Subject: The Shins

• Talking frankly about Paul Frank

  Going on hour eight of my hangover. Nice job, Griley! Way to double fist Jack-and-Cokes until you're plastered and slobbering! (But man, the Fielding demos sure sounded awesome cranked up to eleven on the way home. Don't worry ma, I wasn't driving.) Anyway: woke up with a giant hangover this morning and quickly banged out a crappy review of the Paul Frank party. It ended up being completely re-written for this week's upcoming issue, but I thought a few tidbits of my o.g. version might be blog-w

  December 11, 2006

• 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 convert its vast music library into digital form. After a stressful 100 minutes in my car (last time I take Mapquest's estimates at face value), I dashed out of the monstrous parking garage and through th

  April 16, 2007

• Tim and Eric Coming to the Glass House Jan. 16!

  I don't know how I missed this, other than the obvious answer of being a failure as a human.Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, the dudes behind Adult Swim shows "Tom Goes to the Mayor" and current global phenomenon "Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job," are coming to the Glass House in Pomona on Jan. 16. Tickets are $18, and are on sale now. Good enough for a poke, right? (Haha! That's a line from the show. Oh man, so clever.)They released an album, Awesome Record, Great Songs!, earlier this year

  December 1, 2008

• [Sound Guy] The Union Line and Avi Buffalo: Signed, Sealed, Hopefully Delivered

  October 22, 2009

• Celebrity Fave-Raves Edition

  The year in music

  December 27, 2007

• Daily Coachella Update: Still No Lineup, but There is a Fake One

  It's getting to the point where the idea of the Coachella lineup is actually more appealing than whatever the eventual Coachella lineup will be, even if the actual lineup is really impressive. It's like Spock said, "having is not such a pleasing thing as wanting."So yeah, still no official Coachella bill, but a relatively entertaining fake one has made the rounds, with a mix of heavily rumored names (Paul McCartney, The Killers, Fleet Foxes), reasonable estimates (The Knux, She & Him, Yeasay

  January 28, 2009

• [Locals Only] Out On a Limb

  February 19, 2009

• High Water Mark

  Rogue Wave roar to a new peak with Heaven's Gate

  January 17, 2008

• Seamen! Right Ahead!

  December 6, 2007

• Sprawl of Sound

  Pacific Motion: The Fathomless Beauty of Blank Blue

  November 1, 2007

• Tooting Our Own Horn

  November 1, 2007

• Changing Expectations

  Voxtrot

  September 20, 2007

• Hits!

  Fingerprints

  March 22, 2007

• Screw the Industry Weasels

  Think small (bands) and youll have a good time at SXSW

  March 15, 2007

• Crash Course

  Asteroid #4 speed toward your stereo

  March 8, 2007

• Hits!

  THE NOIZE MUSIC

  February 8, 2007

• This Week in Thirty-two

  The Happening

  January 18, 2007

• It Was Free Cuz I Stole It

  WEB EXCLUSIVE!: The Year In Unfair Shares

  December 28, 2006

• Dumb-Ass Jamboree

  Jackass Number Two: Unrated
  

  December 28, 2006

• Singles Going Steady

  The best end-to-end albums from a single-driven year

  December 28, 2006

• Kids in the Hall

  July 27, 2006

• True Story

  July 13, 2006

• Totally Harmless Band

  May 25, 2006

• This Week in Red Hot Rockers

  February 16, 2006

• If You Close the Door

  November 11, 2004

• Eight Days

  November 4, 2004

• Live Previews

  July 29, 2004

• Dont Need a Cure

  July 22, 2004

• On the Borderline

  July 8, 2004

• College Admissions

  Take the Kanye West aptitude test

  June 24, 2004

• Shhhhhhh!

  November 13, 2003

• New Music

  August 30, 2001

• Richard Edwards of Margot and the Nuclear So and So's Curbs His Enthusiasm

  May 14, 2009

• Tomorrow: Free In-store performance by Zee Avi at Finger Prints

  If there were ever a study to test the boundless possibilities of music via You Tube, I'm thinking Malaysia might be a good place to start. For there is probably no other way to explain how the beautiful, chirpy talents of singer song writer Zee Avi landed on the roster of Jack Johnson's Brush Fire Records other than the divine timing of an internet video she made the day before her 22nd birthday. After a whirlwind year of label buzz and continually falling into the hands of the right people (in

  May 18, 2009

• Incoming: Matt Vasquez of Delta Spirit Solo Show at Detroit Bar

  When Delta Spirit played Detroit Bar back in March, the Costa Mesa venue was as packed as it's ever been. Like, "I have the sweat of 200 strangers intermingling on my skin" packed. So it stands to reason that post- the San Diego band's national tour with the Shins and their spot at Bonnaroo (with a gig at August's Lollapalooza looming on the horizon), lead singer Matt Vasquez's solo show at Detroit on July 18 will probably also be pretty packed, even if it's not the whole band. That's a Saturday

  June 30, 2009

• Yo Gabba Gabba! Soundtrack Coming in October

  ​Nick Jr.'s Yo Gabba Gabba! isn't a typical kiddie fare and anyone that's into music should know that by now, and it's not just those oddly appealing monsters and robots like the Gary Baseman-esque Muno. The show--co-created by Huntington Beach resident/Aquabats lead singer Christian Jacobs, by the way--has featured surprisingly hip bands so many times that it's really not surprising any more. Among the names: the Roots, Of Montreal, Mates of States, the Shins, Hot Hot Heat, Chromeo and Mark M

  September 24, 2009

• Wax On, Wax Off: Japanese Motors Head for Portland's Garage Fest

  by Doug Birnbaum​Ok, so it's not exactly news that's happening in Orange County, but it certainly involves surfers who live and surf in Orange County. We at Wax On, Wax Off sort of tend to stalk the Japanese Motors a bit, no matter where they might be. They're right up there as one of our favorite non-surf-band bands of surfers. Guitarist Nolan Hall, along with drummer Andrew Atkinson and bassist Nick Soderberg, are headed to Portland via plane this afternoon to play at tomorrow's Scion Garage

  October 16, 2009