Sting (Musician)

What Is Ayahuasca and Why Is Everyone Singing About It?

Ever heard of ayahuasca? It's an ancient medicinal plant that has become trendy of late, particularly in Los Angeles. It's not uncommon to overhear ladies at Soho House discussing their transcendental experience with the substance, which is consumed as a thick, almost chocolatey tea and comes from ... More >>

My Awkward Night With Fitz and the Tantrums at Jimmy Kimmel Live

[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 hits the town with LA-based soul-pop band Fitz and the Tantrums.] I should probably have dropped quarts of acid into the disgusting coconu ... More >>

Jazz Bassist Darryl Jones on How to Listen Hyper-Vigilantly

Bassist Darryl Jones should be a household name. His fluid, funky low end has supported at least a dozen of the biggest concert draws of the last 30 years, starting with Miles Davis' band when he was just 21. When Sting left the Police for a solo career in the mid-'80s, Jones was the man he hired to ... More >>

Branford Marsalis on His Brief Time as an Angeleno Playing The Tonight Show

New Orleans-born saxophonist Branford Marsalis has been a household name since the early 1980s. Alongside his younger brother Wynton, he set the jazz world ablaze, earning his stripes on the bandstand with Art Blakey. From there, he found work in pop music (the Grateful Dead, Sting) and acting (Thro ... More >>

Music Picks: Robert Glasper, Nick Waterhouse, Omar Rodriguez Lopez

Animal Collective, Flying Lotus - Hollywood Bowl - 9/23/12

Animal Collective & Flying Lotus Hollywood Bowl 9-23-12 Better than... shrooming while watching the Emmys. See also: *The Time Flying Lotus Pretended To Be A UCLA Physics Major *Flying Lotus - Coachella - 4-14-12 The Hollywood Bowl is not the venue for working out new shit, that is if you don't c ... More >>

The 1997 Edition Was the Best MTV Video Music Awards

Tonight is the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards. Now in its 29th year, it's had its share of memorable moments, none more so than during the 1997 broadcast. On the occasion of its 15th anniversary, here's the case for why it was the best VMA's ever televised.

Cooper Black: The Story Behind Louie's Typeface

An overweight balding man exits a subway station and, as he walks, up pops his name in bold, cartoonish, drop-shadowed white letters: Louie. He stands alone in the doorway of a pizza parlor inhaling a slice, his eyes searching and expressionless, watching people pass by as people watch him, an urban ... More >>

Five Quite Good K-hop Albums

See also: *K-pop Till You Drop: The Skinny on Korean Boy and Girl Groups" *Reviewed: Drunken Tiger at the Jungle Concert In L.A., 12-02-11 This just in: the best South Korean music to get international play is not K-pop. Sorry. Much like J-pop, and their American cousins, y'know, girl bands and bo ... More >>

The Top 20 Whitest Musicians of All-Time: The Complete List

*Top 20 Worst Bands Ever: The Complete List *Top 20 Musicians of All-Time, in Any Genre: The Complete List *Top 20 Sexiest Female Musicians of All-Time: The Complete List *Top 20 Sexiest Male Musicians of All-Time: The Complete List Considering that most all of today's popular music -- be it roc ... More >>

The Top 20 Whitest Musicians of All Time: 10-6

See also: *The Top 20 Whitest Musicians of All-Time: 20-16 *The Top 20 Whitest Musicians of All-Time: 15-11 *Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time 10. Eric Clapton Eric Clapton makes Jack White look like Son House. Dude tries so hard it's embarrassing. Kind of weird, considering his pithy quip to a Lond ... More >>

5 Valentine's Day Surprises That'll Get You Laid - For the Ladies

There's less than a week til that holiday we love to hate and much of what makes Valentine's Day difficult to bear is the pressure put on guys to be "the man" and get their chicks some kind of boat or pony to show they love them fo' realz. But spending big bucks on a present that may or may not mak ... More >>

Music Picks: Iggy & the Stooges, Morrissey, Esa-Pekka Salonen

Also, Henry Rollins, Liz Pappademas, Greg Bissonette Quintet

Exclusive: Amanda Palmer's New Track, "In My Mind" and Interview

​Interview by Roselle Chen "It's a beautiful fucking day in Boston," says punk-cabaret performer Amanda Palmer from her home. She is best known as one half of The Dresden Dolls, and has a wildly-popular solo career, but she's on the phone mainly to talk about her work with the David Lynch Fo ... More >>

Phil Collins Tells Rolling Stone He's Contemplated Suicide -- Well So Have We, Every Time We've Ever Listened To 'In The Air Tonight'

Last.fmThe last thing we saw before we slit our wrists​This week's issue of Rolling Stone featured an EXCLUSIVE interview with Sting -- er, Phil Collins. (Remember when RS wrote about shit that was relevant, instead of resorting to a loop of Mick Jagger career retrospectives and top-5,000 list ... More >>

NIGHTRANGER: Monster's Ball

Cut Chemist: Too Many DJs

Call yourself a DJ 'cause you bought two turntables and a mixer? World-class L.A. DJ is putting you on notice

Live in L.A.: Woodsist Festival, Thurston Moore, Sting, Justin Currie, Abandoned Pools

Sarah McKayKurt Vile​In case your lifeline to Brooklyn is broken: Woodsist is a four-year-old record label, founded by Woods guitarist Jeremy Earl, that caters to fans who like things gloriously unvarnished, or who think the Vivian Girls are original. The label has brought a small army of lo-f ... More >>

Guest Blog: Five Great Kenny Loggins Movie Moments by '(500) Days Co-Writer Scott Neustadter

Editor's note: Screenwriter Scott Neustadter struck gold in 2009 with his script for (500) Days of Summer, which he co-wrote with Michael H. Weber. The film, shot in downtown Los Angeles, stars Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt; viewers watch the rise and fall of the pair's relationship throu ... More >>

Mega-Telethon Broadcasting From L.A., Elsewhere

CNNAnderson Cooper.​A Friday telethon to raise money for the victims of last week's earthquake in Haiti will be broadcast from Los Angeles, New York, London and Haiti, organizers announced Thursday. It will be everywhere: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Show ... More >>

Best of L.A.: Burgers

BEST EX-POLICE STORY

Scott Baio, Nanci Griffith, Secret Policeman’s Ball and Other Signs of Aging

What to do in L.A., June 5-11

The Secret Is Out

GO LA: Let's Play Fuck, Marry, Kill With Morrissey, Molly Prather and Christoph Eschenbach

And other reasons to not go straight home after work, May 22-28

Seasoned Sexpots, Rock Sirens and Frugal Fashionistas

On Pleasant Gehman and Maggie Barry

Crude Realities

One of Anna Wintour's most significant (and profitable) contributions to Vogue, we learn in The September Issue, has been her decision to put movie stars -- rather than fashion models -- on the magazine's cover. That gives The September Issue an unintended but hardly insignificant point of connectio ... More >>

Sundance Film Festival 2009: Crude Realities

One of Anna Wintour's most significant (and profitable) contributions to Vogue, we learn in The September Issue, has been her decision to put movie stars -- rather than fashion models -- on the magazine's cover. That gives The September Issue an unintended but hardly insignificant point of connectio ... More >>

The Police at the Hollywood Bowl 5/27: Once More Gentlemen Please, But This Time With Bad Feeling

The Police at Hollywood Bowl, May 27, 2008 By Paul Rogers Sting’s ego alone could fill the Hollywood Bowl, but on Tuesday night his band’s performance mitigated any bloated self-esteem. Almost a year to the day since The Police launched their 30th anniversary reunion tour, the trio was a svelt ... More >>

The Vest of the Grammys

Grammy fashion, supposedly, is "anything goes" – an opportunity to let your freak flag fly, get a little rock 'n' roll, show some skin, etc. But the looks on display last night - with the exceptions of a wonderfully courageous Imogen Heap who dressed, I think, as a tree? and OK Go, who perso ... More >>

Farewell, Madame Wong

Rocket From Russia

Time-traveling with an American in Moscow

Heavy Metal Rec Room

Get yer ass over here and check out the new Priest

Resistance Is Futile

The Chemical Brothers push the button and you surrender

A Bore No More

Lion Killer

Boys of Bad Music

Strange Memes and Nascent Trends

Have You Noticed That . . .

All That Jazz

Talking about my generation

Luna Vista

The (Minor) Agony on the Ecstasy

When you cruise, you schmooze — with people who don’t necessarily think like your friends back home

History in the Remaking

Ed Begley Jr.'s harvest of fame

Tee Time

Reunited, and It Feels So Good

Everything’s fine, thanks, with Concrete Blonde

Letters

Rhythm & Belief

African America calls across the water

bLAnd LAnd

Sitegeist’s semiannual scene column (with special guest editor Rita Elkbrute)

Thieves Like Us

Stalking classic rock with the Charlatans UK

New Standards

Marcus Roberts' assimilation and re-expression