The Doors

The Best Concerts to See in Los Angeles This Week

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Monday, May 20 Holy Ghost! TROUBADOUR It's been two years since the release of Holy Ghost!'s eponymous debut. Often hailed as LCD Soundsystem's heirs, the NYC-based duo's sound falls somewhere between Phoenix's precocious li ... More >>

Ray Manzarek, Doors Co-Founder, Dead at 74

Ray Manzarek, who founded The Doors with Jim Morrison in Venice in 1965 after their time at UCLA, died today at the age of 74, the band's official Facebook page announced. The keyboard player, who gave the quintessential L.A. rock band part of its signature sound, died at RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, ... More >>

The Five Most Iconic Key Club Shows in Its History

We broke some sad news last week: the Key Club will close its doors this Friday. Since opening in 1967 as Gazzarri's, it has been a staple of the Sunset Strip for decades, under various names and ownership. The venue has seen many popular styles of music come and go, but has, Zelig-like, been at the ... More >>

Key Club to Close This Month

The Key Club, a Sunset Strip favorite for decades, is scheduled to close later this month. Though the club's ownership could not be reached for comment, its last show is slated for March 14, and sources behind various events held there confirmed its impending demise.

Pan African Film and Arts Festival 2013 Spotlights Immigration, Civil Rights and Jazz

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Solo Show About Pioneering Actress Hattie McDaniel

Our critic Lovell Estell was entranced by Vickilyn Reynolds' performance in a show based on the life of Hattie McDaniel, Hattie -- What I Need You To Know. For all the latest New Theater Reviews, and comprehensive stage listings, see below.This week's Stage Feature takes a look a three shows th ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Sherlock's Last Case

No new reviews this week, but these will return at the same time next week, as the new theater season gets underway. See below for complete listings of shows to see this week.In this week's stage feature, we asked our stable of critics what they most dread and anticipate when being assigned a s ... More >>

Our Most Popular Stories of 2012

It was a great year for the L.A. Weekly music section and our West Coast Sound blog. On the print side, we specialized in well-reported profiles, news stories, and essays that helped our readers understand better the music they love. On the blog we churned out compulsively-readable pieces that start ... More >>

Rudolph the Red-Nosed ReinDOORS

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Monday, December 17 The Moonbeams HEMINGWAY'S LOUNGE The Moonbeams' upcoming single might be titled "Life's a Circus," but the song is more mournful and foreboding than cheery or escapist. Lead singer Beck Black howls her bloody imprecations with a solemn, sullen intensity as drummer Adam Alt and g ... More >>

Chad Colby's Salumi Night at Mozza Scuola Di Pizza Goes to 4 Nights a Week

Beginning Jan. 1, 2013, the salumi night that Scuola Di Pizza chef Chad Colby has been hosting on Thursday nights will go to a four-night-a-week format, open every Mon.-Thurs. from 6-10 p.m. The change cements the idea that Colby is doing something with his salumi bar that is its own restaurant conc ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: Going in Deep With One Last Wish

KCRW Broadcast #178 for Saturday, August 25, 2012 See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! When It Comes to Cracking Down On Protests, Are We Any Better Than Russia? Fanatics! Welcome to September. While I am sure it may still be hot where you are, it is in fact September and autumn is upon us. Tonigh ... More >>

Henry Diltz, the Man Who Shot The Doors

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Entering rock photographer Henry Diltz's North Hollywood house feels like stepping into Merlin's cottage, if the wizard carried a Canon rather than a cau ... More >>

The Sloths' Jeff Briskin Hired a Private Detective to Track Down His Former Bandmates

Try as time might to diminish this filthy city's hot brat-beat heritage, there's never a shortage of dormant talent lurking deep within the twisting corridors of our rock and roll maze of myth and history. While squandered legacies and the yoke of mediocrity befall so many once promising players, th ... More >>

X - The Roxy - Sunset Strip Music Festival - 8/17/12

X The Roxy 8/17/12 See also: Top 20 Greatest L.A. Punk Albums of All Time: The Complete List The Sunset Strip Music Festival shuts down the boulevard today for its centerpiece event, but parties and performances in conjunction with the annual fest have been going on since Thursday. This year there ... More >>

Marilyn Manson Rambles, Makes Jokes About the Dark Knight Killer

See also: *Marilyn Manson's Born Villain Tracks: We Heard Them First *Marilyn Manson Threatens to Kill Buddyhead, LA Weekly, Critics Marilyn Manson headlines this weekend's Sunset Strip Music Festival, which caps a crazy summer for him that included promoting his latest release Born Villain and an ... More >>

Flicks Are for Kids

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: California Love

KCRW Broadcast #158 for Saturday, March 31, 2012 See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! The Ugly World of eBay Hustling Fanatics! Tomorrow night we have a bit of a concept show for your enjoyment. Since I write this ahead of a show in San Diego, I thought it would be a great idea to play bands from ... More >>

Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Something": Why This Song Sucks

[Editor's note: Why This Song Sucks determines why particular tracks blow using science. It appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] Song: Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Something" History: "Wanna Be Startin' Something" is the fourth single from Michael Jackson's album Thriller (said Th ... More >>

I Wish They All Could Be California Bands

We Open in Venice

Top Five Covers of Skrillex's 'Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites'

Star Foreman​See 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 >>

Yelawolf - El Rey Theatre - October 11, 2011

Timothy Norris​Yelawolf El Rey Theatre October 11, 2011 Almost a year ago, Yelawolf opened for Wiz Khalifa at the Music Box to little interest. His modest van was parked next to the headliner's tour bus in the lot. Last night at the El Rey Theatre, though, Yelawolf was in his element. Havi ... More >>

Nine Things You Didn't Know About Weird Al

​Piece by Sam Bloch An Evening With "Weird Al" Yankovic The Grammy Museum 7-25-2011 Better Than... A lost evening on Wikipedia. After 30 years in the music industry, Lynwood's own "Weird Al" Yankovic sat down yesterday at LA Live's Grammy Museum for a candid look back at his career. Talking ... More >>

Ten Groups Who Never Should Have Gotten Back Together

Beware fellas, bad things may be coming your way​On New Year's Eve 2009, Chris Cornell made a Twitter declaration: "School's back in session." The implication was that Soundgarden was reuniting. However, it took several months for the official announcement. The grunge pioneers would be putting ... More >>

The Doors' Los Angeles Masterpiece "LA Woman" to Be Reissued with Rare Studio Outtakes

Jim Morrison at the "La Woman" sessions​ The Doors' very concise catalog has to be one of the most recycled set of the recordings in the history of rock. After original issues, reissues, compilations, early-era CDs, remasters, remixes, box sets (yes, plural), etc. it's almost miraculous that t ... More >>

The Column! No. 2 With a Bullet

Henry Rollins: The Column! Rollins on How The Doors, the Velvet Underground and The Stooges Beat the Sophomore Slump

Timothy Norris​[The one and only Henry Rollins contributes a weekly column and far-reaching reportage to the music section of the LA Weekly. Look for your weekly Henry Rollins fix right here on West Coast Sound every Wednesday and make sure to tune in to Henry's KCRW radio show every Saturday ... More >>

Top 10 Songs For the Apocalypse (Bird Death? Crabicide? Snooki's Book? Signs of the Endtimes!)

TK 10 Songs For the Apocalypse

Electra60 with Jack Holzman

Nightranger: Stars, Cars & Guitars

Stars, Cars and Guitars: Gibson GuitarTown Debuts on the Sunset Strip

Lina Lecaro Cherie Currie and son Jake Hays with The Runaways guitar by artist Sonia Lopez-Chavez. ​A drive down the Sunset Strip always promises a few things: flashy billboards, rockin' (usually studded) get-ups, beckoning marquees and maddeningly slow-moving cars. Now there's something fun ... More >>

Pamela Des Barres: She Had Your Fun

Strange Fascination

Archival footage is the real draw of this doc about the Doors

Guest Blogger Jason Reitman on 14 Perfect Musical Moments

​Editor's note. This week director Jason Reitman is guest blogging at West Coast Sound. Reitman, whose new film, Up in the Air, was nominated for five Golden Globes this morning (including Best Director and Best Screenplay nominations for Reitman ... congrats!), is also a pretty big music head ... More >>

Echo and the Bunnymen Play Ocean Rain in its Entirety at the Nokia

Echo & the Bunnymen at the Nokia Theater, Oct. 24. Seeing a maddeningly underrated and undervalued band like Echo & the Bunnymen is a good way to keep the ears and soul in check, especially the day before a cold front from Dublin swoops in to take over all of SoCal, and to remind us who pays for Th ... More >>

First Listen to Essential Rhino Box: 'Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets, 1965-1968'

​Times are tight, for sure. A box set is a luxury that few can afford these days. Given the choice between a 4 cd collection and paying the phone bill or buying a bottle of Scotch, well, let's just say you can't download a bottle of Scotch. But if you're at all curious about the history of th ... More >>

Rhino to Release 'Digital 45s,' with A-sides, B-sides and Original (PDF) Sleeves

In ongoing effort to bring weird little songs from Rhino's catalog to the top of the digital avalanche, the legendary LA reissue label is launching a new series of so-called 'digital 45s.' This morning the label announced the program: Rhino will spotlight songs originally issued on 45 by offering t ... More >>

Rhino Announces Landmark LA Reissue: Where The Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets, 1965-1968

By far, the Official Most Anticipated L.A. Reissue of the Year has officially become the just-announced Los Angeles Nuggets Box that Rhino Records has announced. It's a four CD-box of garage and weird rock classics of the 1960s, a wild ride through an LA long since vanished.

Bad Idea #324: Love to Reform without Arthur Lee

No. No. No. Love minus Arthur Lee is like, well, The Doors without Jim Morrison. Or that time "The Byrds" toured with Gene Clark and long-ago fired drummer Mike Clarke as the only band members. We understand, everyone needs money right now. But there are some things that are sacred, and Love is ... More >>

Milking the Band: The Doors Get New Unauthorized DVD Documentary

A waste of precious resources? In this installment of Milking the Band, we bring you the new documentary about the Doors, called, The Doors: From the Outside, an unauthorized tome that puts its arm's-length status in the title by acknowledging that this telling comes "not from the perspective of th ... More >>

The Doors Documentary, When You're Strange, Screens at Sundance: Densmore Still Won't Get Onstage With Krieger and Manzarek

Nikki Finke over at Deadline Hollywood has an interesting little tidbit about the screening of the new Doors documentary "When You're Strange," produced by Dick Wolf. Seems that despite the buzz surrounding the doc, which features never-before-seen footage, the three remaining members of the band st ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Downtown Art Walk, Jonesy's Jukebox Jury, Morrison Hotel Photo Exhibit

Perhaps we were still recovering from last weekend's Detour Festival, or perhaps it's that damn cold going around, but this weekend was relatively mellow in Los Angeles. Even then, L.A. Weekly managed to make the rounds and partake in some exceedingly cool events. We hit up the city's hottest phot ... More >>

Rockers at Morrison Hotel Gallery with Legendary Music Photographer Bob Gruen

To be honest, I never thought I'd be standing in legendary photographer Bob Gruen's teenage bedroom. The unkempt bed covered by a Led Zeppelin blanket, the shelves of rock memorabilia, the walls plastered with photos and cutout articles from vintage rock magazines like Creem and Rock Scene... it is ... More >>

Mayhem at Abbot Kinney Festival

At 9:20 p.m., almost three hours after Abbot Kinney Festival closed, a shooting occurred on Abbot Kinney and San Juan, killing one man and hospitalizing a woman. As of late Sunday night, no further information was available. Organizers for the Abbot Kinney Festival make the claim that nearly 150,0 ... More >>

Hilarity ensues at the opening of new John Varvatos store at former CBGB's site

Reminder from NYC: It kind of sucks here now. Our favorite placard from the protesters: "One small loss of a music space, one giant leap for pants."

Cross Rock

A historical celebration of pop crucifixions, from Morrison to Manson to Madonna

Nightranger

Top Jimmy, 1954–2001

Neighborhood Bars & Nightclubs