Frank Zappa

The Mystery of Shuggie Otis

Gone for nearly four decades, the celebrated singer-songwriter is back. But where has he been?

Music Picks: The Weeknd, That '70s Soul, Power of the Riff

Chris Robinson: Rock Star Revisionist

Once a rock and roll cliché, the former Black Crowes frontman re-writes his character

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: Bowie Fest

KCRW Broadcast #192 for Saturday, December 1, 2012 See also: Henry Rollins: Coming to an End Fanatics! Here we go into December. A five Saturday month that allows for some serious concepting. I know I wrote you about our Bowie fest that we are about to start and so, tonight, we get to it. If yo ... More >>

Music Picks: Lauryn Hill, Bad Brains, Shuggie Otis

Danny Holloway, Music Industry Legend, Has the Nuts

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Danny Holloway owns as many stories as vinyl records: 50,000. Before our waiter at El Tepayec takes drink orders, he's already riffing on how he almost s ... More >>

Comedian Eric Andre Trained at Berklee and Had a Band Called Blarf

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Shortly after Eric Andre enrolled at the Berklee School of Music, he formed the band Blarf. The goal was to be the gonzo zygote of Frank Zappa and the Be ... More >>

Henry Diltz, the Man Who Shot The Doors

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Entering rock photographer Henry Diltz's North Hollywood house feels like stepping into Merlin's cottage, if the wizard carried a Canon rather than a cau ... More >>

Music Picks: As Blood Runs Black, Kelly Hogan, Regina Spektor

Also, Agalloch, Antibalas, Power of the Riff and others

Henry Rollins: The Column! Joey Ramone's Legacy Is in Danger

[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 have been listening to a record that is one of the strangest things I have heard in a long t ... More >>

Andrew W.K. - Avalon Theater - 3/8/12

See also: Our slideshow of Andrew W.K. with Math The Band Andrew W.K. with Math The Band Avalon Theater 3/8/12 Better than:...The sold-out 10-year anniversary show of Har Mar Superstar's Can You Feel Me?, which undoubtedly plays in Har Mar Superstar's mind every single day. Andrew W.K. isn't the ... More >>

Music Picks: Roberta Flack, Summer Twins, John Cage Centenary Festival

Also, Spindrift, Lenny Kravitz, Dorian Wood, Howlin Rain and others

Amoeba Music's 10th Anniversary: When You're Broke and Need a Fix, This Legendary Hollywood Store Has Had Your Back

Ted SoquiAmoeba Records: 10 years on Sunset Boulevard​"I just needed to get well," explains Frank Humphries, a 36-year-old punkabilly musician-turned-junkie who, since kicking the habit, works as an archaeologist. "My story is sad, but it's true. I used to have to take CDs and records to Am ... More >>

Mobile Venice Studio Jam in the Van Lures in A-List Talent

Abran Rubiner​In London, folks hold acoustic sessions in the back of a taxi. In New York, musicians play rock shows in the subway. But until now, to the best of our knowledge, no one was making any decent music in vans. But that's changed. Witness Jam in the Van rolling down the streets of V ... More >>

Music Picks: Amanda Palmer & Jason Webley, Tinariwen, Mastodon

Also: Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers, Danzig and others

Music Picks: Ravi Shankar, Marilyn Scott, Duran Duran, Burkina Electric

Also, Emmylou Harris & Her Red Dirt Boys, Odd Future, Gillian Welch and others

Simon Reynolds' Retromania: Critic Talks About Pop's Obsession with the Past and the Digiculture of Tomorrow

Courtesy of Simon ReynoldsThe cover of Retromania, released in May​ Isn't it ridiculous that it's now fair game to recycle the nineties and call your product retro? We've entered a phase where mashing up the sixties and the seventies is overdone -- now, the recent decades are up for grabs in t ... More >>

Music Picks: Alison Krauss, Flying Lotus, My Morning Jacket

Also, Jaga Jazzist, Kid Cudi, Baths and others

Kid Congo Powers: The Abrasive and the Beautiful

Ex Gun Club, Cramps guitarist revisits the early L.A. punk scene with Gorilla Rose

Music Picks: Julieta Venegas, Deicide, Yefim Bronfman, Chick Corea and Gary Burton

Also Conspiracy of Beards, Lykke Li, Khaira Arby and others

BRICK'S PICKS: A Special Kind of Madness

Over the Weekend: Pavement, Sonic Youth, No Age at the Hollywood Bowl, reviewed by Pulitzer-Prize winner Jonathan Gold!

Timothy NorrisSonic Youth's Kim Gordon at the Hollywood Bowl​ [For more exclusive photographs of this show, see Timothy Norris' slideshow "Pavement, Sonic Youth, No Age @ Hollywood Bowl"] Do the gods of programming have a sense of humor? Because Thursday night, three massive shows split the a ... More >>

Autolux: A Lot of Hours of Insanity and Escape

Theater Reviews: The True Story of Jack and the Beanstalk, They Call Me Mister Fry, Bones

Also Streep Tease: An Evening of Meryl Streep Monologues and more

The Madlib Mystique

An exclusive interview with underground hip-hop's most elusive producer

Residents Artist in Residence

Gary Panter Can't Stay Away from L.A.

Frank Zappa to Jack Kirby: "I Could Have Scored 'Star Wars'!"

The current issue of visually spiffy pop culture magazine Royal Flush has a really interesting interview with Ahmet Zappa, where he reveals details of his dad Frank's surprising friendship with legendary comics maverick Jack Kirby. (Yes, the LA Times blogged about this a month ago, but bear with us. ... More >>

Legendary LA Rock and Surf Pioneer Bob Keane (Del-Fi Records) Dies

You cannot write a history of LA music without mentioning Bob Keane, who died at 87 this past weekend. Though he was a young prodigy clarinetist and bandleader in the pre-rock era, Keane was not destined to make his contribution as a performer--as a discoverer, nurturer, and marketer of talent, howe ... More >>

GO LA: The Man Who Sold the Brangelina Air

Plus lots more to do, see and inhale in L.A., May 15-21

THIS NEW TOM WAITS BIO IS SO AUTHENTIC THE PAGES SMELL LIKE CHEAP GIN

LA Phil to Bring Together Kronos Quartet, Matmos, Terry Riley, Mike Einziger as Part of John Adams-curated West Coast: Left Coast Festival

Chart describing rough schedule of the Kronos Quartet, Matmos, Terry Riley, Mike Einziger concert at the Disney We recently had lunch with Johanna Rees and Lisa Bellamore from the LA Philharmonic, and over the course of the meal the two outlined the next half year of concerts at the Hollywood Bowl ... More >>

John Loder, the "ninth" member of Crass

With The National, I traveled to the never fashionable north London district of Wood Green to visit the home and studio of Southern’s founder John Loder, Crass's "ninth member," a producer when no one else would record them and a business partner when no one else would touch the results.

Theater Reviews: Sexy Laundry, Stupid Kids

Also, Frozen, Robots vs. Fake Robots

Faster Cynthia!! Kiln! Kiln!

What to do in Los Angeles this week

Good Vibrations

The American Cinematheque puts the “rock” back into Mods & Rockers

Yowza

Qui welcomes Uncle David to the fold

Theater Reviews

Including Billy Connolly Live, The Return of Brother Theodore and this week's pick, Atonement

Scott Morrow, 1958–2005

Where the Disconnect Happens

Poolside with Eric Bogosian

The Broken Pickle

In Nicholson Baker’s latest novel, two old friends talk about Iraq — and assassination

Changing Channels

John Frusciante’s brave new frequencies

Mean Genes

Sounds Different

Music way outside the box

License to Eel

E Writes the B-Sides

Watching the Detectives

How a couple of middle-aged P.I.'s and world-class raconteurs survived the DEA, the mob and the tabloid wars to take on their most elusive target yet -- Hollywood

Septic Infection

Stanton Warriors’ break-step-tococcus

Don ''Sugarcane'' Harris

1938 - 1999

Pink Champagne

Dewey Terry's rock & roll party

A Funky Epiphany

Bitter truths from the Crack Emcee

Changing Colors

The BellRays' Maximum Rock & Soul