John Payne

L.A. post-post hardcore crew Aeges’ new Above & Down Below (Mylene Sheath) finds the band in newly inspired and jacked-up mode, with a new drummer and guitarist kicking it into gloriously high gear on tracks that, as on their much-praised 2012 debut album The Bridge, feature melodic and even semi-anthemic......

Norway's perennially optimistic Sondre Lerche is not an artist wont to weigh listeners down with gloom, even when the occasion calls for it. Bringing a freshly odd-angled sound to most anything he touches, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter has shown that he's seemingly incapable of missing points of interest in a wide......

The charming rogues at So Percussion are among a rarefied bunch of virtuoso drum ensembles, which specialize in that curious new world of classical and avant-garde, writing for anything that produces a sound when you hit it. While the quartet's young, Brooklyn-based members are gaining a reputation as innovative composers......

You know his wired-in mixes from his time as a member of electro-pop people The Postal Service, but that's just a tiny splatter on Jimmy Tamborello's wide-open palette. From the misty depths of his Silver Lake home studio, the curious sound-freak/conceptualizer is, even as we speak, making influential contributions to......

The Only Beatle That Matters? Them's fightin' words, but fans will argue that George Harrison was the coolest of them all. Great songwriter, vastly underrated guitarist, spiritual man and all-around excellent bloke, George would've grudgingly approved of this star-spangled concert in his honor. The event's proceeds go to the Jameson......

L.A. Opera launches a biannual series of free, live simulcasts direct from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with Verdi's La Traviata beamed in high-def straight to a large LED screen on the Santa Monica Pier. Verdi's great romantic opus is updated in this art deco–inspired production set in the Roaring Twenties......

Calling her an "L.A. singer-songwriter" doesn't quite do the job when it comes to describing this local jewel. Mia Doi Todd is a valuable presence for her gracefully conceived, wonderfully intimate songcraft, often in the art-folk mold, gingerly plucked on acoustic guitar and sung crystalline, like a dewy flower petal......

Fiery Mars, ethereal Neptune, funny li'l Mercury, hopeful Jupiter … We've all got these planetary "personalities" implanted in our brains, not in small part owing to Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets being featured in so many sci-fi films over the years. Conductor Bramwell Tovey leads the L.A. Phil in......

Compare and contrast, shall we, two singer-songwriters of somewhat different stripes: The ever-clever Irish/Englishman known as Elvis Costello (real name Declan MacManus) is nothing if not open-eared about his musical endeavors, from his 1977 debut, in which his snarling-crooning vocals and witty-witty wordplay first reared their pointy heads, onward to......