Paul Rogers

Muse

Last Night: Muse at Staples Center

Walking into Staples Center right before the Brit trio Muse hit the stage, there was little sense of urgency or the usual whooping anticipation for a show of this scale. Maybe many in attendance had been in this same dome the night before (when Muse played a very similar set)......
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Over the Weekend: Scars on Broadway at the Avalon

When Scars on Broadway frontman Daron Malakian pulled an eleventh-hour plug on their debut tour two years ago, it seemed like the impish songwriter had succumbed to clichéd rock star meltdown (Malakian is also in System Of A Down). But seeing him and his delightfully robust band (including SOAD drummer......
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Live Review: Hercules and Love Affair at the Echoplex

With most of their music being made on inanimate machines, synthpop acts face a challenge come tour time: how to marry technology to visible motion and visceral emotion. The Hercules and Love Affair of two years ago successfully hung flesh on digital bones by incorporating live drums, percussion, bass, horns......
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Over the Weekend: Scorpions (and Cinderella) at Nokia Theatre

Babysitters for miles around were kept busy Saturday night as metal vets Scorpions' farewell tour enticed 7,000 mostly 30- and 40-somethings into downtown's sleek Nokia Theatre. Over a quarter-century since they first ambushed America at San Bernardino's vast US Festival, the Teutonic quintet showed they can still fill a huge......
Credit: John McMurtrie

Live Review: Iron Maiden at San Manuel Amphitheater, Devore

In 1977, while most wannabe London rockers were embracing punk's stripped-down sound and fashionista aesthetic, bassist/songwriter Steve Harris was defiantly creating Iron Maiden - a hairy, denim-clad band that proudly performed heroic, escapist heavy metal. Over a generation later, his brave brainchild sucked over 25,000 fervent followers into this desert......
Laura Veirs: One of the many lesser-known songwriters working with independent publishers to get the music heard; Credit: Autumn De Wilde

Bug Music’s Commercial Zone

There was a time when singer/guitarist Bob Mould was concerned about the notion of “selling out,” of being perceived as artistically impure if he allowed his mu...
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Pin Your Ears Back

Nothing else sounds like Pinback, and for that alone the San Diego duo deserve a fucking medal. Their wistfully propulsive weaves of articulate bass, understate...

Swervedriver Gazes Back

Even to Anglophile indie-nistas, the English foursome Swervedriver might be an opaque, peripheral memory. Throughout the ’90s, they made music more dynamic and...
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Billy Morrison

Billy Morrison all but skips into a sleek WeHo caffeine house, outsize designer shades and arms full of ink veiling his very Anglo laddish charm. He’s a happy guy these days, one who pulled himself out of a drug-distracted decade-plus on the fringes of England’s music scene and into his......