Molly Bergen

Remember new love, that burbling feeling of excitement you feel upon playing a new group and realizing you can't live without them? "Who is this?" your friends exclaim. "Make me a copy!" Here are our five favorite upstart local bands who released EPs in 2011 that made us feel all......

My Morning Jacket and Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings Gibson Ampitheatre 12-01-11 Better than...any ride at Universal Studios. Past the gauntlet of Universal City Walk with its seizure-inducing lights, blaring Christmas pop remixes, and downright oppressive wafts of popcorn and cologne, there was a damn fine show last night in......

Every fourth Wednesday beneath the red glow of twinkling Christmas lights at La Cita Bar you can find Malabomba!, the city's finest Gypsy night, although you really shouldn't call it a Gypsy night. Attendees wear three-piece suits, cravats, harem pants, elaborately stitched peasant skirts and feathered hats. The chic, sharp-tongued......

Moby, Milagres, Mariachi El Bronx KCRW Masquerade Ball The Legendary Park Plaza October 29, 2011 Better than...NPR member drives Hordes of revelers streamed into the Legendary Park Plaza Hotel last night for KCRW's annual masquerade ball. Gold and crimson lights bounced off the ornately painted ceilings, giving the place a......

Joseph Gordon-Levitt hitRECord Fall Formal The Orpheum Theatre October 10, 2011 See also: Our slideshow of the performance. No one was really quite sure how this was going to work. All people could be sure of was that Joseph-Gordon Levitt had built a production company around a beautiful idea. Harnessing......

Bon Iver and Other Lives The Shrine Auditorium September 19, 2011 Better than... Monday Night Football Last night around 8pm most of the crowd in the Shrine Auditorium was under the crystal chandeliers in the lobby fighting for a drink and trying to forget that Monday had even happened. The......

Fleet Foxes with The Walkmen The Greek Theater 9/14/11 Better than... contemplating the stars by yourself. Last night was one of those rare evenings when it was worth doing battle with rush hour traffic to get to the Greek before 7:30pm. The scarring that came from racing across town was......

​ Cold Cave, Austra, and Prurient July 27, 2011 The Ukrainian Cultural Center Better Than ... your college '80s party The walls of the Ukrainian Cultural Center were dripping before the first band even started. Whether the pitifully small vents in the ceiling were even open is up for debate......

Harps by and large are pretty unpopular instruments. Why? Well, it's not easy to rock out on a harp. They're hard to play with your teeth. You can't pound on them, and there is no chance of an Air Harp Competition starting anytime soon. However, if you're not looking to......