What’s fresher than the latest club banger from Akon or Jay-Z? Think back to Russia around World War I, when composers Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky became greats because of their innovative contributions to classical music at such a pivotal time in history. Read more...

Paul Emerson is, honestly, all about the music. The lead singer of pop-rock group Mayday! Mayday! decided to start a band of his own after he saw a live performance by Australian rockers The Living End. Read more...

Clinic “Visitations” DOMINO RECORDS Whether it would be better set to a warped neo-noir chase scene or looming through the blue mist of a Tennessee Williams playhouse, Clinic’s music is defined by the uncharacteristic use of its components: irreverent, clanging rhythms and amplified melodic effects lend an air that is nothing short of widescreen. Read more...

Menomena “Friend and Foe” BARSUK RECORDS Portland-based experimental rock group Menomena’s members Brent Knopf, Danny Seim, and Justin Harris don’t write music like other bands do. Read more...

All I remember before the crash is Scarlett Johansson’s face. As I wake up in the hospital bed, I struggle to connect the dots. There I was, driving to Hyde Lounge to do some celebrity sighting at 1 a.m. Read more...

While some artists use paintbrushes to make a masterpiece, Samta Benyahia uses the ambiguities between the seen and the unseen. On Sunday, the Fowler Museum at UCLA presented “Architecture of the Veil: An Installation by Samta Benyahia,” which serves as the artist’s U.S. Read more...

Translating a photograph into a film is tricky. But translating photographs of puppets, dolls and objects with legs (think walking guns, clocks and cakes) into a full-blown musical motion picture is downright challenging. Read more...