I've always been intrigued by other "best of" lists, but this year I decided to take it to a whole new level. I e-mailed a handful of bands that I've seen this past year in order to unearth what exactly captivated them in '07. As music listeners, it is our duty to take a keen interest in our favorite musician's influences. After all, they rocked our little world, might as well see what rocked their......

I am thankful for… Thanksgiving - even though I think it’s a stupid holiday, and I pretty much hate all the food associated with it - for giving me the opportunity to spend the day with family that I love and actually enjoy being around. I am thankful every day that I am able to make a living being creative and doing something I love. (Except for when I’m on strike) I am thankful......

Various Artists Kurt Cobain About A Son Music From The Motion Picture Barsuk Records, released 9/11/07 The loud-quiet-LOUD bipolarity and creepy darkness of Kurt Cobain's music comes across loud-and-clear in this excellent collection of grunge, punk, and blues that make up the music of Kurt Cobain About A Son. The fact that no actual Cobain material is used in this makes it even weirder, and if you ask me, better. It makes you miss......

Life isn't fair. Learn it. Live it. Accept it. For if it was fair Thelonious Monster and Bob Forrest would be just as well-known as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and X would be just as rich. The same can be said of Fishbone, Redd Kross, and Lone Justice. All local '80s bands who had just as much talent and chops and soul. It was just different soul. LAist was there in 1986 when......

Looks like Inland Invasion is going to be a quasi-metal onslaught, nearly as meaty as Ozzfest, but just like most things KROQ these days, a tad watered-down and lacking. Guns N' Roses are the headliners of the Sept 23rd festival, and they're lacking a good chunk of Guns N' Roses. Hell, you don't even get Buckethead any more. Irony abounds as bassist Tommy Stinson now plays with Guns -- his first band was... The......

Oh thank Heaven! Today is 7/11. Happy 7/11. All good little boys and girls can go to 7/11s today and get a free lil Slurpee-brand ice and sugar drink for nada. The LA Daily News tells us that each store will only have 500 specially marked cups to hand out free Slurpees in, so run out of work NOW and get yours. But beware the Brain Freeze! see above Minnesota rockers Soul Asylum return......

Do you realize that The Replacements' "Let It Be" is 22 years old? Indeed, if "Unsatisfied" was a chick, she could buy you a drink at the swinging party. In 1997 Warner Bros put together a 34-track double disc of Replacements "hits" called "All For Nothing / Nothing For All" but none of their earlier groundbreaking Twin/Tone material was included. Today the skies have parted and the angels are looking down lovingly on us......

If you are the type to look for great music at a low price called free, where were you last Monday? There was not only 4 hours of music; there was free pizza (a gift from The Lashes in the middle of their set) and a guy in a monkey suit telling horrible jokes of loneliness that actually might make you laugh (or maybe not). Spaceland’s free “Mondays in March” features The Lashes with......