Nice show at the Cellar that’s showcases some of our best locals: pedal-steel country rock from the superlative Paperplanes, pop as sophisticated as it was around 1967 from Greater California, and then the Fling, who are the only band on the bill I haven’t given a feature to yet. But the time will come! Fling [...]

Congratulations to Crystal Antlers on the lucky recovery of all their stuff two weeks ago, and thanks also to them for helping book this awesome line-up, which is yet another installment in Long Beach’s now-monthly Show(s) Of The Year.

Nice to see Cry and the Stal Antlers really starting to roll, despite this month’s rotten grand-theft-auto experience: I keep an eye on all medias lateral and above and Crystal Antlers are really cracking greater Los Angeles open. Rena checked ‘em out for L.A. WEEKLY and now JAX checks them out—very enthusiastically checks them out—for [...]

Here’s why Brenton Wood’s name looks so familiar: for 40 years you’ve seen it printed in block letters on a cardboard poster stapled to a telephone pole. That’s the way small clubs—often in East L.A. or the Inland Empire—have been promoting Wood’s shows since his one and only year of what you might call stardom. [...]

Rob Walsh drags it out to report:
An accidental afternoon nap led to me waking up and desperately pedaling down to the Que Sera to catch Wednesday night’s ’secret’ loud rock show with Howlin Rain, Crystal Antlers, the West and CB Brand. I arrived to catch the tail end of the West’s spirited but ultimately ho-hum [...]

Many thanks to Katie + Robert @ Que and Jonny from Crystal Antlers for implentmentizing circumstances encouraging this bizarrely awesome show: Howlin Rain is Ethan from Comets On Fire (greatest human rock band of the west) and Joel from Drunk Horse (also greatest human rock band) doing some Deep Purple/Doors + CCR heavy chooglin’ rock [...]

Swiss Precise and friends tip with complete correct info on the free (not $5!) Special Teamz show at Blue Cafe later today:

Tonight I would be going to the Pinhead Gunpowder show (Cometbus on drums + Green Day presence at several levels) because I have never seen Cometbus drum, and plus Underground Railroad to Candyland (giants of rock) and Mike Watt and the Missingmen and Epic Debauchery. Another contender by my cavalier arbitrations for show of the [...]

Daniel de Boom recovers from a long night and reports from Saturday night at the Prospector and beyond:
I woke this Sunday morning to find my hands and wrists smeared with blotchy ink like stamps in a passport. The original destination Saturday night was the Prospector to see the Paperplanes unveil some new tunes from their [...]

Rob Walsh bikes home and reports from last Thursday night at Call Sick On Friday:
“I just broke the ‘R’ key on my keypad,” says tall lanky rapper Subtitle, aglow in front of his Apple laptop. “We’re just warming up.” My, how times have changed, and my, how technology changes things even further. Years ago an [...]