those who've yet to experience Nosaj's live audio-visual set, the video also functions as......

If there are three things Fresno's Fashawn loves, they're skateboarding, pot-smoking and rapping. And what goes better with that holy triumvirate than that perennial, spiky-haired, yellow icon of bad boy behavior, Bart Simpson? In a brand new video, Fashawn connects all the dots by puffing oversized spliffs, skating through an......

Long Beach player-producer-composer (and indie label head) Chris Schlarb is releasing what looks to be a bit of a magnum opus on Asthmatic Kitty Records this month. Featuring nearly 30 musicians, including the inimitable DM Stith (a solo artist and member of Sufjan Stevens' band), Mike Watt of Minutemen, and......

Wheat germ? Probably not, but as readers may know, rapper Lil Wayne was released from Rikers Island yesterday after serving eight months on a gun possession charge. Even former president Bill Clinton was excited for the occasion (read on), and while some fans took to Twitter to celebrate (#welcomehomeweezy), and......