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NOISE POP It's been a few months since I've seen Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, and while many have dedicated countless hours selflessly contributing to the Ryan Gosling meme, which continues to grow and mutate like an uncontained bacterial infection, I'm still utterly and helplessly seduced by the score.Read more »

Editor's Note: Unfortunately this show has been cancelled due to Big Freedia's health. We wish her well and hope to see her again soon! Please read this revealing interview with her multi-talented DJ and producer, Rusty Lazer.

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MUSIC Waiting for his coffee at Cafe Divis, Ezra Furman (who performs Sat/11 at Hotel Utah) flips through the latest issue of the Guardian. "I've been meaning to do more drugs," he says, pointing to the cannabis column, Herbwise. The wheels in Furman's head seem to always be in motion; there's a constant mischievous look in his eyes. We've met here to discuss the most recent product of his overactive imagination — his solo debut, The Year of No Returning, released on Tuesday through Furman's own Kinetic Family Records.Read more »

It felt like we were all on the verge at Tycho's (www.tychomusic.com) December show at the Independent, the breaking point of something momentous, a perfect merging of visuals and sounds. In an effortlessly cool -- though I'm sure highly engineered -- production, Tycho, a.k.a graphic designer Scott Hansen, played synthesizers with live guitars and drums out front of a screen splashed with fuzzy orange surf images, rolling waves and crashing water.Read more »

Drop that plate of Black Eyed Peas and mush your M.I.A. to the side. OK, nothing quite that dramatic. But if you're looking for brightly polished hybrid pop that sounds like the bigtime but still tugs at indie sensibilities and non-ironic heartstrings, Le Vice (www.facebook.com/officiallevice) has you, from its Rick James basslines to its swaggering rhymes. Read more »

When is the cover better than the original? When the original is by newbie/vitriolic web backlash victim Lana Del Rey, and the cover is a sensual send-up by seasoned San Francisco duo Silver Swans (silverswans.bandcamp.com). The local act split open the pop song — "Video Games" — slowed it down, and filled it with chilly synth floating below breathy vocals.Read more »

Last year was epic for Black Cobra (www.blackcobra.net); the duo toured with a reunited Kyuss Lives, closed out the night at Yerba Buena's awesome art-meets-metal live show, and released Invernal. The album, full of pummeling hardcore, saw vinyl release last month on Southern Lord, thus kicking of another doomy year for the act that got together way back in 2004 when drummer Rafa Martinez (formerly of Acid King and Gammera) was living in LA and ex-Cavity guitarist Jason Landrian was in NYC.Read more »

Terry Malts (www.facebook.com/terrymalts) had me at "Your love makes me nauseous," a line from its upcoming release. The Guardian covered the band before, but this year something has shifted. The previously secretive act (the trio still posed for us with bags over their heads, though I can assure you, all three have faces) is stepping one pinkie toe out into the public sphere; at least, it's finally releasing its debut LP, Killing Time, Feb. 21 on Slumberland Records. Read more »

The two females in Future Twin (www.futuretwin.com) — Jean Yaste and Stephanie Rose — met one another in a moped gang called the Lockits, another member of the band was in a moped crew called Treats of the Loin; I'm not sure if you can concoct a greater back-story than that but I'd be hard-pressed to find one. Read more »