Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Fanatics! What October Means to Me

RADIO BROADCAST #236 10-06-13 See also: Henry Rollins: The Essence of Punk Rock Fanatics! Welcome to October! My favorite month of the year. I did something very Fanatic for all four of our dreary Sunday night get-togethers this month: I worked on them all at once! I must admit to being extremely ... More >>

Two New Bars: The Warwick in Hollywood and Honeycut Downtown

If Los Angeles nightlife was redefined every time a bar opened that said it was "set to redefine L.A. nightlife," we would have a very confused bar scene indeed. That said, two new bars are opening in October that aim pretty high in the game of redefining, whatever that means.

Henry Rollins: The Essence of Punk Rock

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Sunday KCRW broadcast.] See also: Henry Rollins: Decoding Vladimir Putin Several nights ago, I went to the Echo to see L ... More >>

Slash Explains How He Became a Horror Movie Producer

Slash, the wild-haired guitarist who has played with everyone from Michael Jackson to Fergie to Iggy Pop, knew the perfect name for his new horror production company: Slasher Films. There was only one problem. He hates slasher films. "I'm not into violence," he insists. But he's no wimp. Born in Lon ... More >>

Five Dance Shows to See in L.A. This Week, Including the Furious Beauty of Street Dance

This week's dance events also include Australian dancers under the "Weather," middle eastern dance, choreography in an art gallery and more flamenco.

RZA Headlines L.A. Weekly's Bedrocktoberfest: Here's Our Interview

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] There's no musical comparison to interviewing RZA. Having a conversation with the Wu-Tang abbot is closer to interviewing the Dalai Lama, if the Dalai La ... More >>

Quit Acting Like This Jacket Is a Big Hairy Deal

Check out this jacket. It's, like, authentic punk shit. Urban Outfitters made one -- only one, and it hasn't been purchased yet. It's $375. It's making people mad and sarcastic. But those who think this jacket represents the apocalypse need to get over it, specifically those who think they're som ... More >>

Gene Hoglan on The Early Days of L.A. Thrash Metal

Gene Hoglan is one of the most in-demand drummers in metal. The virtuoso is currently juggling duties in animated metal greats Dethklok and Bay Area thrashers Testament, along with pinch-hitting gigs when other metal greats are in a bind. His drumming style is a dizzying blend of maximum speed and p ... More >>

Is Britney Spears a Next Level Gay Icon?

By Brittany Spanos Britney Spears' new song "Work Bitch" debuted recently, and she also announced her upcoming two year residency in Las Vegas. The single, helmed by an EDM heavyweight, is in the vein of her will.i.am collaboration "Scream & Shout," but not what we once expected from the pop star ... More >>

The Life and Death of Rapper Kevin "Flipside" White

By Jake Paine Around 7:30pm this past Monday evening, rapper Kevin "Flipside" White was shot dead in what is believed to be an unprovoked attack during a gang conflict at Watts' Nickerson Gardens and Jordan Downs housing projects. Flipside was a founding member of Watts' first major label hip hop ... More >>

The Beach Ball: Reggae Fest - Santa Monica Pier - 9/22/13

The Beach Ball: Reggae Fest Santa Monica Pier 9/22/2013 This past weekend marked the inaugural Beach Ball Soul Revue and Reggae Fest, held at Santa Monica Pier and hosted by L.A. radio station KCRW, Rum & Humble and Spaceland Presents. We weren't able to make it out for the Soul Revue on Saturday, ... More >>

A Kick-Ass DIY Metal Booking Agency

As usual, Ryan Avery had a hundred other things to worry about that night. He had booked two touring sludge bands at a small venue in downtown L.A. All night the bartender was rude to audience members trying to buy drinks, loudly complaining about the quality of the bands. Then the bouncer, who had ... More >>

Five Dance Shows to See in L.A. This Week, Including Radar L.A.

This week's dance events include melodramatic ballroom dancers and a young man searching for stardust via e-mail. 5. Ballroom's power couple before Fred & Ginger Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' classic 1939 film biography, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, continues to introduce new generation ... More >>

Low End Theory's Nobody Does Not Give a Damn

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] "If you set yourself up as the 'I don't give a fuck guy,' you can do whatever you want." This is Nobody explaining the creative left hooks of his singul ... More >>

No, Seriously: My Musical Taste Was Shaped By Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto changed my life. Not because the games got me robbing, stabbing, and running over prostitutes, but because, as a 20-year-old guy, it has directly shaped my musical taste. The latest game in the series, Grand Theft Auto V, drops today and takes place in a fictionalized version of L. ... More >>

Iron Maiden and Megadeth - San Manuel Amphitheater - September 13, 2013

Iron Maiden, Megadeth, and others San Manuel Amphitheater September 13, 2013 Better Than: Commemorating the day by playing the shitty NES game, Friday The 13th. Some of our fondest live metal memories have occurred in basements, garages, and even sushi restaurants. But for our money, there is stil ... More >>

Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson Is Brewing Beer and Fixing Up Airplanes

Legendary British metallers Iron Maiden return to Southern California tomorrow, headlining San Manuel Amphitheater with Megadeth, Anthrax, and Testament. Now 35 years into their career, they continue to transcend the heavy metal scene. From a tour stop last week in St. Louis, Iron Maiden vocalist ... More >>

Music Picks: Mad Decent Block Party, Weeknd, Cold War Kids

Pericles and The Miss Julie Dream Project: Sort-of Shakespeare, and Sort-of Strindberg

What Happens When You Read Poetry on the L.A. Metro?

At Union Station on the Gold Line platform this past Saturday, the commuters and sojourners of the Los Angeles weekend are greeted by the unfamiliar sound of...poets. A group of men and women -- all ages and ethnicities -- are reading lines in Spanish and English, blaring out their tropes into the a ... More >>

Rock the Bells - San Manuel Amphitheater - Sept 7 & 8, 2013

Rock the Bells Hip-Hop Festival San Manuel Amphitheater 9/7/13 - 9/8/13 This weekend was the 10th anniversary of hip-hop festival Rock the Bells. Anticipated for its reunions, game changing new artists, and ODB and Eazy-E holograms, it was two days for hip-hop fans and artists to connect. Still, we ... More >>

The Best Concerts to See in L.A. This Weekend

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Friday, September 6 Anticon 15th-Anniversary Party featuring Baths, Daedelus, Doseone, et al. ECHOPLEX Tip your hat to 15 years of Anticon greatness: The label/collective founded by Oakland's Adam "Doseone" Drucker has champ ... More >>

Five Dance Shows to See This Week, Including Home Invasion Dance and the Last Summer Dance Festival

This week's dance events include Regina Klenjoski's troupe performing on its own and a Korean street dance hit arriving stateside. See also: *5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week *Our Latest Theater Reviews *Our Calendar Section, Listing More Great Things to Do in L.A. 5. Seoul Dance Classical ... More >>

The Best Los Angeles Metal Shows To See In September

Friday, September 13 Iron Maiden San Manuel Amphitheatre For many months, "The Battle of San Bernardino" has been the most hotly anticipated metal concert of the summer. The undercard of thrash titans Megadeth, Anthrax and Testament is mighty impressive, but the main reason 45,000 metalheads are mak ... More >>

The Best Concerts to See in L.A. This Weekend

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Friday, August 30 Danzig, Doyle, Cherie Currie GIBSON AMPHITHEATRE If there's anyone who has a right to strip-mine his own past, it's Glenn Danzig. Although there's a group of ex-sidemen and stand-ins currently touring under ... More >>

Top 20 Hardcore Albums in History: Complete List

By 1980, the writing was on the wall: Punk rock might have been making headlines, but it wasn't moving units. The industry responded with the skinny tie bands, retroactively labeled New Wave, a safer, more accessible take on the back-to-basics energy of punk. The street reacted by buzzing its collec ... More >>

Sorting Through Sam Francis' Paintings at the Pasadena Museum of California Art

Watch This Now: Stephen Colbert on the Fast Food Workers Strike

Today, employees at your local fast food establishment are going on strike to demand the right to unionize and to be paid something substantially more than the minimum wage. Because, Neil Cavuto, what was yesterday's summer job to support a bubble gum habit has become today's full-time job to suppor ... More >>

Red

Bob Baker's It's a Musical World!

Top 20 Hardcore Albums in History: 10-1

By 1980, the writing was on the wall: Punk rock might have been making headlines, but it wasn't moving units. The industry responded with the skinny tie bands, retroactively labeled New Wave, a safer, more accessible take on the back-to-basics energy of punk. The street reacted by buzzing its collec ... More >>

#LAWebAwards: The 2013 Winners List

The Internet just won't stand still. A few years ago it was all about Facebook and Twitter. Then Pinterest, then GIFs. Now we're all taking a crash course in something called Vine. Oh, and did you hear MySpace is back — and Yahoo is beating Google? But as online life continues to evolve, the ... More >>

James Franco's Comedy Central Roast: The Highlights

Last night, James Franco was the guest of dishonor at the Comedy Central Roast of James Franco (airing Labor Day) at Culver Studios in Culver City. The network normally roasts celebs who've become pop culture punch lines, like Charlie Sheen, Joan Rivers, Donald Trump and David Hasselhoff. Sure, Fran ... More >>

The 10 Worst Post-Grunge Bands

By Adam Steininger In the wake of the showerless grunge era of the early '90s, a slew of post-grunge bands emerged with diluted, watered-down ditties, all seemingly revolving around suffering through romance. It's not that these bands were bad, it's just that their music was bad.

Move Over, Oprah: A Guide to L.A.'s Public Book Clubs

"This is not your Mom's book club," declared Diana Gettinger. "We drink. It's noisy." Gettinger, an actress and writer, is also the director of the Spare Room Book Club, which takes place at the Spare Room bar in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The drinks are created specifically for the event by m ... More >>

KPCC's Bill Davis Not Reelected to NPR Board of Directors

Updated at the bottom with a lengthy response from Davis, including his disagreement with a few of the assertions presented in our piece. First posted at 4:32 p.m. Bill Davis, president and CEO of Southern California Public Radio, which includes public radio station KPCC (89.3 FM), was not reelecte ... More >>

El Grande de Coca Cola and the Groundlings' Latest Show Bring Vaudeville to 2013

Stromberg's Fake Banksy Mural Goes Viral

L.A. gets so giddy over street art these days that the possibility of a new Banksy mural gracing our fair city went positively viral in recent days. Of course, in Hollywood, everything is not as it seems. This Banksy is a fraud! The New York Times got the scoop last night, with none other than the ... More >>

Five Dance Shows to See in L.A. This Week, Including Ballet Celebrating the British Invasion

This week's dance events also include a festival that mixes things up and a celebration of the British musical invasion. 5. It's for arts presenters, but the public can come too. The Western Arts Alliance, an association of performing arts presenters, are meeting in L.A. this week and local dance c ... More >>

British Invasion

Miguel Joya R.I.P.: Benefit Show For His Family On Saturday

Though he'd never met Miguel Joya, Al De La Riva was often mistaken for him. Random women would come up and hug De La Riva -- a 28-year-old veteran of the East Los Angeles backyard scene -- and guys would put him in headlocks, thinking he was Joya, who sang in local d-beat band Exocet. De La Riva a ... More >>

The Only Music That Makes Them Dance

Banksy Mural Ripped From L.A. Gas Station Could Be Worth $300K

A Banksy mural painted at a gas station near Hancock Park will go up for auction in winter, Julien's Auctions of Beverly Hills announced this week. The piece, titled "Flower Girl," was painted in 2008. Julien's notes in a statement that a Banksy piece titled "Slave Labor" recently sold at auction f ... More >>

Top 10 L.A. Hip-Hop Producers in History

For better or worse, L.A. hip-hop is strongly identified with gangsta rap, and that genre is mostly identified with its rappers and their outsized personas. But the classic Los Angeles albums wouldn't be what they are without the incredible sonic textures that define them, the funk, electro, rock, a ... More >>

Funk Volume: Valley-Based Rap Label Builds an Independent Empire

Seeing Stars

Chicken Delight

The Best Concerts to See In L.A. This Week

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Monday, August 5 The Janks, The Herbert Bail Orchestra THE SATELLITE The Herbert Bail Orchestra's lead singer and guitarist Anthony Frattolillo credits his mentor, Juan, a janitor and apparent musical genius from Chile, for ... More >>

Star-Crossed Hoofers

Super Old Songs About L.A. Are What's Up

Before Tupac vowed to live and die in L.A. there was "Angeltown" a wistful ballad that was considered by some to be the official anthem of Los Angeles. It was written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans in 1959. This track will be resurrected on August 2nd when multicultural fusion band Ozomatli -- wh ... More >>