Clinic “Visitations” DOMINO RECORDS Whether it would be better set to a warped neo-noir chase scene or looming through the blue mist of a Tennessee Williams playhouse, Clinic’s music is defined by the uncharacteristic use of its components: irreverent, clanging rhythms and amplified melodic effects lend an air that is nothing short of widescreen. Read more...

Menomena “Friend and Foe” BARSUK RECORDS Portland-based experimental rock group Menomena’s members Brent Knopf, Danny Seim, and Justin Harris don’t write music like other bands do. Read more...

All I remember before the crash is Scarlett Johansson’s face. As I wake up in the hospital bed, I struggle to connect the dots. There I was, driving to Hyde Lounge to do some celebrity sighting at 1 a.m. Read more...

While some artists use paintbrushes to make a masterpiece, Samta Benyahia uses the ambiguities between the seen and the unseen. On Sunday, the Fowler Museum at UCLA presented “Architecture of the Veil: An Installation by Samta Benyahia,” which serves as the artist’s U.S. Read more...

“Vija Celmins: A Drawings Retrospective” Hammer Museum Jan. 28-April 22 Nicholas Copernicus’ worst enemy might be Vija Celmins. If in trying to fathom the world, Copernicus revealed it was actually round, Celmins tells us the universe is flat. Read more...

Until I was 17 years old, the Academy Awards captivated me. As an aspiring filmmaker, they were the prize that I sought. Never mind that the lone film in my reel was “Meteor,” a special effects extravaganza whose most impressive scene involved my monstrously tall friend Jason dropping a rock on a model of Mission Santa Clara de Asis that I had made out of sugar cubes in fourth grade. Read more...

Of Montreal Jan. 26, 2007 The El Rey Of Montreal has certainly gone from strange to stranger. This isn’t a bad thing, especially for those who got to see one of its three sold-out shows in Los Angeles this past weekend. Read more...