Freddie Mercury

The Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Monday, January 21 Baron von Luxxury, Yellow Alex, Yung Skeeter THE SATELLITE Electro-pop comes in splendiferous shapes and sizes. And Baron von Luxxury brings the wicked-wit version, in which DeBarge, ELO, Hall & Oates and other formerly uncool '80s soul stylists float through the disco in super-s ... More >>

Music Picks: FIDLAR, Muse and Lady Gaga

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 >>

Music Picks: Lord Huron, Matthewdavid, Smell 15th Anniversary Party

Freddie's Not Dead

Skrillex's 'First of the Year': Why This Song Sucks

[Editor's note: Why This Song Sucks determines why particular tracks blow using science. It appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] Song: Skrillex's "First of the Year" History: There were some remarkable musical things happening in London right around the beginning of this century and a guy ... More >>

There's A Girl Who Looks Like Adele On My Sons' YMCA Basketball Team, And I Hate Her

My son Bay, point guard​See also: Mama, I Don't Want To Die! My Four-Year-Old Identifies With Freddie Mercury There's this 5-year-old girl that I know. Her name is A. And she's the fucking worst. I know her because Bay and Meechy, my twin 4-year-old sons, are on the same YMCA basketball tea ... More >>

Mama, I Don't Want to Die! My 4-Year-Old Identifies With Freddie Mercury

I have twin 4-year-old sons. They have normal names, but I mostly call them Bay and Meechy. I tried to explain to them how they earned those nicknames once. It took a good three minutes (the names' origins are vaguely associated to The Wire and the Black Mafia Family, naturally). As soon as I was do ... More >>

Best Cinematic Mashup

Ten Groups Who Never Should Have Gotten Back Together

Beware fellas, bad things may be coming your way​On New Year's Eve 2009, Chris Cornell made a Twitter declaration: "School's back in session." The implication was that Soundgarden was reuniting. However, it took several months for the official announcement. The grunge pioneers would be putting ... More >>

RIP Anal Cunt's Seth Putnam: I Like It When You Die?

In the bad old days of the '80s and '90s - when the internet was only for nerds and the military - there were desperately few ways to discover subversive culture. Music magazines and newspapers weren't the most illuminating sources of information for anything beyond than the gentle fields of "alte ... More >>

Day 1: Coachella's GOODs, BADs and UGLYs (featuring Paul McCartney, Black Keys, Chemical Brothers and Craigslist)

Colin Young-Wolff​ Compared to last year's problems with wristbands and overcrowding, the first day of Coachella 2011 was smooth sailing. Greasy even. Let's take a look at yesterday's GOODs, BADs and UGLYs.

Music Picks: She Wants Revenge, Nilbog, Lady Gaga

Also, Men, Ice Cube, OMD, the Aussie BBQ and others

The Black Rap Bart Simpson Returns: Fresno's Fashwan Drops New J. Cole-Featuring Mixtape

​Fresno rap up-and-comer and local pot promoter (hey, bruh, keep the green in Grizzly City), Fashawn has just dropped a new mixtape/free album via XXL Magazine. You should cop it, if only to hear what a black Bart Simpson sounds like rapping. (We actually think Fash owes West Coast Sound some ... More >>

EXCLUSIVE: FYF's Sean Carlson On L.A. Scavenger Hunt's Fabulous Prizes, Fabulous Charity Donations

fyf's sean carlson and keith morris​ FYF Fest promoter Sean Carlson's L.A. Scavenger Hunt turns a bizarre list of items--like life-size cut-outs of Freddie Mercury--into charity goodness for downtown's Union Rescue Mission and the L.A. Food Bank almost every year. So if you're the guy wonderi ... More >>

Across the Universe: Reznor Previews 'Social Network' Soundtrack, Vanilla Ice Hawks Houses, 'Borat' Star to Play Freddie Mercury

Across the Universe: Reznor Previews 'Social Network' Soundtrack, Vanilla Ice Hawks Houses, 'Borat' Star to Play Freddie Mercury

Queen Guitarist and Astrophysicist Brian May to Present 19th Century Stereoscopic Imagery

Queen Guitarist and Astrophysicist Brian May to Present 19th Century Stereoscopic Imagery

Today in WTF: Meat Loaf To Plug Bizarre Concept Album on Shopping Network QVC

billboard.comJesus Christ Super Meatloaf​The Baron of Bombast himself is back (back again, that is--he's back twice a decade)! A few weeks ago Meat Loaf released a new single, with the unfortunate title "Los Angeloser," which could be the stupidest West Coast song title since the Red Hot Chil ... More >>

Men Across America Are Growing Facial Hair For 'Moustache May'

​May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. It's when workers reflect on their rights. And some Americans even, er, reflect on themselves during this fine spring month. But most importantly, this is "Moustache May," a time not only to celebrate a fine stache, but an excuse to grown one as w ... More >>

Rock Picks: Daedelus, Beth Thornley, Yeasayer

Also, Ohioan, Hepcat, Vivian Girls and others

The Muppets Got It Right: Ten Great Freddie Mercury and Queen Moments

Every once in a while something happens that brings a band back to the surface, makes us reevaluate them and prompts us to scratch our heads and wonder, "Why now?" Take Queen. Their influence is all over Adam Lambert's new album, from the production and layered vocals to Lambert's slicked-back leath ... More >>

The Royal Family Album: Queen Gets Definitive Photo Bio

​Here's a Christmas gift for Queen fans that you can't stuff into a stocking. Though there's a never a shortage of Queen books out there, Phil Sutcliffe's hefty, just-released Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History of The Crown Kings of Rock (Voyageur Press) features more than 500 eye-poppin ... More >>

Countdown to LAMBERTGEDDON! (Day 13): Send More Fan Art! ( fun Lamberfact!)

Candis"Hot Pocket," Fan Art by Candis​Like regular Casey Kasems, we continue our COUNTDOWN TO LAMBERTGEDDON!, i.e., the earth-shattering November 23rd release of For Your Entertainment, the debut album by our fellow Angeleno and America's once-and-future Idol, Mr. Adam Lambert. Before the wee ... More >>

Right Said Fred Cancels Halloween, Will Not Dance on King Tut's Tomb

By Daiana Feuer King Tut might rise from his fake tomb at the Egyptian Theatre, but Right Said Fred will not be dancing on his head. Richard and Fred Fairbrass were scheduled to perform "I'm Too Sexy" live during the King Tut's Tomb Halloween spectacular on Saturday night in Hollywood. An email ... More >>

PUTTIN' ON THE BLITZ

Los Angeles Film Fest: Hot Rods and Fast Times

Get your motor running with LAFF's auto stimulus package

Proud, Out and About

Artist Shizu Saldamando Brings LA Style to Texas' Girl in a Coma

Shizu Saldamando There is a lot about San Antonio-based Girl in a Coma that will appeal to Angelenos: the faint hint of '50s nostalgia in the track "El Monte"; the way Nina Diaz's voice floats across songs like a huskier Hope Sandoval; the fact that the trio is named after a Smiths' song and toured ... More >>

Depeche Mode on Hollywood Blvd: Jimmy Kimmel Live Gig Stops Traffic

View more pics in the Depeche Mode slideshow here. Timothy NorrisHollywood Babylon: Depeche Mode clogs up the corridor. By Paul Rogers Face it, Depeche Mode are a duo. Sure, the English electro-pop vets have that other bloke hanging about, manning his hi-tech station with all the panache of a t ... More >>

Dance Witches Dance: Sculptural Comedy with My Barbarian

Lara Schnitger joins art collective at the Luckman

Queer Town: No Time For Gay Losers

On Monday, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen officially certified the anti-gay marriage ballot measure. If passed, the initiative would overturn last month's California Supreme Court ruling--which legalized same sex marriage--and insert one sentence into the state constitution. It would re ... More >>

The Black Lips vs. the Beatles: With Love From Them to You

Which quartet never had to answer questions about pissing onstage?

BBB (Big, Bold and Beautiful)

The clouds have parted and the birds are chirping what sounds like Japanese power pop. SXSW being an industry event I attend my first industry panel, "Idiots Unite!" (The idiots, of course, being anyone involved in this crazy business of show.) David Katznelson, president of Birdman Recording Group, ... More >>

Love, Love, Love

The romantic songs that shape our hearts: A special Valentine’s Day report

The Way We Wore

Our unofficial guide to vintage rock T-shirts

Hanukkah Punks and Christmas Queens

What to do in Los Angeles this week

People Who Need People

What to do in LA this week

Theater Reviews

Reviews of Complexity, The Comedy of Errors, Zero Hour and more

Ma Ma Ma Ma Monkey!

Rock Like an Egyptian

a.k.a. The Year in Greg Burk: Metal Went Mideastern, Paul Rodgers became Freddie Mercury, and Diana Krall did not become Ella Fitzgerald

To Queen or Not To Queen

A fan deliberates on the year’s most questionable “reunion” tour

Gonorrhea Gorgonzola

System of a Down’s fourth album, Mezmerize, is some crazy-ass bring-your-own-bong-style shit

Mars Needs Women

Voodoo Boogie

Eagles of Death Metal: anointed by the spirits of rock & roll

Get on It or Else

They're Just Men From Detroit

Hard Place see sparks in L.A.

It’s Too Funky in Here

Rockers invade Groovetown

Grate & Swish

The Song Remains the Same

Stephen Frears and John Cusack’s High Fidelity

Breaking the Law

Rob Halford outside the metal machine