Ron and Russell Mael are that rarest of all breeds, the Los Angeles native. The brothers came of age in the 1960s on L.A.’s Westside — decades before it was “310” or west of the 405 Freeway — because the north/south artery hadn’t yet been built. A sporty upbringing of beach volleyball, AM radio tuned to 93 KHJ, and Palisades High School football (for Russell) belie the intellectual cool-cult status the band has held for decades. A status, that in the last few years, after making eclectic, uncompromising and witty albums since 1971, is morphing into something approaching mainstream recognition.

The Maels credit the newfound momentum to cinema, specifically the 2021 Edgar Wright documentary “The Sparks Brothers” and “Annette,” a film that opened Cannes in 2021 which found the creator-brothers joyful on the red carpet with director Leos Carax and stars Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. Up next? A “half-musical” with John Woo (“Face/Off”).

If the musicians’ visibility and viability has shifted, Sparks’ music remains inventive, brainy and flamboyant pop, often born of sunshiny moments and wistful memories that wend their way into lyrics.

But it’s hardly nostalgia. “Perhaps in the themes,” says Ron, “but in a musical sense, we really try to avoid nostalgia completely.”

“JanSport Backpack,” is a yearning tune with harmonies and a hazily poignant emotional tone akin to the Beach Boys —another band of Westside brothers and musical observers of youth culture. If the narrator laments the JanSport Backpack girl walking away, the love interest in “My Devotion” has “[her] name written on my shoe,” as Russell sings.

“Maybe it isn’t so much nostalgic,” Ron said. “In some ways, we matured, in some we haven’t, so we’re still kind of living in an era of writing somebody’s name on their shoes.”

One tune is a surprising almost-love-letter to a fixture that’s the bane of many Golden State warriors’ existence — and satirized aptly on the “Saturday Night Live” sketch “The Californians”: The 405 Freeway. “I-405” is a frenetic, driving, cinematic journey that perfectly captures the drama and beauty roiling underneath bumper-to-bumper frustration.

“You kind of think of the I-405 in a negative way, because you think of being stuck on it. Everybody has their horror stories about it,” says Ron, perched next to his brother in the lounge area of Russell’s bright recording studio, surrounded by the coolest pop culture tchotchkes and collectibles imaginable.

“It seemed, in its own weird, L.A. kind of way, romantic. Almost like our equivalent, if you really stretch it, to the beautiful rivers in Europe and Japan,” Ron says of the 405 Freeway, the subject of one of the tunes on Sparks’ new album.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“One time when I was up at the Getty Center, and it was starting to be dusk, with the cars moving it seemed, in its own weird, L.A. kind of way, romantic. Almost like our equivalent, if you really stretch it, to the beautiful rivers in Europe and Japan,” Ron says. “That was kind of the starting point for the song. If you look at it from a distance, there is kind of a beauty, and I think that’s one of the keys to Los Angeles. You have to see things that you kind of think of as mundane in a slightly different way. Like, you go to Europe and things are obviously Art. Period. But here, a car wash or something…”

“…We’re big fans of supermarkets,” Russell chimes in. “When they go away, it’s kind of sad. Even department stores now are almost becoming a relic of the past. It’s like a ghost town in the Beverly Center. All that’s going to be gone at some point soon.”

If not by gentrification and L.A.’s habit of eating its own, then natural disasters. The Jan. 7 Palisades fire burned part of Ron’s high school, and the entirety of the home they lived in with their mother after their father’s passing, on Galloway Street in the Palisades. Nearly every house in the entire neighborhood — the Alphabet Streets, a working-class enclave when the Maels lived there — was reduced to a pile of rubble.

“They had some of those aerial shots where they made the grid of the names of the streets, and it was gone. It’s hard to comprehend, it was real suburbia there,” says Russell, “and flat, so you think, ‘well, surely that can’t burn down.’”

Slightly east of the 405, the Maels attended UCLA when culture was at a tipping point. Ron saw some of Jim Morrison’s “kind of impressive” student films at the school, and the brothers recall that, “UCLA, at the time, had this amazing booking policy; you had Jimi Hendrix and Alice Cooper and Mothers of Invention, Canned Heat. It wasn’t considered such a big deal. Just, ‘Let’s go see that person.’ Now you have to go online and mortgage your house to go to see anybody,” says Ron.

“We always loved that kind of music,” adds Russell, “but we never thought that we would ever be, you know, professional musicians. It’s just that was the music that we really loved.”

The brothers recalled playing a show at Shakey’s Pizza in Westwood in Sparks’ early days. “I don’t know if you go as far as to call it a band” at the time, Ron said.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

That said, by the age of 5, Ron was taking piano lessons and giving a recital at the Women’s Club of Venice, near where the Mael family then resided. At Paul Revere Junior High, Russell won first place at a Shakespeare Festival for his sonnet recitation.

Post those halcyon days, the brothers began delving into music together. Russell’s powerful, at times operatic, vocals and energetic stage presence proved the perfect foil for Ron’s distinctly quirky mien and adroit facility with words and keys. “I don’t know if you go as far as to call it a band,” clarifies Ron. “It was an attempt at being a band. We played at some dorm thing at UCLA once.”

“We also played a pizza place in Westwood,” Ron remembers.

“Shakey’s Pizza,” Russell adds with a laugh. “We were top-billed that night. Yeah, free pizza. We did the local Westwood circuit and then when we got somewhat better we started playing the Whisky a Go Go a bunch. We were officially Sparks then.”

The Sunset Strip, past its Doors days and with hair metal far on the horizon, wasn’t especially welcoming to Sparks, though [Whisky founder] Elmer Valentine “irrationally loved our band,” says Ron. “The audiences, when they showed up, they really didn’t like us and we were really way too loud. But he kept booking us. We would support people like Little Feat.”

The L.A. Times reviewed that 1973 show, with critic Richard Cromelin noting that Sparks’ “highly stylized attitude is not complemented by the necessary abandon.” That observation may ring true for some, but for Sparks, ultimately that “abandon” wasn’t and isn’t necessary. The energy of beguiling songs like “Angst in My Pants” and “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both of Us,” belted out with Russell’s ebullient, pitch-perfect vocals, carry the always dynamic live show.

Over the last four years, the Maels are glad to shake the long-held best-kept-secret tag, grateful to “Annette” and “The Sparks Brothers” for the boost. “They kind of attracted people who were coming to us from the film area; they didn’t know about the band. It’s a new, younger audience, really diverse,” Russell says.

The lineup’s last few albums are the most meaningful to that sector. “Going back to say, [1974’s] “Kimono My House,” for them, it’s not meaningful in the same kind of way as somebody who was there at that time,” the singer says. “It’s really healthy that their focal point isn’t like the ‘golden era of whenever’ that might have been the ’70s in London or the ’80s in L.A. or any point in between.”

New eyes on the band have elicited a seemingly increased enthusiasm and energy that’s perhaps unexpected from seasoned septuagenarians. Unlike the Gallaghers, the Davieses, and many other brotherly duos in rock, the Maels present a united front. If the brothers are coy and circumspect about their personal lives, their working relationship is slightly less obtuse. Slightly. We’re in the room where their latest, “MAD!,” (released Friday) was created, and while the album credits both with lyrics and production, Ron is the main wordsmith. There’s seemingly not much back-and-forth on the lyrical themes or specifics.

“I hear about it on the day it’s time to start singing,” says Russell. “There’s a ‘here’s your lyrics, sir.’”

That said, Sparks’ seeming manifesto, “Do Things My Own Way” which starts the album, is clearly a statement of the duo’s longtime purpose, Russell singing, “Unaligned / Simply fine / Gonna do things my own way.”

So would it ever be “our own way”?

The Maels laugh. “Not as long as I’m writing the songs,” quips Ron.

“Good question, though,” says Russell with a smile.

“‘We witnessed the breakup of Sparks,’” Ron says with a laugh. “On the ‘Greatest Hits’ album, we can do a version that’s ‘ours.’”

Sparks performs at the Greek Theater on Sep. 30.

The pursuit for a spot in the track and field NCAA Championships is here.

UMD Bulldogs “ALLETE” Moments: Classroom

Throughout this year, UMD Athletics is partnering with Minnesota Power, ALLETE to highlight the Bulldogs accomplishments in the 3 C’s: Classroom, Competition, Community. 

University of Minnesota Duluth volleyball senior right side hitter Samantha Paulsen  was named a 2024-25 NSIC Women’s Honor Student-Athlete Award winner Wednesday.

One of 15 student athletes to earn the honor and an exercise science major with a 4.00 GPA, Paulsen is entering the University of Minnesota Doctor of Physical Therapy program this summer after earning the program’s “Year-One Scholarship”. The scholarship is competitively awarded to incoming students based on academic excellence, potential for high professional contributions, and enhancement of diversity components underrepresented in the physical therapy profession. A NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic with Distinction Award winner, and a multi-year winner of D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award, Paulsen is a multi-year member of the NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence. 

The native of Chisago Lakes, Minn. finished her athletic career as a member of three  NSIC All-Conference teams, a NSIC Player of the Week, tied for 11th most kills in a NSIC contest, and in the top-10 for career hitting percentage in UMD volleyball history. Paulsen was engaged in multiple UMD and community volunteer activities, including membership on the DEI Council, working as an overnight caregiver and companion for elderly individuals, as well as a Volunteer at Essentia Health’s inpatient and outpatient physical therapy clinics. 

The NSIC Honor Student-Athlete Award is the result of member institutions of the NSIC nominating one male and one female student-athlete for the Britton and Kelly Awards. The nominees must meet the following criteria: a grade point average of 3.5 or better (on a 4.0 scale); evidence of academic excellence beyond the minimum grade point average (scholarship prizes and other academic recognition), evidence of participation in the life of the institution, and evidence of participation in at least two-thirds of the varsity events of the individual’s primary sport. The award is voted on by the NSIC Faculty Athletic Representatives.

The 30 student-athletes nominated for the NSIC’s two most prestigious awards will also be recognized as NSIC Male and Female Honor Student- Athletes of the Year at their respective institutions. Dierks and Andrews will be recognized Tuesday, July 8 at the NSIC Hall of Fame Banquet in Moorhead, Minn. and will each receive a $3,000 post-graduate scholarship.

About Minnesota Power, ALLETE:

Our bold vision centers on our commitment to climate, customers and communities. We’re a clean-energy leader under our EnergyForward strategy, already delivering 50% renewable energy ahead of all other Minnesota utilities. Now we’re doubling down on that with a vision to deliver 100% carbon-free energy to customers reliably and affordably by 2050. Learn more at: https://www.mnpower.com/CarbonFreeEnergyVision

WILMINGTON, N.C. – UNCW women’s soccer head coach Chris Neal has added forward Laney Newnam, a transfer from Queens University of Charlotte, to the 2025 roster.

A native of Wake Forest, North Carolina, Newnam appeared in 17 matches and made four starts as a sophomore for the Royals in 2024, tallying one goal and one assist in 800 minutes.

“Laney has played over 1700 minutes at Queens University over the past two seasons,” Neal said. “An NC Courage product, she has continued to successfully develop her game while in college. She is ready for the next challenge here at UNCW and in the CAA. We are excited to welcome her to the Hawk’s Nest!”

As a freshman, Newnam played in 16 matches, making 11 starts. She recorded one goal and one assist while logging 974 minutes for Queens. Newnam helped the Royals advance to the second round of the 2023 Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament, the first time a No. 8 seed advanced to the second round in ASUN women’s soccer tournament history.

As a senior at Wake Forest High School, Newnam made 21 starts and led the team with 10 goals while registering five assists to earn Northern Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year honors.

She spent her Elite Clubs National League career with NC Courage. 

NCAA West First Round
Thursday-Saturday, May. 29-31, 2025 
College Station, TX. 
Watch: ESPN+
Live Results: Flash Results
Meet Schedule

Reno, Nev – Five Nevada Track and Field athletes qualified to compete at the 2025 NCAA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships West Preliminary May 28-31 in College Station, Texas. The five qualifiers will be set to compete in a total of five events across the four-day meet.

The javelin squad will be well-represented in College Station with two athletes qualifying: Lilly Urban and Isabelle Steerman. Meekness Dogonayro qualified in the triple jump, sophomore sprinter Magdalene George will represent Nevada in the 100 meters and 200 meters, and Annalies Kalma qualified in the 400 meters.

The West Preliminary will be hosted by Texas A&M at E.B. Cushing Stadium. The selections for the preliminaries are based on the top-48 athletes declared in each individual event and the top 24 relay teams declared for each relay event. The top 12 qualifiers from each event will move on to compete at the NCAA National Championships held in Eugene, Oregon at Hayward Field June 11-14.

Urban is the top nationally ranked athlete through the outdoor season this year, sitting ninth in the NCAA following her throw of 56.89m at the Mountain West Outdoor Championships. Urban has broken the school record four times this year and will look to break it once again at the NCAA West First Round. 

Isabelle Steerman, a senior from Oregon, will be making her first appearance at the NCAA West First Round. Her season best of 46.42m at the Fresno State Invite, qualified her for the First Round, and she is coming off a near podium at the Mountain West Championships, placing fourth by less than 20 centimeters. 

Dogonyaro sits 21st in the NCAA, and is coming off second place in the triple jump competition at the Mountain West Championships. Dogonyaro sits #2 all-time in Nevada school history and is looking for just eight more centimeters to break the record. 

Magdalene George will be making a return to the NCAA West First Round, qualifying in both the 100m and 200m, after earning silver medals in both races at the Mountain West Championships. George is the school record holder in the 200m and #2 all-time in the 100m. She will be looking to qualify through to the quarterfinals for the second time in her Wolf Pack career as just a Sophomore. 

Annalies Kalma will be competing in the 400m competition at the NCAA West First Round, following her school record breaking season, where she ran a 52.71 at the LSU Alumni Gold to break the record. Kalma was part of the national championship qualifying 4x400m relay team, but will be looking to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time in her individual career. 

The event will be live streamed on the ESPN+ and live results will be available at Flash Results. 

2025 NCAA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field West First Round (Nevada)

May 28-31

College Station, Tex. – E.B. Cushing Stadium

Magdalene George – 100 meters, 200 meters

Annalies Kalma – 400 meters 

Isabelle Steerman– Javelin

Lilly Urban – Javelin

Meekness Dogonyaro – Triple Jump

 

CINCINNATI – University of Cincinnati volleyball head coach Danijela Tomić announced the signing of Tatjana “Tasha” Simeunovic on Wednesday.

Simeunovic is a 6-foot-3 middle blocker from Čačak, Serbia. 

“We are beyond excited to welcome Tatjana to UC and our volleyball program,” Tomić said. “She is a talented young player who will add size and depth to our middle blocker position. Beyond her physical ability, Tatjana’s character and love for the game align perfectly with our team culture. Joining a new team in a new country takes tremendous courage, and we’re happy she’s chosen to take this next step with us. Tatjana has a bright future ahead, and we can’t wait to support her every step of the way.”

She helped lead her club Borac to a Second Serbian League title and promotion to the First Serbian League. She also gained valuable experience competing for Sloboda in Čačak.

Simeunovic joins Cincinnati’s incoming class that includes freshmen Izzy Busignani (mid-year enrollee), Fallyn Blotzer, Elliott Mickelberry and Ava Ledebuhr, as well as transfers Andi Spies (Middle Tennessee), McKenzie Johnson (Louisiana Tech) and Brooke Crummel (Liberty).