Kinks

Proper recovery is a key element for consolidating the gains of a workout and getting you ready for the next one. That's why serious athletes swear by massage, whirlpools, ultrasound and even hypnosis to increase flexibility of muscles and tendons that are sore, stiff and kinked. But you don't need an appointment at a fancy training facility to get the job done, as these at-home recovery devices prove. On a roll Trainerbrands TrainerRoller: A 6-inch diameter foam roller with PVC outer sleeve imprinted with instructions and drawings of 12 common myofascial-release recovery exercises.

I knew the relationship was over when she told me she'd never heard of the Kinks. I could overlook her mood swings, her occasional cruelty and even those all-too-frequent phone calls with her "ex"-girlfriend, but music ended up being the deal breaker. I had given her a mix tape, and I chose tunes that lived in my heart. Buddy Holly, Sandy Denny, Tom Waits, Nick Lowe, Kate Bush, Television, Big Star - a deeply personal canon. I stayed up all night working out the ideal segues, pulling records and dropping the needle just so. I calculated minutes and seconds for the perfect track list.

Would you do a double-take if I said that that words were a recurring theme in this week's Great Reads? Yes, beautiful language is a mainstay in these stories, but this week, two standouts focused on words. Exhibit A: The words “Los Feliz.” I pronounce it Los FEE-lus. I know it's not correct, but it's “right” (marks me as an old-timer, I know). Exhibit B: The word “delight.” Silicon Valley types have been tripping all over themselves to use the word. At least it's better than another buzzword that makes me go urghhh: freemium.

Would you do a double-take if I said that that words were a recurring theme in this week's Great Reads? Yes, beautiful language is a mainstay in these stories, but this week, two standouts focused on words. Exhibit A: The words “Los Feliz.” I pronounce it Los FEE-lus. I know it's not correct, but it's “right” (marks me as an old-timer, I know). Exhibit B: The word “delight.” Silicon Valley types have been tripping all over themselves to use the word. At least it's better than another buzzword that makes me go urghhh: freemium.

It was a kinda klassic, kinda kwerky, kinda typical Kinks koncert Saturday at the Hollywood Palladium. The veteran British quintet charmed the capacity crowd with selections from its 20-plus years of sporadic hits, but most of the show was devoted to beery renditions of head Kink Ray Davies' versions of radio fodder; the best of which sounded as off-handedly raunchy and funny as the bust-up-the-dance-hall band the Kinks have always prided themselves on being.

Pete Quaife, the original bassist for the Kinks who played on such early hits as "You Really Got Me," "All Day and All of the Night" and "Tired of Waiting for You" before leaving the British band in 1969, has died. He was 66. Quaife died Wednesday of kidney failure in Herlev, Denmark, according to British news reports. He had moved to Denmark in 2005 after having lived in Canada for many years. "Without Pete there would have been no Kinks," Dave Davies, an original band member, said on his website.

I knew the relationship was over when she told me she'd never heard of the Kinks. I could overlook her mood swings, her occasional cruelty and even those all-too-frequent phone calls with her "ex"-girlfriend, but music ended up being the deal breaker. I had given her a mix tape, and I chose tunes that lived in my heart. Buddy Holly, Sandy Denny, Tom Waits, Nick Lowe, Kate Bush, Television, Big Star - a deeply personal canon. I stayed up all night working out the ideal segues, pulling records and dropping the needle just so. I calculated minutes and seconds for the perfect track list.

Having caught Ray Davies' solo performance at the Henry Fonda Theatre on Oct. 10, I was reminded of the article Sunday Calendar ran on the best British groups of all time (Sept. 26, 1993). As I recall the Kinks were ranked fifth in the Top 10 list. This drew some protest from Calendar readers who felt that the Kinks did not deserve such a ranking. Now I am inclined to agree with them. After hearing Davies tell the Kinks' story through selected passages of his autobiography and beautiful acoustic renderings of Kinks classics, I was offered a glimpse of the ingredients required of a true artist.

MUSIC Noel Gallagher is front and center, both live and on his solo debut, "Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. " Not as memorable as Oasis' best anthems in the '90s, or as nasally rock-ready as his brother's latest incarnation, Beady Eye, the album hovers within a melodic good-to-average middle ground. If Liam hones the Stones, Noel reworks later-era Kinks, forgoing guitar theatrics for the inclusion of strings, horns and a chorus. The album encircles themes of love, melancholy and aging.

"The Sex Pistols Live at Chelmsford Top Security Prison" may be the unlikeliest compact-disc release of the year. If we weren't closing in on July 1, you'd swear the whole thing was an April Fool's joke. First, who could imagine prison officials in 1976 approving a concert by the leaders of Britain's punk-shock brigade--a band that thrived on controversy and confrontation?

Everyone knows that it can feel really good to get a massage. Now scientists may have figured out why, by identifying how massage switches genes on and off, thus reducing inflammation and coaxing muscle adaptation to exercise. The discovery provides strong evidence that massage merits further study as a treatment for injuries and chronic disorders, said Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, a researcher at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and lead author of a study about the research released Wednesday.

A few months before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I read a blog post by an Atlantic Monthly correspondent about Chinese wine. Chinese what? I grew up outside New York City, where I ate hundreds of pounds of lo mein and pork-fried rice but didn't see, taste or hear of Chinese wine. Even when I traveled to China in 2009 and 2010, I saw drinkers mostly tossing back beer and baijiu (Chinese liquor). But Western-style wine is attracting the attention of China'srising middle class.

MUSIC Noel Gallagher is front and center, both live and on his solo debut, "Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. " Not as memorable as Oasis' best anthems in the '90s, or as nasally rock-ready as his brother's latest incarnation, Beady Eye, the album hovers within a melodic good-to-average middle ground. If Liam hones the Stones, Noel reworks later-era Kinks, forgoing guitar theatrics for the inclusion of strings, horns and a chorus. The album encircles themes of love, melancholy and aging.

Proper recovery is a key element for consolidating the gains of a workout and getting you ready for the next one. That's why serious athletes swear by massage, whirlpools, ultrasound and even hypnosis to increase flexibility of muscles and tendons that are sore, stiff and kinked. But you don't need an appointment at a fancy training facility to get the job done, as these at-home recovery devices prove. On a roll Trainerbrands TrainerRoller: A 6-inch diameter foam roller with PVC outer sleeve imprinted with instructions and drawings of 12 common myofascial-release recovery exercises.

They were peppered throughout the 20,000-strong crowd at the exuberant FYF Festival in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday: first-generation punk band T-shirts worn by indie kids, twentysomethings and Gen X-ers alike. A chubby man wearing Minutemen; a pixie in a sleeveless Conflict jacket; the Big Boys on a sound guy; M.D.C/Stains shirt and knee-high black Doc Martens on a glum (and surprisingly young) skinhead. And of course many versions of the Black Flag bars. There was even a Slovenly shirt.

"The wonderful thing about making records is something comes out you never expected," explains Ray Davies, who knows of what he speaks. In nearly five decades as leader of one of rock's great bands, the Kinks, and as a solo artist, Davies has been involved with more than 30 LPs, helped innovate the concept album and created classic-rock staples such as "You Really Got Me" and "Lola. " "Ray's one of the greatest pop rock songwriters of all time," says Britt Daniel of acclaimed indie-rockers Spoon.

*** JURASSIC 5 "Power in Numbers" Interscope On its sophomore album (due in stores Tuesday), Jurassic 5 proves that it's the spiritual evolution of not only South-Central hard-core such as N.W.A, but also black power '60s-'70s proto-rappers the Last Poets, vaporizing the inane muck of tired R&B references like a blast of pure ammonia with their intelligent rap.

Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc., known for its speedy distribution of books, electronics and other consumer goods, is now trying to break open the grocery market. The AmazonFresh service, running since 2007 in the retailer's Seattle hometown, expanded to select Los Angeles ZIP Codes on Monday. The company is offering customers same-day and early-morning delivery on more than 500,000 products, such as apples, bread and even mozzarella di bufala from the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills.

Pete Quaife, the original bassist for the Kinks who played on such early hits as "You Really Got Me," "All Day and All of the Night" and "Tired of Waiting for You" before leaving the British band in 1969, has died. He was 66. Quaife died Wednesday of kidney failure in Herlev, Denmark, according to British news reports. He had moved to Denmark in 2005 after having lived in Canada for many years. "Without Pete there would have been no Kinks," Dave Davies, an original band member, said on his website.

Daniel Davies needs to drive. It's his preferred way back to Los Angeles after a tour leading the band Year Long Disaster, behind the wheel of his 1996 green van, sometimes driving alone, sometimes in silence, or cranking up the satellite radio for hours of music and basketball. He can get across the country in just three days, while the rest of his hard rock trio flies comfortably back home. "I get there faster than most," Davies, 29, says of his driving skills but admits, "We keep finding these tickets in the back of the van."