Indie Rock and Indie Pop

Matt Costa Pulls Some Strings to Make His Music Soar

Influenced by Mozart and Ennio Morricone, the indie folkster goes orchestra big for his latest album

Artists Should Retain the Rights to Their Own Recordings, Damn It!

By: Jessica Hopper Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls' Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She i ... More >>

Lovely Bad Things

Detroit Bar

Future Fix

Detroit Bar

FYF Fest 2012: Five Reunited Bands We Really Want to See

See Also:*FYF Fest Two-Day Line-up Announced*The Growlers Announce New Album Release* Pacific Festival: The Dunes AnnouncedPlenty of people tend to associate FYF Fest with bands that will soon be filling their iPods with fresh sound for the fall. This year, its lineup of subterranean, local and ... More >>

Listen: Highlands Drops A Wall of Sound With New Single 'Railroads'

It's no secret that Tuesday afternoons can drone on pretty badly after your lunch has settled. So we're glad that today we can use the word "drone" in a slightly more uplifting context, thanks to an afternoon song leak by the psychedelic shoegazers, Highlands. The Long Beach quartet just dosed us wi ... More >>

Dinosaur Feathers Trek the Blues

Greg Sullo and his band take their Mali-inspired African rhythms to new latitudes

Bon Iver at Coachella, April 21, 2012

​ by Molly Bergen Bon Iver Coachella April 21, 2012 Better than...trying to dance off your sunburn. Flickering strands of glowing balloons swayed gently over the polo fields as the crowd drew in for Bon Iver's set on the main stage yesterday evening. Sunburnt and spent, these half-naked reveler ... More >>

The Best Of Coachella: Saturday, April 14, 2012

See also: *The Best Of Coachella: Day One *"What My Spirit Hood Means To Me": Coachella-Goers Explain *Coachella Preview 2012: Everything You Need to Know About the Performers*Radiohead, Weekend 1: No Alarms, No Surprises Radiohead certainly had the most pre-festival buzz for Saturday, but once we ... More >>

Bon Iver

Fox Theater

Lollapalooza Lineup Released: Black Sabbath Reuniting!

In an attempt to possibly take some of the spotlight off Coachella this week, Lollapalooza released a "same, same but different" lineup for the eighth installment of the Chicago festival in Grant Park. As at Coachella, the Black Keys and At the Drive-In are performing. But unlike Coachella, the Red ... More >>

Yellow Red Sparks

Prospector

Ra Ra Riot

The Observatory

The Kooks

Fox Theatre

Cursive's Tim Kasher Talks About New Album And Upcoming Glass House Show

Meet the Devious Means

[Locals Only] Here's a band to keep an eye on in 2012

Male Bonding Go Out with The Lo-Fi, In With the New

​London-based trio Male Bonding sure has been part of a whole lot of action since forming some four years ago. The band, who play the Constellation Room (inside the Galaxy) in Santa Ana tonight, began their career by creating sundry home-made cassettes and 7-inch split records, recording covers of ... More >>

Detroit Bar Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary

The tiny bar in a strip mall has been OC's arbiter of cool for a decade. The people behind it tell us why

The Joy Formidable Last Night at Detroit Bar

Stacy Schwartz/Minn. City PagesJoy Formidable at SXSW this year​The Joy FormidableSept. 11, 2011Detroit Bar, Costa MesaI feel bad for youngsters whose first experience with live music is UK power trio The Joy Formidable. After watching these guys (and gal) do their thing on the Detroit stage last ... More >>

Remix Your Own Young The Giant Song

​Previously-OC band Young The Giant posted two new tracks from their upcoming free Remix EP out in August. The tracks are remixes of Young The Giant's song "My Body" and were contributed by Two Door Cinema Club and Tokyo Police Club. 

Bon Iver's Justin Vernon: From Bluegrass to Kanye

Lilledeshan Bose​Pitchfork refers to Justin Vernon of Bon Iver as a "bearded dude with an instrument that feels warm and personal and close regardless of setting." But, as every modern day hipster knows, there's more to Vernon than Bon Iver. A look into the various projects of Justin Vernon after ... More >>

Corin Tucker Band

The Glass House

The Raveonettes

The Glass House

Fleet Foxes Debut 'Grown Ocean' Video; Robin Pecknold Contextualizes 'Helplessness Blues'

​While you may scoff "adult-indie contemporary" at teh mention of Fleet Foxes, nothing on our radar has been more eagerly anticipated than the Seattle band's sophomore release, Helplessness Blues, out May 3. Now that they've released the first video from that set, singer Robin Pecknold talks about ... More >>

What You Missed: Ms. Double D-Cember, Dead Kennedys, AKC/Eukanuba Dog Show, Passion Pit, Winter Fantasy

Mary Bell/OC Weekly​What'd you miss this weekend? Ours started off at KROQ's annual Miss Double D-Cember contest at the Slidebar in Fullerton, hosted by Kevin and Bean. Then there was the 20th Annual Winter Fantasy at the Sawdust Festival grounds. We relived our punk days with Dead Kennedys at the ... More >>

Thoughts from Saturday at Matador at 21

Matador RecordsBelle & Sebastian delivered the set of the night.Matador at 21Oct. 2, 2010Palms Casino, Las VegasThe show: Don't ask why or how, but we (I) dropped into Matador Record's 21st anniversary music showcase in Las Vegas for one of its three nights this past weekend. It was the night th ... More >>

Not in Vegas for Matador 21? Watch GBV Reunite on MySpace!

Andrew Youssef/OC WeeklyPavement will go from the Hollywood Bowl (where this photo was taken last night) to Vegas tonight​If you're reading this, you're probably not headed to Vegas for Matador Records' 21st anniversary party. No Pavement, no Belle and Sebastian, no Guided by Voices reunion. Plus ... More >>

Matt & Kim

The Glass House

A Mystery No More!

Discover Miike Snow, so very disco

Challenge Tokyo Police Club...To Anything

www.myspace.com/tokyopoliceclub​File this under: These days, it's not enough to just give out your whole albums for free anymore. Tokyo Police Club's new album is called Champ, out June 8 on Mom Pop. So they're hosting The Champ Championship Contest, where the rules as proclaim ... More >>

Shout Out Louds

The Glass House

Coachella Day Three: Superlatives for Gorillaz, Thom Yorke and More

Andrew Youssef / OC WeeklyGorillaz is happy, feeling glad.​Click here for photos from Day Three!​So it's over. Whew. After a late-night drive from the desert, bed looks promising. But first, our thoughts on Coachella's final day--in the form of superlatives. No, we're not going to crown a "best ... More >>

Vampire Weekend at the Fox Theater, Pomona 4/14

Andrew YoussefVampire Weekend prefers Del Taco over Baja Fresh.​Click here for the slideshow, also by Andrew Youssef!The Hype: Can you feel it? It's Coachella fever. It strikes Southern California a few days prior with warm up shows dotting various venues, as bands tune up for their moment under t ... More >>

The Morning Benders at Detroit Bar, March 27

Beth StirnamanChris Chu, singer of the Morning Benders.​Click here for the slideshow!The Hype: In the past four years, Berkeley indie-pop quartet the Morning Benders have dropped two self-released EPs (Loose Change and Boarded Door), released one full-length album (2008's Talking Through Tin Cans) ... More >>

Fingerprints' Top 10 This Week

Top 10 selling records from last week at Fingerprints in Long Beach. The shop specializes in a wide variety of underground music, introducing customers to new bands while still selling mainstream stuff. The shop even holds live performances from some of their favorite bands. 1) Massive Attack, Heli ... More >>

Last Night: Vampire Weekend at the Art Theatre in Long Beach

Andrew Youssef​Last Night: Vampire Weekend at the Art Theatre in Long Beach (11/02/09)Better Than: the last time I saw them at the Glass House in September of 2008.After a secret show in Chinatown and a last minute show in Boyle Heights, Vampire Weekend "officially" kicked off their mini tour of C ... More >>

Vampire Weekend Release New Song, Head to Long Beach

Esther White​Are you ready for the latest (er, first?) wave of early 2008 nostalgia? Vampire Weekend is back!

Slow Fall at the Fox Theater?

Andrew Youssef​Since reopening this past May with a show from Gogol Bordello, the Fox Theater in downtown Pomona has continually impressed by netting top-flight shows: Wilco, the Flaming Lips, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Band of Horses, Girl Talk, Ween, Cake, Marilyn Manson. After tonight's Paramore (picture ... More >>

[Sound Guy] Jessica Dobson's Connections Run Deep. Plus News From Local Natives and Jeffree Star

Crowdsourced: Modest Mouse at the Grove of Anaheim

Beth StirnamanDon't be fooled. This picture is actually from Friday at Street Scene in San Diego, not Saturday at the Grove of Anaheim.​You've heard what clubs editor Spencer Kornhaber thought about Saturday night's Modest Mouse show at the Grove of Anaheim, and sure, it was great, and we all love ... More >>

Stop the Dying of African American Women from Breast Cancer

Faith Deliverance Apostolic Church

Last Saturday: KROQ Weenie Roast at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

Andrew YoussefLast Night: KROQ Weenie Roast at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater; Saturday May 16, 2009. (More pictures here.)Better Than: Wango Tango.Download: Videos from the day at KROQ.com.The KROQ Weenie Roast is typically full of surprises. With Blink 182 reuniting the night prior at a private ... More >>

Travis

House of Blues

Dustry Rhodes and the River Band

Last Night: The Faint, Kool Keith, Passion Pit at Grove of Anaheim

Last Night: The Faint, Kool Keith, Passion Pit at the Grove of Anaheim, Nov. 3, 2008. Better Than: "The Jagermeister Music Tour" with Hinder, Trapt and Revelation Theory at the Grove the night before. Well, I'm sort of guessing, but I feel pretty confident. (How great is it that those bands are s ... More >>

Album Review: Deerhunter, 'Microcastle'

Deerhunter Microcastle (Kranky) Bradford Cox’s oversized persona threatens to overwhelm almost anything his band Deerhunter does. In concert, the singer/songwriter—who has Marfan Syndrome and is shockingly thin—often makes things bloody and uncomfortable. On his group’s blog, he battles mus ... More >>

California Dreaming

Golden Animals

Last Night: The Alex Benefit at the Detroit Bar

The Alex Benefit at the Detroit Bar, April 19, 2008 with We Barbarians, Nathan Willett, Delta Spirit, and Jonnie Russell from the Cold War Kids Better Than: Donating money to the Presidental Election Campaign Fund. Download: Delta Spirit's "Trashcan" from Ode To Sunshine Benefit concerts often re ... More >>

Shins-ing the Night Away: A Sounds Eclectic Evening

[photo by Marc Goldstein] Making a classic SoCal newcomer mistake, I only gave myself 45 minutes to drive from Costa Mesa to Universal City's Gibson Amphitheatre, where influential public radio station KCRW was holding its sixth annual Sounds Eclectic concert; this year proceeds go to help conver ... More >>

Letterman, Success!

So I'm a little late on this, but I went to go check out Cold War Kids at Detroit after the Weekly's Christmas party (on a stationary riverboat?) this past Saturday night. It was the third time I've seen CWK at Detroit—and probably the last (I mean, really, at this rate, you kids can sell ... More >>