Kronos Quartet connect the severe to the serene with four sets of strings and a preternatural sense for ceremony and resonance. They will be performing several shows this month including work by Harry Partch, Frank Zappa and a commissioned piece by film composer Tom Newman called “It Got Dark.” This interview by Dan Collins.

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Entire island ecosystems arise, corrupt, decay and disappear within the generous lifespan of Yo La Tengo, the New Jersey three-piece who reinvent endlessly what an independent American rock band is supposed to do—play Flamin’ Groovies songs in heaven, for instance. Guitarist/singer Ira Kaplan speaks very early in the morning. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

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A look upon the Echo Curio floor Tuesday night revealed no laptops, yet where was that disembodied glockenspiel coming from? They’d sampled their own strange chime-y noises on the spot, when we weren’t looking, like magicians. Invisible jangly loops ensnared the crowd from the moment the first song’s bubbling softness jumped into its second, more rhythmic gear, and then promptly into fifth, as singer Kevin Litrow writhed, St. Vitus style, into the audience.

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Alejandro Cohen wants to put you to sleep. Today, Ale and friends from L.A.-based collective dublab will take over the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur to create an night of ambient music event aptly titled “Tonalism”—a term Ale appropriated from late-19th-century painters who tried to capture the mood of nature by representing it with misty atmospheres. This interview by Drew Denny.

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It’s nice, easy, and recommended for all folks to zone out with Cave’s 30-minute jams. If only the band’s MySpace page background could follow them around, spiraling neon colors out of sounds and frequencies, and so could we engage the ideal psychedelic lifestyle, in which a blink of an eye might transport us to an outer-space beach blanket with Sun Ra. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

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