The Clash (Band)

The Best Concerts to See in L.A. This Weekend

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Friday, May 31 Trixie Whitley TROUBADOUR As the daughter of country rock & blues musician Chris Whitley and the vocalist for Daniel Lanois' Black Dub project, Trixie Whitley pairs a youthful yet worldly outlook with big-lung ... More >>

Kat Arthur & Her Hellkats, Pearl Harbour, The She Riffs, Alice Bag

The Best Concerts to See in L.A. This Weekend

Friday, March 15 The Black Ryder THE ECHO The Black Ryder come from Australia but sound like they're from 13th Floor Elevators' own personal Texas, a land of endless desert where the guitars echo to eternity and where it's too hot to move fast. The Black Ryder concoct psychedelia that bleeds and bo ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: Your Ears Are in Good Hands

KCRW BROADCAST #207 03-16-13 See also: Henry Rollins: Our Constitutional Rights Require Constant Vigilance Fanatics! Is this fantastic or what?! We are back on the radio yet again and this one is going to rock! Last week, we had quite the esoteric affair, especially ending with Free Bird. Perhaps ... More >>

Henry Rollins: Still Angry After All These Years

[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.] I turned 52 years of age on the 13th day of February. That morning, I found myself completely u ... More >>

The Best Concerts in L.A. This Weekend

Friday, February 15 Foxygen ECHOPLEX If you add up the ages of Foxygen's 20-something Sam France and Jonathan Rado, then subtract it from the current year, you will verge on the era from which the duo's album, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, takes its cues. There isn't a '60s ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: FIDLAR, Pissed Jeans and Lamp

KCRW BROADCAST #202 02-16-13 See also: Henry Rollins: Football, Violence, and America Fanatics! Tonight's show is a great one from top to bottom. I am listening to it right now and I am excited to roll it all out for you. I just got the Fidlar and Pissed Jeans records last week and am digging the ... More >>

Topshop at the Grove: We Survived the Opening of the British Powerhouse's First L.A. Store

Valentine's Day can be a great excuse to indulge in sweets, booze and over-priced flowers, but for a mob of screaming teenage Angelenos yesterday, the afternoon was spent indulging in another form of gluttony: shopping during the opening of Topshop at the Grove. Touted as the "Topshop Topman Takeove ... More >>

Music Picks: Foxygen, Tomahawk and Nick Cave

Rock Star Fashions, Without the Douchiness

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Almost everyone has once wanted to dress like a rock star, but most people realize how absurd they look in leather pants and sequins. Wisely, then, Holly ... More >>

The Best Concerts in L.A. This Weekend

Friday, February 1 Vieux Farka Touré, Fool's Gold ROYCE HALL Music critics often describe Vieux Farka Touré as "the Hendrix of the Sahara," but the Malian guitarist doesn't really sound much like Jimi Hendrix. Instead, Touré has a distinctively exotic style that's more similar to the music of hi ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Weekend

Friday, December 21 "Christmas 101" with Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Van Dyke Parks, Emmylou Harris, Carrie Fisher UCLA ROYCE HALL Rufus and Martha Wainwright's late mother, Canadian folk singer Kate McGarrigle, created the annual "Christmas 101" holiday event, which features carols from around th ... More >>

Music Picks: Chino XL, Marissa Nadler, As Blood Runs Black

My Morning Jacket - The Wiltern - 9/12/12

My Morning Jacket The Wiltern 9/12/12 The number of bands building a name and reputation off their live performances has begun dwindling at a startling rate. With Bruce Springsteen and U2 inching closer to performing in wheelchairs, My Morning Jacket seems to be one of the last remaining holdouts w ... 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 >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: British Invasion

KCRW Broadcast #175 for Saturday, July 28, 2012 See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! Americans Will Never Give Up Their Guns Fanatics! Since I will be in beautiful Dorset, UK on this evening, we have already put this show together and it is ready to lunge forth when the engineers at KCRW hit the b ... More >>

The Zeros Play the Troubadour Tonight!

See also: The Best Five Concerts in L.A. This Weekend The Zeros were punk when most people didn't know what punk was. The L.A.-by-way-of-Chula Vista band released their first single on legendary Bomp! Records in 1977, that magical year when punk exploded. The folks involved in their early days re ... More >>

Oh, Look Out You Rock & Rollers

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: Cramps, Andy Warhol References

KCRW Broadcast #156 for Saturday, March 17, 2012 See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! Rebelling in Sweet Home Alabama Fanatics! I am writing you from what's left of a night off in Washington DC. I had a good day driving around town with Ian MacKaye. A few hours ago, we drove by the house where Min ... More >>

Henry Rollins: The Column! I'm Not Dead Yet

​[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.] A few days ago, I was sitting backstage at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, in the same area ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: A British Invasion

KCRW Broadcast #149 for Saturday, January 21, 2012 See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! Are You Collector Scum? Fanatics! Sitting on the tour bus here in raining Wolverhampton UK. I am well into the Long March Tour and things are going well. I am sorry to put you Fanatics through a pre-taped show ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: Brand New Track from The Mark of Cain

See also: *Henry Rollins: The Column! The Time I Drank The Sweat From My Socks Onstage *Henry Rollins, Scott Ian, Mike Watt, Corey Taylor, Dave Navarro - Avalon - 11/30/11 KCRW Broadcast #143 for Saturday, December 3, 2011 Fanatics! What a week. Finally. We have arrived at our meeting place, Satu ... More >>

Whole Lotta Lens

Janie Jones Review

Mikey Welsh Is Dead: How Weezer's Green Album Changed My Life

Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever. Editor's Note: Former Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh was found dead in a Chicago hotel room on October 8, 2011. The cause of death is unknown, ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night:

KCRW BROADCAST #135 for Saturday, October 8 Fanatics! I am in Washington DC at the moment. Engineer X and I taped this show for you from our small studio set up. What we have here tonight is yet another great gathering of tunes that will not only make the weekend rock but will make October all the ... More >>

Warped Tour - Cal State Dominguez Hills - 8/10/11 (With Gifs!)

Andrew Courtien​Warped Tour, featuring The Devil Wears Prada, Gym Class Heroes, SHARKS, Yelawolf, and more Cal State Dominguez Hills 8/10/11 Warped Tour is the longest running touring festival in the United States, older than the now dead Ozzfest and the immobile Lollapalooza. Throughout its ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: UK Subs EP

Timothy Norris​KCRW BROADCAST #121 for Saturday, July 2. Fanatics! Talk about no sleep! I have been bouncing from planes to taxies to studios on both coasts. I worked on this show for a few days on paper and then only a few hours ago was able to listen to all of it and makes sure it is up to ... More >>

Further Proof That Punk Rock Can Lead to a Fulfilling Career

Music Picks: Duran Duran, Jessie Evans, k.d. lang, The Dodos, Swahili Blonde,

Also, Janet Jackson, Greg Laswell, The Crystelles, Big Audio Dynamite and others

Punk Marketing and other godawful motivational business books

​ Yes, Punk marketing exists, and it reads just like you would expect: like someone somehow converted the sound of those guys beating up Jello Biafra that one time into the medium of a self-helpy bullshit business book. The authors actually write: "The punk rock that burst rudely onto the scen ... More >>

"Hardcore Is a Complete, Legitimate California-born Music Form": An Interview with "American Hardcore" Author Steven Blush, Who Speaks Today at Book Soup with Keith Morris and Others

​ In his 2001 compendium, American Hardcore: A Tribal History, New York writer and former promoter Steven Blush all but dispensed with your dad's glamorized spit-scabs-and-safety-pin punk, instead focusing on hundreds of DIY, anarchic hardcore bands from the scene's peak between 1980 and 198 ... More >>

Music Picks: Iannis Xenakis Now and Tomorrow, Ozzy Osbourne, War Tapes, Liz Pappademas

Also, Savage Republic, Tanya Morgan, the Church, the Fling and others

Captain Beefheart: The Legendary 1980 Profile by Lester Bangs

Captain Beefheart artwork for Doc at the Radar Station album ad (1980)​[As we reported this afternoon, Captain Beefheart, Don Van Vliet, died today at 69. We already posted a list of the "Top 14 Reasons Why Captain Beefheart Was a True American Genius" by Beefheartologist Rob Chalfen. You can ... More >>

Tonight: Gorillaz, Reigning Sound, White Sea, Bullet for My Valentine, VersaEmerge, Onra

Gorillaz​The festival-closing Coachella set by Gorillaz back in April was as memorable for what it wasn't as what it was. The Damian Albarn-fronted collective went it without its typical big-screen animations and played unmasked -- with the Clash's Mick Jones and Paul Simonon joining for a se ... More >>

Tonight: Slayer, Megadeth, Film School, Los Enanitos Verdes, Wiz Khalifa, Born Ruffians, Frank Fairfield

Slayer​If the current "Clash of Titans" tour featuring Slayer, Medageth and Anthrax has reinforced one notion, it's that anger never goes out of style. The tour, with Slayer and Megadeth co-headlining, has been raging, drawing metal fans young and old to the music of bands that, along with Me ... More >>

Interview: Beloved DJ Joe Sib On Growing Up Punk Rock in LA

Joe Sib, unplugged​Joe Sib -- Side One Dummy Records co-owner, former Wax frontman and former Indie 103.1 DJ (he currently hosts Complete Control on Star 98.7) -- gets nostalgic in his one-man show, California Calling: Growing Up Punk Rock, which he's been touring for a year and performs at th ... More >>

A Punk Rock Interview with Shepard Fairey, Featured Artist for Alternative Press Magazine's 25th Anniversary Exhibit

Shepard Fairey, the DJ​Although his most recognizable (and controversial) work is 2008's Barack Obama "HOPE" poster, influential street artist Shepard Fairey's biggest motivation comes from connecting with music, not making splashy headlines. Old school album art, flyers and T-shirts from band ... More >>

5 Questions with The Stranglers' Hugh Cornwell [ Free Album Download!]

5 Questions with The Stranglers' Hugh Cornwell [ Free Album Download!]

The Clash's Coolest Dance Floor Moments

There are those who think that The Clash was at its best during its early punk rock days and others who believe that the band didn't hit its creative stride until London Calling, when the dance floor-friendly rhythm section began to truly take shape. Since this writer falls into the latter category, ... More >>

Legendary 'Armagideon Time' Singer Willi Williams Tonight @ The Echoplex

​You might be underwhelmed if we told you that tonight Dub Club at the Echoplex will feature a reggae one-hit-wonder from the late 1970s. But if we pointed out that the singer is Willi Williams and the one-hit is "Armagideon Time," which he originally recorded in 1978 for Coxson Dodd's Studio ... More >>

Vampire Weekend in Los Angeles: Ezra Koenig Talks Third Wave Ska, Song Construction, the Clash and California

Vampire Weekend spent much of late 2009 in and around Southern California. The New York four-piece, whose second album, Contra, comes out today, are gigging a sold-out show at the Fonda tonight, the biggest in a series of performances that it has done in Los Angeles since mid '09. For much of the fa ... More >>

Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Antonino D'Ambrosio and Shepard Fairey at Subliminal Projects: Bitter Tears, Fury, and Politics

By Barbara Celis Art is the antidote. This timeless truth became clear once again on Saturday night when Subliminal Projects, the Echo Park art gallery owned by Shepard Fairey, hosted a politically- and musically-charged event that celebrated artists as activists and art as a way to agitate conscio ... More >>

Coachella Day 2: The Power of Pulchritude and Paper Planes

Timothy NorrisM.I.A.'s dancers: Working it harder than Maya As I wriggled out of the teeming crowd that clotted for M.I.A, I eavesdropped on the Spalding basketball-bronzed sorority sisters speaking behind me: "If I was like a dude, I would totally want to do M.I.A." Personally, M.I.A. doesn't real ... More >>

Tonight: Los Fabulosos Cadillacs Return to LA

After a seven-year hiatus, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs are finally touring again, despite the loss of percussionist Gerardo "Toto" Rotblat, who died of pulmonary edema last year, shortly before rehearsals for the reunion. Their latest CD, La Luz del Ritmo, might seem at first like a tentative return, ... More >>

SXSSXSW Day 4/Days Late (Pt. 1): On Rap/Rock, The Legacy of the Beasties, and Asher Roth Vs. The Knux

Other than freshman Delta Sigma Theta rushes at Cal-State Chico, no substrata of the American population has worse taste in rock than rappers. Sure, your little brother likes Fall Out Boy, but eventually, he's going to grow up and discover The Clash, then weed, then hopefully Junior Murvin and Lee ... More >>

Young@Heart Screening

Culture Clash in Americca

Radiohead's "In Rainbows," a Prehistory

Artists giving away their music for free, a chronology. 1906, Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Sailors off the coast of the Atlantic hear an eerie, otherworldly sound emanate from a box given to them by inventor Reginald Fessenden. On shore, Fessenden stands in front of a microphone attached to a sync ... More >>