Los Angeles-based music blog Confession of a Would-Be Hipster has compiled its first compilation, appropriately entitled Plastic Snow, just in time for the holidays. The sixteen-track disc features wintry tunes by some of the best bands the local music scene has to offer, including Great Northern, Earlimart (LAist Review, #2), Princeton (LAist Interview), Pierre de Reeder (of Rilo Kiley fame), The Monolators (LAist Review), Let's Go Sailing (LAist Interview, Review) and Letting Up Despite Great Faults. And as if that impressive cast wasn't enough, 100% of the profits from Plastic Snow go to benefit Los Angeles' longest running homeless shelter, Midnight Mission. Dropping a measly ten dollars has never felt so good!...

Tonight LA offers a bevy of options that make our show-going brain hurt. We've got the conclusion of the usual free Monday Night Residencies. Kenan Bell will be performing one final night with the Morning Benders and White Arrows at Spaceland. Rademacher and the Western States Motel (LAist Interview) will be wrapping up shop at the Echo with One Trick Pony and Seasons. And Manhattan Murder Mystery will be doing the same with Princeton (LAist Interview) and Divisadero at Mr. T's Bowl. But we're going to try to tackle two shows. How? Well, we'll start things off in the heart of Downtown at the Smell with the jazz-infused pop rock group LAKE and then continue the rather tranquil evening over in K-town at R Bar with LA's own alt-rockers Everest, who will be playing around 9:30 PM. The secret password? "hilljack"...

With their gorgeous dark harmonies and oddly perky melodies, LA's own Princeton, are making waves where ever they go. Unafraid to venture where many pop bands fear to tread, these rockers add all and every instruments they've got handy to their pop songs. The result is a lush interesting pop sound that makes you want to grab a tambourine and join in. The band is comprised of the Kivel twins, Jesse and Matt, and......

Photo courtesy of Polyfoto via Flickr You know its officially summer when the Hollywood Bowl schedule is in full swing and your local Whole Foods boast empty shelves of wine and cheese. Yes, the sun is out later and perfect temperatures always serve as a pleasant compliment to any night of music, but that isn’t to say that there’s nothing going on in your favorite sweaty rock venue. July happens to be a jam-packed month,......

Part two of two. As mentioned previously, on Saturday, Levitt Pavilions Free Music across America presented the inaugural edition of Make Music Pasadena (MySpace), with performances on six main stages and 24 other locations around the city. The artists on the Emerging Artists Stage at One Colorado Courtyard, which was where last year's Pasadena Music Festival was held, included Princeton (MySpace), Adele Jacques (MySpace) with Antipop, DJ Antipop (MySpace) from Telepopmusik (MySpace), Stonehoney (MySpace),......

Ohio-based Diebold, the company that makes electronic voting machines, whose CEO Walden O'Dell, a GOP fundraiser who was quoted as saying in a 2003 letter that he was committed "to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President", was exposed -- through Fox News of all places -- for having a voting machine so faulty that it could be hacked in ten seconds. Diebold also being the company whose Sr. Vice President, Jeff......