Email Author Randall Roberts

Awards

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published June 25, 2009

  "On the Road to Burma"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards

  "Bon Iver at Hollywood Forever Cemetery"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published February 12, 2009

  "Katy Perry Unpeeled"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published November 23, 2011

  "The Day the Music Died"

• 2008 - Association of Food Journalists Awards, published April 25, 2007

  "Chinatown Confidential"

• 2006 - National Association of Black Journalists Awards, published June 1, 2005

  "It Was Just Like Beverly Hills"

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2008 Stories by Randall Roberts

• You Can Feel It All Over: Partying on Election Night With Hollywood's Godless Liberal Elites and Lowlifes

  published November 6, 2008

  Time crawls at Big Wangs in Hollywood, a utilitarian sports bar a block from the CNN West headquarters on Sunset. At 5 p.m. on... More >>

• Whip the Vote: Devo Plays for Obama Back Home in Swingin' Ohio

  published October 23, 2008

  It’s evening on the approach to Akron-Canton Airport, and the towns that dot the airplane’s path twinkle like a... More >>

• The Next Big Thing at the Detour Festival: Buraka Som Sistema's Kuduro Beats and the Sound of Tomorrow

  published October 9, 2008

  Rolling out of bed and onto the Internet Saturday morning, I come across a New York Times review of Buraka Som... More >>

• Best L.A. Record Label: Stones Throw Records

  published October 2, 2008

  It buggers the imagination that any sane person would consider running a record label in this chaotic environment. Why not play it safe and... More >>

• Best L.A. Comic Book Shops

  published October 2, 2008

  In Kevin Huizenga’s rich, dynamic story “The Curse,” from his collection, Curses, a suburban man, Glenn Ganges, and... More >>

• Best L.A. Record Store: Amoeba Records

  published October 2, 2008

  It’s a music retail ghost town, yes. We don’t need to be reminded. Those were our jobs, and our expense accounts, and our backstage... More >>

• Best Place to Buy Someone Else's Memories: Melrose Trading Post (Stall #67C)

  published October 2, 2008

  Holy cheese, the world is an amazing and horrifying place, and the proof lies in big cardboard boxes in Mark Kologi’s photo stall at the... More >>

• Confessions of a Promo-CD Junkie: Who Will Stop the Music Industry Gravy Train?

  published September 25, 2008

  Some call it the gravy train, the gift that keeps on giving. To others, it’s a load of crap, and they cuss it. Every day... More >>

• Hunting Party

  published August 28, 2008

  This weekend’s F Yeah Fest is so chock-full of goodies that we couldn't fit it all in one space, and want to honor Sunday's nutty and... More >>

• Visions of Radiohead

  published August 21, 2008

  Google the search term “Radiohead In Rainbows” and what returns is 4 million hits, which is a lot of... More >>

• For Those Who Stand Long . . . A Led Zeppelin Reunion?

  published August 7, 2008

  It’s a tricky business, chasing a reunion rumor in Los Angeles. Above all, you have to be discreet about your... More >>

• Eddie Izzard Takes off His Dress

  published July 31, 2008

  When Eddie Izzard gets onstage at the Kodak Theatre next week for a five-night stint (Aug. 5-9), he will present a message... More >>

• 

  COVER STORY

  Heath Ledger's Final Days Among the Masses

  published July 10, 2008

  A Greyhound-style bus purchased on Craigslist for $8,700 rolls eastbound out of Los Angeles on Interstate 10, headed for... More >>

• Northwest Passage: Seattle's Fleet Foxes Make Languid, Woodsy Rock

  published June 26, 2008

  Fleet Foxes, from Seattle, like their timpani, and their echo, love the sound of waves bouncing off walls, dig the high, lonesome wail of... More >>

• Record Reviews: Silver Jews' Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea

  published June 12, 2008

  Silver Jews | Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea | Drag... More >>

• The Beginning of a No Age: Nouns

  published May 8, 2008

  I have a lot of music. Got stacks and stacks of vinyl, rows and rows of LPs, 12-inches and 7-inches, both in my home and in... More >>

• The Really Friendly Skies

  published April 24, 2008

  Well, that was weird. Last week, I was standing in LAX, holding a plastic champagne flute at Terminal 6’s... More >>

• Coachella by the Numbers

  published April 17, 2008

  Tucked between the San Jacinto and Little San Bernardino mountain ranges in what geologists call the Cahuilla basin, the... More >>

• Paranoid Park: The Soundtrack of Their Lives

  published April 3, 2008

  In the past few weeks, I’m seeing skaters with a new glow in my eyes — a kind of sparkle of the special —... More >>

• The Boredoms Pound Their Way Onto the Astral Plane

  published March 13, 2008

  In the beginning, there was a blurt. And it was weird. A scream followed, one that originated in Yoshimi P-We’s toes,... More >>

• The "West Coast Sound": Lauded Songwriters Grapple With Its Genesis

  published February 28, 2008

  It is perhaps a stretch to place side-by-side two songwriters who share little in common besides performing in Los Angeles... More >>

• Stephin Merritt Undistorted

  published February 28, 2008

  East Coast–bred, recent 
L.A. transplant Stephin Merritt, who records as Magnetic Fields, the Sixths, the Gothic... More >>

• Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen

  published February 28, 2008

  LA Weekly: I saw you perform as part of the “Songs from the City” songwriters showcase at Walt Disney Concert Hall a few mont... More >>

• Hello Mommy Africa: A Hipster's Guide to Afro-Indie Rock

  published February 21, 2008

  In 1951, Folkways Records, on their Ethnic Folkways imprint, released a two-LP set called Negro Folk Music of Africa and... More >>

• 50th Annual Grammy Awards

  published February 14, 2008

  The coolest thing I learned last night in the media room at the 50th-anniversary Grammy celebration had to do with a Woody... More >>