Amy Winehouse

Jay-Z's Great Gatsby Soundtrack Is a Failure

When the first trailer for Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby was released a year ago, it was set to the music of Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," from the sometimes duo's incredibly self-important Watch the Throne album. On the surface it made sense. Jay-Z -- who retired as a rapper i ... More >>

Patti Smith Talks About Her Greatest Success

By Jessica Baran Profoundly influential, incantatory songstress, poet, artist and writer Patti Smith may be best known as the Godmother of Punk. Her groundbreaking album Horses, released in 1975, has been hailed as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Born in Chicago, she was raised in Sout ... More >>

10 Best Restaurants for Brunch in Los Angeles

Brunch is one thing that's done well in Los Angeles, a town that's very well-versed in mashups -- Carmeggedons I and II, for starters -- that grab more attention than should be necessary. And while it may not be the favorite meal service of chefs, this internal struggle is not transparent when you'r ... More >>

Be Dead or Be Square

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Monday, August 13 Grandaddy THE FONDA In the year 2000, a group of schlubs from the California meth- and cow-town of Modesto released the perfect record to ring in the new millennium. It was called The Sophtware Slump, and its sun-dappled, spacey, sad-faced robot-pop seemed to capture so much about ... More >>

The Lions Give Roots Reggae New Life

[Editor's note: Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. Be sure to also check out the archives.] Reggae was spawned during one broiling Kingston, Jamaica, summer, spread to the world via the mesmerism of Bob Marley, and now serves as a dorm-room rite of pas ... More >>

The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt on Why Adele Fans Are Racist, and Other Topics

Stephin Merritt might be the greatest songwriter of his generation. Still, as has been reported before, interviewing him can be quite difficult. He takes extraordinarily long pauses, then suddenly decides to interrupt just when you thought it was safe to speak. If you refer to him calling himself ... More >>

Why the Grammys Stink

See also: *2012 Grammys: The Best, the Worst and the Weirdest *Deadmau5, Rihanna - House of Blues - 2/13/12 *Dan Wilson: From "Closing Time" to Adele's "Someone Like You" So, our Grammy credentials were fairly limited last night. In fact, we were trapped in a room for eight hours, with journalists ... More >>

Wanda Jackson/Best Coast - Club Nokia - Dec 31 2011

Daniel KohnWanda Jackson​See also: Wanda Jackson On How Jack White Convinced Her To Do Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good" Wanda Jackson/Best Coast Club Nokia 12/31/11 Legendary rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson has experienced a career renaissance in the past 12 months, as summed up by the ... More >>

Marijuana, When Paired With Other Powerful, Quasi-Legal Drugs, Really Works on Pain, California Study Says

strainbrainIt really works.​We never would have guessed this, what with all the self-medicating going in the world, but two powerful, often illicit drugs, when taken together, really work on that pain, a study claims. Seems that Amy Winehouse, Richard Pryor and Kurt Cobain did similar researc ... More >>

They All Die At 27: Jason Ritter and Taryn Manning Discuss The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll

Eric Genson (Jason Ritter) serenades his road manager Rose Atropos (Taryn Manning) in a scene from the film. ​By Roselle Chen The title of the new rock saga film The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll refers to 27 and the many famous musicians who have died at that age, including Robert Johnson, K ... More >>

Monster Movie: Bob Forrest Talks Rock and Rehab

​It's one thing for a rock musician to get sober (you can't fling a cigarette butt outside a coffee shop without hitting one in Los Angeles), but it's another to devote your life to helping others wrestle those demons. Bob Forrest was once one of the most promising front men in the L.A. music ... More >>

Who Killed Amy Winehouse?

Timothy Norris​[The one and only Henry Rollins contributes a weekly column and far-reaching reportage to the music section of the LA Weekly. Look for your weekly Henry Rollins fix right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday and make sure to tune in to Henry's KCRW radio show every Saturday ... More >>

The Perfect Age of Rock 'N' Roll Review

Death, Drugs and Rock n' Roll- "Don't Knock The Rock's" Timely Glimpse into Musicians' Triumphs and Tragedies

Lina LecaroAllison Anders and Patty Schemel​There is a segment in the riveting new documentary Hit So Hard- The Life and Near Death Story of Patty Schemel that explores the concept of "Saturn Returns" (the astrogical phenomenon which is said to influence and test a person's life development be ... More >>

R.I.P Amy Winehouse

Gone too soon​Amy Winehouse died of an alleged drug overdose today at her apartment in North London. Her body was found at approximately at 4 P.M. local time. She was 27 years old. More details as they become available.

Vanessa Hudgens Did Cocaine in the Coachella Sunshine? We Would Be Shocked

allieiswired.comHudgens at Coachella.​Disney is to actresses what Catholic school is to other women. While on the surface they would seem to be places of wholesome goodness and conservative values, somehow their kids end up hiking their skirts up (Britney Spears) and rebelling like Amy Winehou ... More >>

Perez Hilton Grows Up: Chats About New Music Projects, His New Attitude. Plus, A Peek Inside His Blue Ball Birthday Bash

Lina Lecaro Selena Gomez and Perez Hilton are true blue. ​ With live performances by Macy Gray, Dita Von Teese, Prince Poppycock, and Greyson Chance to name a few and Debbie Gibson, recorded greetings by Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and Justin Bieber, and an in person Happy Birthday serenade from ... More >>

Tonight: My Morning Jacket, Avi Buffalo, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Coheed and Cambria, Porcupine Tree, Budos Band, Hot Club of Cowtown

​ My Morning Jacket, Avi Buffalo at the Greek "Of late, My Morning Jacket singer Jim James has been devoting the majority of his time to projects sporting his inexplicable Yim Yames moniker, so it's a bit of a relief to find him once again at the helm of the exceptional band that first put the ... More >>

Beauty & the Beat: Paper Mag's Party at The Standard on Sunset

​Beauty really is in the eye of beholder, especially when a magazine is doing the beholding. Julia Roberts and Beth Ditto may be like night and day in the looks department, but both graced "Beautiful Issue" covers recently. Predictably, the toothy superstar was on People magazine (she's got a ... More >>

Must Have Kitchen Tool? The Celebrity Chef iPhone App

Brooke Burton​ The list of necessary kitchen utensils - whisk, wooden spoon, fish spatula, immersion circulator, nitrogen canister - now seems to include an iPhone. Because now not only must the celebrity chef have the de rigueur stack of cookbooks and (ideally) a reality television show, but ... More >>

Soul Survivor: Aloe Blacc's 'I Need a Dollar' Video (from HBO's 'How to Make it in America')

We all know those people (not necessarily over-40s, but most of them are) who go on and on about how "nobody writes songs like in the '60s," "the lost art and craftmanship of classic rock and soul," and so on. Besides displaying astonishing ignorance and lack of curiosity, those throwbacks really f ... More >>

Will Sing for Food: The Beautiful World of 'Love Music, Love Food'

Patrice de VilliersRoger Daltry, with trout​ According to the British website Love Music, Love Food (LMLF), "there are two things which help to make the world a better place, food and music." To that end, LMLF combines the two in a collection of photographs of musicians with their favorite fo ... More >>

Tearist's Yasmine Kittles and "Tim & Eric"'s Eric Star in SFW Hipster Crotch Porn

What's not to like about Tearist's Yasmine Kittles? She's badass, looks like the lovechild of "Rehab"-era Amy Winehouse and Polly Jean Harvey (in a good way), digs good music (Throbbing Gristle, Can, The Red Crayola, The Ronettes), does her crazy "Patti Smith meets Peaches" act at The Smell, has abs ... More >>

Producer/DJ Switch Interviewed: On M.I.A., Santigold, Major Lazer, Amanda Blank and 'Fidgit House'

British-based Switch is one artist who lives up to his name. Known in the super-club world for his left-field, tech-flavored up-tempo sets, the DJ born as Dave Taylor has also become a certified name-brand pop producer, having working with the likes of M.I.A., Diplo, Santogold and up-and-coming rap ... More >>

Coachella Adds Joss Stone to Saturday Line-Up

We're trying to wrap our heads around this one. Not three minutes ago we had a conversation in which we said we kept waiting for some sort of April surprise for Coachella, and, then, lo, this lands in our box: JOSS STONE TAKES CENTER STAGE IN CALIFORNIA HEADLINING CLUB NOKIA IN LOS ANGELES, THURS ... More >>

Amy Winehouse Pulls Out of Coachella, Leaving Saturday Night Looking ... Tepid

Honestly, the only reason were looking forward to the Saturday night headlining bill of Coachella was Amy Winehouse. She's out, which leaves an already tepid evening of music even less exciting: The Killers and Thievery Corporation are expected to carry the night. Fat chance. Expect a lot of calls f ... More >>

Coachella Adds The Orb, Murder City Devils, Etienne de Crecy and Others to the Bill

In its new web 'zine, Coachella Digital, the Coachella festival, which this morning confirmed that Amy Winehouse wouldn't be performing (surprise surprise, unfortunately), announced the addition of five new acts to the roster. None of them are U2, Pavement or the Smiths, nor are the Beatles yet re ... More >>

Maybe We're Amazed: Notes on the Fairly Odd Coachella 2009 Lineup

Our only hope — that Macca gets Ram tough

Coachella 2009 Announced: Amy Winehouse, Paul McCartney, My Bloody Valentine ... Throbbing Gristle! Leonard Cohen!

Yeah, so all the silly speculation probably isn't done yet, as Goldenvoice always adds a few heavy-hitters after the initial announcement, but the initial line-up is up. Click through to see it in all it's glory. We'll start analyzing it soon, but for now: Throbbing Gristle! No Pavement? Let the ... More >>

Nightranger has a ball with The Mutaytor, the Kibitz Room's Jammers and MyHouse's Hot-to-Trot Homies

Last Night: Nazis, Pedophilia, Burlesque Beauties & Islamic Terrorism with Victory Variety Hour's "Wrong Show" @ El Cid

(All photos by Shannon Cottrell. Click images for entire slideshow of burlesque beauties and offensive material. Some photos NSFW.) Last night we stepped underground to discover a guy in a Nazi uniform humping his half-dressed wifey from behind, as a well-dressed crowd watched at El Cid. Was this th ... More >>

WORN OUT- Last Minute Halloween Costume Ideas Seen On Sunset Strip And Beyond.

The Dap-Kings: Soul's New Royalty

And Sharon Jones is its hardest-working woman

Bitter Sweet

Psych... The slide show of Project Runway's final five designer collections at Bryant Park on Bravo.com may have led us to believe there were 5 finalists up for the grand prize this year, but apparently it was some kind of runway ruse. Former LA Weekly staffer and Club Fuck/Sin-a-matic doorgirl Swe ... More >>

10 Musicians Definitely Not on Steroids

From the New York Times: "When news surfaced over the weekend that 50 Cent, Wyclef Jean, Timbaland and other rap stars had been implicated in a steroids investigation, some hip-hop fans were shocked, but to many in the industry the accusations seemed inevitable." Oh, how our collective pride in t ... More >>

2007’s Best Untethered (Unprotected) MP3s

Singles streaming steady

Grammy Nominations

If you are the kind of person that actually pays attention to this kind of thing, then here's a full list of this year's Grammy nominees . Yes, Amy Winehouse got a ton of nominations, if she can hold it together until the awards area announced. Kanye West got eight, and we can only hope he gets sh ... More >>

Rock Picks: Jimmy Scott, the Raspberries, Sharon Jones, Wreckless Eric

For the week of November 30 - December 6

Rock Picks: Stevie Wonder, Lucinda Williams, The Frames

For the week of Aug 31 – Sept. 6

Björk and Ryan Shaw Go Genre Bending

Cross dressers

Coachella: Friday

(Brief note regarding Lina's very complete Do and Don't list: I'd like to add one thing: DO bring your tickets! I overheard someone saying they got within a half hour of arriving here before realizing they forgot their tickets, they had to turn around to go all the way back to LA. 2:00 p.m. Stuck ... More >>

Coachella And the Cure for the Common Festivalitis

Brit Boppers

And blog hoggers

Take You Higher!

Featuring Prince as Joni, Emo as jock-jam

Amy Winehouse, Beehive and All

U.K. soul mama gets crowned on the Sunset Strip Monday, March 19, at the Roxy

Days of Lines and Poses

SxSW journal

BBB (Big, Bold and Beautiful)

The clouds have parted and the birds are chirping what sounds like Japanese power pop. SXSW being an industry event I attend my first industry panel, "Idiots Unite!" (The idiots, of course, being anyone involved in this crazy business of show.) David Katznelson, president of Birdman Recording Group, ... More >>

Rock Picks

For the week of March 15 - 22

How Shit Be

Freestyle riffs & ruminations on black music and pop culture at the dawn of 2007