With all the hype The Strokes have been receiving in the media these days, including recently being named by Rolling Stone as “the best young rock band on the planet,” it would be easy to think their sold-out, Wednesday-night performance at the Hollywood Palladium would have really been something special. Read more...

The Strokes “Room On Fire” RCA It’s tempting to write this one off as disappointing. Two years after the much lauded and hyped “Is This It,” it’s clear The Strokes are more responsible for the quickly tiring garbage ““ er, garage ““ rock revival than any messianic saving of rock souls. Read more...

The air was heavy with smoke. Orange light sifted through the trees on a chilly October night. With Halloween just around the corner, the atmosphere was a perfect setting for the Tiger Lillies and Kronos Quartet to present their collaboration in honor of writer and illustrator Edward Gorey. Read more...

An open letter. To those whom it concerns: Living in a nation where people are already starting to think about Christmas, I’m no longer surprised when people set up for holiday celebrations long before they should. Read more...

Jacqueline Warwick is just one example of a pioneering musicologist from UCLA. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2002 after writing a dissertation on the connection between popular music in the 1960s and the female identity. Read more...

Recent landscape architecture graduate Claire Touze-Shawaf has visions of a children’s park near LAX without any metal monkey bars or slides. Her model involves a miniature Stonehenge that helps kids spot certain stars, and grass mazes just tall enough for small children to completely submerge. Read more...

Imagine a piercing falsetto, bordering on the edge of freakish, singing about naughty children being blown to bloody bits while accompanied by carnival-like accordions, toy drum solos and even screeching cats. Read more...