Paul McCartney

We Lurked Outside the Rolling Stones' Rehearsals in Burbank

Last week, the center of the rock & roll universe was located in an industrial part of Burbank. In one room at CenterStaging studios, Paul McCartney was rehearsing with his band for their upcoming world tour. Next door, his old pals and supposed rivals the Rolling Stones were preparing for their fir ... More >>

The Best Concerts in L.A. This Weekend

Friday, March 1 Morrissey and Patti Smith STAPLES CENTER The Staples Center has been making headlines by going all-vegetarian for Morrissey's March 1 visit, a request that even Paul McCartney has been denied in the past. A meat-free Staples deserves mention, but it still doesn't impress more than t ... More >>

IACP 2013 Food Writing Award Finalists Announced

The IACP, which would be the International Association of Culinary Professionals and not the International Association of Chiefs of Police -- yes, that's an old joke now, but you try googling IACP and see what you get -- announced their 2013 award finalists this morning for four of their prestigious ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Weekend

Friday, November 30 Nas, Lauryn Hill (also Dec 1) WILTERN On his new album, Nas insists that Life Is Good, even though he's been slammed with a massive tax bill from Uncle Sam and is still coming to terms with a painful divorce from soul-pop diva Kelis. The Brooklyn-born rapper is being sarcastic; ... More >>

Jeff Lynne Sits At Home, Re-Recording ELO's Biggest Hits (We Visit Him There)

There's one stipulation that comes with our invitation to visit Jeff Lynne at his house: Don't tell anyone where he lives. This is mentioned more than once. You see, Lynne is a bit of a homebody. Kind of private. In the opening scene of the new documentary chronicling Lynne's life and work, Mr Blue ... More >>

Plath

Strawberry Fields for Daddy

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

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

Clare Fischer, Grammy-Winning Composer/Arranger for Chaka Khan and Prince, Is Dead at 83

clarefischer.comBrent Fischer and his father, Clare Fischer​Less than a month after suffering cardiac arrest at his Los Angeles home, two-time Grammy winning composer/arranger and pianist Clare Fischer died Thursday in Burbank at the age of 83. Fischer had been a highly-regarded figure in jazz ... More >>

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Royce Hall - 11-17-11

Chris Walker​Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Royce Hall, UCLA 11-17-11 Better than...Liam's nasally singing on "Wonderwall" What do Noel Gallagher, Paul McCartney, Q-Tip, and David Lee Roth all have in common? Each have attempted solo careers after their immensely popular groups, to var ... More >>

The Sublime Webb Sisters

Day 3: Coachella's GOODs, BADs and UGLYs (feat. Kanye West, Duran Duran, PJ Harvey and the Hilton Sisters)

Timothy Norris​ We came, we saw, we sweated off four pounds of water. Kudos to the Coachella organizers for turning the Empire Polo Grounds into a people-organizing machine. Lines were long, but everything kept moving. Let's look at Sunday's GOODs, BADs and UGLYs...

Countdown to Record Store Day: An Interview with RSD Co-Founder Michael Kurtz

​We've been looking forward to Record Store Day (or RSD) for awhile now. For one, it provides a welcome diversion for those of us not going to Coachella. Also, we are looking forward to all of the limited-edition vinyl releases, in-stores, and sales that come along with RSD. We keep hearing a ... More >>

Top 20 Most Ridiculous Grammy 2010 Nominations: Still Ridiculous after All These Months

Grammys: they're nuts!​ [Originally published December 2010] It's that time of the year, the time when the imploding music industry gathers to display their astonishing cluelessness by nominating a bunch of hacks, flashes-in-the-pan, and old people that have done their best work 40 years ago ... More >>

Top 20 Most Ridiculous Grammy 2010 Nominations

Grammys: they're nuts!​It's that time of the year, the time when the imploding music industry gathers to display their astonishing cluelessness by nominating a bunch of hacks, flashes-in-the-pan, and old people that have done their best work 40 years ago as "the best music of the year." Yup-- ... More >>

Life Of Crime: Robbing For Records and Five Rock 'n' Roll Criminals

Les Rallizes Denudes -- Rock 'n' Roll Hijackers​ Via Gawker via the NY Post: Four men knocked off a series of laundromats, gas stations, and convenience stores earlier this week, making off with cash and cigarettes in hopes of getting money to start a record label. (180-gram vinyl is expensiv ... More >>

The Best of FYF Fest: Best Fashions, Surprising Bands to Watch, Biggest Bummers (oh, and Ariel Pink: Still Crazy)

Timothy NorrisThere's a thin line between hipster and furry, wethink​[See also Timothy Norris' slideshow "FYF Fest 2010 with The Rapture, Dead Man's Bones, Panda Bear and More".] Given that I refuse to pair a word as lovely as "summer" near detractors such as cruel "end" or the gentler "fade, ... More >>

Tonight: My Morning Jacket, Avi Buffalo, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Coheed and Cambria, Porcupine Tree, Budos Band, Hot Club of Cowtown

​ My Morning Jacket, Avi Buffalo at the Greek "Of late, My Morning Jacket singer Jim James has been devoting the majority of his time to projects sporting his inexplicable Yim Yames moniker, so it's a bit of a relief to find him once again at the helm of the exceptional band that first put the ... More >>

Nightranger: Bringing Sounds to the Sea

"We're Not Sexual Blobs!"

Pocahaunted's Amanda Brown on their "body music," loving leather, and getting funky with the French

Top Ten Musicians Who Cannot Tour Arizona Without Proving They're "Legal"

Carlos Santana: Papers please!​We don't know if you're aware of this, but Arizona has recently passed a little law demanding that every cop, security guard or random person in some kind of uniform and in possession of a Tazer stop anyone "suspected" of being an illegal immigrant and demand tha ... More >>

Attn. Musicians: Craigslist Offers Hope for Your 2010 Rock Dreams

Musicians, wannabe musicians, unemployable "lead singers," drummers, "producers," flautists, cello players: 2010 IS YOUR YEAR TO SHINE. Dude, you can do it. You just need to find the right situation. West Coast Sound is here to help. We've scoured Craigslist over the past few weeks looking for g ... More >>

Over the Weekend: RIP J.G. Ballard, Three Days of Coachella Madness, Plus Zombie Invasion at Fangoria Convention

We don't know about you but we are the very definition of exhausted. Three days of music, parties and the desert heat at the 10th annual Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio has left us completely wiped. But damn if we didn't get some great coverage while we were there. Randall Roberts put tog ... More >>

Ten Coachella Picks: Ariel Pink, Genghis Tron, Vivian Girls, Mastodon

Plus, A Place to Bury Strangers, Mexican Institute of Sound, Gui Boratto, MSTRKFT and more

Coachella Friday Set Times Leaked? Are These Real?

Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk. The Coachella message board lit up this morning when someone posted a pretty convincing list of Friday set times, one of the last big secrets the festival reveals. For those of us going, the set times are obviously important because they dictate what we'll be missing, w ... More >>

Katy Perry Unpeeled — and Other Signs of Life in the Dead of the Grammys PressRoom

Including the buzz over Rihanna and Chris Brown, and revelations from Natalie Cole on heroin addiction

Behind the Scenes at the Grammys: In the Press Room, A Quiet Night Jolted Alive by Chris Brown/Rihanna Allegations

When you tell an outsider that you're "covering the Grammys," it sounds pretty swank. Before I did it for the first time, I imagined glamor, some rubbing shoulders, and, above all, a lot of music. But the reality is different. Those of us not covering the red carpet are planted in a hotel-confere ... More >>

Aquarium Drunkard/Autumn Tone Preps Release of 'Ram in LA,' a Cali Tribute to McCartney's Classic

The best cover version we've heard this year is, by far, the Radar Bros.' version of Paul McCartney's "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," which you'll soon be able to hear courtesy of Autumn Tone Records, home to both Le Switch (who continue their residency at Spaceland tonight) and the Henry Clay Peop ... More >>

Starbucks Learns Bitter Lesson About Music. (Coffee Also Still Bitter)

Sonic Youth Powerless to Blend Over-Priced Coffee with Lame CD Compilations for the Masses Yet another supposed savior of the recorded music business has spectacularly failed, not that it was ever a very good bet to begin with. Starbucks, which had ramped up their Hear Music imprint to sell CDs, si ... More >>

South, The Echo, 5/15

South, The Echo, May 15, 2008 Photos by Timothy Norris Once upon a time, near the dawn of this decade, James Lavelle's Mo'Wax label ruled the record store import bins. Blackalicious, DJ Shadow, and UNKLE 12" singles in elaborate packaging fetched tidy sums for their three long, similar-sounding ... More >>

Hot Chip: Epics in Minutes

Why this is the most entertaining band in the world right now

Record Reviews: Cat Power, Drive-By Truckers

Also: Richard Swift, Black Mountain

A Music Journalist Remembers the Old Dewey Cox

Cox clocked me and then I puked

Sex Pistols at the Roxy, October 25

Sex Pistols at the Roxy, October 25 By Randall Roberts Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you and fuck you. Fuck you Johnny Rotten for wasting most of your No Future -- the first two PiL albums excepted -- making mediocre music and stealing album titles from Flipper. Fuck you Steve Jones for waxing your ches ... More >>

Nick Lowe in the Age of Experience

While his peers are grasping at straws, Lowe’s work outpaces them all

Who Are You?

Auditioning for The Next Best Thing

Robots, Mods, Rockers

And one shining Prince

Live In L.A.: Prince — Straight, With Chaser

Prince The Roosevelt Hotel Blossom Room June 29 2007 At his concert Friday night, Prince joked that his L.A. friends had warned him: Ain't nothing goin' on in L.A.! Stage banter aside, the truth is that we live in a remarkable place at a remarkable time — The Kid's decision to perform an e ... More >>

You Wear it Well

Lyric Culture puts a song on your sleeve

McCartney Vetoed Weird Al's Chicken Pot Pie

Well, it's been a quiet few days, involving mainly indigestion and a marathon L Word viewing session (seven episodes, back to back). So here's a funny story I heard over Thanksgiving dinner which I thought I'd share... Weird Al Yankovic is hanging out someplace, mighta been the airport, and a fan c ... More >>

The Fallen Idol

Stuck in a Winter Wonderland Traffic Jam

Instant Rock for the People

With “Blue Orchid,”the White Stripes bring the rock the old-fashioned way: really fucking fast

Infinte Justice Tour 2005

Time of the Session

When the music was fast, and the players anonymous

Boy Wonder

Liam Lynch has more in his utility belt than silly songs and sock puppets

Midnight Bumblers

Tiny Sparks

Brendan Benson's pop nutrition

Anonymity, Misery, Softness

Can Elliott Smith save pop music?

Waxing Nostalgic