Janis Joplin

Fanatics! Updates from D.C. and The Rites of Spring

RADIO BROADCAST #213 04-28-13 See also: Henry Rollins: Pride Getting the Best of Me Fanatics. Presently stationed in Washington DC. I will be here for a few weeks, working on a documentary series. Contractual obligations do not permit me to elaborate at this time but when I can, I will let you kno ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including an Unusual Look at Motherhood

This week, our critics enjoyed composer and musical director Gregory Nabours' 90-minute musical The Trouble With Words (Coeurage Theatre Company at the Unknown Theatre) as well as a quartet of one-acts at the Lillian under the collective title Unscreened. This week's Pick goes to Dorothy Fortenberry ... More >>

Henry Rollins: A Death in the Family

[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 am in San Francisco. It is a Saturday night and I should have been in Los Angeles watching T ... More >>

How a Shabby Hollywood Intersection Became a Hot New Art District

Christiane Lange, Clark Gable Jr.'s Girlfriend and Celebrity Makeup Artist, Found Dead in Malibu Mansion

Updated at the bottom with more on the glamorous Lange. Originally posted April 11 at 5:35 p.m. Clark Gable Jr.'s live-in girlfriend died mysteriously this morning at the couple's mansion in Malibu. (Yes, Clark Gable Jr., the son of the Hollywood legend. No, not Clark Gable III, the grandson of th ... More >>

4:44 Last Day on Earth Review

Abel Ferrara's apocalypse

Medical Marijuana Ban in L.A.? City Officials Botched Regulation, Now Want Prohibition

Medical weed ban heads to City Council

Etta James Is Dead

See also: R&B Legend Etta James Has Dementia, Reveals Sordid Riverside County Money Lawsuit Etta James passed away today at the age of 73 at Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside. James, born Jamesetta Hawkins, suffered a number of health problems at the time of her death, including leukemia an ... More >>

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

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

Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson - The Greek Theatre - October 7, 2011

Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson The Greek Theatre October 7, 2011 Better than...Elton John and Billy Joel. What does Stetson cologne smell like? I've never actually smelled it, but I'm certain Merle Haggard embodies everything the average man is trying to portray when he sprays it on. Meanwh ... More >>

Death, Drugs and Rock n' Roll- "Don't Knock The Rock's" Timely Glimpse into Musicians' Triumphs and Tragedies

Lina LecaroAllison Anders and Patty Schemel​There is a segment in the riveting new documentary Hit So Hard- The Life and Near Death Story of Patty Schemel that explores the concept of "Saturn Returns" (the astrogical phenomenon which is said to influence and test a person's life development be ... More >>

Top 10 Music Managers Who Fucked Over Their Clients

The family Knowles in happier times​In light of the surprising news over the reasons Beyonce fired her longtime manager (and longtime father for that matter) Mathew Knowles, we remembered a time when scummy managers were not only the norm, but expected. Here are the Top 10 Managers in Music Hi ... More >>

The Column!: Postcard From NYC

Henry Rollins: The Column! Rollins on Being an Angeleno in New York (and Missing Joey Ramone)

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 >>

NIGHTRANGER: Maulings and Mohawks at the Movies

Last Night: Lower Heaven and Black Mountain at the Bootleg Theater

Leslie KalohiLower Heaven ​Ever had that feeling when you wake up from a dream and can only vaguely recall what happened? You can kind of remember that it was pleasant or frightening as the case may be, but the details are lost on the edge of your memory just out of reach. There may have been ... More >>

Golden State Funk

A new generation rediscovers the lost singles of California's "Right On" era. Plus: a real soul survivor speaks

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

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

Ariana Delawari’s Afghanistan Dream

A political expat teams with David Lynch to create an ethereal gem

Promote This: The Adler Effect

On the eve of the Sunset Strip Music Festival, Lou Adler and his son Nic talk about the concert business

Festivals Then and Now: Lou Adler and Nic Adler Talk Monterey Pop and the Sunset Strip

The Adler posse knows a thing or two about the concert business. Lou Adler, the patriarch, is responsible for some of the great American cultural touchstones of the past 40 years, and a few of these moments are showcased on the wall of his home office in Malibu. There's the movie poster for The ... More >>

Inside The Baader Meinhof Complex

Seeing red

Taking — and Ruining — Woodstock

Ang Lee's latest cranks up the amp on faux '60s nostalgia

Last Night: Guillermo Del Toro Descends on Meltdown to Sign Novel The Strain

Even amongst the Hollyweird crowd, staying up past the witching hour on a Monday night for a book signing at Meltdown Comics takes dedication. Then again, one has to take into account context, or in this case subject: writer-director Guillermo Del Toro, who is promoting his first foray into noveliz ... More >>

Richard Prince, Wallace Berman and Their Women

Prince and the Beat-Popper

Late NYC Street Composer Moondog's Busy Afterlife as a Mixtape MC (MP3)

He sat at the corner of 53rd Street and 6th Avenue in New York dressed as a Viking, with a long beard and intense eyes, from the late 1940s through the mid 1970s. There, he recited poetry and performed music, and eventually went on to record stunning, rhythmic compositions unlike anything you've e ... More >>

Love, Janis: Looking for Janis Joplin

The meteoric rock star, as remembered by her sister Laura

Across the Universe: Help!

Julie Taymor’s ’60s-set musical is a bust

Lion of Panjshir

“It’s like in Alice in Wonderland, we’re painting the roses red!”

Music Picks

For the week of August 17 - 24

Theater Reviews

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

Everything Is Divine Marvelous

Tropicália shimmers anew

Soul Love

Ten questions with Soul Sides creator — and album curator — Oliver Wang

Theater Reviews

For the week of April 21-27

The Ego Has Landed

Willie Nelson & Friends

Hollywood Country

Don’t look for the soul of country music in glitzy Nashville — or even Bakersfield. It’s right here on the grand ole streets of L.A.

The Last Burger Stand

The Streetcar Cometh

Tennessee Williams’ barroom symposium

The Performer's Life: Diana and the Supreme Karaoke Singers

She Had To Stay

Exene Cervenka and Original Sinners, burning in L.A.

Letters

Air Guitar

Steven Dietz’s soft rock drama

Wish Upon a Popstar

Hollywood Requiem

John Gilmore asks the musical question: Can a serial killer find happiness in L.A.?

Declaration of Independence

Patti Smith speaks

BUYBACK BUST

Helter Swelter

Blood, sand and the first temptation of Boston Teran

Fulfillment

A Publishing Memoir

How To Snort an Airplane

The raunch and roll of rock autobiography