Four albums and 26 years later, there are songs on dos y dos that still hold the late-night feel of someone reading you a story, a story that comes from a safe place but may not always have a happy ending. Mostly instrumental, these songs feel somber yet warm, like an old dog being petted. And when Roessler does sing, her broken, flat, whispery voice sounds both motherly and like a warning …

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Middle Class is Mike Atta, Jeff Atta, Matt Simon and Mike Patton (no, not that Mike Patton). Depending on who you ask, you might be told they are the first ever hardcore band, or you might get kicked in the gut with a pre-scuffed Urban Outfitters combat boot. They’re returning to the Echo to play a badass L.A. RECORD show with Kid Congo, the Urinals and Grant Hart this Friday. This interview by Jonny Bell.

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Brooklyn band Cerebral Ballzy play completely wrecked hardcore and destroyed our Valentine’s Day show in February. They will also destroy the Echo tomorrow. Singer Honor Titus speaks now on puke, cops, jail, jazz, yuppies and Cyndi Lauper. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

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“The film was done with love and respect for Ginn and Black Flag, one of the world’s most important bands, still… even after all of this.”

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Poly Styrene, AKA Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, died yesterday after a struggle with spinal and breast cancers. And I wish I shared in her spiritual Hare Krishna ethic. I wish I believed, as her website declares, that she had “won her battle on Monday evening to go to higher places,” because all I feel is the [...]

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Scott H. Biram is an American hollerer with a bunch of room to himself between David Allan Coe and Jack Oblivian. He likes Black Flag but sometimes he gets weird like Dock Boggs, and he decides here to probably not take shrooms for a little bit. This interview by Sarah Bennett.

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Saint Vitus has held a special place in my heart since I first heard ‘Look Behind You’ on The Blasting Concept Vol. 2, where they unknowingly created a genre of heavy metal that had yet to be named. I spoke with founding member Dave Chandler prior to Saint Vitus’ return to the city where they started. This interview by Kurt Midness.

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On the surface, We Be Xuxa almost seems like a retread of old school American punk, but actually it evokes without constant copying—it’s fresh-faced punk, yet my heart hears Born Innocent-era Redd Kross in their sisterly choruses, and early early Black Flag or even Ramones in their strumming (minus Greg Ginn’s noodling) and Wipers downturns on the chords, and a Darby Crash-like insistence on writing lyrics too self-referential and profound to sing straight into the microphone. And there’s even a Urinals cover!?! And there’s a Beach Blvd-esque melodicism to Jessie Clavin’s bass lines, one that perfectly matches their Descendants-like love of making up pragmatic gerunds such as “Totion.” A lot of reviewers have said these gals (et dude) sound like X-Ray Spex, but that is a lazy lie!

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[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdCRcrgX080] the screamers live at target video The public demands and Cinefamily provides! A second showing of Joe Rees’ Target Video presentation (co-presented by L.A. RECORD and featuring never-before-seen-except-at-the-7:30-pm-showing clips of first-wave punk bands like the Plugz, the Suburban Lawns and many more!) has been added and will begin at 11 PM tonight! Tickets are [...]

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