Van Morrison

The Dazzling Story of the Orpheum Theatre

The Orpheum Theatre has six floors of dressing rooms, a film projector, a world-class sound system and one of the only surviving Wurlitzer theater organs in the country. It's also one of the last independent venues in the city. Ninety years in, it continues to thrive after more than 85 years thanks ... More >>

Danny Holloway, Music Industry Legend, Has the Nuts

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Danny Holloway owns as many stories as vinyl records: 50,000. Before our waiter at El Tepayec takes drink orders, he's already riffing on how he almost s ... More >>

Smashing Pumpkins - The Wiltern - 10/5/11

Timothy Norris​See also: The Wiltern Opened 80 Years Ago. Its Survival Story Is As Grand As Its Terra-Cotta Tile Smashing Pumpkins The Wiltern 10/5/11 Better than...going to a Zwan show It's been a big week for Generation X'ers. First Jane's Addiction played at the Ford Theatre, and last ni ... More >>

Luis Arriaga: The Fiery Limerent

Top 5 Songs to Watch the Total Lunar Eclipse By Tonight (and a Bonus Track)

​Tonight there's gonna be a Total Lunar Eclipse, a "celestial event" where the moon turns red and all kinds of gullible people start making pronouncements about the supposed relationship between stuff that happens far away in the sky and human events and personalities. In honor of this astrono ... More >>

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 >>

EXCLUSIVE Interview: Greil Marcus On His New Van Morrison Book (Tonight @ Skylight Books)

​If you care at all about music, then we don't need to tell you who Greil Marcus is. The pioneering combiner of pop music criticism and academic depth (read Lipstick Traces or his very smart, influentital books on Dylan and Elvis if you haven't yet) will be appearing live and in person at Skyl ... More >>

It's A Marvelous Night For A Book Signing

Guest Blogger Jason Reitman IDs Some of His Favorite Cover Songs

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 six Golden Globes yesterday (including Best Director and Best Screenplay nominations for Reitman ... congrats!), is also a pretty big music head, as you'll ... More >>

BFF: Van Morrison, Astral Weeks Live, and LA Weekly

Kevin Scanlon​We'll say this upfront: LA Weekly's influence on legendary soul/blues/country/rock singer Van Morrison's life has been negligible, to say the least. We're a lowly free newspaper that enjoys his music and has much respect for his art, and his decisions. Which is why it gives us no ... More >>

Counting Crows, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Augustana Bring Their Traveling Circus to the Greek

By Julie Seabaugh "I'm a Russian-Jew-American, impersonating African Jamaican," the Counting Crows' Adam Duritz snarled on their Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings' "1492." And with the LA stop of genre-hopping summer tour The Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Traveling Circus and Medicine Show -- Coun ... More >>

Van Morrison Goes Astral on The Tonight Show

Rock Picks: Black Lips, Maria Taylor, Audacity, Irina Bjorklund

Also, Gangi, Chris Cornell, Joe Lally, Useless Keys and others

Van Morrison Returns to LA for Three 'Astral Weeks' Performances at the Orpheum

Wow. He's really milking this one, eh? Good for him. Van Morrison's doing Astral Weeks, which he first performed for two nights at the Hollywood Bowl in the fall, at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown LA.

Van Morrison to Release Astral Weeks Performances at Hollywood Bowl Next Month

Van Morrison's early November performances of his 1968 masterwork Astral Weeks were supposed to be ready on CD for Christmas, at least in theory, but nobody rushes an expert. It took a few months longer, but the result, Astral Weeks: Live at the Hollywood Bowl, will arrive Feb. 10. Morrison perform ... More >>

Tonight at On the Rox: Gaby Hernandez Performs Her New Album, When Love (MP3)

Gaby Hernandez's new When Love recalls a different, less regimented era, a time when jazz and soul players converged around a notion of freedom from the constraints of genre, when a singer could team with musicians in the studio and expand the circle. Artists like Roberta Flack and Minnie Ripperton ... More >>

Night 2 of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks at the Hollywood Bowl, Saturday, Nov. 8 Setlist

The second night of Van Morrison's revisit of his classic 1968 album Astral Weeks was a bit looser, a bit less immediate and, well, not as great as the first night. Don't get me wrong: the audience was more excitable on Saturday, standing to dance for "Brown Eyed Girl," shouting along the spelling o ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Lolitas Invade Little Tokyo, Van Morrison, Derby Dolls Championship, Kat Von D and Bam Margera Host Skateboard Event

Well, we survived election week and like many of you I spent a majority of the weekend trying not to get out of bed, reflecting on what an absolutely amazing (yet exhausting) November we've had thus far. Over the weekend, while some Angelenos traded in partying for protesting, others opted to check ... More >>

Van Morrison's Astral Weeks at the Hollywood Bowl, Night One: Set List for a Stunning Evening

photo by Kevin Scanlon Sell the rest of your portfolio. Forgo fancy dinners for the rest of November. Break your lame date and call your soul mate. Do what you have to do, I swear, to get a ticket to tonight's Van Morrison show at the Hollywood Bowl. If you at all have ever been moved by a Morriso ... More >>

Van Morrison and Astral Weeks: LA Weekly Snags a Rare One-on-One Interview with the Elusive Singer

Van Morrison sits down with L.A. Weekly to discuss the alchemy in his past and the enduring allure of his classic album Astral Weeks

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 >>

Van Morrison Once Again Ventures Into the Slipstream

The Glowing Trough of Music: Five Days of South by Southwest

We laugh, we cry, we hate, we score some dirt weed, suck at the corporate teat, rejoice

SXSW: One perspective from an official representative of the Music Industry

Van Morrison Lou Reed: 2 points. SXSW festival: ZERO.

SXSW Day 1: Van Morrison, Division Day, The Ting Tings, The Duke Spirit at SXSW, March 12

Van Morrison at La Zona Rosa, Austin, Texas; Division Day, The Ting Tings and The Duke Spirit at Buffalo Billiards. Van Morrison's pretty cool, wearing his trademark cap and sunglasses, holding a saxophone and totally nonplussed about this show. He's got nothing to prove, nothing to hide. He couldn ... More >>

Neko Case: Deep Red Belle

She's an auburn-haired Caucasian woman of Ukrainian descent. Is Case also the blackest woman in indie rock?

He Stands and Delivers

Obama at Garfield High

The Frames, 9/6

The Frames Henry Fonda Theater, Sept. 6 By Mark Mauer Two crowds showed up to see Dublin's The Frames Thursday night. First there were the die-hards, lining up hours before the doors opened. They're the ones who have followed this band to bigger and bigger venues each time they've come to L.A., fro ... More >>

Nick Lowe in the Age of Experience

While his peers are grasping at straws, Lowe’s work outpaces them all

Rock Picks

For the week of Feb. 15 - 22

Once in a Sundance

Early Festival Report: Scott Foundas scouts Main Street for undiscovered talent and comes away singing

Sex, God and Little Armenians

Generational divides, from Hollywood to NYC

Spank Rock, Wolfrock and Honest Hips

Heart and Lungs

Charles Lloyd, Zakir Hussain and Eric Harland's new album and Omar Sosa's Mulatos Remix.

Music Picks

For the week of April 21-27

Music Picks

For March 3 - 9

Jazz Odyssey

(no puppet show)

Fish Slapping, Angel Baiting and “PAUL-AH-NIK”

Black in the Saddle

Solomon Burke wants to sell you back your soul

Why Darma and Dames Don’t Mix

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . . and Spring’s serene iconoclasm

20 Ways To Shake It

The Revelators

Martin Scorsese’s blue Christmas

Love or Fusion

Do Right Man

Back on Track With Solomon Burke

Van & Jimmy

How to treat a great singer, and how not to

Motor City Breakdown

Freeways’ hot fahren in the summertime

Are You . . . Experienced?

Odds and Ends

Minstrels at the Crossroads

To live and love the blues

Solo

Dating Yourself