Sam Cooke

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including an All-Female Hamlet

No Pick this week, but a nod from Neal Weaver for the family comedy-drama The Bells of West 87th at Greenway Arts Alliance. See below for all the latest new theater reviews and stage listings. Plays informed by dreams and dream-states are the subject of this week's theater feature: Pericles, P ... More >>

Theater to See This Week, Including John Henry Redwood's Trip Back to 1943 Harlem

 John Henry Redwood's throwback comedy-drama about a family in 1943 Harlem, The Old Settler at Pico Playhouse, is this week's Pick. Writes Lovell Estell III, "The story of a May-December romance is an old one, but it receives a charming and inventive treatment." Also, Deborah Klugman ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Oscar Wilde Outdoors

Chalk Repertory -- known for its site-specific works -- brings Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan from the drawing room to the out of doors in this week's Pick. Our critics also particularly enjoyed Eat the Runt at Hollywood's Theatre of NOTE, El Grande de Coca Cola at Santa Monica's Ruskin Theatr ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Solo Show About Polka. Yes, Polka

Lynnmarie Rink's one-woman (not counting her band) show about her life as a polka star is this week's pick of the week. It's called Wrap Your Heart Around It, and it's being performed at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank. Also, recommendations for Theatricum Botanicum's new work Merlin: The Untold Adven ... More >>

Theatre to See in L.A. This Week, Including One Actor's Excursion into Peruvian Drugs

Michael Kass' one-man show, Ceremony, about his journey to spiritual enlightenment via Peru, is this week's pick of the week. For all the latest new theater reviews, and this weekend's theater listings, see below. This week's theater feature, on the shadows that govern our lives, looks at Shakespe ... More >>

Two L.A. Plays About Creative People Who Won't Compromise Their Ideals

Resurrection of the Ants and One Night in Miami, reviewed

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including an Unlikely Oscar Winner

Henry Ong's new play Sweet Karma, based on the life of a Khmer Rouge survivor and his tragic death on the streets of L.A., is being performed at Burbank's Grove Theatre Center, and is this week's pick. For all new theater reviews, plus this weekend's stage listings, see below.This week's theater fea ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including an Ionesco Vaudeville Musical

This week in L.A. theater, Ionescopade, the vaudeville musical based on Eugene Ionesco's plays, was our pick of the week, while Alcestis at the Boston Court also got a "Go." All new theater reviews are below. As Steven Leigh Morris is on vacation this week, our stage feature is a piece on L.A.'s bo ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Watson and Holmes, Together Again

This week in L.A. theater, Jamie Robledo's Watson and the Dark Art of Harry Houdini was our pick of the week, while ModRock at the El Portal also got a "Go." All new theater reviews are below. Our stage feature is an interview with Val Kilmer about his new Mark Twain solo show at the Kirk Douglas T ... More >>

One Night in Miami

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?

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 >>

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

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 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 14-20

Thank You, J Dilla

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

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