Falling James

Neil Young isn't the first person to lament that digital technology makes recordings sound tinny and dehydrated, but he's the first one with the clout and imagination to do something about it. At South by Southwest, he debuted the PonoPlayer, a portable playback device, which attempts to restore much of......

Ever since the late 1980s, when he led the seriously influential alt-rock band Pavement, the guitar has always been the thing for Stephen Malkmus. On his latest album with The Jicks, Wig Out at Jagbags, Malkmus and his trio do indeed wig out with songs such as "Planetary Motion," whose......

Even as The National's popularity has grown rapidly over the past few years, lead singer Matt Berninger still appears ambivalent about fame, titling the Brooklyn group's sixth album Trouble Will Find Me. "I keep feeling smaller and smaller," he croons in a wounded baritone against a sparse backing, as the......

"This is no time for confessing," St. Vincent declares on her new, self-titled album. "I want all of your mind." The creatively restless singer once known as Annie Clark reveals many sides of her own busy brain on tracks such as "Digital Witness," where she slinks along to a funky......

In 2006, Kings of Leon were invited by Bob Dylan to open his show at the Forum, but even then it was clear that they were already headed for big things on their own. With their latest album, Mechanical Bull, the Nashville band of brothers (and one cousin) prove that......

Apart from a couple of Coachella appearances and a 2005 concert at the Greek Theatre, Kraftwerk haven't played much in Southern California during the past decade. That's about to change in a dramatic fashion over the course of four action-packed nights at Disney Hall. Aptly calling this series of 3-D......

Blood is thicker than water, of course, but in L.A. Opera's new production of Gaetano Donizetti's eternally tempestuous Lucia di Lammermoor, water becomes a key element - a soothing contrast and an almost sentient accompaniment - as the title character descends into unrestrained madness. Based on the stabbing of David......