John Payne

Fullerton's low-down/hi-cred label and record store throws a moist 'n' meaty all-day barbecue/musical feast featuring choice-cut teen-beat combos to suit every taste. Garage-rock stylizers Jacuzzi Boys will be there, and L.A. dreamy punk-rock trio Cherry Glazerr, too; also Portland's punk ragnarok White Fang, lo-fi indie legend R. Stevie Moore (who......

Remember that scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho when weird ol' Norman Bates starts slicing away at Marion Crane in the shower, and the violins go shriek! shriek! shriek! and your heart just about bleedin' stops? Didn't that just utterly freak you out? That's but one example of how the great......

The myriad personnel lineups representing Yes likely will never be deemed fully acceptable to the band's hordes of purist fans, who've seen the progressive-rock icons morph from a quirkily magnificent symphonic/art-rock ensemble to a more streamlined and pop-accessible unit. Yet time marches on, and even hardcore "progressive" nerds might check......

In May 2014, Mr. Scruff aka Andy Carthy released Friendly Bacteria on the ever-righteous Ninja Tune label. While Earth itself didn't exactly tremble, night spots 'round the globe shook massively. For this was more sheer excellence from the Manchester, England–based DJ and electronic-music producer, a 20-year veteran of the dance-floor......

The late Godfather of Soul's legacy looms large, and it's payback time. J.B. would have approved of music director Christian McBride's vision of things when he selected singers Aloe Blacc, D'Angelo, Bettye LaVette and Angelique Kidjo to strut their stuff in tribute to the Hardest Working Man in Show Business......

If nothing else, Haim at least inspire some pretty choice critical gasbaggery: Spin calls their debut album, Days Are Gone, "ruthlessly proficient," while Rolling Stone has determined it to be a "kind of microtriumph." L.A. Weekly rates its own ruthlessly proficient critical skills three thumbs way up when we loudly......

When Syrian techno star Omar Souleyman began playing his hyper shaabi street sound at weddings in his home region of Jazeera, locals were jazzed — and word soon spread to the West, where he became a YouTube sensation. A frantic flash of traditional dance-party tunes, electro beats and slang-filled poeticisms......

A composer of film scores, remixer and longtime collaborator with Brian Eno and Coldplay, East London's Jon Hopkins makes electronic music for — strange twist! — human beings. Hopkins has just released Immunity (Domino), which, a bit unlike his past, largely downtempo/ambient stuff, places the emphasis squarely on the dance,......

The 11th annual "hybrid vision" New Original Works Festival at REDCAT debuts eight new pieces, a varied batch of multidisciplinary works by mostly early-career artists intent on shaking up creative traditions. For the first weekend of three, the festival kicks off with a bill featuring choreographer-dancer Wilfried Souly in Saana/The......

Good vibes abound at the mythical mop-top's all-star confabs — where we all get a chance to see a real, live Beatle in action, sure, but really dig that Mr. Starkey puts together a helluva band to rock the classics. This is the same lineup Ringo has played with since......