Halloween really tells a lot about the social structure of any neighborhood. I’m not talking about noting economic disparity through the quality of children’s costumes, nor am I referring to the complex social strata of kids who are trick-or-treating. Read more...

After having trouble adapting its multi-layered music to the live setting, Metric wanted its new album to be something it could perform with confidence for its audiences. Read more...

When it comes to her music, singer Mary Black has never strayed far from her Irish roots. Black, who has outsold both U2 and Sinead O’Connor in their native Ireland, will take the stage with other Irish female vocalists in a UCLA Live performance of the Celtic music featured on the successful “A Woman’s Heart” compilation albums in Royce Hall tonight at 8. Read more...

Superheroes just don’t get enough respect. Recently, a group of friends assembled at my apartment to watch “Spider-Man 2.” The behavior of my buddies during the film appalled me: they talked over the movie, answered their cell phones, and generally disregarded this masterpiece of modern cinema. Read more...

A comedic tale of two college students trying to create a scholarship for hot girls, a suspenseful murder mystery a la “Blair Witch Project,” and an action-packed, high-octane foreign language kung fu film. Read more...

I’ve really got to hand it to Hideki Matsui. For a professional baseball player, he has pretty respectable musical taste. The New York Yankee outfielder’s favorites include The Who, Lenny Kravitz and the Beatles. Read more...

Frequenters of the Sunset Strip expect to find their live bands at exclusive clubs, not jamming for fans at the local record store. But the latter is often the scene at Sea Level Records, an independent music store owned and operated by Tod Clifford since 2002. Read more...