Rihanna

What Each Dodger Player's Walk-On Music Says About Them

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] See also: Julia Holter Dims the Noise The dog days of summer haven't deterred the Dodgers. After a brutal start filled with frequent cries to fire the m ... More >>

The Best Concerts to See in L.A. This Week

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Monday, June 24 Justin Bieber STAPLES CENTER Can millions of Justin Bieber fans be wrong? Yes! But the point is, those panting hordes exist; they're not going away (not just yet, anyway), and neither is The, uh, Man himself: ... More >>

Smiley Stevens and Philippa Price: The Heights of Fashion

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here. Six-foot-something Philippa Price glanced across a New York City bar and locked eyes with a fellow skyscraper, a blonde named Smiley Stevens. That night, as the young women conv ... More >>

Identical Twins Who Play Harp Duets

See also: *5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week *10 Best L.A. Art Galleries For Partying Martin Schoeller's new show "Identical: Portraits of Twins" at ACE gallery in Beverly Hills is interesting enough on its own, but the opening this past Saturday was an unusual and memorable experience that, q ... More >>

Patti Smith Talks About Her Greatest Success

By Jessica Baran Profoundly influential, incantatory songstress, poet, artist and writer Patti Smith may be best known as the Godmother of Punk. Her groundbreaking album Horses, released in 1975, has been hailed as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Born in Chicago, she was raised in Sout ... More >>

Edrina Martinez Is a Space Cadet Called Astronautica

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] When Edrina Martinez was a little girl, she wanted to be an astronaut or a rock star. Two things got in the way of the 21-year-old electronic producer wh ... More >>

Pitbull and Lil Jon Lead a Zumba Class! (Yikes)

Pitbull and Lil Jon Convention Center 2/15/2013 Better than...the fitness DJ in your spin class. Hip-hop and fitness might not seem immediately compatible, and Pitbull and Lil Jon aren't quite LL chiseled. But that didn't stop them from performing before 3000 freaking Zumba fitness buffs at the C ... More >>

An Online Rave?! We Party All Day, At Home, By Ourselves.

What did you do yesterday? Did you receive cards and flowers and chocolates and go out with someone you enjoy smooching? That's nice! But that's not quite what we did -- for Valentine's Day we went to rave. If you didn't hear about it, don't worry, because it was only online. The three day ele ... More >>

Openly Gay Rapper Rob B Draws From Influences Far and Wide

On a recent cool Friday afternoon, 25-year-old Mexican-American, openly gay rapper Rob B sits in one of the many cafés peppering Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. He's tan and toned, a 6-foot-1 part-time model who has done everything from runway to hand modeling, and today he's fitted in al ... More >>

Stand Back: These Los Angeles Bands Are About To Blow Up

The new year couldn't come at a better time. Forget Superstorm Sandy, school shootings, Snooki's baby, Rihanna and Chris Brown's reconcilliations. Let's start fresh, and let's do it with some new music. Here are eight fantastic local bands, all of whom are set to break big in 2013. The best part? Y ... More >>

Madonna Impersonator Nadya Ginsburg Chats With Us (as Madonna)

Actress, writer for E!'s Fashion Police and Madonna impersonator Nadya Ginsburg (she does a hilarious, spot-on Cher, too) will be doing her one-woman show, Madonnalogues, at the Cavern Club tonight and Oct. 23. Ginsberg, in perfect character as Madonna, sat down to talk with us about the pop diva's ... More >>

Madonna - Staples Center - 10/11/12

Madonna Staples Center 10/11/12 Better than: Pop music's current Madonna-wannabe starlets. Madonna's MDNA tour is a mostly-dark assault to the senses, and many have focused on its controversial themes, words and antics. At Staples Center last night, we were looking at the bigger picture: No one in ... More >>

What the Dodgers' Musical Taste Says About Them

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Forget phrenology, both the overrated Roots album and the 19th-century pseudo-science. Ignore palmistry, psychotherapy and Rick Warren. The best way to b ... More >>

Inside the L.A. Dominatrix Industry

This piece is part of our series on the L.A. dominatrix industry. See also: *How a Dominatrix Does Her Taxes "Chains and whips excite me," Rihanna sings. "You're a dirty little whore, and I'm going to send you home to your parents covered in cum," Lena Dunham's love interest tells her on "Girls." ... More >>

Q&A: Perez Hilton On His New CD and the Music He Has Sex To

See also: Meet Iggy Azalea, the Street Smart Blonde Bombshell Behind "Pu$$y" Megalomaniacal Hollywood gossip blogger and one-time self-described "Queen of All Media" Perez Hilton's first CD compilation, Pop Up! #1, was released earlier this week on the Opus Label. As early as 2009, there was talk o ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Monday, July 23 The xx FONDA THEATRE These U.K. goth-soul ghouls haven't played in the United States since 2010, when The xx wrapped up support of their self-titled semi-hit debut and subsequently went into studio-hibernation mode. This summer, they're back on the road ahead of the Sept. 11 release ... More >>

Enjoy the Heat Wave While You Can: Los Angeles May Be in for a Long, Stormy Winter

As the mercury rises this week and your commute gets a couple shades sweatier, we don't want to hear you whining to the L.A. Daily News that you're "very tired of it being constantly warm." Seriously -- be grateful, people! Because it's looking like you'll have plenty of time for your miserable rai ... More >>

Slutwave, Tumblr Rap, Rape Gaze: Obscure Musical Genres Explained

Everything You Wanted to Know About Metal but Were Afraid to Ask Top Ten Metal Albums for People Who Don't Know Shit About Metal Top Ten Jazz Albums for People Who Don't Know Shit About Jazz Top Ten Rap Albums For People Who Don't Know Shit About Hip-Hop In our music feature this week, Jason Roche ... More >>

Meital Dohan Appears in Penthouse, Knocks Guys Out

Meital Dohan bears little resemblance to most pop stars. Unlike, say, Rihanna in Battleship, she can actually act, for one thing. Dohan, who is 32, spent the first 25 years of her life in Israel where she worked as a theater and film actress of some renown. She's since embarked on a music career und ... More >>

EDC 2012: Calvin Harris Plays CDs of Himself Singing

See also: EDC Vegas Pulls Plug on Music Due to High Winds Dance music is fighting for its soul. The charts (Rihanna, Flo Rida) are filled with tracks that borrow from the ecstatic trance and pulsing grooves of electronic dance music. The last time pop was so infatuated with the floor was 1979, the ... More >>

Coldplay - Hollywood Bowl - 5/1/12

Coldplay Hollywood Bowl 5/1/12 Chilly Tuesday nights in May isn't exactly what the Hollywood Bowl is all about. But despite the less-than-ideal conditions, Coldplay warmed up the sold out crowd last night with songs off their latest album, Mylo Xyloto, and an assortment of hits. Since the band's ... More >>

Music Picks: Bettye LaVette, Johnny Thunders, Johnny Hallyday

Also, Kate McGarry, Enter Shikari, Hype Williams and others

Coachella 2012: Top Five Acts at the Sahara Tent

See also: *Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac's Hologram *Top Ten Awkward Coachella Dance Move GIFs *Our Complete Coachella Coverage By Alejandra Loera The weekend is over and Coachella came and went in a blink of an eye. It was pure amazingness, and there were so many talented artists to see. For elect ... More >>

'Kony 2012' Goes Hollywood: Celebrity Photog Tyler Shields Writes 'Stop Kony' in His Own Blood

On the second day of the absurdly viral #StopKony campaign, Hollywood jumped on board. Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Oprah and the rest Tweeted a 30-minute documentary produced by non-profit organization Invisible Children to millions of followers -- making the hip, clickable Joseph Kony awareness drive ... More >>

Best Posts Of The Week

​How well do you know your L.A. hip-hop dances? For the debut of her column on the subject, Jessica A. Koslow ran down the controversial origin story of the Dougie this week. Turns out a rapper named Lil Wil was doing it first, and had some choice words for our Inglewood heroes Cali Swag Distr ... More >>

Chris Brown - Staples Center - October 20, 2011

Timothy Norris ​See also *More photos in Timothy Norris' slideshow "Chris Brown at Staples Center" *Fuck Guilty Pleasures: Chris Brown Can Do No Wrong Chris Brown, T-Pain, Bow Wow, Tyga Staples Center October 20, 2011 Chris Brown seems much older than 22. Of course, he's been famous since h ... More >>

Fuck Guilty Pleasures: Chris Brown Can Do No Wrong

​[Editor's Note: Fuck Guilt Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] It was fall 2005, and I was sitting in an Internet café in Berlin. Juelz Santana's "There It Go (The Whistle Song) ... More >>

Top 5 Westwood Dishes UCLA Grads Will Miss

Flickr/Kyle StricklandIn-N-Out Double-Double​ With the mass exodus of thousands of UCLA graduates from their picturesque Westwood neighborhood -- picturesque if you've always envisioned a neighborhood where you'd search 30 minutes for a parking space before giving up, or if you've dreamed all ... More >>

Chris Brown Goes on Rampage Backstage at 'Good Morning America' Over Rihanna Questions

Chris Brown is breezy. Really.​Chris Brown flipped out backstage at Good Morning America after he had been asked about Rihanna. You know, the 2009 Grammy Awards-weekend assault in Hancock Park that appeared to leave her pummeled. According to ABC's own account, the 22-year-old pop singer (R&B ... More >>

Underground Rappers' "White Rage" Song Honors Gabrielle Giffords and Targets Tea Party Hate in Arizona

Sole raps takes on "White Rage" surrounded by Tea Party picketers.​Former Anticon Records rapper and founder Sole has released a brand new song that takes aim at the Tea Party, Arizona immigration laws and political race-baiting in "post-Obama" America. The track, called "White Rage," is rappe ... More >>

Top 8 Twitter Tools: Threatening Thugs, Homophobic Hip Hoppers and Musical Idiots Who Are Worse Than Courtney Love

8 Threatening Thugs, Homophobic Hip Hoppers and Twitter Idiots Worse Than Courtney Love

10 Shows We're Stoked About in Early 2011

10 Shows We're Stoked About in 2011

Best Music of the Year Lists: Do Pitchfork, Billboard, NME, Vibe Have A Certain Gender Bias?

"Hey bro, we hear you like bros, so we put some bros in your End of the Year Best Music Lists so you can bro while you bro!"​Well, 'tis the time of year for lists and charts! Several mags and blogs attempted to answer the question you've been dying to ask: Who had the best album/"new music"? ... More >>

Today's New Releases: Stereolab, Girl Talk, Dum Dum Girls and Tommy Santee Klaws

​ STEREOLAB, NOT MUSIC (DRAG CITY) Twenty years and 12 albums in Stereolab gives us Not Music, a record derived from the same sessions that produced 2008's Chemical Chords and released during their self-imposed hiatus. This mix of "new" songs and remixes of "old" ones is fantastic, but if you ... More >>

Who Cares About Bieber, Gaga, or the VMA's? You Do! Winner Recaps Past and Present

Who Really Cares About Bieber, Gaga, or the VMA's? You Do! Winner Recaps Past and Present

Nightranger: Gamer Gauche

Live Review: Activision's E3 2010 Preview Event with Eminem, Jane's Addiction & Usher - "We Got the Cash!"

Last Night: Activision E3 2010 Preview Event with Eminem, Jane's Addiction, & Usher

Mega-Telethon Broadcasting From L.A., Elsewhere

CNNAnderson Cooper.​A Friday telethon to raise money for the victims of last week's earthquake in Haiti will be broadcast from Los Angeles, New York, London and Haiti, organizers announced Thursday. It will be everywhere: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Show ... 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 >>

Tiger's Wife Is A Hero: We Look At Other Maligned Acts Of Bravery In Recent History

Tiger Woods Foundation​Tiger Woods' wife is a hero for rescuing the legendary golf pro after he crashed his SUV outside his Florida driveway early Friday morning. Standing over him, perhaps with golf club in-hand, Elin Nordegren was an image of selfless giving. She busted out a window with the ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

He-e-e-r-re's Eddie! Ed McMahon, the sidekick's sidekick, who for 30 years suffered and shone as Johnny Carson's foil, straight man and MC, has died of undisclosed causes at the age of 86. L.A. TimesSheriff Stops DNA Search Blaming budget woes, L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca has halted his department' ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Barricade Mystery No sign has been found of an armed man or the three hostages he allegedly had been holding inside an Arcadia home since Sunday night. Sheriff's deputies and SWAT members entered the home this morning only to find one elderly man. Associated PressUCLA Fire Report Blasted The family ... More >>

Victorians Gone Wild: Opening Night of Skingraft's New Store in Downtown

What do you do if you are edgy, avant garde, theatrical and in need of a nice, dark, gothy, neo-Victorian outfit? You're a bride, maybe, who wants a blood red gown, or a frothy black wedding dress. Options were few and far between until today. Now you go to Skingraft's couture atelier. The design tr ... More >>

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 >>

Everybody Skate!

What to do this week

Coachella Day Two: The Accidental Tourist, or Can We Please All Agree To Stop Using the Phrase “Coachella-Ella-Ella-Ella”

I ran into a guy I knew from high school standing in line for the restrooms in the VIP area. I hadn't seen him in a decade but was about four glasses of $7 wine deep and feeling good. No reason not to be friendly, after all, I no longer harbored a grudge from that time in the 11th grade when he tr ... More >>

Concerts and Tickets Coming Up

Autechre - 4/14, Echoplex Bad Religion - 3/4,5,11,13, House of Blues Bamboozle (All-American Rejects, Jimmy Eat World, Paramore) - 4/5, Verizon Amphitheater Bamboozle (My Chemical Romance, Anti-Flag, Saves the Day, Chiodos) - 4/6, Verizon Amphitheater Bjorkestra - 3/9 , Safari Sam's Black Keys ... More >>

Grammys from the Press Room

The best view of the Grammy Awards from where I sat. The coolest thing I learned last night in the media room at the 50th anniversary Grammy celebration had to do with a Woody Guthrie performance. Recorded on a spool of wire, The Live Wire – Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949 was found by an old ... More >>

Ill-Thought Out Observations From This Year's Grammy's

Because Live Blogging is so gauche. Occasionally the Grammy Committee's old fogey sensibility yields huge dividends. See the inclusion of Morris Day and the motherfucking Time. As far as I know, only two people have paid much attention to Morris Day and the Time post "Jerk Out:" the illustrious ... More >>

How Shit Be

Freestyle riffs & ruminations on black music and pop culture at the dawn of 2007