The Flaming Lips “At War with the Mystics” Warner Brothers Records Back before the career-making opus that was “The Soft Bulletin,” The Flaming Lips were kind of a gimmick band. As if the name wasn’t a dead giveaway, the Lips’ pre-1999 material was more concerned with silliness than crafting songs. The band’s primary interest was […]
Author Archives: David Greenwald
Boy Scout buddy system still valid
Last week a Bruin saved my life.I went to go see The National, one of my favorite bands, at the Troubadour over spring break. Unfortunately, I only had one ticket, so I made all the arrangements for a lonely trip back into Los Angeles. Dad put gas in the car, and I had just enough […]
Akron/Family brings unique version of folk music to Cooperage
Akron/Family may be known as a folk group, but its four members have exactly one thing in common with the average folk musician: beards. The quartet, which will perform tonight at the Cooperage in a concert sponsored by Campus Events, makes adventurous music full of multi-instrumental layering and unexpected sonic detours. In 2005 alone, Akron/Family […]
Singing Her Heritage
Model. Actress. The face of Air Madagascar. Somehow adding “local independent musician” to that list doesn’t seem to fit, but singer/songwriter Maylin Pultar is full of surprises. Pultar, who goes by just her first name on stage, will be performing a free show at The Mint on Jan. 16 to celebrate the release of her […]
Drawing a cartoon canon
For many people, seeing great art means a trip to the museum, not a glance at the Sunday funnies. This Sunday, however, the funnies won’t just be in the daily newspaper. From this Sunday until March 12, 2006, the UCLA Hammer Museum and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art will host a two-part exhibition […]
Mr. Fantastic
Like all great superheroes, Earth’s Mightiest Comic Book Creator has spent his career fighting a nefarious arch nemesis. “My only problem really was time,” said Stan Lee, the legendary writer and creative force behind much of the Marvel Comics pantheon. “I had so much to write and there were only so many hours in the […]
[Online exclusive]: Broken tracks great on stage
There are some bands who can do no wrong. Until recently, it appeared that Toronto collective Broken Social Scene was one of them. The band started as a side project, releasing the ambient “Feel Good Lost” in 2001 and became a musical force to be reckoned with the masterful “You Forgot It In People” in […]