The Roots (Band)

Five More Iconic Key Club Shows

The Key Club's last day is today! Ever since West Coast Sound broke the story of its impending closure, local music fans have been mourning the place. Personally, we've been to the venue hundreds of times, and worked there as a DJ during Metal Skool's heyday for about two years. We believe the venue ... More >>

Fuck Guilty Pleasures: In Defense of Common

[Editor's Note: Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] Rap only exists in extremes. Don't let the polite reviews of Lil Wayne's Carter IV fool you, for instance. It got lots of ... More >>

Homeboy Sandman on His Black Thought Man-Crush

Five years ago, you could find an aspiring New York rapper named Homeboy Sandman bombarding the subway cars of the 7 train with promotional material claiming that rappers Mos Def, Big Pun, and The Roots' Black Thought considered him the next great rapper. It was a promotional ruse, but one that seem ... More >>

What the Dodgers' Musical Taste Says About Them

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Forget phrenology, both the overrated Roots album and the 19th-century pseudo-science. Ignore palmistry, psychotherapy and Rick Warren. The best way to b ... More >>

The Roots, Hilary Hahn, The Urinals

Also, Barbara Lynn, Stalley, Active Child and others

Music Picks: Bettye LaVette, Johnny Thunders, Johnny Hallyday

Also, Kate McGarry, Enter Shikari, Hype Williams and others

Fuck Guilty Pleasures: Lulu Is the Best Album of 2011

[Editor's Note: Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] See also: *Top Five '80s Metallica Songs That Deserved Kick Ass Music Videos *Exclusive: Metallica's Lars Ulrich On Survi ... More >>

Lucy and This Guy With Congas

If Bon Appétit's New BA Kitchen Isn't Exactly A Test Kitchen, What Is It?

Patrick McMullanQuestlove's Fried Chicken At the BA Kitchen Launch Party​Bon Appétit magazine announced this week the opening of "BA Kitchen" in New York City. The space is "a modern cooking and entertaining space," according to a press release, located across from the Frank Gehry café in th ... More >>

Ghostface Killah Changes Mind About Online Impersonator Ghostfase: 'Shout Out to My Mini Muse.... Funny Ass Ninja'

​Internet junkies earned a new respect for Ghostface Killah back in March, under the illusion it was he who had conjured the brilliant and hysterical (to the point of tears) "Top 10 Softest Rappers In The Game." But when West Coast darling Wiz Khalifa and the other teddy bears on the list sta ... More >>

Henry Rollins: The Column! Curtis Mayfield
 Songs in Haiti

​[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 have been curious about Haiti for many years. The history of the country is as fascina ... More >>

KING: Heartwarming Soul From Bizarrely Nonsuperficial L.A. Trio

Brick's Picks: We Go to Playboy Jazz Festival for the Music

LinA in LA- DJ and Dance Club Picks for this Weekend

?uestlove spins Saturday​Forget about Christmas, June marks the jolliest time of the year, at least for gays. Yep, it's Gay Pride weekend folks, and if you happen to be anywhere near West Hollywood, you can expect pretty much non-stop revelry all day and night. Those looking for non-Pride par ... More >>

You Don't Know Jack

The Black Rap Bart Simpson Returns: Fresno's Fashwan Drops New J. Cole-Featuring Mixtape

​Fresno rap up-and-comer and local pot promoter (hey, bruh, keep the green in Grizzly City), Fashawn has just dropped a new mixtape/free album via XXL Magazine. You should cop it, if only to hear what a black Bart Simpson sounds like rapping. (We actually think Fash owes West Coast Sound some ... More >>

Top 6 Controversial TV Appearances By Bands, in Honor of Odd Future Playing Fallon Tonight

​The ever controversial Odd Future (OFWGKTA) rap collective is set to perform tonight on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. We're not sure what this means, but we imagine a certain amount of destruction, danger and disrespect will be involved. (At least, we hope.) Earlier today, Roots drummer Quest ... More >>

Grammy Party Report #3: Relentless Rhythms at Roots Jam and The Black Keys on Deck at Hemingways

Lina LecaroRoots' Capt. Kirk Douglas and Jimmy Fallon- less talkin,' more rockin.'​ You never know who might pop up on stage at the Roots Jam, which was, with the exception of Clive Davis' A(ss)-list kiss/croon-a-thon, the most buzzed about bash Saturday night. It was wishful thinking of cour ... More >>

Top 5 Things to Do This Weekend in L.A.

Ween!​ "L.A. proved too much for the man," sang Gladys Knight, "So he's leavin' the life he's come to know, He said he's goin' back to find [Ooh, said the Pips] what's left of his world, The world he left behind, Not so long ago." Well, "the man" was kind of a wuss, right? You don't have to t ... More >>

'2 Girls 1 Cup' Meme Revived by Rappers Oh No and Alchemist (Watch)

Oh No: "It's all bad, dog." YouTube citizens react to horrific scat sex.​We're pretty sure that a couple of L.A. underground rap heavyweights like Oh No (Madlib's lil bro) and Alchemist (Eminem's DJ) could, given time, work their way up to a video cameo by the Roots for one of their songs. Bu ... More >>

Yo Gabba Gabba's 'Party In My City' Entertains Breeding Hipsters and their Kids ("Kidsters"?)

Lina LecaroThe biggest show -and wildest crowd- Nokia Theatre may have ever seen. ​ Kiddie faux-hawks, fashionably mismatched tutu ensembles and tattoos (fake on tykes, real on moms and dads) swarmed upon L.A. Live in downtown this past weekend, when the trendster tyke sensation Yo Gabba Gabb ... More >>

Untangling Roots of Chicha

Born of Peruvian poverty, genre gained worldwide exposure thanks to a Brooklyn Frenchman

Live Review: LA 101 with Massive Attack and Thievery Corporation

timothy norrismassive attack​ See more of Timothy Norris' photos in 'LA 101 with Thievery Corporation, Massive Attack and more.' By any metric, last night's LA 101 at the Gibson Amphitheatre was a success--save for maybe the fact that the headliners didn't hail from LA. Of course, Massive At ... More >>

Tonight: Foals, Mumford & Sons, John Legend and the Roots, Griffin House, Jason Derulo, Evan Voytas, Radars to the Sky

Steve GullickFoals​Foals' arty fusion of indie-rock and dance music took two albums to coalesce, but it did on Total Life Forever, which came out in May on Sub Pop. The album earned the Oxford, U.K., quintet a nomination for Britain's Mercury Prize. What it's earning them on their current 22- ... More >>

First Listen: 'Roots of Chicha 2' Samples the Best of Psychedelic Peruvian Surf Cumbia

First Listen: 'Roots of Chicha 2' Samples the Best of Psychedelic Peruvian Surf Cumbia

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 >>

Dark Continents

Civil wars in Tim Robbins' Break the Whip and Lynn Nottage's Ruined

Dance Club Pick: Don't Stop Till You Get Enough Questlove

This Weekend: Sunset Junction and Other Functions (Like Service With Rev. Al Green)

Al Green​You've perhaps debated the lineup, read Nightranger's survival guide, gotten the reasoned perspective from Falling James, seen a certain local blog's mixtape and even tried to gauge the hippie traffic patterns. You either have the compunction for Sunset Junction, or you don't. Fact ... More >>

Music Picks: Sunset Junction Street Fair, Lucinda Williams, Y & T, Tanya Morgan

Also, GZA, Jimmy Webb, Fol Chen and others

Listen: James Poyser, Karriem Riggins and Madlib Collaborate on 'Funky Butt'

Madlib's "High Jazz" on LP​Current L.A. Weekly cover star Madlib is working his way through an incredibly prolific 2010 neatly bulleted by his album-a-month series, The Madlib Medicine Show. His label, Stones Throw, has just announced the seventh installment in that record chain, High Jazz, w ... More >>

Listen: Busdriver Remixes Monsters of Folk Track, 'Dear God,' Raps All Over It

Wow.​There may be a new rap production powerhouse on the rise: Oberst-Ward-James-Mogis, collectively known as ... J-Ward Mo'burst? Okay, so that last part was wildly apocryphal, but when L.A. art-rap staple Busdriver flips the Monsters of Folk track "Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)" into somethin ... More >>

Top Ten Strangest Covers of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean"

Michael Jackson had many hits from the time he was a little kid until his untimely death last year, and even after that. But for some reason there seems to be a certain agreement that "the" quintessential MJ hit is "Billie Jean," from the record-breaking 1982 Thriller album. The impossible-not-to-d ... More >>

Today in WTF: The Roots' Questlove Endorses Sting (against Lil' Wayne) for Hypothetical Political Office

Questlove & Sting in the studio last month (take our word for it: it's them)​Ah, Questlove, the Mayor of Twitter... Here's a little essay The Roots maestro just churned out. It needs a lot of editing to make all of its intended sense, but the gist of it is that he's upset critics like "shocki ... More >>

Top Ten Musicians Who Cannot Tour Arizona Without Proving They're "Legal"

Carlos Santana: Papers please!​We don't know if you're aware of this, but Arizona has recently passed a little law demanding that every cop, security guard or random person in some kind of uniform and in possession of a Tazer stop anyone "suspected" of being an illegal immigrant and demand tha ... More >>

Rage Against the Machine DVD To be Released

Rage Against the Machine DVD To be Released

Nightranger Looks Back at '09 Fashion and Music

Soundtrack for a Revolution

SXSW '09, Day 1: On Max Tundra, Mojoe, and Mediocrity

I have this theory: like most things, greatness at music generally* requires an alloy of natural talent, providence, and an Outliers-like tenacity requiring 10 years hard labor in dingy crackerbox clubs, or snagging a Best New Music on Pitchfork--whichever comes first. The corollary being that for ... More >>

Talking Hip Hop (and Phil Collins) With At the Movies' Ben Lyons

By Brandon Perkins Perhaps if Ben Lyons' movie chops were as obvious as his hip-hop track record, then sites like StopBenLyons.com wouldn't exist. Ever since the E! personality took the helm of the Siskel, Roper and Ebert's beloved At the Movies, Lyons has been berated with more thumbs down than ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Absinthe Among the Dead, Family Guy C.R.A.P., Bruce McCulloch Comedy, The Roots Live

It's funny -- every weekend in Los Angeles we promise ourselves we're going to relax, do chores, catch up on some sleep, but it never happens. Monday arrives and we're more exhausted than when the weekend began. I guess if your Friday night kicks off with The Roots live at the Palladium and an absin ... More >>

Has the L.A. Hip-Hop Plague Finally Passed?

Four on the floor

Outside Lands Day 2-When Dinosaurs Attack

The crowd was older and tamer yesterday. No wholesale destruction of chain link fences, no claustrophobic clusterfucks trying to get across the endless expanse of festival ground, no scofflaws streaming into the VIP section to taunt the fools that squandered $700 a ticket for nicer bathrooms and a ... More >>

The 10 Best Hip-Hop Albums of the Half Year

Yes, I'm aware that this is a month late. I never said punctuality was my strong suit. (That would be rambling, stoned gibberish. ) Look for the best 10 non-rap albums sometime next week. 10 (tie). Nico the Beast-No Beast So Fierce Genre purists and anyone weaned on that mid-90s school of sav ... More >>

A Tale of Two Samples: Fela Kuti's "Mr. Grammarticalogylisationalism Is the Boss" and The Roots' "I Will Not Apologize"

I'll leave the thorough sample de-constructions to Dan Love or O-Dub, but couldn't help but feel compelled to share a discovery I made the other day in my on-going quest to listen to every known bit of music ever recorded by Fela Kuti. Namely, the afro-beat derived sample for "I Will Not Apologiz ... More >>

Music

Fall Harvest While the media was examining a fake beef, a bounty of music dropped

Why I Wore Flip-flops to the Grammys

Ok they weren't really flip-flops, more like comfy black slides with rubber soles, and they were hidden under an entirely appropriate long and billowy 70s halter dress. But still I felt pretty earthy and under-dressed sauntering amidst all the Manolos and Choos that flooded the Staples Center last n ... More >>

The Deepest Cut

Unaborted

Love and crap from the Sex Pistols