England

Under-the-Radar Acts to See at Coachella

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Beware any tutorial about the "right way" to do Coachella. Stay sentient, steer clear of phosphorescent forms in spirit hoodies, drink water, and never m ... More >>

The Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Monday, February 25 The Residents EL REY THEATRE Somewhere between rock & roll's spiritual mystique and a distinctly unhinged surrealist pathology, you'll find the lair of bizarro-art-imitates-music tribe The Residents. Unprecedented, with no discernible frame of reference save for a magnificently ... More >>

Fake Food Detection: Scientists Use Lasers to Detect Counterfeit Food

It turns out that the everyday appearance of lasers in our lives isn't limited to corporate boardroom meetings and -- to our great annoyance -- on movie theater screens. If all goes according to plan for Dr. Damien Weidmann the head of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (a.k.a. RAL Space) in England ... More >>

Films That Should Be Nominated for Oscars But Won't Be: Our Complete List

See also: *Previous "We'd Like to Help the Academy" columns Perceived reality has a habit of becoming actual reality when it comes to the Academy Awards. It was with that in mind that we decided to funnel whatever influence we may have into "We'd Like to Help the Academy," an online column launched ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Monday, January 7 Feeding People THE ECHO Feeding People, who are in residency at the Echo this month, are barely weeks away from the February release of their second LP, Island Universe, and the few tracks out so far underscore exactly how cosmically one-of-a-kind this record will be. Universe so ... More >>

The Faculty LA: Where to Go For A Good Beer, Then A (Sacred Fools) Show

In most cities, when scripted well, grabbing a bite before a show makes for a satisfying, full evening, and if all goes well, by the final curtain call, you're ready for round two: dessert. In L.A., that pre-theater dinner agenda comes with a stressful, time-pinched commute. On a particularly bad tr ... More >>

Adam Ant Is No Longer a Goody Two Shoes

Adam Ant, the charismatic post-punk British pop star responsible for a generation of pirate shirts, returns to the U.S. after a long absence. Now 57, he's picked up more tattoos and a smoking habit since we saw him last; despite being battle scarred from years in the music business and recent bouts ... More >>

The 1997 Edition Was the Best MTV Video Music Awards

Tonight is the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards. Now in its 29th year, it's had its share of memorable moments, none more so than during the 1997 broadcast. On the occasion of its 15th anniversary, here's the case for why it was the best VMA's ever televised.

School's Out Forever

Who knew? Alice Cooper actually had a great time in high school

Top 5 Reasons Not to Eat Meat on Mondays

5. You work at the USDA (or maybe don't anymore): And thus got an internal memo last week, which helpfully pointed out that "one simple way to reduce your environmental impact while dining at our cafeterias is to participate in the 'Meatless Monday' initiative." (Meatless Mondays is a 2003 non-profi ... More >>

The Pianist of Willesden Lane

The Top 20 Whitest Musicians of All Time: 10-6

See also: *The Top 20 Whitest Musicians of All-Time: 20-16 *The Top 20 Whitest Musicians of All-Time: 15-11 *Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time 10. Eric Clapton Eric Clapton makes Jack White look like Son House. Dude tries so hard it's embarrassing. Kind of weird, considering his pithy quip to a Lond ... More >>

Bill German

Bill Morrison/Johann Johannsson

Is Rick Santorum Gay? New Study Says Homophobes May Dig the Same Sex

Do you hate gays and lesbians with all your heart and soul? We've got news for you: a new scientific report says you may actually have same-sex desires yourself. Does this mean that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is gay? Hmmmmmm... Conducted by a research team from the University o ... More >>

Henry Rollins: The Column! Rebelling in Sweet Home Alabama

[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 Saturday KCRW broadcast.] If you are a fan of American history, Alabama is a very interesting place. To say that a lot has ... More >>

Planet Dailies and Mixology101 Opens Today A Recipe for the Spicy Fifty

You've shopped the Grove till your brain can't tell boots from a bra. You've pushed your way through the Original Farmers Market too. Let's face it. You need a drink. Starting today, you can get it at Planet Dailies and Mixology101. You'll climb a long flight of stairs (let's hope you don't have ... More >>

Gorday Ramsay to Open The Fat Cow This Summer

We know this is a prime moment for carnivores, what with the nose-to-tail movement in full swing. But Gordan Ramsay's new restaurant, slated to open at The Grove this summer, may be taking our meat-obsession a little too far. It's called, drumroll please, The Fat Cow. This comes just as Mendocino F ... More >>

Henry Rollins: The Column! Alone in My Man Box, Listening to Al Green

[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 Saturday KCRW broadcast.] I came back to Los Angeles a few days ago with 32 shows behind me on this tour, in England, Ir ... More >>

Getty Museum Gets a New Director: Timothy Potts

Timothy Potts is the new director of the Getty Museum, and will begin the job on Sept. 1. Potts, a native of Sydney, Australia, has been director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, since January 2008. He also has been director of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and before ... More >>

Campaign to Ban the Word 'Awesome' Launched by L.A. Poet, Echo Park Bookstore

Local poet John Tottenham hates the word "awesome." Not in that passive, party-annoyed sense where he's like, please stop being so dull, you overstoked American, or there's a small possibility I'll float away and start talking to somebody else, soonish. Nope. Tottenham, who's an L.A. transplant fro ... More >>

Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, From Battling Buddhas to a Dinner Party at MOCA

If you have family in town for the holiday this weekend, try dashing over to Patrick Painter gallery in Santa Monica to a film of battling Buddhas or to Chinatown's The Company for an overly enthusiastic paintings show. You don't have to know art to enjoy, either. 5. A New Album Release, 40 Years ... More >>

John Travolta Denied Table at KFC

John Travolta stars as Terl in Battlefield Earth.​In this town, stories about John Travolta and food are as ubiquitous as threadbare casting couches and sitcoms about schlubby Neanderthals married to improbably hot women. Still, this tidbit should have a place of honor in the annals of Travolt ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Night + Market

Kris Yenbamroong mixes Thai with hip

Occupy L.A. Graphic Design: Six Awesome Signs From the Downtown Protest

Last weekend, along with thousands of other cyclists, I clambered off my bicycle at the intersection of 1st and Main, and joined the crowds surging through the Occupy Los Angeles campsite in a public park off City Hall. Occupy L.A. was just one stop on the CicLAvia route, so demonstrators, perhaps ... More >>

Why Should You Listen To Fool's Gold Rather Than "Real" African Artists?

Jesse Fleming​See also: Fool's Gold perform at FYF Fest, September 3, 2011 On their eponymous 2009 debut album, L.A.'s Fool's Gold -- who play the Troubadour tomorrow -- treated the indie-rock mob to a bubbling batch of jammy rock/pop liberally laced with African, Latin and other worldly spic ... More >>

Pulp Shakespeare

Q & A With Marco Pierre White: Escoffier, Television, Packaged Soup The French Foreign Legion

marcopierrewhite.orgMarco Pierre White in Afghanistan ​ It's probably safe to say that Marco Pierre White, the English chef who famously earned three Michelin stars at the age of 33 -- at the time the youngest chef ever to do so -- and just as famously gave them up six years later when he reti ... More >>

Jamie Oliver Films Tourism Video for Great Britain

​ It's hard to be tough on a guy who means so well. After crying his way to school lunch reform in West Virginia and Los Angeles, Jamie Oliver now invites us to Great Britain as part of the country's new "You're invited" tourism campaign . In the wake of newspaper scandals and city-wide riotin ... More >>

Tim Stanley, British Writer in California, Sees Lessons For London in L.A. Riots

Time​A third night of rioting around London had at least one British writer pondering the lessons of L.A's own unrest in 1965 and 1992. Writing in the

Total Bummer: Annual Amtrak Mooning in Laguna Beach Suffers from Crackdown (With Photos, NSFW)

Paul T. BradleyTake THAT, British archers, er, Amtrak...​ There's an annual Orange County wildlife spectacle rife with enough tradition, mystery, and lore to intrigue even the most seasoned of naturalists. Swallows be damned, we're actually talking about the Annual Mooning of the Amtrak in La ... More >>

Mildred Baena and Schwarzenegger's Love Child, Joseph, Upon Learning His Dad Was the Terminator: 'Cool!'

Hello MagazinePhoto shoot!​Of all possible media outlets, Schwarzenegger mistress Mildred "Patty" Baena has chosen to speak with England's Hello Magazine for her much-anticipated coming-out interview. (She's been hiding out since news of her love child with the former California governor broke ... More >>

The Royal Wedding Crass Commercialism: Commemorative Plates, Throne Up Bags Pieminister Pies

PieministerKate and Wills pie​ The British do so many things better than us: Table manners, diction, the drug-addled teens-gone-wild television series, Skins. One thing we can beat them at hands down? Pop culture exploitation. Here, something as minor as Charlie Sheen losing his mind happens a ... More >>

Countdown to Records Store Day: We Found Sasha Grey's Favorite Record Store!

​ Wombleton Records sells an amazing collection of rare- and not-so-rare imports--though its stated mission is to further cultural exchange between Los Angeles and Glasgow, it does all that and more carrying everything from Suzy Quattro and Zounds LP's to original pressings of Dutch freakbeat ... More >>

Ten European Artists You Should Have Heard By Now

Parisian rapper Rohff​In the States, it's easy to be stuck in the bubble of our domestic music. Sadly, many European artists have a difficult time breaking into the North American market. Often, this stems from the language barrier, but it can also be due to the straight-up oddball nature of t ... More >>

Page Two: Gypsy Revivalism Is Not All Washed Up

Top 5 Most Under-Appreciated Indie Albums of the Year

Top 5 Most Under-Appreciated Albums of the Year

Doritos Invade Britain: Or UFO's Shaped Like Them

Daily Mailan object over Wales ​ If you wanted another sign that we're all eating far, far too much junk food, consider this story from Britain's Daily Mail. There have been many UFO sightings, it seems, in the English Midlands: at least three in the last three years. But what is perhaps more ... More >>

Talking Books Keep Visually Impaired Veterans Happy and Engaged

World War II veteran Peter Hobbs has listened to 630 talking books​ Vision impairment have become an increasingly common health problem among US military troops, 158,000 of whom are currently visually impaired or have poor vision. Such eye ailments make it close to impossible to enjoy activi ... More >>

Top 10 Men With Salad Names

Recently, we brought you Top 10 Men With Meat Names, culled from an online collection of men who share their names with different kinds of animal flesh. It got us thinking, though -- what about all those gentlemen with vegetables for last names? Where was that amusing website designed exclusively f ... More >>

Music Picks: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Bridget St. John, Bad Astronaut, Kings of Leon

Also, Lilith 2010, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Smokey Robinson, Antibalas and others

Mac's Headroom

We have seen the future of macaroni 'n' cheese, and its name is Mac & Cheeza

Bauhaus' David J. Wants To Be Your Wedding DJ (When Not Busy Helping Buddies Black Francis and Alan Moore)

Jenine De Shazer/www.davidjonline.com​Hey brides! We know you've been preparing your wedding for over a year, that everything is just like you imagined through your princessy girlhood, and that you've successfully altered yourself so you don't have to alter the Vera Wang. Still, wanna make you ... More >>

WHY ARE BRITISH PEOPLE WHO MOVE HERE SO ARROGANT? DISCUSS.

Pope Joan

Physical Graffiti

1001

Snake in the Grass

A Swish Best Served Cold

Hot and bothered over red wine protocol

Creme Brulee

And the sweetness of selling out