The Beastie Boys

Remembering Napster

What Happened to the Reseda Country Club?

The San Fernando Valley doesn't come to mind when you think "iconic clubs," but in the 1980s the West Valley was the place to see acts like Tom Petty, Merle Haggard, Metallica and U2. See also: What Makes the Hollywood Bowl So Perfect? The Reseda Country Club, located on Sherman Way near Reseda B ... More >>

Dublab 13th Anniversary Party - Echoplex - 9/22/12

Dublab 13th Anniversary Party Echoplex 9-22-12 Better than...waiting in a Wendy's drive-through congested with D.U.I. candidates at 2 a.m. At the 13th anniversary party for Dublab -- L.A.'s beloved nonprofit web radio collective -- there were nine DJs on one stage in roughly five hours. The party ... More >>

Bad Brains: Band in D.C.

Dublab 13th Anniversary Party Echoplex 9-22-12 Better than...waiting in a Wendy's drive-through congested with D.U.I. candidates at 2 a.m. At the 13th anniversary party for Dublab -- L.A.'s beloved nonprofit web radio collective -- there were nine DJs on one stage in roughly five hours. The party ... More >>

Those Shepard Fairey-Designed MCA Billboards? Here's How They Came to Be

See also: Adam Yauch, RIP: A Life in Photos Shortly after the death of Beastie Boy MCA in early May, a billboard appeared on an industrial stretch of Venice; designed by Brooklyn artist Kaves, it was mostly black and white with a Beastie Boys photo and lyric. (It has since moved to Sunset.) This we ... More >>

Henry Rollins: The Column! R.I.P. MCA

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Saturday KCRW broadcast.] See also: *Adam Yauch, RIP: A Life in Photos *Let's Not Reduce Adam Yauch's Career to a Single ... More >>

Adam Yauch is Dead: RIP Beastie Boy MCA

See also: Our Adam Yauch slide show Hip-hop pioneer Adam Yauch, better known as MCA of the Beastie Boys, died this morning of cancer, at age 47. The information was reported by Def Jam founder Russell Simmons. The Beasties' legacy spans three decades, crossing genres and mediums. The group had a k ... More >>

Listen Now: Roy Choi Mike D on 'Food Is the New Rock'

Prior to his days covering the city's tastiest (and unhealthiest) lunches under $10, Los Angeles food blogger Zach Brooks of Midtown Lunch worked as a music programmer at Sirius Satellite Radio in New York. But when Brooks went bicoastal two years ago, he didn't give up his love for music but instea ... More >>

The "fun" in fundraiser

Prior to his days covering the city's tastiest (and unhealthiest) lunches under $10, Los Angeles food blogger Zach Brooks of Midtown Lunch worked as a music programmer at Sirius Satellite Radio in New York. But when Brooks went bicoastal two years ago, he didn't give up his love for music but instea ... More >>

World-Record Dreidel-Spinning Rager in L.A. This Weekend

Beastie Boys​Updated at the bottom: The attempt's a FAIL. First posted at 12:57 p.m. on Dec. 2. Sunday, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!!! Jews, JEWS, JEWS!!! If you're not burned out after raging on Saturday night, the Sinai Temple in Holmby Hills is where the after-party is. The world-record-breaking afte ... More >>

Hip-Hop's New Brainiac: K. Flay

When she talks, K. Flay uses big words.Nascent.Dichotomous. Alienation.It's the sort of vernacular that writers splay all over the page when they're trying to sound intelligent. But Flay actually is intelligent; there's her dual degrees from Stanford in psychology and sociology, for one thing. Rig ... More >>

Top Five Spike Jonze Rap Videos That Are Better Than "Otis"

Kanye and Jay-Z​The Spike Jonze-directed video for Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Otis" debuted late last week. In it, the two professional luxury shoppers (and occasional rappers) gallivant around in a modified Maybach while rapping in front of a giant flag. If you've somehow missed it, knock yourse ... More >>

Are People Who Listen to Sexist Lyrics More Sexist Than Others? Science Weighs In!

​ Hello all! Here at West Coast Sound we pay attention to what scientists discover about music so you don't have to! Today, thought we'd use Blinding You With Science to explore the relationship between misogyny and lyrics. As in, is does constant exposure to misogynistic rap or hip-hop lyric ... More >>

IF THESE WALLS COULD LAUGH

​ Hello all! Here at West Coast Sound we pay attention to what scientists discover about music so you don't have to! Today, thought we'd use Blinding You With Science to explore the relationship between misogyny and lyrics. As in, is does constant exposure to misogynistic rap or hip-hop lyric ... More >>

Top 10 Cover Songs of 2010

Top 10 Cover Songs of 2010

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2011 Inductees Leaked?

​A much less momentous version of Wikileaks has interfered with the mysterious selection process for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Website Hits Daily Double apparently got hold of the list of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees for 2011 a few days early (the official announcement is tomorro ... More >>

Turnovers & Turntables: Taking A Spin at The Redbury Hotel

Lina Lecaro At Redbury, turntables come with directions, iPod docks don't. ​Chocolates on the bed, fruit baskets, iPod docks, free porn... yada, yada. Special little touches like these are nice when staying in a hotel, but after our tour of grand new Redbury in Hollywood last week, we think it ... More >>

In Honor of the Walkman: Ten Must-Have Cassette Classics, From 'Da Da Da' to Deathrock to 'Do Me!'

Turns out the Walkman isn't dead yet, but let's face it (those of us who weren't surprised to find that the outmoded portable was still being manufactured): The writing's on the wall. As a sort of premature eulogy for the player, West Coast Sound revisits some of the Walkman's finer moments through ... More >>

Dublab and Leaving Rec's Keep Cassette Culture Alive in Silver Lake (Plus: Lapti, From Russia with Fuzz)

Raid your own collection for cassettes to "spin" at Top Tape in Silver Lake.​On Friday night (tonight) at Silver Lake's Hyperion Tavern, Dublab and Leaving Records are asking cassette owners to help DJ a night filled exclusively with reel-to-reel music. Die hard tape aficionado and casual "ju ... More >>

Today in WTF: Justin Timberlake Imitates Sugarhill Gang, Snoop, Eminem, etc. with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots. Sacrilege or Genius?

Timbalake​Justin Timberlake once again confounds haters by extremely credibly impersonating a bunch of rappers with Jimmy Fallon and using The Roots as his backing band. We're talking Sugarhill, Beastie Boys, Snoop, Jay-Z, "The Humpty Dance," Eminem, and even a coupla viral sensations (can yo ... More >>

Live Review: Freddie Gibbs at Crazy Girls

Deidre CrawfordFreddie Gibbs Has A Lot To Smile About​ A strip club crowd's a tough crowd. When the inked, mohawked "Malice" is prancing and preening like she's the lead in Mötley Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls" video; and the acrobatic "Jojo" is languidly folding herself into origami around t ... More >>

Nightranger: Once Bitten, Twice Buy

Deidre CrawfordFreddie Gibbs Has A Lot To Smile About​ A strip club crowd's a tough crowd. When the inked, mohawked "Malice" is prancing and preening like she's the lead in Mötley Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls" video; and the acrobatic "Jojo" is languidly folding herself into origami around t ... More >>

Once Bitten, Twice Buy: The Cobrasnake's Cobrashop Opens at Hollywood & Highland

Girls with homeless-hag hair and pricey designer bags, boys in fugly (desperate for irony) t-shirts, and cartoon characterish cliques grooving geekily (yet self-consciously) to tunes spun by Shepard Fairey (M.I.A., The Go-Gos and The Beastie Boys). Last Tuesday night's grand opening of The Cobrashop ... More >>

Shocker! Naked Internet Gun Lover Rockglockcock Is a Bonnaroo Festival Kinda Guy

The imaged that launched a thousand lunches towards the bottom of the toilet: Rockglockcock in all his glory​ The wonderful Lisa Carver has tracked down naked Internet gun enthusiast Rockglockcock, the model for one of the most meme-tastic photos that tends to illustrate many heated arguments ... More >>

MP3 Exclusive: Machinedrum Remixes Ninjasonik's "Somebody Gonna Get Pregnant"

Diana Levine​Brooklyn crunk-punk freaks Ninjasonik play Spaceland on Thursday night, which almost undoubtedly means that, in the words of frontman Telli Gramz, "Somebody Gonna Get Pregnant." The group's mix of hard-partying beats and hyper-sexual irreverence makes for a wild and bawdy soup th ... More >>

Holy Frak! BSG-Beastie Boys Mash-Up

Some clever person has replicated the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" video using footage from everyone's favorite sci-fi (we refuse to say SyFy) reimagination, Battlestar Galactica. Behold:

Power-Duo the Covers!: Supergrass Offshoot Hot Rats at Spaceland Tonight

Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey are bona fide Britpop stars in the UK as core members of Supergrass, a band that never fully made it in America. Coombes and Goffey took a hiatus from Supergrass sessions to mess around with some of their favorite tunes as a White Stripes-style "power duo." The resulting ... More >>

Cinc It Down

Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey are bona fide Britpop stars in the UK as core members of Supergrass, a band that never fully made it in America. Coombes and Goffey took a hiatus from Supergrass sessions to mess around with some of their favorite tunes as a White Stripes-style "power duo." The resulting ... More >>

SXSW Day 4 (Pt. 2): On Rap/Rock, The Legacy of the Beasties, and Asher Roth Vs. The Knux

Almost 25 years have elapsed since the Rick Rubin-helmed, Licensed to Ill found the Beasties staking their claim as the first major rap group to incorporate guitar-hero rawk ("Rock Box" aside). Such juxtaposition seems prosaic today, but it's almost impossible to grasp how revolutionary sampling L ... More >>

Visual Artists Salute the Beastie Boys (and Biz Markie) at Gallery 1988 in Hollywood

When they burst onto the charts after serving as the opening act on Madonna's 1985 "Virgin" tour, the Beastie Boys were armed with a fully formed style, an unapologetic, in-yer-face mish mash of B-Boy sportiness and Jewish golf-iness, mixing gold chains, plaid slacks, and cop shades, sporting Kan ... More >>

Your Halloween Guide to the Best Parties

When they burst onto the charts after serving as the opening act on Madonna's 1985 "Virgin" tour, the Beastie Boys were armed with a fully formed style, an unapologetic, in-yer-face mish mash of B-Boy sportiness and Jewish golf-iness, mixing gold chains, plaid slacks, and cop shades, sporting Kan ... More >>

Crass chose iconography and dissed photography

Crass preferred resting their image on stencils, flyers, collages, newspaper articles, forged documents, banners, patches. Whenever they had an opportunity, the band seemed to prefer iconography to photography. They wanted to represent themselves as a mystery, a historical force.

Rock Picks: Circle Jerks, Money Mark, No Age

For the week of Jan. 3 - 10

Wanna New Drug

For the week of Jan. 3 - 10

Rock Docs Are Go! Rockumentary Recommendations

As CDs wither, the low-budget rockumentary is born again

Best Landlocked Treasure Island

As CDs wither, the low-budget rockumentary is born again

Citizen Beck

Coming to terms with our native son

Citizen Beck

Coming to terms with our native son

Shower Power

While a few pals questioned the choice to have my co-ed baby shower bash at Boardner's in Hollywood, they soon saw that it wasn't quite what they expected. This place sure aint the rock dive of yore! First of all, owner Tricia Labelle has really classed it up, adding and revamping the art deco tou ... More >>

Freaky Kinky Nation

The weird-ass, beautiful history of ’80s hip-hop, as curated by Tommy Boy records

Boys/Men of the World

The weird-ass, beautiful history of ’80s hip-hop, as curated by Tommy Boy records

3 Myths About the Recording Industry Debunked

The weird-ass, beautiful history of ’80s hip-hop, as curated by Tommy Boy records

3 the Hard Way

Beastie Boys cl-clunk it out

Miracle in the Desert

Beastie Boys cl-clunk it out

Truth or Hair

How do you say moo-lay?

Letters

How do you say moo-lay?

In Search of Lost Tortas

Is Chroni's the place?

Reds

Post-communism with knife and fork

Bring the Sauce

To live, love and leave before dying in L.A.: how the Beastie Boys beat the very odd odds

Music Reviews

To live, love and leave before dying in L.A.: how the Beastie Boys beat the very odd odds