FYF Fest highlights span musical genres, include Kanye West set

For the second year in a row, Los Angeles’ Exposition Park played host to FYF Fest for two days of eclectic beat-making and expensive food-trucking. With a sprinkling of every genre from noise rock to hardcore hip-hop to dance-funk to anything that might remotely fit in between, Saturday and Sunday demonstrated modern-day American music culture at […]

Q&A: Musician Josh Legg speaks about playing live music, his love for LA

Electronic musician Josh Legg and his friends frequented the Gold Room, a bar in Echo Park, during their days as USC students. They ordered the bar’s special as they agonized over life’s problems; once they left, they had the answers to their questions. For Legg, the Gold Room not only provided solutions for college woes, […]

UCLA plans to centralize, grant autonomy to Herb Alpert School of Music

UCLA plans to centralize the departments of ethnomusicology, musicology and music and grant autonomy to the Herb Alpert School of Music, the university announced Wednesday. The final proposal, which was initially approved by the UCLA Academic Senate’s Legislative Assembly in June, aims to establish the independent School of Music as the first of its kind […]

Q&A: Matt and Kim vocalist on band’s ‘immature sound,’ balancing work, romance

In 2004, Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino emerged from Brooklyn, New York, as Matt and Kim, an indie dance rock duo they formed after a few months of dating. Now, they split their time between making new albums and making time for love. Comprised of Johnson as the lead vocalist and keyboardist and Kim Schifino […]

UCLA pianists compose friendship through classical notes

A combination of motorcycle and car accidents brought pianist Jihyun Lily Moon’s musical and academic career to a halt midway through her second year at UCLA. Injured nerves in her right shoulder and arm prevented Moon from playing the piano at a competitive level. Moon spent two and a half years away from UCLA and […]

Second Take: Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj’s feud reveals issues of race in media

The music videos for both Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” and Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” both broke the 24-hour Vevo viewing record, but only one was nominated for Video of the Year for August’s MTV Video Music Awards. After Swift’s hit was announced Tuesday as one of five nominations, Minaj took to Twitter to verbalize her disappointment, […]