The sad truth is while I’ve seen many musicians pump their fist in the air during a live performance, I’ve only known four to do it without looking, well.....dumb: Bruce Springstein (with the nickname The Boss, c’mon), Bono (up for debate), Wayne Coyne (who spends half his time in a bubble) and Win Butler (he might have been stretching). With tho...

  I caught Christa Mae and the Brigade last Thursday, April 29th, at the Viento Y Agua coffee house in Long Beach, where they previewed songs from their upcoming album The Truth Is... Armed with an acoustic guitar and backed by a bassist and drummer, I noticed Mae’s arrangement was stripped down in comparison to what I had heard in their record...

Rare Grooves plays a guerrilla show at the Irvine Post Office. Tonight, Tuesday May 4th, Rare Grooves will be playing at The Smell in Los Angeles with Daniel Francis Doyle. Rare Grooves is the new, punk/garage rock effort of guitarist/vocalist Danny Miller and drummer/vocalist Tabor Allen after the split up of their former band, Widow Babies...

Last summer I was working in the receiving room of Barnes and Noble with my boss, Kyle, when we received a new guy to help us out. He was soft-spoken, with a gentle, good-natured demeanor. He was also shy. So shy that we found it difficult to get him to talk much. After a few days of uncomfortable silence, which led to light teasing, we found out...

So, okay, they aren’t exactly new, but it is hard to argue that Pavement isn’t special. Sure, as a 22- year-old I can’t claim I’d been there or participated when they first came around. I’d never heard of Pavement until my sophomore year of high school in 2005, six years and several solo projects after their collapse. I don’t remember when “Cut ...