Skid Row (Band)

Eric Garcetti's Five Worst Mayoral Appointees

Did Mayor Eric Garcetti have only three files from which he chose his city commissioners, who wield influence over whether to fire bad cops, expand LAX into Westchester, push from outside for shakeups at failing LAUSD schools and kill off L.A.'s wildly unsustainable policies such as its patch-the-st ... More >>

Joe Clifford Was a Skid Row Heroin Addict. Now He Has New Novel, Junkie Love

"This is the shelter," Joe Clifford says. He's standing outside the Los Angeles Mission on Fifth Street with his best friend and former running buddy, author Tom Pitts. A car backfires. Then a group of transsexuals struts by and waves. "I never thought I would see this place again." Clifford, 42, is ... More >>

Iranian New Year Celebrated on Skid Row? Both Sides Know What It's Like to Be Away From Home

See also: *What's It Like to Go to an Open Mic Night...on Skid Row? Here's something you don't see every day in downtown L.A.'s depleted Skid Row: an extravagant and colorful panorama of fruits, flowers, candles, spices and sweets surrounding a mirror and an abundance of goldfish; in other words, ... More >>

What's It Like to Go to an Open Mic Night...on Skid Row?

It is midday last Thursday and Georgia Berkovich is rushing to ready the Day Room of the Midnight Mission, where she works as the community relations manager. L.A. musician Ken Perry tunes a guitar before accompanying a man wearing a reflective vest, as he sings "Dead or Alive" to a room-full of emp ... More >>

Weep for David Duchovny's Penis: On the Terribleness of Californication, Season 6

The Love Mob Is Saving the World With Group Singalongs

Albert Einstein said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." The Beatles said, "All you need is love." The Love Mob, in essence, combines these two concepts. The Los Angeles-based group performs a capella covers of classics. Their goal? Nothing s ... More >>

I Go Out With the Group Substance Abuse and a Rapper Who Tries To Convince Me to Ho

[Editor's note: Soon-to-be-award-winning gonzo music journalist Danielle Bacher prowls the late late night scene for West Coast Sound. For this installment, she hit the town with MCs Subz and Eso Tre from Substance Abuse, who are known for their well-regarded 2006 album Overproof and their just-rele ... More >>

The Soloist Second Unit Director Returns to Skid Row in a New Documentary

See also: *Skid Row Homeless Say LAPD Is Trying to Bully Them off Their Freshly Cleaned Turf *Downtown L.A. CrossFit Gym Debases Homeless Neighbors in Photos, Facebook Posts Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home begins with a point worth making: Skid Row doesn't actually appear on any maps of Los Angel ... More >>

Emmy Awards Governors Ball: 3 Courses, 656 Servers 1,425 Pounds of Beef

As soon as the doors to the Emmy Awards Governors Ball at the L.A. Convention Center opened Sunday night, the band started to play. Songs like Coldplay's "Clocks," "Bésame Mucho," and suddenly a fast and frenetic tune like something out of "Riverdance." Back in the kitchen -- actually an enormous r ... More >>

Henry Diltz, the Man Who Shot The Doors

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Entering rock photographer Henry Diltz's North Hollywood house feels like stepping into Merlin's cottage, if the wizard carried a Canon rather than a cau ... More >>

The Story of a Jewish Guy Who Did Crack and Lived in a Bus, and Now Makes Mexican Music

Growing up Jewish in Southeast Los Angeles with Communist parents who worked alongside the Black Panthers, Wil Abers never seemed to fit in. "I struggled with my identity living around Mexicans and African-Americans, while being white and seeing my parents fight against people in power," says Aber ... More >>

Woody Guthrie in Los Angeles

A more vivid picture of the folk singer emerges via newly released songs from his time here

New Woody Guthrie Songs Speak Poorly of 1930s Los Angeles

See also: Woody Guthrie in Los Angeles: A more vivid picture of the folk singer emerges via newly released songs from his time here Our music feature this week focuses on the oldest known Woody Guthrie recordings, which were found in Los Angeles and just released; they provide great insight about ... More >>

Skid Row Puts on a Memorial Day Parade Extravaganza -- With the Help of Mr. Brainwash

At first glance, L.A.'s Skid Row doesn't seem like it would have a flourishing performance arts scene. But Skid Row's Los Angeles Poverty Department -- abbreviated as, yes, LAPD -- was founded by director John Malpede in 1985 to develop the arts and culture of the city's well-known home to the home ... More >>

Top Ten Worst Replacement Singers in Rock and Metal

​At the beginning of the year, Boston metalcore giants Killswitch Engage announced that they had parted ways with vocalist Howard Jones, and two weeks ago they announced they were bringing their first vocalist, Jesse Leach, back into the fold. At the very least, it seems a way to ensure they w ... More >>

LAPD's Abandoned Rampart Station, Center of B.I.G. Scandal, Is Now Blight Capital of the Eastside

A new kind of scandal has overtaken the LAPD's old, boarded-up Rampart Station in Historic Filipinotown. It's a lot less hip-hop than the last one, but infuriating all the same: "This old station has now been abandoned for at least the past 3 years, and has been a magnet for graffiti, vagrants, and ... More >>

Regent Theatre in Downtown L.A. to Become Performance Venue

Downtown's Regent Theatre -- a Skid Row echo of the movie palaces on Broadway just a couple of blocks west -- has been a first-run cinema, a warehouse, and during the porn heyday of the '70s and '80s, even an adult theatre. Most recently, it's been the site of one-off concerts brought by various pro ... More >>

I Wish They All Could Be California Bands

Chuck D of Public Enemy Gets Into Twitter Beef With LA Weekly

I had hoped my brush with fame would involve winning the lottery or meeting the president. But for a second there Chuck D made me Twitter-famous (which is to say, in the words of Saturday Night Live, not famous). It all started when I reported that a weekend event in L.A., widely publicized as a fr ... More >>

Public Enemy - Occupy Skid Row - 1/15/12

Public Enemy, Yo-Yo, Kurupt, King T, Kid Frost, Egyptian Lover Downtown, Gladys Ave. and 6th St. 1/15/11 See also: *Public Enemy and Matt & Kim - Sunset Strip Music Festival - 8/20/2011 *Our slideshow of the Skid Row Street Festival Public Enemy is known for fighting the powers that be. So even ... More >>

'Occupy Skid Row' Concert Featuring Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, Kurupt in Doubt, LAPD Says: It Doesn't Have Permit

See our review of the festivities here. Updated at the bottom with what went down. First posted at 4:33 p.m. Friday. A planned "Occupy Skid Row" free street concert Sunday featuring Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, Kurupt and other hip-hop artists is in doubt, police tell the Weekly. The Los Angeles Co ... More >>

The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #5-1

​See also: *The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #20-16 *The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums of All Time: #15-11 *The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #10-6 *Chuck Klosterman's Favorite Hair Metal Albums ​5. Motley Crue Shout At the Devil (1983) Motley Crue's second record stands a ... More >>

Rooting for Weed

Hollywood Faces a Heroin Summer

A promising Kenyan-American dies amidst a risky Hollywood club scene

"Trouble On My Mind" Video Premiere: Pusha T Featuring Tyler, The Creator

Andrea DomanickPusha T and Tyler the Creator before mass destruction​We knew when we visited the set that director Jason Goldwatch's video for Pusha T and Tyler, the Creator's "Trouble On My Mind" was gonna be one of the dopest visuals we'd seen in awhile. As Pusha T told us on set: I said ... More >>

Patrick Range McDonald Named Best Print Journalist of the Year by L.A. Press Club; LA Weekly Takes Home 5 More Awards

Patrick Range McDonald: awesome, officially.​In case you're wondering why the L.A. blogroll looks kind of groggy this morning: A couple hundred Los Angeles journalists took last night off, putting on their Sunday best for the Press Club Awards, a schmancy round of self-congratulations and free ... More >>

Radar L.A. Festival

Exclusive: Pusha T and Tyler the Creator's "Trouble On My Mind" Video Shoot

Andrea DomanickThe father becomes the son...​Reported by Andrea Domanick and Rebecca Haithcoat. This is for the critics who doubted the chemistry Two different worlds, same symmetry. -"Trouble on My Mind," Pusha T Leaning on a sticky table in a hotel room stained the color of urine, direct ... More >>

Drummers Really Do Get Laid the Most: Phil Varone's Had Sex with 3000 Women

We'd rather know many she's had​Phil Varone, the drummer for Saigon Kick, Skid Row and Prunella Scales, is unleashing his sexy on the world with his XXX movie Phil Varone's Secret Sex Stash (sorry, we just gagged, too). In the highly NSFW teaser, alongside which appropriately features a phot ... More >>

Paris Hilton's Massive Birthday Cake Ends Up on L.A.'s Skid Row, Feeds Homeless, Thanks to Rapper Paz

Alex CDParis Hilton's cake ended up on Skid Row.​An aspiring L.A. rapper says he made away with what appears to be a huge and unmolested wedding-like cake presented at Paris Hilton's birthday celebration and gave it to homeless people on Skid Row. The celebutante marked her 30th birthday on T ... More >>

Getting Out for Christmas

Calling All Star Trakkies: Kiss-n-Grind Spins The Neptunes Tonight

Neptunes Grind-ING!​Started by Vikter Duplaix and Garth Trinidad sometime around late 2006, when it was promoted last-minute and solely by word-of-mouth, Kiss-n-Grind must be in summer school, cause lately they're so thematically well-structured. Tonight's studies Chad Hugo and Pharrell Willi ... More >>

Up and Out

Today in WTF: Free "Exile on Main Street" Remaster, Brought to You by...Target?

​Back in 1972, the Rolling Stones brand stood for heroin, bisexuality, hanging out with the homeless in L.A.'s Skid Row (read all about it in Michael Simmons' article in the print edition of LA Weekly this week), banned films called "Cocksucker Blues," and sundry unsavory matters. Fast forwar ... More >>

What Was Keith Richards' Favorite Nosh at Canter's Deli?

Image Courtesy of: STONES BILLBOARD COPYRIGHT 1972 SUNSET STRIP BILLBOARD BY JOHN VAN HAMERSVELD POST-FUTURE.COM​ Our writer Michael Simmons always digs up the interesting people and the interesting quotes. This week's print edition of the LA Weekly features a great, different take on the Ro ... More >>

Exile on Sunset Boulevard

Rolling in L.A. with the Stones

Day Tripping on the Tom Waits Bus Tour of Los Angeles

​"Most of the stops on this tour are in piss-stained alleys," chuckled David Smay, as a motley--if well-dressed--crew of 47 settled themselves on his bus, which this past Saturday was parked outside King Eddy's--the only dive bar left "on the nickel" in downtown's increasingly gentrified Skid ... More >>

What Would Herzog Do? Party at the Downtown Indie!

What Would Herzog Do? Party at the Downtown Indie!

Gang-Turf Tour Of L.A. To Offer Safe View Of "Top Crime Scene Locations"

Alfred Lomas.​Los Angeles has its star maps, Starline Tours of actors' homes, even "The Real Black Dahlia" bus tour. Now our fine city has L.A. Gang Tours, a journey that promises "a true first-hand encounter of the history and origin of high profile gang areas and the top crime scene location ... More >>

Beth Ditto: Big in Europe

She's the greatest female Arkansan punk singer ever to host a British talk show. And it doesn't stop there

5 Great LA Dive Bars: From the Lost & Found to the Wild Goose

A truly great dive bar is like a successful horror movie: it's a little gross, maybe a bit scary, but always a fun adventure, and filled with an eclectic cast of characters. Some dives are time machines, frozen in forgotten eras, while others make for the perfect spot to lose an hour or three or ten ... More >>

Nuclear Blast Records Issues Statement Regarding A&R Imposter/Liar "Kevin Darden"

  West Coast Sound just received this press release from prominent LA-based label Nuclear Blast Records' Hawthorne offices, and we figured it'd be a good idea to pass it along: For Immediate Release: LABEL STAFF IMPOSTER KEVIN DARDEN IS PROBABLY "A HOMOCIDAL MANIAC" A label staff imposte ... More >>

Rhino to Release 'Digital 45s,' with A-sides, B-sides and Original (PDF) Sleeves

In ongoing effort to bring weird little songs from Rhino's catalog to the top of the digital avalanche, the legendary LA reissue label is launching a new series of so-called 'digital 45s.' This morning the label announced the program: Rhino will spotlight songs originally issued on 45 by offering t ... More >>

Movie Reviews: Big Man Japan, Management, Not Forgetten

Also, Brothers at War, The New Twenty, The Skeptic, The Brothers Bloom and Next Day Air

It's Phil Varone's World, We Just Pay a Cover and Two-Drink Minimum in It

Stage Raw: Arts Freeze

ARTS FREEZE FOR THE HOLIDAYS In a cost-cutting measure, the Los Angeles Unified School District has frozen district funds until the state legislature returns to Sacramento in January to sort out the State budget gridlock. Arts for L.A. has been quick to point out that the freeze includes existin ... More >>

Politics Meets Street

Why are politicians and civic leaders bellying up to the eyebrow-raising 740 Club?

Inside the Box With the Super Dope Cops

Hustlers, gangsters, addicts and narcos are all trying to get their chippy on where it’s always Mardi Gras on crack

Down on Main Street

A guide to living among the crack addicts, mentally ill, homeless and young-pros-on-the-go in a changing downtown

Welcome to the Jungle

Edited by Kateri Butler