Crystal Castles

Hard Summer 2013 Lineup Announced

This year's lineup for Hard Summer is out. Headliners include Knife Party, Duck Sauce, Dog Blood (ie Skrillex and Boys Noize), and Bassnectar See also: Our Hard 2012 slideshow This sixth annual edition of the two-day, EDM-focused festival takes place in downtown's Los Angeles State Historic Park ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: Brand New Thee Oh Sees' Album

KCRW Broadcast #177 for Saturday, August 11, 2012 See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! Some Music Really Does Suck Fanatics! In Scotland tonight. Getting ready for night #2 at the Edinburgh Festival. I will fly on Saturday back to Los Angeles in time to grab my gear and hit the road for KCRW, so ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: African Music

KCRW Broadcast #165 for Saturday, May 19, 2012 See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! Advice From Diamond Dave Fanatics! Hello from Cape Town! Before we go any further, I want to say that hours ago, I read about the passing of Chuck Brown, the legendary Washington DC musician, the founding father of ... More >>

Backwards Beekeepers, L.A.'s Bee Rescue Service

​ Modern talk of bees tends to dwell on their deficiencies more than their benefits. Colony Collapse Disorder. Fatal bee-sting allergies. Killer bees both Africanized and Saturday Night Live. But honey is a food that keeps indefinitely, much like the Metro trains that buzz incessantly on this ... More >>

Music Picks: Los Lobos, Lord Huron, Calculator, Exmortus

Also, Yes, Styx, the Naked and Famous and others

Coachella 2011: 5 Reasons Nosaj Thing May Be the Next Flying Lotus

Coachella 2011: 5 Reasons Nosaj Thing is the Next Flying Lotus

Music Picks: Coachella, Girls in Trouble, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Paul Simon

Also, Mary Anne Hobbs, Yoni Wolf, Emmylou Harris and others

Dance at Coachella: Where (and How)

Your best dance choices if you are ...

The Column!: Stay Hungry (for Music)

Henry Rollins: The Column! Rollins on How You Need to Stay Hungry for New Music (And How Much He Digs Marnie Stern, Dax Riggs, Crystal Castles, etc.!)

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 Wednesday and make sure to tune in to Henry's KCRW radio show every Saturday ... More >>

Coachella Lineup Announced: We Told You Odd Future Was in There!

​This is the official press release: Coachella 2011. Music. Art. Culture. Community. With the Coachella line-up announcement serving as the official kick-off to the annual U.S. festival season, festival organizers Goldenvoice can now reveal details for the 2011 Coachella Valley Music & Art ... More >>

NIGHTRANGER: FACES & PLACES

Franki Chan Talks Check Yo' Ponytail, Steve Aoki, and The End of Electro

Lina Lecaro The "final" Check Yo with Erol Alkan at the Echoplex 2 years ago. ​In our years covering the popular dance party Check Yo' Ponytail (which started at the now-defunct Safari Sam's) we always felt the best thing about it was the mix of patrons: from ironic indie rockers to day-glo-ga ... More >>

Hanoi Henry: Henry Rollins Grooves to Funkadelic in Ho Chi Minh City, Bears Witness to the Still Open Wounds of America's Most Controversial War and Broadcasts Straight Outta Vietnam's Busy Streets

Maura LanahanOur eminent columnist, Mr. Henry Rollins!​[The one and only Henry Rollins will be contributing 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 Friday and make sure to tune ... More >>

Stoner Dreams: "Dude You Have No Quran" Gets Autotuned, High Times Article

Stoner Dreams: Koran BBQ Hero Gets Autotune Treatment, High Times Article

This Weekend: HARD Summer, Silversun Pickups, Weezer, New L.A. Folk Festival, Power of the Riff festival

Soulwax​The two most pressing questions about Saturday's HARD Summer in downtown Los Angeles have nothing to do with quality. With Soulwax, Crystal Castles and Major Lazer topping a bill that includes the likes of Flying Lotus and Diplo, promoter Gary Richards has assembled the kind of dance ... More >>

M.I.A.-Headlined HARD LA Festival Has Been Cancelled, Some Acts to Be Rescheduled for August 7th (UPDATE: Not M.I.A.)

​[UPDATE: HARD fest publicists are confirming that M.I.A. will not be playing the August 7th date.] The publicists for next weekend's HARD LA festival have released the following statement: Due to events beyond our control, HARD LA M.I.A. July 17 has been cancelled. Thanks to the continued ... More >>

Low Ticket Sales Most Likely Reason for HARD LA M.I.A. Cancellation

Star ForemanFlying Lotus: one of the acts canceled with HARD LA M.I.A.​Though the LA Times incorrectly cited "security concerns" earlier today, several sources have indicated that low tickets sales were behind the surprising cancellation of the HARD LA festival that M.I.A. was supposed to head ... More >>

MP3 Exclusive: Tobacco's Decayed Remix of HEALTH's 'Die Slow'

HEALTH, pre-remix​On June 22, L.A. noise terrorists HEALTH will release their second remix collection, DISCO2. The full-length compilation is set to feature the already leaked new song "USA Boys," along with songs from 2009's frighteningly good GET COLOR LP reinterpreted by buzzworthy electro ... More >>

Flashback 2008: New Health Video by Eric Wareheim and Crystal Castles to release vinyl-only single

Flashback 2008: New Health Video by Eric Wareheim and Crystal Castles to release vinyl-only single

Music Picks: Liz Pappademas, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Mad Professor, Bill Frisell

Also, Taylor Swift, Los Tres, Saint Motel, David Allan Coe and others

Tour Diary, Part 3: On Blast Take the Stage at the Goliath Festival in Mexico City

Editor's note: Two weekends ago writer Ryan Ritchie traveled with Long Beach band On Blast as they gigged at the debut of the annual Goliath Festival in Mexico City. He submitted a report on the gig, which West Coast Sound has been running in installments this week. What follows is the final chapte ... More >>

Tour Diary: Long Beach's On Blast Gigs Mexico City's Goliath Festival [MP3]

Editor's note: Two weekends ago writer Ryan Ritchie traveled with Long Beach band On Blast as they gigged at the debut of the annual Goliath Festival in Mexico City. He submitted a report on the gig, which West Coast Sound will be running in installments this week. What follows is part one. Ryan R ... More >>

Free Crystal Castles & Neon Indian Show Thursday

Free Crystal Castles & Neon Indian Show Thursday

Blood on the Dance Floor

Disco Bloodbath: LA's Freakiest, Creepiest, Trashiest Themed Halloween Dance Parties

​The clock is ticking, and even if you don't have a (clever) costume yet, it's time to brave your social fear and figure out what the Hell you're gonna do this Halloween weekend. As far as dance dens go, pretty much everything bubbling this weekend will have a creep factor (more than usual in ... More >>

Larry Tee Talks: 'L.A. Has a Better Club Scene Than New York'

Larry Tee has floated through contemporary club history like Forrest Gump on ecstasy, seemingly everywhere you'd want to be. Growing up in Atlanta, he hung out with R.E.M. and co-wrote fellow Atlantan Ru Paul's 1992 hit "Supermodel (You Better Work)." In 1990s New York he became a DJ on the club kid ... More >>

HEALTH: Color-Coded

L.A. noiseniks reveal the hidden inspirations behind their remarkable new album

Bittersweet Photos of Fans Getting Ready for Hard Summer -- Before It Died

LA Weekly photographer Timothy Norris was at Hard Fest last night shooting the scene. He got some great photos of people gearing up for the party -- before the fire marshal and the Inglewood police department, after witnessing the chaos of the crowd control (or, allegedly, lack thereof), decided to ... More >>

ROCK PICKS: Black Francis, Bob Dylan, Caroline Weeks, Casiokids

Also, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, The Dodos, Buddy Guy and others

Coachella Friday Set Times Leaked? Are These Real?

Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk. The Coachella message board lit up this morning when someone posted a pretty convincing list of Friday set times, one of the last big secrets the festival reveals. For those of us going, the set times are obviously important because they dictate what we'll be missing, w ... More >>

New HEALTH 7": "Die Slow" Underscores the Hidden Power of Rave Sounds

The e-tards understood something that many of us long forget in the haze of the rave life: that freaky dumb synthesized noises played at full volume and with great intensity SOUND REALLY AMAZING.

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 >>

Coachella Rumor Mill Works Overtime, but the Confirmations Continue to Trickle In

(Michel Gondry's video for the Chemical Brothers' "Let Forever Be.") Here's a list of "confirmed" (so far) acts to appear at Coachella 2009, according to the very reliable Monklish blog. His guarantee: "I've been told that these have been making arrangements to attend the festival as contractuall ... More >>

Coachella 2009 Speculation Begins: Confirmations Start Trickling, Rumors Swirl. The Smiths? Pavement? Dexy's Midnight Runners?

No, dummy, we made the Dexy's rumor up. But a few names are starting to trickle out re: Coachella 2009, which runs from April 17 to April 19. The Consequence of Sound blog has a pretty extensive rundown of confirmations it has gathered from culling MySpace pages and band tour dates, and a decent ... More >>

Pacific Heights: L.A. Weekly's Top 10 L.A. Recordings of 2008

No Age, Chapin Sisters, Mia Doi Todd, the Knux, Flying Lotus, Madlib and more

Party Review: HARD's Haunted Mansion surprises with ... Daft Punk!?

All photos by Timothy Norris The buzz preceding the HARD Haunted Mansion party on Halloween night was that the surprise special guest was Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk. I was skeptical, but HARD’s sold-out event had grown from a very impressive dance show to a huge mega-dance fest in the past mo ... More >>

Over the Weekend: HARD Haunted Mansion, Dia De Los Muertos, Children of the Candy Corn, West Hollywood Carnaval, LACMA Costume Ball

Lucky for us, Halloween fell on Friday this year so we could fully indulge without having to worry about crawling into work the next day dressed in the tattered remains of a sexy bee costume. There were too many events and parties this weekend to count and keeping up required more stamina than Red B ... More >>

Rock Picks: Orphics, Roky Erickson, Madonna

Also, Linda Ronstadt, Rise Against and more

The 10 Best Non Hip-Hop Albums of the Half Year

Image Via Natalie Dee In case, you were wondering, I do have a pair of boombox pants and yes, they're quite comfortable. 10. King Khan & The Shrines-The Supreme Genius Of.... (tie) If my review of Khan's Pitchfork Fest set didn't convince you, this interview that ran today should seal the ... More >>

Weiss' Muxtapes #5 and #6: The Best "Indie" Songs To Get An Asymmetrical Haircut To (2008 Edition)

I won't deny it. Things started spiraling rapidly downhill the moment I started compiling mixtapes of my favorite non-hip hop songs released this year. Vampire Weekend? Santogold? Hercules & The Love Affair? I kind of wanted to kick my own ass or at the very least give myself a wedgie. Of cour ... More >>

Crystal Castles: Not Total Hipster Bullshit

You'll have to forgive me this one. I know I'm late. Ian Cohen tossed a 7.8 to Crystal Castles' in his Pitchfork review of their eponymous debut back in March and the blogosphere had been incessantly buzzing about the Toronto duo of Ethan Kath and Alice Glass for well over a year prior. But dance ... More >>

Trance-a-licious at the Shrine; Local Heroes Warehouse Shindig

Portishead mow us down

Portishead's newly unveiled song, "Machine Gun," rubs your face in change. The mood has shifted from something sexy to something claustrophobic, industrial -- it's dark as in deadly rather than dark as in Eliot Spitzer.

Rock Picks: New York Dolls, Lizz Wright, Brother Ali

And other March 6-13 shows

Health Brings Nutritious Noise

Better minds and bodies

Rock Picks

For the week of May 24-31

Rock Picks

For the week of March 15 - 22