Whisky a Go Go

Gene Hoglan on The Early Days of L.A. Thrash Metal

Gene Hoglan is one of the most in-demand drummers in metal. The virtuoso is currently juggling duties in animated metal greats Dethklok and Bay Area thrashers Testament, along with pinch-hitting gigs when other metal greats are in a bind. His drumming style is a dizzying blend of maximum speed and p ... More >>

Linkin Park, Awolnation, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, et al.

Hair Metal Arrives at the Smithsonian

Hair metal band Nova Rex landed on the Sunset Strip at the height of the cock rock craze but, despite the requisite feminine duds and sexual conquests, didn't achieve wide fame. Their lead singer Kenny Wilkerson moved back to his native Indiana in 1991, and eventually bought some tanning salons in F ... More >>

Joan Jett Is the Sunset Strip Music Festival 2013 Honoree

She don't give a damn 'bout her bad reputation, which is why Joan Jett is the official honoree at the Sunset Strip Music Festival this year, West Coast Sound can exclusively announce. The fest takes place August 1-3 and Linkin Park, the headliner, is the only other announced performer so far. Past ... More >>

The Best Los Angeles Metal Shows to See in May

Tuesday, May 7 Cauldron Five Stars Bar Toronto bassist/vocalist Jason Decay was near the forefront of last decade's revival of classic metal sounds, with his previous band Goat Horn. With his current outfit Cauldron, the brand of thrash falls more on the melodic side, taking strong influence from t ... More >>

The Best L.A. Metal Concerts To See In April

Tuesday, Apr 2 Ensiferum, Tyr House of Blues Sunset Strip The annual Paganfest tour has become one of our favorite regular metal tours. Finland's Ensiferum is grounded heavily in orchestral folk metal, but maintains a galloping pace that keeps headbangers moving in the pit. Denmark's Tyr has more in ... More >>

The Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Monday, March 4 Jenny O THE SATELLITE Jenny O's just-out new album, Automechanic (on Holy Trinity/Thirty Tigers), is another strong contribution to L.A.'s new-school canyon-country scene. Produced by the supremely versatile Jonathan Wilson, it fits perfectly alongside Father John Misty's recent Fea ... More >>

The Ax Man Cometh

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Tuesday, December 25 Cody Bryant VIVA CANTINA Believe it or not, there are actually a few clubs open on Christmas. Over at Liquid Kitty in West Los Angeles, DJ Charlie X is spinning a no-cover mix of punk rock and various hits from that lost decade, the 1980s. Across town, at Viva Cantina in Burban ... 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

Music Picks: No Doubt, Nikki Hill, Alice Cooper

Skeletonwitch and Havok - Whisky A Go Go - 10/30/2012

Skeletonwitch and Havok Whisky A Go Go 10-30-2012 Better Than: Drinking alone Top 20 L.A. Metal Albums: The Complete List The Ten Most Unreadable Metal Band Logos At the Whisky A Go Go last night the average patron was barely old enough to be out on a school night, let alone imbibing. The kids (a ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Monday, September 10 Katisse Buckingham Oddsemble SEVEN GRAND Trendy downtown whiskey bar Seven Grand has quietly become a late-night, early-week music hang over the last couple of years under the direction of booker/trombonist Justin Kirk. While seating is at a premium, the jazz and blues offered ... More >>

The Best Metal Concerts to See in L.A. This Month

Sat. Sept 8 Devin Townsend, Katatonia, and Paradise Lost El Rey Theatre Talk about a stacked lineup. Devin Townsend has calmed down since his days fronting angry industrial thrash titans Strapping Young Lad, but he still fucking rocks in the live solo setting. Swedish melodic doomsters Katatonia we ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Monday, August 13 Grandaddy THE FONDA In the year 2000, a group of schlubs from the California meth- and cow-town of Modesto released the perfect record to ring in the new millennium. It was called The Sophtware Slump, and its sun-dappled, spacey, sad-faced robot-pop seemed to capture so much about ... More >>

Music Picks: As Blood Runs Black, Kelly Hogan, Regina Spektor

Also, Agalloch, Antibalas, Power of the Riff and others

Jimmy Cliff, Liars, Jesse Sykes

Also, New Edition, Kátia Moraes & Sambaguru, Milo Greene and others

Rock of Ages Review: Why Hair Metal Is 'Bone Stupid, Creatively Bankrupt, Morally Debased Pop Trash'

Rock of Ages, a new star-clogged pop-musical diversion, is a cinematic event. It's not every day, after all, that you get to see two great American traditions--guitar/bass/drums rock music and Tin Pan Alley musical theater--so thoroughly, mutually degraded. This mess originated as a stage productio ... More >>

Off! - Whisky a Go Go - 5/8/12

Off! Whisky a Go Go 5/8/12 See also: Off!'s Keith Morris Mouths Off, Before the Group's Show at the Whisky Tomorrow Better than... a keg party at Ian McKaye's house. Somewhere between a rock and roll history lesson and a lock-in at the Punk Rock Rec Center, Keith Morris and his supergroup Off! ... More >>

Off!'s Keith Morris Mouths Off, Before the Group's Show at the Whisky Tomorrow

See also: Still a Malcontent: A midlife crisis spawns Keith Morris' new band Off! In this week's music feature we get inside the heads of punk rock "supergroup" Off! on the eve of the release their self-titled debut album. (They hate that term, btw.) The group, which is led by former Black Flag and ... More >>

Music Picks: Roberta Flack, Summer Twins, John Cage Centenary Festival

Also, Spindrift, Lenny Kravitz, Dorian Wood, Howlin Rain and others

Hamburger Hamlet, a West Hollywood Institution, Closes for Good

They ran out of beer the last night the Hamburger Hamlet in West Hollywood was open. They ran out of a lot of things in the final hours on Dec. 19, after 51 years in business.The original Hamlet, a rarity at which African-Americans were hired as waitstaff in the still-segregated '60s, stood just ... More >>

A Note To Bands Who Sound Like Shit: You Forgot To Tip The Sound Guy

Midas Consols​Hey bands, ever wonder why you sound so bad when you're performing? Sure, it might be because you stink, but more likely there's something else at play: you forgot to tip the sound guy. Extortion? Maybe, but it's true, and it's widespread. I should know, I'm a sound engineer, an ... More >>

Bud Bundy's Rap Career?! Hear David Faustino's Music

In this week's cover story, "Bud Bundy, Original Gangsta," I delve into the remarkable hip-hop trajectory of David Faustino, who, while playing Bud Bundy on Married...with Children, threw one of the most influential rap parties the west coast has ever seen. In the early '90s, along with three of h ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Night + Market

Kris Yenbamroong mixes Thai with hip

The Ettes, Sade, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Benefit for Nick Curran

Also, Kendrick Lamar, the Punk Rock BBQ, Katy B and others

Late Night Eats: Coney Dog's Loose Burger

G. SnyderLoose Burger​It's fair to say that the 2 a.m. crowd of Los Angeles has never truly been in want of suitable venues for late night noshing. Yet, even with this vast selection: the ham-fisted mutant burritos at Oki Dog, the artery-straining Tommy Burger spackled with brown roux, the end ... More >>

Music Picks: Adele, Wanda Jackson, Bootsy Collins, Buffalo Springfield, Gayngs, Amor de Dias

Also, Cerebral Ballzy, Sea of Bees, Shabazz Palaces, Miasmal and others

West Hollywood 'Whisky a Go Go' Bar-Fight Suspects Run Over Pedestrians, Lead Sheriff's Deputies on Chase That Ends in Shooting

Monday-night chaos at the Whisky​Updated after the jump with an investigation of the shooting. West Hollywood had bigger problems than wealthy businessmen trying to land their noisy 'copters atop neighborhood hotels last night. While the L.A. County Sheriff's Department was responding to a b ... More >>

To Pay or Not to Pay to Play the Sunset Strip

The controversial "presales" system pits clubs against musicians in L.A.'s fabled rock mecca

Music Picks: Ornette Coleman, Gary Numan, Natacha Atlas

Also, Marnie Stern, Kristian Hoffman, Elton John & Leon Russell

L.A.'s best pick-up spots, as chosen by 1974's biggest doofs

​ This week, your Weekly's all about the best L.A. has to offer, then and now. In that spirit, your Crap Archivist is proud to present America's Best Pick Up Spots, a gem of horny misogyny guaranteed not to get you laid in this or any other decade! Click on over to Studies in Crap on our S ... More >>

Sunset Strip Music Festival Releases Set Times

Kristin BurnsObey my dog!: Billy Corgan wants you to buy tickets to the Sunset Strip Music Fest honoring Slash​ The Sunset Strip Music Festival, the Westside celebration of the riff (plus Kid Cudi, Common, and Fergie), have released set times for their August 28th street fair. This year's even ... More >>

Free the Robots, Dr. John. Alex Cuba and Merle Haggard

Also, Bestial Mouths, The Dreaming, Echo Lush and Elevaters

Music Picks: Jail Weddings, Summer Darling, Roky Erickson, Jonathan Richman

Also, Bajofondo, Massive Attack, Minus the Bear and others

Music Picks: Gary Numan, Ana Moura, Mark Sultan, XBXRX

Also, California E.A.R. Unit, Bonobo, Mr. Gnome, Grouper and others

Complete 1966 Otis Redding Show Live on the Sunset Strip To Be Released

​Here's a scoop for you: We hear from very reliable sources that Stax Records (the current version of the classic Southern Soul label recently revived by Concord Records) will be releasing a completely restored version of Otis Redding's legendary 1966 appearances on LA's very own Sunset Strip ... More >>

Music Picks: Soweto Gospel Choir, Paul McCartney, Melissa Auf der Maur

Also, Jay-Z, Metric, Triorganico, Air and others

Rock Picks: Prefuse 73, the Gaslamp Killer, VoicesVoices, Beyond the Pale

Also, Do Make Say Think, the Living Sisters, Wale and others

Sunday at the Egyptian: LA Nuggets Hosts a Film Screening of 1960s Rock Footage

The deep, rich, dynamic box set Where the Action Is! LA Nuggets 1965-1968, which compiles 101 urgent rock songs from Los Angeles, has been out for a little less than two months, which for most releases is the lifespan of the so-called "marketing campaign." But Action! is a little different. It's a s ... More >>

Rock Picks: Broken Nobles, Anny Celsi, Seu Jorge, the Killers

Rock Picks: Broken Nobles, Anny Celsi, Seu Jorge, the Killers

Also, Destroy L.A., Sunset Strip Music Festival, the Drones and others

Rock Picks: Future of the Left, Deerhoof, Ronnie Mack's Barndance, The Urinals

Also, Torche, Alejandro Escovedo, Quintron & Miss Pussycat, and others

Music Picks: Sky Saxon Tribute, Daddy Kev, Grace Jones, The Mekons

Also, Jarvis Cocker, Regina Spektor, Ida Maria, Themselves and others.

14 and Shooting

Jennifer Finch’s early punk Los Angeles

Bianca Halstead

1965–2001

Wavemakers

At work and play in musical L.A.

Pleasure Pits on Parade

A romp through L.A.'s rock, blues and country clubs