Apple iTunes

Hey Bartender: A Movie Celebrating the Modern Cocktail Movement Premiers in L.A.

Director Douglas Tirola originally set out to make a movie about corner bars, "but it's not the best time in history for the corner bar." So instead he made a movie about what it is the best time in history for: modern cocktail bars and the folks who run them. Tirola's movie, Hey Bartender, premie ... More >>

Everything You Need to Know About What Happened at Sundance

Bold, impassioned, ecstatically beautiful, Shane Carruth's Upstream Color -- a lyric reverie on loss, love, and various invasions of the body -- was in a class by itself at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Well, let's say it was a class shared by a more conventional but no less heady consideration o ... More >>

At the I Am Not a Hipster Premiere, the Crowd Was Full of Hipsters. Or So It Seemed

See also: *Hipster vs. Foodie: Which Is Worse? *A Hipster Guide to Weight Loss Destin Daniel Cretton, writer/director/producer/editor, is used to being asked about the provocative title of his film. "Will this question never die?" he jokingly laments after an audience member poses the question duri ... More >>

10 Questions for W. Kamau Bell, Star of His New Show Totally Biased on FX, Exec Produced by Chris Rock

Arguing About Rick Ross With A Man Who Might Want To Burn My House Down

See also: Cassette Tapes Are Awesome Until You Actually Have To Listen To Them The guy who sells CDs and DVDs in the corner store parking lot near my house? That guy is the tits. I mean, our relationship can only ever be that one way. I don't want to know him in any other context than The Guy Who ... More >>

La Vida Boheme: Venezuelan Disco Punks Perform Before the Dodgers Game on Sunday

See also: Viva Los Dodgers 2012 Lineup Announced: Ximena Sariñana, Ana Tijoux, More Henry D'Arthenay is psyched for this Sunday's Dodger game, and not just because it's only the second of his life. As he tells us over Skype from his home in Caracas, Venezuela, his band La Vida Boheme will also per ... More >>

Seven Sins: A True Crime Anthology: Village Voice Media's First eBook

Every week writers for L.A. Weekly and our parent company, Village Voice Media, produce elegant magazine-style feature writing--a gritty portion of which comes in the form of true-crime stories. Now VVM has collected some of its best recent true-crime yarns into an ebook: Seven Sins: A True Crime An ... More >>

Listen Now: Roy Choi Mike D on 'Food Is the New Rock'

Prior to his days covering the city's tastiest (and unhealthiest) lunches under $10, Los Angeles food blogger Zach Brooks of Midtown Lunch worked as a music programmer at Sirius Satellite Radio in New York. But when Brooks went bicoastal two years ago, he didn't give up his love for music but instea ... More >>

Aziatix - El Rey Theatre - 3/31/12

Aziatix, Dawen El Rey Theatre 3/31/12 Since producer Jae Chong formed Aziatix a year ago, they've been on the cover of Newsweek in South Korea, sold out a 10-city U.S. tour last year, hit No. 1 on Japan's R&B and Soul charts, reached No. 4 on the iTunes R&B and Soul chart and were in two showcases ... More >>

Want to Buy a Rap CD on Venice Beach? You Sure?

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] The plan was simple. Head to Venice Beach, sample the mixtapes hawked by the hucksters hovering near the paddle tennis courts, pick one rapper to profile ... More >>

Jimmy Wong Has a New YouTube Cooking Show (for Nerds)

Jimmy Wong continues to perfect the art of being more awesome than the rest of us. The 24-year-old multi-instrumentalist, actor, goofball and YouTube sensation launched a new YouTube channel in December where he and his hyper-adorable co-host, Ashley Adams, show you how to re-create the food and dri ... More >>

Know What: New L.A. Food Drink Apps

The Computer Age. The Digital Revolution. The Information Era. Many also say it's the Food Age. We're bombarded by facts and opinions on how, what and where to eat. How to choose? That's where technology helps by putting ideas into our hands, literally. More and more, travel and food guides are loo ... More >>

World Famous V.I.P. Records To Close

Long Beach shop helped foster the G-Funk era

Drake, Maroon 5 and Busta Rhymes - Google Music Launch Party - 11/16/11

Lina Lecaro ​See also: *Fuck Guilty Pleasures: Drake Is An Incredible Lyricist *Funky Homosapiens: The Best Rapper Names Of All Time "Today the climate changes!" proclaimed Busta Rhymes to a horde of Hollywood hipsteratti and actor/model types inside the gaudy, graffiti-swathed walls of stre ... More >>

Donald Glover: He Says Whatever He Wants

Countdown to Record Store Day: An Interview with RSD Co-Founder Michael Kurtz

​We've been looking forward to Record Store Day (or RSD) for awhile now. For one, it provides a welcome diversion for those of us not going to Coachella. Also, we are looking forward to all of the limited-edition vinyl releases, in-stores, and sales that come along with RSD. We keep hearing a ... More >>

The Day Captain Beefheart Outsold the Beatles, the Stones and Pink Floyd

Beatle Bones and Smokin' Stones: The Captain abides​It is a widely known (and kind of sick) fact of the music business that nothing helps sales of the back catalog of an artist like the death of said artist. The massive sales bump caused by people rushing to online (and occasionally also to b ... More >>

Daktronic's Futuristic 18-Foot Video Displays Will Convert L.A.'s Westfield Topanga Mall Into 'Digital Spectacular Network'

DaktronicsYou'll never have to shop alone again​No one ever claimed we built the Los Angeles mall-topia on rock 'n' roll (except maybe Hot Topic). But here to erase all remaining illusions of quaint grunge in our sprawling "city" is the self-proclaimed global leader in massive outdoor LED disp ... More >>

Weed Champion Wiz Khalifa Arrested for Possession: File Under "We Saw This Coming"

Do you think he's high?​Wiz Khalifa's finally famous. How else to explain his arrest after yet another sold-out show last night at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina? Around 10 PM PST, Twitter suddenly erupted with #freewiz trending nationwide, and rumors of the rapper bein ... More >>

I Will Drink Your Milkshake, Antoine Dodson: "Bed Intruder Song" Accidental Hitmaker Comes to West Hollywood, Peddles His Own Dairy Drink

"No, I will drink YOUR milkshake!"​Antoine Dodson is unstoppable. The "Bed Intruder Song" accidental hitmaker (check up the iTunes charts...) is really milking his 15 minutes of fame. And we mean milking. Attempting to steal the milkshake meme franchise from both Kelis and that mustache dude ... More >>

Tyra Banks Needs A General Manager For Her Santa Monica-Based Website: Bring Your 'A' Game

Demand MediaDon't you want to be Tyra's next to general manager?​Do you want to be America's next top web geek? Then has Tyra Banks got a job for you. Ms. Banks is looking for a general manager to run a new fashion-lifestyle website she's launching alongside the folks behind Demand Media, tha ... More >>

DJ Dan Gives Us This Week's TGIF DJ Mix

​L.A.s DJ Dan continues to be one of our favorite club DJs of all time. He's a one-man party starter whose loopy, up-tempo funk is hard for your good foot to ignore. This month he dives into the DJ podcast game with the first of what appears to be a regular series of free "Stereo Damage" mix ... More >>

Weezer's New Album Cover: Massive Win, Massive Fail, or Just Massive?

Happy Hurley: Weezer's cover boy​ This is the cover of Weezer's new album, Hurley, apparently named after a Lost character. (We don't know--we missed Lost. Looked kind of pointless.) What do you think? Does this make you pick up the CD? Or click on the iTunes thingie? Does it confuse you? Wou ... More >>

Top Ten Bizarre Facts About Ace of Base (They're Baaaaack!)

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the reggae-pop​True story: here at the West Coast Sound Headquarters we have a whiteboard where we write down story ideas and one of the items for a while has been "Sweden: WHY?" We're truly puzzled about all these Scandinavian acts that sing in ... More >>

I WAS A NERD BEFORE YOU WERE A NERD

A&R Star Makers: The Vanishing Gatekeepers

The once-powerful executives have become an endangered species

Vampire Weekend in Los Angeles: Ezra Koenig Talks Third Wave Ska, Song Construction, the Clash and California

Vampire Weekend spent much of late 2009 in and around Southern California. The New York four-piece, whose second album, Contra, comes out today, are gigging a sold-out show at the Fonda tonight, the biggest in a series of performances that it has done in Los Angeles since mid '09. For much of the fa ... More >>

Steal A Hollywood Scene -- For A Price

​This has got to be the ultimate film-lover's souvenir, and you can't buy one on Hollywood Boulevard. Rather, Paramount Pictures is rolling out a website where everyday movie fans will be able to edit and then buy and download a self-selected clip from their favorite Paramount flicks. The God ... More >>

Friends Of Friends releases Daedelus/Jogger Remixes EP; Download Nosaj Thing's Version (MP3)

​ Last March a brand new local imprint, Friends Of Friends Music, kicked things off with a conceptually cute first release. Label head Lazy Brow (Leeor Brown, also of independent music marketing group Terrorbird) wrangled beloved L.A. electronicist Daedelus as curator of Friends Of Friends Vo ... More >>

Rock 'n' Roll Manga 'Nana' Hits the iTunes Screen

Based on the comic "NANA" by Ai Yazawa originally serialized in "Cookie" published by SHUEISHA Inc. (C) Yazawa Manga Seisakusho / Shueisha (C) NTV / VAP / SHUEISHA / Madhouse Fans of the rock 'n' roll manga Nana will be interested to learn that the anime companion for Ai Yazawa's incredibly popular ... More >>

Nine Inch Nails iPhone App Rejected: Trent Reznor is Pissed, Posts E-Mail from Apple on NIN Forum

On May 2 Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor broke the news via Twitter that Apple had rejected the updated NIN iPhone app because it contained "objectionable content," specifically lyrics on the album The Downward Spiral. Needless to say, Reznor is pissed. After posting Apple's rejection e-mail on the NI ... More >>

LA People 2009: Heavy Metal’s Afterbirth — Steel Panther, the Band

Last Night: The Internet Wants to Be Free, But We Need to Get Paid - Dealmaker LA

Dear Internet, You broke media. Please fix. Thanks in advance, Everybody As eyeballs flock to the Internet without a reciprocal shift in advertising revenue, the online world is scrambling for a new business model that reflects the potential and reach of online marketing. As traditional medi ... More >>

H8ters L.A. Vacation: Fred Phelps’ Antigay Baptists Come Out on Oscar Night

California Is for H8ters: The Oscars' Anti-Gay Picketers

During his Oscar speech for winning the Best Actor award for Milk, Sean Penn pointedly attacked supporters of last November's victorious Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage in California:"For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight," Penn said, "I think that it is a good ti ... More >>

Jason Schwartzman of Coconut Records Picks His Top 5 Favorite Places in Los Angeles

Editor's note: Play welcomes actor and musician Jason Schwartzman on board as a guest blogger to share his top 5 favorite places in Los Angeles. Sure, you're all big fans of Rushmore and The Darjeeling Limited, but if you haven't checked out his band Coconut Records then consider it added to your t ... More >>

iPhone Wizards: Duo FInd Success Programming Apple i-Products

App yourself silly

Saturday night in Chinatown: M/R/X-Wolfpak Gets Wierd (sic)

Xeno & Oaklander live at M/R/X-Wolfpak, 3/01/08. (Photo and text by Liz Ohanesian) Pieter Schoolwerth, proprietor of Wierd Records and promoter of the Wednesday night New York City club of the same name, has some allies at L.A.’s Chinatown-based monthly party M/R/X-Wolfpak. Both follow a simil ... More >>

They Blinded Us With Scions: L.A. Riots Among Bands Entering Corporate Marriages

A car company recruits rising stars of the L.A. music scene to help sell autos. Who's buying?

Girl Talk: One Trick Pony, or 21st Century Steinski?

Girl Talk: One Trick Pony, or 21st Century Steinski? By Ian Cohen If you’re the kind of poor soul who watches the workday tick away at places like ilxor.com, June has been Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Tet and the Feast of Maximum Occupancy all rolled into one. Not only have we experienced the ... More >>

It's not the technology stupid!: Romantic & pragmatic thoughts on what consumers want from recorded music

CDs are kind of fucked, but so are radical new models of music consumption. The key to selling music is still not about convenience, price, or practicality. It is about obsession and possession and most of all object fetish.

The Kooks, Morning Benders, Troubadour, 2/7

The Kooks, Morning Benders, The Troubadour, February 7 It's been two years to the day that The Kooks' first (and so far only) album Inside In Inside Out came out in the States. Full of bouncy, fun pop songs, it faded away surprisingly fast, never gaining much traction beyond the people who listen ... More >>

Radiohead: Rainbows in Curved Air

The analog pleasures of Radiohead's digital revolution by Randall Roberts (Photo by John Spinks) There are a few different ways to get to Big Sur from Los Angeles, but in the big picture it doesn't matter which route you take, because regardless, you're leaving Los Angeles and going to Big Sur. You ... More >>

The 10 Best Local Albums Of 2007

10. Sea Wolf-Leaves in the River At times, Leaves In the River reads a little predictably quirky, but Alex Church's pop heart salvages this from being the effort of another accordian-toting, maritime metaphor-using copycat. The sound might not be the most original (I can't wait for Colin Meloy' ... More >>

L.A. Fashion Week Smackdown

Jared Gold’s runway spectacle competes with Smashbox shows as Bobby Trendy says he never took money for interviews about Anna Nicole Smith and disses Howard.

Totally Buzzed

The Bird and the Bee The Troubadour

Shootin' At The Walls of iTunes (bang bang)

I discovered a way around iTunes Music Store's 60s second samples— youtube. Yep, when you have the audial craving for a song— the whole song, you can just search it on youtube. While you may not find everything, it's amazing the videos you can unearth. It's like MTV circa Thriller. For e ... More >>

Microsoft Wants to Kill Your iPod, Summer Goes Pop!

Rebelde Without a Pause

Instant Rock for the People

With “Blue Orchid,”the White Stripes bring the rock the old-fashioned way: really fucking fast