Fall Out Boy's 'I Dont Care' is Gen Z's 'Pour Some Sugar on Me'

I've spent a lot of extra-curricular time with Pete Wentz lately, so it's always a good day when my favorite arena-emo fameballs get it together to actually make new music. "I Don't Care," the debut single off Fall Out Boy's  "Folie a Deux" (due out on election day, Nov. 4, but please don't be distracted, kids), falls somewhere in between their best moments like "Sugar, We're Going Down" and flatter notes such as their "Beat It" cover with, erm, John Mayer. "I Don't Care" strays from the hyper-glossy R&B kick of "Infinity on High" and into something approximating scuzzy classic rock, or as scuzzy as you can get with Island/Def Jam's quarterly outlook dependent on your radio spins.

The F Yeah Fest, curated by Sean Carlson and Keith Morris, might be the younger, more precocious sibling to Silver Lake's Sunset Junction, but it has its own buoyant charm. Only at F Yeah can one watch Austin, Texas’ Best Fwends while standing next to cheery Matt Johnson of Brooklyn’s Matt and Kim, and later, mosh with Jonathan Gray of L.A.’s The Mae Shi. Although this year’s festival suffered a huge setback when a financial backer pulled out at the last minute, Carlson and the crew -- now more than $15,000 in debt -- decided to press on, booking a wealth of musical acts into the Echo, the "F Yeah Fest Annex" and Echoplex.

Matthew Sweet has accumulated some devoted fans since his emergence in the early '90s with the celebrated garage opus “Girlfriend.” They’re conscientious too.

At a show Monday night at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, the singer-songwriter-guitarist marked the release of his latest CD, “Sunshine Lies” (on Shout Factory Records), with a preview of many of the new songs. But it was obvious some in the crowd had already heard them.

Hearing Punjabi music, particularly bhangra music played at a Sunset Strip nightclub, is a rare thing. But on Saturday, Brooklyn-based DJ Rekha spun a set at the Roxy that was enthusiastically welcomed with waving arms and rhythmic stepping in the bhangra dance style.

Unfortunately, the turnout wasn't as expected, partly due to an unrelated altercation that began at the Roxy's upstairs bar area. It resulted in two stabbings and three arrests, according to the West Hollywood sheriff's station, and the crime scene shut down the western portion of Sunset Boulevard during prime bar-hopping hours.

To say the least, those who did make it in got nearly two hours of some of the best in Eastern-flavored party music, which is now crossing over heavily into the huge Bollywood industry, even attracting Snoop Dogg's participation.

The line of hipsters stretching down the southern end of Hill Street on Thursday was every indication that something special was going on inside La Cita.  Its weekly Thursday jump-off, Dance Right, has been pretty surprising with its DJ picks for a couple of years now. It's even become something of a hipster Mecca for the grittier East Side contingent.

Still, despite the $3 whiskey special that ran until midnight, most of the crowd came downtown to see golden boy turntablist A-Trak do his thing. If there's an art to live mixing and mashing for a dance floor, A-Trak is something of a Rembrandt. 

In addition to his championship level cutting and scratching game, he's also co-owner of a pretty hot indie label, boyfriend to a pretty hot rapper you might have heard of and musical cohort to the likes of Jay-Z and Kanye West, with whom he's toured.

Anybody who's attended a !!! show, for instance, can attest to the joy of watching uninhibited singers invent dance moves too ridiculous and unsexy to attempt on your own. On Monday night, hotly tipped singer-songwriter-producer Janelle Monáe took the ridiculous-dancing practice a step further by maintaining the same catatonic facial expression throughout her spastic choreography, all while wearing a bouffant-cum-mohawk and a tuxedo, no less. Nevermind that she was just playing a mellow free show at Hollywood's Amoeba Records. With her dramatic refusal to break out of her dancing robot character, it may as well have been the Grammys. Or at least her show Tuesday night at the Viper Room, which drew in P. Diddy, Christina Millian and Ne-Yo, not to mention Prince, who stopped by for a chat about an hour after the show.

Lucas Field knows how to lock eyes with an audience. It's a frontman's skill; the best ones develop a gaze that seems to land on every person in the crowd, making some fans feel understood and others feel chosen. It can take years to gain the confidence to convince with this trick and the charisma to not make it seem hokey. But Field, who at 28 is just starting what might be a climb toward real rock stardom with his band, Low vs. Diamond, already has it down.

For some reason, Europe is home to some of the best electronic music. Case in point: Kap Bambino of Bordeaux, France.

The duo of singer Caroline Martial and beat-smith boyfriend Orion Bouvier ripped the smallish Cinespace stage to shreds Tuesday night, causing a mosh pit to form at times.

Martial's calamity-inducing vocals backed by hard-edged electro beats, along with her stage theatrics, reminded me of the energy of a young Iggy Pop, bending and weaving onstage, jumping on top of things and into the crowd at whim. By the end of her nearly half-hour set, she had brought the audience to a fever pitch. This was the duo's first performance in Los Angeles as part of a mini-tour across North America.

We have good news for anybody wondering what the Long Beach blues-punk Cold War Kids have been up to since releasing "Robbers & Cowards" in 2006. If their sort-of secret Friday show at R Bar in L.A.'s Koreatown was any indication, "Getting Awesomer" appeared to be pretty high on their '08 to-do list.

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

Punk rock dance party -- F Yeah!

The F Yeah Fest, curated by Sean Carlson and Keith Morris, might be the younger, more precocious sibling to Silver Lake's Sunset Junction, but it has its own buoyant charm. Only at F Yeah can one watch Austin, Texas’ Best Fwends while standing next to cheery Matt Johnson of Brooklyn’s Matt and Kim, and later, mosh with Jonathan Gray of L.A.’s The Mae Shi. Although this year’s festival suffered a huge setback when a financial backer pulled out at the last minute, Carlson and the crew -- now more than $15,000 in debt -- decided to press on, booking a wealth of musical acts into the Echo, the "F Yeah Fest Annex" and Echoplex.

Matthew Sweet has accumulated some devoted fans since his emergence in the early '90s with the celebrated garage opus “Girlfriend.” They’re conscientious too.

At a show Monday night at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, the singer-songwriter-guitarist marked the release of his latest CD, “Sunshine Lies” (on Shout Factory Records), with a preview of many of the new songs. But it was obvious some in the crowd had already heard them.

Hearing Punjabi music, particularly bhangra music played at a Sunset Strip nightclub, is a rare thing. But on Saturday, Brooklyn-based DJ Rekha spun a set at the Roxy that was enthusiastically welcomed with waving arms and rhythmic stepping in the bhangra dance style.

Unfortunately, the turnout wasn't as expected, partly due to an unrelated altercation that began at the Roxy's upstairs bar area. It resulted in two stabbings and three arrests, according to the West Hollywood sheriff's station, and the crime scene shut down the western portion of Sunset Boulevard during prime bar-hopping hours.

To say the least, those who did make it in got nearly two hours of some of the best in Eastern-flavored party music, which is now crossing over heavily into the huge Bollywood industry, even attracting Snoop Dogg's participation.

The line of hipsters stretching down the southern end of Hill Street on Thursday was every indication that something special was going on inside La Cita.  Its weekly Thursday jump-off, Dance Right, has been pretty surprising with its DJ picks for a couple of years now. It's even become something of a hipster Mecca for the grittier East Side contingent.

Still, despite the $3 whiskey special that ran until midnight, most of the crowd came downtown to see golden boy turntablist A-Trak do his thing. If there's an art to live mixing and mashing for a dance floor, A-Trak is something of a Rembrandt. 

In addition to his championship level cutting and scratching game, he's also co-owner of a pretty hot indie label, boyfriend to a pretty hot rapper you might have heard of and musical cohort to the likes of Jay-Z and Kanye West, with whom he's toured.

Anybody who's attended a !!! show, for instance, can attest to the joy of watching uninhibited singers invent dance moves too ridiculous and unsexy to attempt on your own. On Monday night, hotly tipped singer-songwriter-producer Janelle Monáe took the ridiculous-dancing practice a step further by maintaining the same catatonic facial expression throughout her spastic choreography, all while wearing a bouffant-cum-mohawk and a tuxedo, no less. Nevermind that she was just playing a mellow free show at Hollywood's Amoeba Records. With her dramatic refusal to break out of her dancing robot character, it may as well have been the Grammys. Or at least her show Tuesday night at the Viper Room, which drew in P. Diddy, Christina Millian and Ne-Yo, not to mention Prince, who stopped by for a chat about an hour after the show.

Lucas Field knows how to lock eyes with an audience. It's a frontman's skill; the best ones develop a gaze that seems to land on every person in the crowd, making some fans feel understood and others feel chosen. It can take years to gain the confidence to convince with this trick and the charisma to not make it seem hokey. But Field, who at 28 is just starting what might be a climb toward real rock stardom with his band, Low vs. Diamond, already has it down.

For some reason, Europe is home to some of the best electronic music. Case in point: Kap Bambino of Bordeaux, France.

The duo of singer Caroline Martial and beat-smith boyfriend Orion Bouvier ripped the smallish Cinespace stage to shreds Tuesday night, causing a mosh pit to form at times.

Martial's calamity-inducing vocals backed by hard-edged electro beats, along with her stage theatrics, reminded me of the energy of a young Iggy Pop, bending and weaving onstage, jumping on top of things and into the crowd at whim. By the end of her nearly half-hour set, she had brought the audience to a fever pitch. This was the duo's first performance in Los Angeles as part of a mini-tour across North America.

We have good news for anybody wondering what the Long Beach blues-punk Cold War Kids have been up to since releasing "Robbers & Cowards" in 2006. If their sort-of secret Friday show at R Bar in L.A.'s Koreatown was any indication, "Getting Awesomer" appeared to be pretty high on their '08 to-do list.

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

Matthew Sweet is back in the arms of his fans

Matthew Sweet has accumulated some devoted fans since his emergence in the early '90s with the celebrated garage opus “Girlfriend.” They’re conscientious too.

At a show Monday night at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, the singer-songwriter-guitarist marked the release of his latest CD, “Sunshine Lies” (on Shout Factory Records), with a preview of many of the new songs. But it was obvious some in the crowd had already heard them.

Hearing Punjabi music, particularly bhangra music played at a Sunset Strip nightclub, is a rare thing. But on Saturday, Brooklyn-based DJ Rekha spun a set at the Roxy that was enthusiastically welcomed with waving arms and rhythmic stepping in the bhangra dance style.

Unfortunately, the turnout wasn't as expected, partly due to an unrelated altercation that began at the Roxy's upstairs bar area. It resulted in two stabbings and three arrests, according to the West Hollywood sheriff's station, and the crime scene shut down the western portion of Sunset Boulevard during prime bar-hopping hours.

To say the least, those who did make it in got nearly two hours of some of the best in Eastern-flavored party music, which is now crossing over heavily into the huge Bollywood industry, even attracting Snoop Dogg's participation.

The line of hipsters stretching down the southern end of Hill Street on Thursday was every indication that something special was going on inside La Cita.  Its weekly Thursday jump-off, Dance Right, has been pretty surprising with its DJ picks for a couple of years now. It's even become something of a hipster Mecca for the grittier East Side contingent.

Still, despite the $3 whiskey special that ran until midnight, most of the crowd came downtown to see golden boy turntablist A-Trak do his thing. If there's an art to live mixing and mashing for a dance floor, A-Trak is something of a Rembrandt. 

In addition to his championship level cutting and scratching game, he's also co-owner of a pretty hot indie label, boyfriend to a pretty hot rapper you might have heard of and musical cohort to the likes of Jay-Z and Kanye West, with whom he's toured.

Anybody who's attended a !!! show, for instance, can attest to the joy of watching uninhibited singers invent dance moves too ridiculous and unsexy to attempt on your own. On Monday night, hotly tipped singer-songwriter-producer Janelle Monáe took the ridiculous-dancing practice a step further by maintaining the same catatonic facial expression throughout her spastic choreography, all while wearing a bouffant-cum-mohawk and a tuxedo, no less. Nevermind that she was just playing a mellow free show at Hollywood's Amoeba Records. With her dramatic refusal to break out of her dancing robot character, it may as well have been the Grammys. Or at least her show Tuesday night at the Viper Room, which drew in P. Diddy, Christina Millian and Ne-Yo, not to mention Prince, who stopped by for a chat about an hour after the show.

Lucas Field knows how to lock eyes with an audience. It's a frontman's skill; the best ones develop a gaze that seems to land on every person in the crowd, making some fans feel understood and others feel chosen. It can take years to gain the confidence to convince with this trick and the charisma to not make it seem hokey. But Field, who at 28 is just starting what might be a climb toward real rock stardom with his band, Low vs. Diamond, already has it down.

For some reason, Europe is home to some of the best electronic music. Case in point: Kap Bambino of Bordeaux, France.

The duo of singer Caroline Martial and beat-smith boyfriend Orion Bouvier ripped the smallish Cinespace stage to shreds Tuesday night, causing a mosh pit to form at times.

Martial's calamity-inducing vocals backed by hard-edged electro beats, along with her stage theatrics, reminded me of the energy of a young Iggy Pop, bending and weaving onstage, jumping on top of things and into the crowd at whim. By the end of her nearly half-hour set, she had brought the audience to a fever pitch. This was the duo's first performance in Los Angeles as part of a mini-tour across North America.

We have good news for anybody wondering what the Long Beach blues-punk Cold War Kids have been up to since releasing "Robbers & Cowards" in 2006. If their sort-of secret Friday show at R Bar in L.A.'s Koreatown was any indication, "Getting Awesomer" appeared to be pretty high on their '08 to-do list.

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

DJ Rekha spins bhangra at Roxy; stabbing hurts turnout

Hearing Punjabi music, particularly bhangra music played at a Sunset Strip nightclub, is a rare thing. But on Saturday, Brooklyn-based DJ Rekha spun a set at the Roxy that was enthusiastically welcomed with waving arms and rhythmic stepping in the bhangra dance style.

Unfortunately, the turnout wasn't as expected, partly due to an unrelated altercation that began at the Roxy's upstairs bar area. It resulted in two stabbings and three arrests, according to the West Hollywood sheriff's station, and the crime scene shut down the western portion of Sunset Boulevard during prime bar-hopping hours.

To say the least, those who did make it in got nearly two hours of some of the best in Eastern-flavored party music, which is now crossing over heavily into the huge Bollywood industry, even attracting Snoop Dogg's participation.

The line of hipsters stretching down the southern end of Hill Street on Thursday was every indication that something special was going on inside La Cita.  Its weekly Thursday jump-off, Dance Right, has been pretty surprising with its DJ picks for a couple of years now. It's even become something of a hipster Mecca for the grittier East Side contingent.

Still, despite the $3 whiskey special that ran until midnight, most of the crowd came downtown to see golden boy turntablist A-Trak do his thing. If there's an art to live mixing and mashing for a dance floor, A-Trak is something of a Rembrandt. 

In addition to his championship level cutting and scratching game, he's also co-owner of a pretty hot indie label, boyfriend to a pretty hot rapper you might have heard of and musical cohort to the likes of Jay-Z and Kanye West, with whom he's toured.

Anybody who's attended a !!! show, for instance, can attest to the joy of watching uninhibited singers invent dance moves too ridiculous and unsexy to attempt on your own. On Monday night, hotly tipped singer-songwriter-producer Janelle Monáe took the ridiculous-dancing practice a step further by maintaining the same catatonic facial expression throughout her spastic choreography, all while wearing a bouffant-cum-mohawk and a tuxedo, no less. Nevermind that she was just playing a mellow free show at Hollywood's Amoeba Records. With her dramatic refusal to break out of her dancing robot character, it may as well have been the Grammys. Or at least her show Tuesday night at the Viper Room, which drew in P. Diddy, Christina Millian and Ne-Yo, not to mention Prince, who stopped by for a chat about an hour after the show.

Lucas Field knows how to lock eyes with an audience. It's a frontman's skill; the best ones develop a gaze that seems to land on every person in the crowd, making some fans feel understood and others feel chosen. It can take years to gain the confidence to convince with this trick and the charisma to not make it seem hokey. But Field, who at 28 is just starting what might be a climb toward real rock stardom with his band, Low vs. Diamond, already has it down.

For some reason, Europe is home to some of the best electronic music. Case in point: Kap Bambino of Bordeaux, France.

The duo of singer Caroline Martial and beat-smith boyfriend Orion Bouvier ripped the smallish Cinespace stage to shreds Tuesday night, causing a mosh pit to form at times.

Martial's calamity-inducing vocals backed by hard-edged electro beats, along with her stage theatrics, reminded me of the energy of a young Iggy Pop, bending and weaving onstage, jumping on top of things and into the crowd at whim. By the end of her nearly half-hour set, she had brought the audience to a fever pitch. This was the duo's first performance in Los Angeles as part of a mini-tour across North America.

We have good news for anybody wondering what the Long Beach blues-punk Cold War Kids have been up to since releasing "Robbers & Cowards" in 2006. If their sort-of secret Friday show at R Bar in L.A.'s Koreatown was any indication, "Getting Awesomer" appeared to be pretty high on their '08 to-do list.

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

A-Trak gets crunk at Dance Right

The line of hipsters stretching down the southern end of Hill Street on Thursday was every indication that something special was going on inside La Cita.  Its weekly Thursday jump-off, Dance Right, has been pretty surprising with its DJ picks for a couple of years now. It's even become something of a hipster Mecca for the grittier East Side contingent.

Still, despite the $3 whiskey special that ran until midnight, most of the crowd came downtown to see golden boy turntablist A-Trak do his thing. If there's an art to live mixing and mashing for a dance floor, A-Trak is something of a Rembrandt. 

In addition to his championship level cutting and scratching game, he's also co-owner of a pretty hot indie label, boyfriend to a pretty hot rapper you might have heard of and musical cohort to the likes of Jay-Z and Kanye West, with whom he's toured.

Anybody who's attended a !!! show, for instance, can attest to the joy of watching uninhibited singers invent dance moves too ridiculous and unsexy to attempt on your own. On Monday night, hotly tipped singer-songwriter-producer Janelle Monáe took the ridiculous-dancing practice a step further by maintaining the same catatonic facial expression throughout her spastic choreography, all while wearing a bouffant-cum-mohawk and a tuxedo, no less. Nevermind that she was just playing a mellow free show at Hollywood's Amoeba Records. With her dramatic refusal to break out of her dancing robot character, it may as well have been the Grammys. Or at least her show Tuesday night at the Viper Room, which drew in P. Diddy, Christina Millian and Ne-Yo, not to mention Prince, who stopped by for a chat about an hour after the show.

Lucas Field knows how to lock eyes with an audience. It's a frontman's skill; the best ones develop a gaze that seems to land on every person in the crowd, making some fans feel understood and others feel chosen. It can take years to gain the confidence to convince with this trick and the charisma to not make it seem hokey. But Field, who at 28 is just starting what might be a climb toward real rock stardom with his band, Low vs. Diamond, already has it down.

For some reason, Europe is home to some of the best electronic music. Case in point: Kap Bambino of Bordeaux, France.

The duo of singer Caroline Martial and beat-smith boyfriend Orion Bouvier ripped the smallish Cinespace stage to shreds Tuesday night, causing a mosh pit to form at times.

Martial's calamity-inducing vocals backed by hard-edged electro beats, along with her stage theatrics, reminded me of the energy of a young Iggy Pop, bending and weaving onstage, jumping on top of things and into the crowd at whim. By the end of her nearly half-hour set, she had brought the audience to a fever pitch. This was the duo's first performance in Los Angeles as part of a mini-tour across North America.

We have good news for anybody wondering what the Long Beach blues-punk Cold War Kids have been up to since releasing "Robbers & Cowards" in 2006. If their sort-of secret Friday show at R Bar in L.A.'s Koreatown was any indication, "Getting Awesomer" appeared to be pretty high on their '08 to-do list.

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

Janelle Monáe is fitter, happier, more productive...

Anybody who's attended a !!! show, for instance, can attest to the joy of watching uninhibited singers invent dance moves too ridiculous and unsexy to attempt on your own. On Monday night, hotly tipped singer-songwriter-producer Janelle Monáe took the ridiculous-dancing practice a step further by maintaining the same catatonic facial expression throughout her spastic choreography, all while wearing a bouffant-cum-mohawk and a tuxedo, no less. Nevermind that she was just playing a mellow free show at Hollywood's Amoeba Records. With her dramatic refusal to break out of her dancing robot character, it may as well have been the Grammys. Or at least her show Tuesday night at the Viper Room, which drew in P. Diddy, Christina Millian and Ne-Yo, not to mention Prince, who stopped by for a chat about an hour after the show.

Lucas Field knows how to lock eyes with an audience. It's a frontman's skill; the best ones develop a gaze that seems to land on every person in the crowd, making some fans feel understood and others feel chosen. It can take years to gain the confidence to convince with this trick and the charisma to not make it seem hokey. But Field, who at 28 is just starting what might be a climb toward real rock stardom with his band, Low vs. Diamond, already has it down.

For some reason, Europe is home to some of the best electronic music. Case in point: Kap Bambino of Bordeaux, France.

The duo of singer Caroline Martial and beat-smith boyfriend Orion Bouvier ripped the smallish Cinespace stage to shreds Tuesday night, causing a mosh pit to form at times.

Martial's calamity-inducing vocals backed by hard-edged electro beats, along with her stage theatrics, reminded me of the energy of a young Iggy Pop, bending and weaving onstage, jumping on top of things and into the crowd at whim. By the end of her nearly half-hour set, she had brought the audience to a fever pitch. This was the duo's first performance in Los Angeles as part of a mini-tour across North America.

We have good news for anybody wondering what the Long Beach blues-punk Cold War Kids have been up to since releasing "Robbers & Cowards" in 2006. If their sort-of secret Friday show at R Bar in L.A.'s Koreatown was any indication, "Getting Awesomer" appeared to be pretty high on their '08 to-do list.

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

Low vs. Diamond live at the Troubadour

Lucas Field knows how to lock eyes with an audience. It's a frontman's skill; the best ones develop a gaze that seems to land on every person in the crowd, making some fans feel understood and others feel chosen. It can take years to gain the confidence to convince with this trick and the charisma to not make it seem hokey. But Field, who at 28 is just starting what might be a climb toward real rock stardom with his band, Low vs. Diamond, already has it down.

For some reason, Europe is home to some of the best electronic music. Case in point: Kap Bambino of Bordeaux, France.

The duo of singer Caroline Martial and beat-smith boyfriend Orion Bouvier ripped the smallish Cinespace stage to shreds Tuesday night, causing a mosh pit to form at times.

Martial's calamity-inducing vocals backed by hard-edged electro beats, along with her stage theatrics, reminded me of the energy of a young Iggy Pop, bending and weaving onstage, jumping on top of things and into the crowd at whim. By the end of her nearly half-hour set, she had brought the audience to a fever pitch. This was the duo's first performance in Los Angeles as part of a mini-tour across North America.

We have good news for anybody wondering what the Long Beach blues-punk Cold War Kids have been up to since releasing "Robbers & Cowards" in 2006. If their sort-of secret Friday show at R Bar in L.A.'s Koreatown was any indication, "Getting Awesomer" appeared to be pretty high on their '08 to-do list.

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

Bordeaux's Kap Bambino tears up Cinespace; another show tonight in LBC

For some reason, Europe is home to some of the best electronic music. Case in point: Kap Bambino of Bordeaux, France.

The duo of singer Caroline Martial and beat-smith boyfriend Orion Bouvier ripped the smallish Cinespace stage to shreds Tuesday night, causing a mosh pit to form at times.

Martial's calamity-inducing vocals backed by hard-edged electro beats, along with her stage theatrics, reminded me of the energy of a young Iggy Pop, bending and weaving onstage, jumping on top of things and into the crowd at whim. By the end of her nearly half-hour set, she had brought the audience to a fever pitch. This was the duo's first performance in Los Angeles as part of a mini-tour across North America.

We have good news for anybody wondering what the Long Beach blues-punk Cold War Kids have been up to since releasing "Robbers & Cowards" in 2006. If their sort-of secret Friday show at R Bar in L.A.'s Koreatown was any indication, "Getting Awesomer" appeared to be pretty high on their '08 to-do list.

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

Cold War Kids get sweaty at R Bar

We have good news for anybody wondering what the Long Beach blues-punk Cold War Kids have been up to since releasing "Robbers & Cowards" in 2006. If their sort-of secret Friday show at R Bar in L.A.'s Koreatown was any indication, "Getting Awesomer" appeared to be pretty high on their '08 to-do list.

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.

The ‘American Teen’ soundtrack isn’t very deep but it fits the movie

Shooting a documentary about high school teenagers must be like trying to capture a smoke ring in a jar, but director Nanette Burstein has spun a thousand hours of footage into gold with "American Teen," a documentary that follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year of high school. Embarrassingly personal at times, goofy and hopeful at others, the film, which opens today, has been aptly described as a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club."

Bookended with anthemic paeans to the glories of youth, the soundtrack to "American Teen," which opens with Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and closes with MGMT's "Kids," offers a cross-section of nearly every indie rock trend du jour. The soundtrack's neither deep nor particularly broad, but it makes a perfect backdrop for the film. You can listen to streams from the soundtrack at the end of this post.