South by Southwest Festival

Dawes Is a Modern Band, Up to a Point

"We're still a small band," Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith insists. "We've still got a long way to go before we are, like, 'This is a secure position for us.' " He's sitting outside the tiny Sqirl cafe on the seedy border between Silver Lake and East Hollywood, hunched over a wooden box that dou ... More >>

Rhye - Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever - 4/1/13

Rhye The Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery 4/1/13 Better than: Most first dates. And also, most second and third dates. If the glut of modern indie music is the sonic equivalent of a Facebook poke, Rhye is the object of your affection showing up at your doorstep in the rain to tell you ... More >>

Worst Idea Ever: Travel Dating Site Calls Coachella a Great First Date

Ladies travel site Misstravel.com recently named named Coachella the number one music festival at which to go on a first date. For so many reasons, this is a terrible idea. Issue number one is that unless you have some day pass scenario worked out, a first date at Coachella means that you're autom ... More >>

Lessons From Last Night's Convention of L.A. Dating Startups

"I want to start a dating app for people over fifty. I know a lot of hot guys over fifty," one woman pitched to a small group last night. She was in the right place to get feedback, at the Dating and Social Networks Startup Showcase and Digital Dating Etiquette Panel, hosted by Kevin Winston, Found ... More >>

King Tuff Recorded His Album in an Abandoned, Haunted High School

The Problem With Lana Del Rey (Is You) How Boris Fucks With Their Fans -- In A Good Way Hanni El Khatib Makes an Album With Dan Auerbach, Gets Drunk Wavves of Pleasure: Indie Poster Boy Nathan Williams Makes Time For Recreation Portlandia Was Partly Inspired by Los Angeles Top 20 Worst Bands of All ... More >>

John Baldessari Tries Mash-Up Art at Margo Leavin Gallery

"John Baldessari is so successful, he carries absolutely nothing in his pockets," says gravelly-voiced Tom Waits, halfway through a six-minute film about the 80-year-old, 6 feet, 7-inch tall, L.A. pop-conceptualist. "Not a thing," Baldessari confirms. Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the duo behind ... More >>

Off!'s Keith Morris Mouths Off, Before the Group's Show at the Whisky Tomorrow

See also: Still a Malcontent: A midlife crisis spawns Keith Morris' new band Off! In this week's music feature we get inside the heads of punk rock "supergroup" Off! on the eve of the release their self-titled debut album. (They hate that term, btw.) The group, which is led by former Black Flag and ... More >>

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

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

Top 20 Sexiest Male Musicians of All Time: #5-1

See also: *Top 20 Sexiest Male Musicians of All Time: #20-16 *Top 20 Sexiest Male Musicians of All Time: #15-11 *Top 20 Sexiest Male Musicians of All Time: #10-6 5. Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen is the only man, of any age, who can pull off tight-ass jeans and a bandana. Those broad shoulders ... More >>

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - SXSW - 3/15/12

By Craig Hlavaty Bruce Springsteen's Thursday started with a keynote speech in one of the big ballrooms at the Austin Convention Center, and ended with a mythic three-hour set at ACL Live across town, in front of a few thousand people cooing "Bruce". The keynote and the show went hand in hand. If ... More >>

Le Butcherettes

Teri Gender Bender is the most volatile woman in rock

Dragonslayer: Interview With Director Tristan Patterson

Thundercat Emerges With His Debut, Co-produced by Flying Lotus

Michael Cera No Longer in Indie Band Mister Heavenly. Turns Out He Never Was?

Evan CulbertsonMichael Cera​Story by Ian Joulain Back in December the music blogosphere got all hot and bothered. Turns out there was a new indie supergroup afoot, with Michael Cera on the bass! The band was tweely named Mister Heavenly, and it featured Islands' Nick Thorburn, Man Man's Hon ... More >>

Kreayshawn: Overnight Sensation

Live Review: Lord Huron at Troubadour

Danielle BacherLord Huron​WHO: Lord Huron featuring Calder Quartet, The Union Line and Milo Greene WHERE: Troubadour WHEN: 5/14/11 Never have a headliner and their venue been a better fit in name. Ben Schneider, the Michigan-born singer-songwriter who began to record as musical alter ego Lord ... More >>

tUnE-yArDs' w h o k i l l: 21st Century Soul Music

The inside story on the best album of 2011 (so far)

This Week's LA Weekly Cover Story: Tearist! (Also--Alternate Cover)

photo: Jennie Warren/design: Darrick RaineyTearist: The Alternate LA Weekly cover!​ The subject of the music feature (by Liz Ohanesian) in this week's print edition of LA Weekly is Tearist, one of our favorite LA bands of the last couple of years. There are several bands that have now travel ... More >>

Music Picks: Prince, Amanda Jo Williams, Kendrick Lamar, Xzibit, Civet,

Also, Miguel, L.A. Bluegrass Situation, Heidecker and Wood, the Ditty Bops and others

Anamanaguchi's Peter Berkman Shares His Top 3 Influences: Tim and Eric, Japanese Music and Video Games

Ethan Saks​ Tonight, Anamanaguchi plays The Roxy with Peelander-Z and, tomorrow, the 8-bit punk band behind the music for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game will head down to Meltdown Comics, where they will appear inside the Nerdist Theater. Right before the band left for South by Southwe ... More >>

A Serbian Film: Kiddie Porn? Historical Satire? Both?

The legal battles of Eli Roth's "litmus test for dates"

Amanda Jo WIlliams, Simon Stokes, John Carpenter, and Feeding People at the Echo: Live Review

Daiana Feuer​WHAT: Amanda Jo WIlliams, Simon Stokes, John Carpenter, and Feeding People WHERE: The Echo WHEN: 4/4/11 Amanda Jo Williams' first Monday night residency show at the Echo set the bar high for this month's exploration of contemporary outlaw culture and family bands. John Carpenter ... More >>

"Is This the Playboy Mansion, or a Studio?" Creating Hip Hop's Fantasy Camp

​Last year, as SXSW'ers swarmed downtown Austin, Texas, Alexander "DJ RTC" Fruchter rented a palatial mansion in the nearby hills for four days and set about creating a "hip-hop fantasy camp." Rappers like Freddie Gibbs, Fashawn, Rhymefest, and Kanye West associate GLC passed through, hung out ... More >>

SXSW Recap: Newcomer James Blake Crosses the Pond

Siran BabayanJames Blake​ What: James Blake Where: Stubb's, Austin, TX When: March 16 Of all the buzzed about artists at SXSW, 22-year-old British electronica-pop crooner James Blake is certainly worthy of the hype. Blake's been a critic's darling since producing three EPs in 2010 and his ju ... More >>

Bam Margera, Hollywood 'Jackass,' Knocked Out by Girl at SXSW Music Conference

Wham, Bam, no thank you m'am.​Bam Margera has performed a lot of death-defying stunts. He's even been shot by a ball bearing in an incident so painful it left him crying. Such is the life of a skateboarder-turned-star of the Hollywood Jackass film franchise. But getting his ass kicked on cam ... More >>

Psychic TV Live at SXSW: The Godfather/mother of Industrial Rock Rides Again

photo by Wendy GilmartinPsychic TV​ What: Psychic TV Where: Elysium, Austin TX When: March 15, 2011 Psychic TV and their outer-planetary transport trip blasted off Tuesday night with the gloriously pandrogynous Genesis P-Orridge back at the helm after years of professed retirement and perso ... More >>

Tiny Furniture: Shame and Fortune

Family time with indie darling Lena Dunham

Ceci Bastida Interview: "You Need To Feel Free"

ceci bastida​ Tijuana might be better known right now for its crooked cops and affordable prescription drugs, but Ceci Bastida has been sounding off for the border city's next generation since she was a feisty 15 year-old fronting politically-minded Mexican ska band Tijuana No! (famous for th ... More >>

Gemma Ray: Under the Covers

U.K. chanteuse on musical remakes, dim-witted dinosaurs and missing her sauerkraut

Nightranger: California Paradise

BREAKING: Big Star's Alex Chilton Dead at 59

We just received confirmation of this. More forthcoming. UPDATE: From the Memphis Commercial Appeal paper, from Chilton's beloved hometown: Pop hitmaker, cult hero, and Memphis rock iconoclast Alex Chilton has died. The singer and guitarist, best known as a member of '60s pop-soul act the Box Top ... More >>

Live Review: Hanoi Rocks' Michael Monroe @ the Viper Room

Word came in that Michael Monroe, longtime frontman for pioneering sleazo-glam-metal outfit Hanoi Rocks would be playing the Viper Room last Friday, in a rare LA show before heading out to SXSW. As the mastermind of Hanoi Rocks, Monroe (born Matti Fagerholm in Finland almost 50 years ago) is the mi ... More >>

Driving Mr. Greenberg

Noah Baumbach on the DIY ethos, L.A. without a car and his new film starring Ben Stiller and Greta Gerwig

Riding the Dreamwave with Binary Entertainment

The Binary Family​ It was only eight years ago that Josh Legg and Kyle Petersen moved to Los Angeles to attend USC. They met on a sailing trip and, after a few years of friendship and many discussions over the current state of the record industry, they decided to launch a management company/re ... More >>

LA People 2009: Power BFFs — Nicole Jordan and Jackie Peters

Screw Metallica: Southern Lord Showcase Kills at SXSW

Randall RobertsPelican rips it at the Southern Lord Records showcase I'm sure Metallica was great. They were good when I saw them at the LA Forum a few months back, where the dudes in the pit were in their typical testostero-frenzied state. And the indulgent 45-minute soundcheck that preceded their ... More >>

Last Night: Tokyo! With Michel Gondry and Ayako Fujitani @ Egyptian Theatre

RAFFI ADLAN I have never traveled to Tokyo. With one of the biggest festivals of the year coming up in two days, attending the screening of Tokyo! the movie -- a three-part film directed by Michel Gondry, Léos Carax, and Bong Joon-ho, respectively -- sounded like a good opportunity to take a menta ... More >>

New Release Tuesday: Jandek's 52nd album is almost definitely less interesting then #s 1-51

A few sad truths about the Jandek phenomenon in the internet era. Note to Jandek: "We're just not that into you."

Perez in the Springtime

Faghagdom; tattoo this; the other Hilton; man-mash Friday

Coachella And the Cure for the Common Festivalitis

Leslie's Gore

Unmasking Nathan Baesel

Too Much Sexy

Pedro Winter and the French funk of Ed Banger Records

Hungry Like the Woof

Spank Rock, Wolfrock and Honest Hips

One Night, Two Bands, Two Fans freak out!

Tender-Fried Juicy Love Bits

Pick Up the Torch

The Hives in the land of true rock & roll

Poppy Seconds

Like a Rhinestone Preacher

Nick Cave survives and surpasses

Glam Flock

Return of the sweet art of pre-Spice, post-Glitter rock & roll