Best known for her work as lead singer and bassist in the ’80s and early-’90s alternative rock trio Concrete Blonde, Johnette Napolitano is also a poet, social activist, soundtrack composer, and sculptor. Born in Hollywood on September 22, 1957, Napolitano lurked on the fringes of the Los Angeles punk and new wave scene, working at [...]

A one-time member of the West Coast neo-psychedelic bands the Three O’Clock and Jellyfish, Jason Falkner went out on his own by 1996, playing jagged power pop with impeccable arrangements, a clue to both his classically trained childhood and additional time spent working on the first LP by another classical popster, Eric Matthews. Born in [...]

“With the hordes of sound-alike, look-alike, act-alike punk bands emerging from the clubs and recording studios of Southern California over the past decade-plus, you’d think that any remote deviation from the accepted norm in the scene would be scowled and frowned upon by audiences comfortable with the lack of innovation and meager compositions. But, for [...]