Sam Cooke

Music Picks: The Weeknd, That '70s Soul, Power of the Riff

Music Picks: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Esperanza Spalding, Jack White

Also, the Crystelles, Arturo Sandoval, Backbiter and others

Music Picks: Funk-a-Palooza, Keith Jarrett, Ute Lemper & the Vogler Quartet

Also, Hot Snakes, Strange Boys, Ken Parker, Flash Express and others

Johnny Otis Is Dead: R&B Godfather Was 90

By Kirk Silsbee Rhythm and blues giant Johnny Otis passed away on Tuesday in Altadena. He was 90. At times a bandleader, talent scout, club owner, and broadcaster, among other titles, his caravan tours in the 1950s helped popularize R&B throughout the country. His influence on the genre is incalcul ... More >>

If You Don't Like Country Music You're a Blue State Elitist

See also: Toby Keith's "Red Solo Cup": Why This Song Sucks Asking people what kind of music they like can be a loaded question. People want to seem open-minded, yet cool, which for some reason tends to inspire this insipid response: "I like pretty much everything. Except country." (The hipster var ... More >>

Now Again's Eothen Alapatt Finally Releases His Dream Soul Reissue

Aloe Blacc's Golden God Voice

Henry Rollins: The Column! Pop Goes the Henry: Henry's Favorite Pop Songs

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 week and make sure to tune in to Henry's KCRW radio show every Saturday eveni ... More >>

5 Reasons to Check Out Har Mar Superstar's Residency at the Satellite

Angel CeballosHar Mar Superstar​Har Mar Superstar may be the unlikeliest dancefloor hero ever to perform in his underwear, but the pasty, diminutive songwriter/producer, born Sean Tillman, has proven over four albums that you don't have to have coiffed hair and a chiseled physique to fashion h ... More >>

R. Kelly Interviewed by Will Oldham/Bonnie Prince Billy (No, Really): The Highlights

​The current issue of Interview magazine--the celebrities-talking-to-other-celebrities journal invented by Andy Warhol--features an interview with Aziz Anzari-impersonator (and strangest person in the whole music industry) R. Kelly. The interviewer?: indie man of many hats Will Oldham (aka Bon ... More >>

Slow Soul: The Rise of Neoclassical Soul

Can R. Kelly’s latest be called “throwback” when all of R&B seems to be playing Back to the Future?

Music Picks: Sweaters, Jonathan Richman, Hanni El Khatib, Henry Rollins

Also, Aloe Blacc, Maren Parusel, the Greenhornes and others

Mystery Dance Track Leaks: Early Reports It's LA's Armenian-American Princess Kim Kardashian Backed by The Neptunes Denied, Still Would Make Great Ad Music for the ShakeWeight

Shake Shake Shake​Billboard got egg on its proverbial, industry-fellating face this morning when it released a "leaked" dance track that purported to be a collaboration between Kim Kardashian and The Dream. Then they had to backtrack, after everyone's favorite/least favorite (America: so spli ... More >>

Soul Legend Solomon Burke, Dead at 70

Solomon Burke. RIP​Solomon Burke, one of the great soul survivors, died yesterday on a plane in Amsterdam at 70. Burke started off in Philly as a straight-up preacher/gospel singer, but after a move to Atlantic Records -- at the time the label for sophisticated, urban soul -- he produced a se ... More >>

Hanoi Henry: Henry Rollins Grooves to Funkadelic in Ho Chi Minh City, Bears Witness to the Still Open Wounds of America's Most Controversial War and Broadcasts Straight Outta Vietnam's Busy Streets

Maura LanahanOur eminent columnist, Mr. Henry Rollins!​[The one and only Henry Rollins will be contributing 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 Friday and make sure to tune ... More >>

Vinyl of the Week: One-Man Band Hanni El Khatib = Black Keys Shangri-Las on 'Dead Wrong' 45

In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy vinyl community, believing that good music deserves much more than a handfu ... More >>

Golden State Funk

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

John Legend, Seal Snowed Out of White House Civil Rights Concert; Dylan, Smokey, Jennifer Hudson Make the Gig

Tonight PBS will air "In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement," a concert honoring Black History Month that was taped at Obama's crib last Tuesday. As the WSJ reports, the show was supposed to have been taped yesterday but was hastily rescheduled beca ... More >>

Q & A With Marcus Samuelsson: His New Book, Cooking as Prozac, & Why We Should Eat Pickled Herring Hot Dogs

AmazonMarcus Samuelsson's New American Table​Chef and cookbook author Marcus Samuelsson, born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, calls New York City home, not Los Angeles. Although he does come to town often, to check in on his burger operation at South Coast Plaza's Signature Kitchen at Macy's ... More >>

Rock Picks: Camper Van Beethoven, Cass McCombs, AC/DC

Also, Twilight Circus Dub Sound System, Magda, Hedgehog, Mos Def and others

Weiss' 50 Best Albums of the Year (#50-41)

Not to be confused with the epic, Eric Roberts, Tae Kwon thriller. 50. Benoit Pioulard-Temper (Kranky) Have you ever been in one of those nutty meditation classes, where the crackpot instructor tells you to close your eyes and imagine that you're in the middle of a forest? Don't be surprised ... More >>

Like Fresh Cream: Al Green Teams With the Roots

Reverend re-imagines the notion of smooth soul

Music Sales Sink to 1985 Levels. Did 1985 Really Suck or Something?

Sure, the papers are full of stories of gas prices shooting up and housing prices plummeting, but those are new phenomena compared to the steady declines in the fortunes of the record industry. The latest sales numbers show a decrease of 11% over last year - and that includes legal digital downloads ... More >>

Why My Morning Jacket Is the Best Live Band in the World

In an age when certified rock stars are a dying breed, a Kentucky band stakes its claim

2007's Long Players You Might Have Missed

Eleven handcrafted gems

Silent Wraith: Chester Turner

By slaying troubled black women, LA's worst serial killer operated invisibly for years

How Shit Be

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

The King Is Dead. Long Live the King!

James Brown, 1933–2006

The Year Blogs Got Lame, Business Got Hip and Nostalgia Was King

Love in the Time of Xanax

TV on the Radio have message of peace, hope, harmony, possible werewolves

Scene Stealer

Anthony Mackie turns heads from New York to Hollywood

Spank Rock, Wolfrock and Honest Hips

Music Picks

For the week of April 21-27

Music Picks

For the week of April 14-20

Thank You, J Dilla

33

Fiction

Hanging the Witness

The Lady at the Bottom of the Groove

Do Right Man

Back on Track With Solomon Burke

Dreaming, Grieving, Making Music

Neil Young and Loren Connors rock & roll over

In the Mood for Wong Kar-wai

The year’s best films

When He Was King

Michael Mann’s Ali; plus, Gosford Park and Kate & Leopold

Just Like This

Back to school with the Isley Brother

T&A Boot Camp

Roll With Me, Sterling

Mr. Harrison’s R&B paradise

Renaissance Man

Soul Stirrer

The gospel according to Bobby Womack

Give the Drummer Some

Earl Palmer, rock & roll's heavy hitter

Charles Brown, 1922–1999