Roky Erickson and Okkervil River’s appearance at an after-school ice cream party for kids reached its peak of surrealism at the moment when the band stopped to ask the youngsters packing the Eagle Rock Arts Center if they had any questions. “Does the drummer get splinters from playing so fast?” “Naw, I don’t think he does,” answered Erickson, “but hopefully it don’t have a taboo on it, like in Louisiana they call it a gris-gris.” Another wanted to know, what did he think about the ukelele? “I like it, and I like that music… I should get me a statue of one.” As to “why is the vampire song so loud?”, Roky reasoned “When it’s cold, and people are wearing all their scarves and neckerchiefs and everything, you have to make it loud enough to sink in.” After that last exchange, the band picked their instruments back up and slammed into the 13th Floor Elevators classic “You’re Gonna Miss Me”, and the entire room began to bounce. Some of the kids plugged their ears, others jammed out on air guitar and danced in the aisles. It was the parents, though, that looked downright ecstatic. Finally, thanks to the kind folks of FYF Fest, a real rock show that you can experience with your children, without having to stay up late or pay for a sitter. Watching the whole thing unfold, taking in the looks of wide-eyed wonder on faces young and old, was one of the most pleasantly bizarre experiences of my gig-going life. more ›

Tonight Bristol-based electronic duo Massive Attack will be taking on a three-night stint at the Wiltern, ringing in their first release in over seven years—2010's Heligoland. Massachusetts-based metalcore act Converge—who recently released their seventh studio album, 2010's Axe To Fall—are poised to take on the... more ›

Roky Erickson’s new album begins and ends with a field recording, made by his mother during a visit to the Rusk State Maximum Security Prison For The Criminally Insane. He’d been sent there after being arrested for possession of one joint in 1969, and served for three years. What happenned to him during those years profoundly altered the rest of his life, as he battled a raging depression and paranoia that left him only partly functional even at the height of his career. As of a decade ago, it was reported that his condition had deteriorated almost beyond hope of recovery, ravaged by dementia and a life-threatening dental abscess. He seemed, from the outside, to have been left for dead. more ›

Between our Gift Guide That Rocks, our Gift Guide For Classical Music Lovers and our Independent Music Store Guide, you’d think that LAist has already covered all there is to know for your Rock and Roll Christmas shopping. However, if you need some more rocking for your stocking, here are a few music books that came out this year that were enjoyed by LAist contributors. more ›

There may be no American musician more ripe for the documentary treatment than Roky Erickson. There’s the tale of great promise in 1966 as the 13th Floor Elevators invent psychedelic rock and gain a reputation as the most other-worldly group alive. There’s a long period of reinvention as he continues to produce great stuff – cryptic and haunted though it is - into the 1980s. There’s a backstory of madness and decline. There’s even a... more ›