Is it okay to already call the Strange Boys' forthcoming full-length, Be Brave, one of the best rock & roll albums of 2010? Since we got an advance of it last month, it's been our driving-around-LA soundtrack, a loose, raw, classically designed garage rock album with the swagger of the Rolling Stones circa 1966. It comes out on the mighty mighty In the Red Records on February 22, and they've just released the first video, for the song "Be Brave."

Note the appearance of the band's new saxophone player, Jenna Thornhill, who you might recognize as a former member of Mika Miko.

After the jump, an MP3 from the new album.

Floria Sigismondi

Floria getting ready for prom

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Why didn't anyone tell me this? All this time I've been making Runaway jokes, and chuckling to my friends about the implausibility of Dakota Fanning rocking out with her socks out and the endless media coverage of Kristen Stewart's hair. And no one had the huevos (rancheros) to say, "um, Mr. Tewksbury, Floria Sigismondi, the director responsible for Marilyn Manson's early videos, and super-goth photographer is spearheading this preteen punk epic." Anyone?

Well, it's not your fault. Don't blame yourself. I should have updated my Google reader for alerts regarding sales increases at Hot Topic and Torrid, because with the teen goth aesthetic of Sigismondi added to the meowing, riotgrrlpower Runaways surely will bolster the esteems of youth group rebels, drama kids and angsty clarinetists everywhere. But Sigismondi is actually pretty influential as a director, and her visual choices are typically bold. That whole creepy, sped up shaky cam thing that was in every rapmetal video of the 90's was pretty much pioneered by her (and Chris Cunningham). She took the whole Joel Peter Witkin (stolen by Mark Romanek) and Jan Saudek (bought by, cough, Soul Asylum), and ran with it. And she enters the painfully under-represented pantheon of female writer/directors. Doesn't mean the movie will be good, but it is coming from an immensely talented woman with a bottomless well of creativity.

Check out her track record after the jump:

In line last month at the Monday Social we wondered aloud why the night was so packed lately. A woman responded that people were there to see Australian DJ Dirty South. He was unannounced, however -- a "surprise" guest -- and we expressed our doubts. Half the people there didn't have a clue who Dirty South is.

Indeed, as Hollywood hot spots have traded in hip-hop for house music (much like Kanye West, the Black Eyed Peas and P. Diddy), Monday Social has benefited from the trend, becoming a crossroads of core, e-music spotters and Patron-swigging characters straight out of The Hills.

Mick Cole.

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Sinatra with a gun

​Yesterday, the New York Times published a report from the Philippines about how apparently there is this "trend" over there where people get shot for singing Sinatra's "My Way" at karaoke joints.

First we're gonna give you some choice quotes from this bullshit piece, then we're gonna point out all the things that are wrong and messed up with it.

From the NYT (not the National Enquirer or the Weekly World News, mind you, the New York Fucking Times) piece cleverly headlined "Sinatra Song Often Strikes Deadly Chord" [emphasis added]:

[This is the lede:] After a day of barbering, Rodolfo Gregorio went to his neighborhood karaoke bar still smelling of talcum powder. Putting aside his glass of Red Horse Extra Strong beer, he grasped a microphone with a habitué's self-assuredness and briefly stilled the room with the Platters' "My Prayer." Next, he belted out crowd-pleasers by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. But Mr. Gregorio, 63, a witness to countless fistfights and occasional stabbings erupting from disputes over karaoke singing, did not dare choose one beloved classic: Frank Sinatra's version of "My Way." "I used to like 'My Way,' but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it," he said. "You can get killed.

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This Valentine's Day, don't get your main squeeze an oversized bouquet of balloons or a chocolate replica of your genitals (again). Instead, do what savvy troubadours and creative (read: broke) lovers have done for centuries: write a song. Our good friends at LA Record are releasing a Valentine's Mixtape, compiled by local musicians. Deadline is Feb. 11th, so get cracking!

Email your track to fortherecord@larecord.com

[D] Squared is a local duo comprised of DJs/promoters Derek Michael (Friendly Integration) and Baseck (Darkmatter). Their performances are jam sessions between a variety of classic and high-tech DJ gear. Michael uses Ableton, a Behringer BCF2000 MIDI controller, APC40 Ableton Performance Controller and a Machinedrum. Baseck works with one turntable and a stack of vinyl for scratching along with his trusty Game Boy.

Liz Ohanesian

[D] Squared live at Technique

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Timothy Norris

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See more photos in Timothy Norris' photo gallery.

A show is never just a show in Los Angeles. It's a plague, or a slow-burning forest fire creeping across the city days before a performance takes place. It starts as hype metastasizing across online social networks and water cooler conversations, then becomes a scramble for tickets, followed by a wait in line, wallowing with others mired with doubt: "Are we going to get in?" The emails, tweets, and texts started days before: "You going to Yeasayer?" The main event will own the stage for a fraction of the time spent thinking about, planning, and traveling to the concert, so this better be worth it. But for every hoop you jump through to see a performance at the Natural History Museum, like Friday's Yeasayer and Warpaint, fortune favors the brave.

There are many reasons why New Orleans is awesome. Here are five, in no particular order of sexual preference. But because this is New Orleans we're talking about, you can rest assured that they are NSFW, to say the least.

A: The Sissy Rap meme never took off, unfortunately, because it's one of the only known instances of the historically homophobic hip hop genre embracing an "alternative"/non-hetero lifestyle:

a few more gems after the jump:

It's been a minute since the LA Weekly officially introduced readers to fresh-faced -- and freshly signed-to-Sub-Pop -- band Avi Buffalo. The Long Beach foursome closed out 2009 by dropping a pretty little piece of wax on its new label, but aside from a few gigs here and there, the band's been relatively quiet since.

Of course, that usually means that somebody's hiding something. Well, no more. On Friday, Sub Pop announced the details of Avi Buffalo's debut full-length and it will be titled -- wait for it -- Avi Buffalo. The record is due out on April 27 and displays 10 examples of the band's "pretty preternatural talent for making a very special kind of bent but lovely pop song." West Coast Sound has heard each of these lovely examples and is wholly inclined to agree.

Avi Buffalo is also preparing to embark on its very first national tour, hitting the road with Rogue Wave in March, doing a string of performances at SXSW, then heading back out opening for Japandroids before throwing a record-release show at The Troubadour on May 1. Both dates and the album's tracklisting can be found after the jump.

When we weren't hitting up Super Bowl parties, we were taking in a little Xena: Warrior Princess fandemonium and a lot of music. The weekend began with ultra-hip Brooklyn band Yeasayer playing amongst the dinosaur skeletons and wooly mammoth displays at L.A.'s Natural History Museum and continued with the 15th Annual Xena Convention, Bob Marley art show "Jammin' and Wailin'" and El Rey's Haiti Relief benefit featuring Hepcat, Dengue Fever and more.

Timothy Norris

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