M. Ward (Musician)

Top Five Movie Soundtracks Made By Handpicked Rockstars

When a film is made, part of the main process of getting the soundtrack together is finding the right musician's to play for the album. Sometimes it's a single song or it is an entire soundtrack. These top five albums made for a movie by handpicked musicians have been, for the most part, nominated ... More >>

Orange Bits: Lilith Fair, Billy Kernkamp, Pacific Amphitheatre and More

Meg Strouse / OC WeeklyEmmylou Harris at Lilith.​This week in local music coverage that isn't ours: Lilith Fair gets positive-yet-bored reviews, Billy Kernkamp gets real, big-name touring acts get money problems.

Five Indie Sell Outs: Does Anyone Really Care Anymore?

Andrew YoussefPearl Jam at the Gibson Amphitheater last September​There was a time when leveling the word "sellout" at a band was the equivalent of pinning a scarlet letter to a musician's leather jacket. For some of those bands who made it big in the '90s, fame was ostensibly a lamentable state o ... More >>

Record Review: She & Him, 'Volume Two'

​The Hype: Considering how gentle their music is, it funny--yet fitting--how loudly critics praise the tag team of She & Him, better known as Zooey Deschanel and Matt Ward (that's M. Ward to you). Any skepticism about a bubbly indie actress colliding with Portland's prolifi ... More >>

OC/LBC Bands Head to South By Southwest

Top 10 Americana Albums of 2008

Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantasti ... More >>

Albert's Favorite Things: OC Weekly's Music Editor Discusses How He Wasted His Life This Year

Last Night: She & Him, Lavender Diamond at the House of Blues

(photo by Christopher Victorio) Last Night: She & Him, Lavender Diamond at the House of Blues, Anaheim, Nov. 5, 2008. Better Than: "The Happening," this summer's M. Night Shyamalan flick that co-starred Zooey Deschanel. But really, what isn't? Download: The eminently likable "Why Do You Let Me S ... More >>

[CD Review] Jenny Lewis, 'Acid Tongue' (Warner)