DJs are the new rock stars? Maybe. (Although chefs are already the new rock stars.) Still, the big name DJs do seem to be living pretty large, what with the constant travel to exotic locations, goofily-clad fans, eager women, drugs and parties. Just swap MacBooks for guitars and it doesn't look so d ... More >>
As the Hollywood-based casting guru behind Jersey Shore and A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, Doron Ofir knows how the lowbrow culture game is played. But even the man who gave the world Snooki might have been caught off-guard by the outrage over one of his latest projects: a competitive EDM reality ... More >>
There were a lot of grim faces on Monday morning as the electro-loving masses emerged off the MSC Poesia -- aka the EDM party boat Holy Ship!! -- and did a slow zombie shuffle through U.S. customs and back into the real world (aka Fort Lauderdale). Here in the industrial port the sky was overcast, a ... More >>
On Friday afternoon, nearly 3,000 raver chicks, dude guys, scenesters, club kids and DJs assembled at a port in Fort Lauderdale and boarded the MSC Poesia, aka Holy Ship!! There are two exclamation points because this is the second edition of the EDM party cruise put on by L.A.'s Hard Events. The li ... More >>
The term "electronic dance music" means so many things to so many people, and this year things only got more complicated. Dubstep continued its dance floor takeover, mainstream pop-oriented EDM ruled the radio, and the beat scene pushed on. Although divergent in style and ethos, here are the ten dan ... More >>
Every EDM DJ worth his wobbles is throwing a massive party on Friday, aka the winter solstice, aka the end of the world. The ambitious ones are doing it near Mayan ruins on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. The even more ambitious ones are venturing to the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is where the Do Lab ... More >>
Things to do in Mexico when the world's ending
Electronic dance music's recent resurgence has made the genre more popular than ever before, but it's still often not taken seriously as an art form. World's Douchiest DJs: The Top Five The 20 Worst Hipster Bands Top 20 Musicians of All Time, in Any Genre And yeah, many goofily-dressed ravers are ... More >>
Electronic dance music's recent resurgence has made the genre more popular than ever before, but it's still often not taken seriously as an art form. And yeah, many goofily-dressed ravers are so high they'll literally dance to anything. But below we've highlighted 20 top-notch spinners who put real ... More >>
Dance music is all the rage these days. That time you thought giant robots were battling at your recent family reunion? Nope, that was just your 12-year-old niece listening to dubstep. See also: *Moon Rocks: The Best High on Earth *What the Hell Is Trap Music (and Why Is Dubstep Involved)? But no ... More >>
With hair flying across his face as he twists together gnarly basslines, Bassnectar is one of the most compelling figures making electronic dance music. He plays the Palladium today and just dropped his new EP, Freestyle. But the Berkeley-based DJ-producer, whose real name is Lorin Ashton, is less s ... More >>
When experimental electronic producer Amon Tobin takes the stage at the Greek Theatre tomorrow, his audience will barely be able to see him. He'll be ensconced inside a massive, 2.5-ton structure made up of white, interlocking cubes, stacked Tetris-like atop one another. A sci-fi kaleidoscope of 3 ... More >>
You may have heard the term "trap music." You may even realize that what people are calling "trap music" today (which sounds a whole lot like dubstep) is not necessarily what people were calling "trap music" a few years ago. See also: Flying Lotus' Nocturnal Visions: Once believing himself destined ... More >>
In the past three years, one woman has ranked in DJ Magazine's yearly Top 100 DJs poll. (Lisa Lashes, #75, 2009). The international EDM circuit is dominated by men like Justice, Diplo, Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia, Tiësto, David Guetta and Avicii, and the underground scene is as much of a boys clu ... More >>
Avicii Santa Monica Civic Auditorium 9/14/12 See also: Avicii Performs in Santa Monica Tonight: Here's Our Interview Better Than: the Sahara Tent at Coachella. Avicii, the baby-faced boy king of the new EDM generation, brought the house down last night with a relentlessly aggressive set that fou ... More >>
Wednesday, September 5th Digitalism Yost Theater Only Germans would call themselves "Digitalism." On the other hand, EDM production duo Jens Moelle and Ismail Tüfekçi did title their second album I Love You Dude. That duality between clinical zeroes-and-ones and hug-it-out-bro emotionalism is ref ... More >>
See also: Why I'll Never Go To Burning Man Burning Man 2012 kicks off on Monday, and unlike our intrepid colleague Nicholas, we are headed to the Playa and looking forward to it. In fact Jack Rabbit, the festival's official newsletter, has been hitting our inbox since February, informing the nearly ... More >>
See also: *Ten EDC Girls Who Are Out Of My League *Skrillex, James Murphy - Hard Summer, Day Two - 8/4/12 Hard Summer -- Los Angeles' biggest, brightest, and boobiest EDM festival -- took place this past weekend. Among the throngs of EDM revelers were a number of gorgeous ladies whom I'd love to ... More >>
Our review of HARD Summer, Day 1 Claude Vonstroke Got in the EDM Game Late and Now He's Taking It Over HARD Summer 8/4/2012 Los Angeles State Historic Park Better than... A night without dance jams. Earlier this week, Forbes Magazine published a list of top 10 highest paid DJ/producers on the ... More >>
See also: *Pictures, some maybe NSFW, from the HARD Summer festival. There were 105 arrests at the HARD Summer festival downtown over the weekend, officials told the Weekly. Authorities listed those as "arrests" but it would appear that most involved citations in which suspects were released on the ... More >>
Skrillex Opens Grillex, the First Dubstep-Themed Food Truck Five More Girls Who Look Like Skrillex The 2012 Grammys confirmed that EDM had entered the mainstream, but Dave Grohl didn't really seem to be on board. A debate ensued. But if you ask Summer Shee-Singh -- who's been playing the piano sinc ... More >>
Provocateur Harmony Korine has again reached deep inside his bag of WTF for his latest feature, Spring Breakers. Set for release in 2013, the movie's casting has generated quite a buzz already: It features Disney star Selena Gomez being bad, James Franco in cornrows, and Georgia rapper Gucci Mane sh ... More >>
Why did the squeal of Jimi Hendrix's guitar cause girls to practically claw their way onstage? Why does the Psycho-like intro to Tyler the Creator's "Yonkers" inspire moshing? Why do furry-booted dubheads turn into a writhing mass during Skrillex's drops? Researchers working at UCLA think they've d ... More >>
*World's Douchiest DJs: The Top Five *Ask a Teen Raver *Interview With a Raver Who Wears Electrical Tape on Her Boobs *Top Ten Jazz Albums for People Who Don't Know Shit About Jazz *Top Ten Metal Albums for People Who Don't Know Shit About Metal Electronic dance music (you know, EDM) is the hottest ... More >>
Kerah Rose is a 19-year-old college student from Riverside and EDM aficionado. Ask a Teen Raver appears on Tuesdays in West Coast Sound. Send your questions to teenraver@laweekly.com. Dear Teen Raver: I follow you on Tumblr and I absolutely love your blog! What are your next upcoming events? I woul ... More >>
Hard Summer fest is back, this time as a two-day event, August 3-4, at Los Angeles State Historic Park. The organizers were kind enough to share the line-up with West Coast Sound before anyone else. The EDM-focused party is headlined by this dude with a weird haircut you may have heard of named Skr ... More >>
If you visited L.A. Weekly's home page yesterday, you might have noticed a few stories that seemed a little off -- our contribution to April Fool's Day. For those of you who want to relive the moment, click on the image above to see it bigger, and links to all the stories are here:
Lines stretched for blocks in northeast L.A. last night as fans jostled to get a taste of the latest Skrillex project -- a literal taste, that is, of the diminutive dubstep pioneer's new mobile culinary lab, Grillex. The Grammy-winning L.A. native Skrillex (born Sonny Moore) launched Grillex to mi ... More >>
It's no secret that some of the most creative and talented artists have also harbored intense feelings of anxiety and depression. (See Whitney Houston.) Kevin Barnes, lead singer of Athens-based indie rock group Of Montreal, has managed to channel his depression in to spontaneous whirlwhinds of cr ... More >>
See also Houston Press's 50 Cent showcase slideshow 50 Cent / Eminem - Austin Music Hall Never mind that Get Rich or Die Trying actually came out in 2003; the moist and dewy crowd at Austin Music Hall last night was plenty psyched for his performance of his debut album on its "10th anniversary." Ba ... More >>
If you're familiar with chaos theory, which in its basic form is the attempt to find patterns in the random acts of shit on Earth, then you may understand the difficulty that comes with describing a full day at SXSW. To break down the bright, scintillating chaos, Village Voice Media's roving music e ... More >>
See also: Skrillex: L.A. DJ, Producer Is Boy King of Electronic Dance Music Today, Skrillex's record label OWSLA unleashes Free Treats Vol. II, 18 tracks from this year's up-and-comers in the EDM world, plus one remix of Skrillex's hit "Ruffneck (FULL Flex)." Free music is always good by us, but so ... More >>
Skrillex sleeps on his couch
Our feature story this week profiles L.A. dubstep hero 12th Planet, aka the Johnny Appleseed of Dubstep. We spent time with him backstage at the Echoplex before a gig with Skrillex and Caspa, and then again at his downtown loft-studio. The DJ-producer has been instrumental in bringing dubstep to th ... More >>
Jena ArdellGuess we hit a nerve when we called out Dave Grohl for his anti-EDM Grammy Awards acceptance speech. Besides tons of hate mail (our favorite told us to " ... go eat a bag of dicks") and some support (Moby's former manager noted we were there when that real punk rocker went electro ... More >>
Deadmau5, Rihanna House of Blues 1-13-12 See also: *Why The Grammys Stink *2012 Grammys: The Best, the Worst and the Weirdest Better than... The Grammy telecast's attempts to showcase EDM. Skrillex may have won three Grammys, but it was Deadmau5 who ultimately impacted the celebration, its red c ... More >>
See also our original post: Top Five Girls Who Look Like Skrillex Skrillex is back in town for a six night performance run. Here's our review of his show at Cinespace, and be sure to check out our cover story from a few months back, in which we embedded with the reluctant dubstep star and told his ... More >>
See also: *Our cover story on Skrillex *Top Five Girls Who Look Like Skrillex Skrillex, Alvin Risk, Koan Sound, Dan Sena Cinespace 1/25/12 Better than... Seeing Skrillex at a festival Skrillex's six night hometown tour began yesterday, when the local boy-done-good held court before a sold out cr ... More >>
Also, Art Lande, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Gilad Hekselman, The Stitches, The Villains and others
See also: *Porter Robinson: The Libertarian Dubstep Guy *In Defense Of "Fratstep:" An Open Letter To James Blake It's been a controversial week on the dubstep front. First, there's a libertarian dubstep guy, and then we had to deal with a spin-off called "fratstep." Now Korn is saying they ... More >>
See also: *Porter Robinson: The Libertarian Dubstep Guy *Wait, Now Korn Invented Dubstep?! [Editor's Note: Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] Hear me out, James Blake. ... More >>
David LeFevre brings Manhattan Beach up to speed on L.A. restaurant trends
Timothy NorrisSee also: Our cover story on Skrillex *More photos from Hard Haunted Mansion Skrillex, Major Lazer, Caspa, Goose and others HARD Haunted Mansion Shrine Expo Hall 10-29-11 Better than... watching Skrillex on YouTube. This year's Hard Haunted Mansion -- the two-day electronic m ... More >>
By Lina Lecaro and Andrea Domanick Nothing is a more fun cultural zeitgeist indicator than what folks wear for Halloween. And, of course, musical personalities are prime fodder. So here are our predictions for what will be the most common music costumes this year. Of course, despite the fa ... More >>
Girls That Look Like Skrillex, submitted by BittyBandoleroSee also: *Our cover story on Skrillex *Skrillex Is Making Music With Members Of The Doors! We Speak With Him And Robby Krieger About It *The Top Five Covers of Skrillex's 'Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites'" In this week's cover story, ... More >>
Leads the mashed-up, remixed generation
Star ForemanSee more in "Skrillex Is Making Music With Members Of The Doors! We Speak With Him And Robby Krieger About It." Skrillex loves it when folks cover his songs, which is good because there are a billion of them. When we met with the twenty-three-year-old producer in San Diego recent ... More >>
Brian NevinsSkrillex with Ray Manzarek and Robby KriegerSkrillex's earliest musical memories revolve around The Doors. The groundbreaking electronic artist -- who appears on our cover next week -- says that the first song he remembers hearing is "Riders on the Storm." The first movie he can r ... More >>
Timothy NorrisBy Roselle Chen Guys in rice picker hats and Jabbawockeez masks, and girls in booty shorts, sports bras and furry boots filtered into sunlit, grassy Los Angeles State Historic Park Saturday for HARD Summer Music Festival. 30,000 people were in attendance, so perhaps one should ... More >>
Illustration by Fred NolandHARD Summer Music Festival takes place this Saturday, Aug. 6 at downtown's Los Angeles State Historic Park. It's easily the best electronic music festival to annually pass through town. Not only are the lineups consistently quality, but you can attend without gettin ... More >>
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