Joni Mitchell

Jerry Sharell, Music Biz Veteran, Wounded in Valley Machete Attack

A music industry veteran who hosts a weekend Frank Sinatra show for KJazz (88.1 FM) radio was attacked by a man with a machete and held for three hours at his home in Woodland Hills yesterday, according to police and reports. Jerry Sharell, said to be a music business mover-and-shaker who helped ma ... More >>

Fanatics! Sunday's Show Is Packed With Mix Tape Goodness

RADIO BROADCAST #215 05-12-13 Fanatics. I would like to thank the girls from Honest Marquee for giving us one of their new tracks for us to play. I think it's a great one. Sunday's show is packed with mix tape goodness and I think you're going to dig it. I want to thank you for all the letters yo ... More >>

Austin Peralta's Death Was Fueled By Drugs and Alcohol, Says Coroner's Report

Twenty-two-year-old virtuoso pianist Austin Peralta died shockingly the day before Thanksgiving. Until now, details of the final hours of his life have been mostly a mystery. See also: The Life and Death of Austin Peralta His coroner's report, obtained by West Coast Sound, states that viral pneumo ... More >>

Lady Lazarus Rising

Singer-songwriter Melissa Sweat released her inner artist through great trial and tribulation

Ol' Blue Eyes is Back

A Down & Dirty Christmas

The Laurel Canyon Country Store's Inneresting Musical History

The Canyon Country Store has been the makeshift cultural center of Laurel Canyon for a full century. Immortalized in the Doors song "Love Street," this deli-market is not a venue, but it's got historical music importance to spare, and continues to be -- as Jim Morrison put it -- the "store where the ... More >>

The Best L.A. Albums 
So Far This Year

We are impeccable thieves, transplanting artists both from burgs bearing but a single Waffle House and metropolises where they measure the cold in Celsius. Biggie credited the centripetal pull of L.A. to the weather, the women and the weed. The ability to work was implied. The city has been a music ... More >>

Top 10 Vintage and Second-Hand Boutiques in L.A.

Whether you're looking for 1960s Peggy Moffitt mod couture or 1980s stonewashed denim castaways from the Valley, Los Angeles has a vintage and second-hand shopping scene that's bursting at the old-school seams. In a city known for making old things look fresher than they really are, its no surprise ... More >>

Top Ten Best Historic Rock Clubs in L.A.

For all the best of L.A. music, download our free Best Of Mobile app. See also: Top 10 Live Music Venues in L.A.: The Complete List L.A. has some of the best rock n' roll venues in the country. From the sparkly glam rock of the Sunset Strip to the grimy punk of dim little clubs in questionable ar ... More >>

I Wish They All Could Be California Bands

Bizarre Ride: Jeff Weiss's Five Los Angeles Music Archetypes

[Editor's note: Longtime Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's new column, "Bizarre Ride," begins today. You can find it on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] The L.A. cliché is a war of shadow and light: fallen stars gone to seed, saccharine pop and gangsta rap. But this is 2012 and Dr. Dre is a headphone g ... More >>

HAPPY FUN TIME OF THE WEEK

Henry Rollins: The Column! The Cool Sounds of September

​[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.] Now that we have been released from the grips of August and go deeper into September, I a ... More >>

Music Picks: Linda Perhacs, Joni's Jazz, L.A. Phil, the Go-Go's

Also, J*DaVey, the Decemberists, Dragon Head, Wye Oak and others

Live Review: James Blake at the Troubadour

Lainna FaderJames Blake​Who: James Blake Where: Troubadour When: 5/23/2011Last night's sold out Troubadour show marked the London-based, classically-trained dubstep producer's Los Angeles debut. "This venue has historic importance and I'm massively glad to be here," James Blake said, and so were w ... More >>

PETER AND GORDON AND EVERYBODY ELSE

Over the Weekend: Joanna Newsom at the Orpheum

Gustavo TurnerDifficult? Complex? Nah, just one-of-a-kind: Joanna Newsom​Joanna Newsom presents a challenge for the reviewer. So much of music writing is anchored in comparison, from the facile (this artist is so-and-so meets so-and-so), to the workmanlike (placing the work in a general or par ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Dirty Pooh, L.A. Noir Unscripted, Looking for Trouble

Also, My Sister in This House, Paved Paradise: The Art of Joni Mitchell and more

Stage Raw: Dirty Pooh

NEW THEATER REVIEWSCURRENT STAGE FEATURE ON THE BOYS IN THE BAND AND SURVIVAL EXERCISENEW REVIEW GO DIRTY POOH​Photo courtesy of Zombie Joe's UndergroundHow does Zombie Joe's Underground make A.A. Milne's short story, "In Which Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets Into a Tight Place," NSFW? When Winnie-the ... More >>

Theater Reviews: A RUBICON FAMILY CHRISTMAS, THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, A VEGAS HOLIDAY! SONGS FROM LIVE AT THE SAHARA

A Rubicon Family Christmas

Stage Raw: A Rubicon Family Christmas

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSTHIS WEEK'S STAGE FEATURE on Palestine, New MexicoNEW REVIEW GO A RUBICON FAMILY CHRISTMAS ​Though Andy Williams and his fancy sweaters are nowhere to be seen, the Rubicon company misses little else this corny Christmas delight. Not a word of spoken ... More >>

Linda Perhacs to Perform Live, Debut New Song Tonight (And Five Other Moments of Canyon Bliss)

For fans of semi-obscure Canyon folk music, tonight is a watershed moment. Linda Perhacs, whose single album from 1970s, Parallelograms, is a transcendent piece of Topanga beauty, will perform selections from the album for the first time ever. As well, she will debut a new song, the first she's unve ... More >>

He Walked the Line; He Walked the Line

The Worst Hoopla Ever!

What to do in L.A., January 2-8

Linda Perhacs' Parallel Universe

How a Topanga dental hygienist who worked on Paul Newman's teeth created an acid-folk masterpiece (and one of the year's best reissues)

USC Thornton School of Music Announces New Popular Music Performance Program

Wanna be famous as a superstar musician? Learn how to bed groupies by the sheer force and magnetism of your stage strut? Find out which hallucinogens will help best develop the plot of your career-defining Concept Album? Before now, you'd have bang your head against your snare a few times, have to s ... More >>

Brick's Picks: Connect With Your Inner Mingus

Jazz in L.A., October 3-9

Shame

Bjorkestra: An Army of Her

18-piece jazz ensemble takes on our favorite Icelandic art-pop diva

Fall Harvest

While the media was examining a fake beef, a bounty of music dropped

Music

Fall Harvest While the media was examining a fake beef, a bounty of music dropped

Devendra Banhart Curls Up in Your Hand

A wide-ranging interview on Tarot cards, Topanga Canyon, the tackiness of the "freak folk" label and his wonderous new album, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon

Must See Art

Videos by Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn and “Radiant City”

Take You Higher!

Featuring Prince as Joni, Emo as jock-jam

The Circle Game

’70s girls inspired by Joni get their day in the sun via a new compilation

Back to the Garden

The music and mythology of Laurel Canyon

Mommies and Tommy's

Film Reviews

For the week of April 21-27

Madame X

The Santa Monica Museum is currently exhibiting a collection of  Exene Cervenka's journals, sketches, and assorted ephemera from the past several decades, and on Thursday night the lady herself gave a reading at the Bergamot Cafe next door. Still beautiful, the elementary school-teacher-by-day, ... More >>

Who is Your Musical Hero?

Goddesses

The Contemporaries

Solo Sax

Plas Johnson and his eight-bar miracles

Time of the Session

When the music was fast, and the players anonymous

South of Here

Greg Leisz essays the roots

Letters

Blue Chips

Joni Mitchell, Martin Mull, Herb Alpert

Marry Me Before I Get Fat

Elizabeth Wurtzel wants to be bad, but not all by herself