KCRW and the Hammer Museum are rekindling their warm weather romance to present the 2011 Summer Night's Music Series Also I Like to Rock beginning July 7 and continuing every Thursday this month. more ›

The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things, of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings. And of Coachella. The big announcement is finally here. Shhh, if you listen closely you can hear the muffled shrill of sycophant whineoceroses deflating in winced unison. Bemoan! Oh the woe! No Radiohead. No Daft Punk. No David Bowie. Coachella 2010 was aMuse-ing, but Coachella 2011 is all about DURAN DURAN OMG SIMON LE BON AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!. And all these other bands: more ›

In a few hours, the Year of the Rabbit will be back-kicking its way into 2011 with all the hippity hoppity hooliganism and excessive mating that the name suggests. While you still can, check out what you may have missed during the Year of the (Eye of the) Tiger. more ›

Night Two of the 2010 KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, could also be dubbed "Hipster Night" as many of the bands featured were or are indie darlings and nearly all have played that big festival in the desert. From the french synth-pop sensations Phoenix to local favorites Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the spectrum of performance was much more broad than that of the more straightforward rock of Night One. Also featured were Florence + The Machine, Vampire Weekend, Brandon Flowers, Neon Trees, Temper Trap and the Broken Bells. more ›

Boston based synth-pop outfit Passion Pit came through Los Angeles for what seemed to be the 100th time on Tuesday, December 7. Yet devotees of their 2009 release, Manners, packed into the Palladium ready to hear their keyboard-heavy tunes as if it were their first show. This performance was a victory lap of sorts as the band winds down and prepares to do it all again sometime next year when their sophomore LP is released. more ›

Tonight!! Hip hop faves, indie pop raves, jazz legend tributes, holiday hoedowns, precious duos, and a marching band. And Roger Waters for the last time. Until the show moves to the Honda Center, that is. Cash. Rules. Everything. Around Me. Bring the boys back home. more ›

Radio Free Silver Lake presents a new monthly residency series on Tuesday nights at LaBrie's in Glendale. The FREE series starts this evening with The Californian and supporting bands Death To Anders and Alpine Decline. more ›

Activision released the new Tony Hawk: Shred skateboarding and snowboarding video game into the retail-wild this week with a 64-song soundtrack to backdrop any and all motion-sensing, board-controlled antics. Included on the soundtrack are Los Angeles rockers The Happy Hollows and The Henry Clay People in the company of Sam & Dave, The Beach Boys, Iggy and the Stooges, Vampire Weekend and Devo. more ›

There's so much new music out there, it's sometimes hard to pick who to check out. Today UK-based music news magazine NME released it's 50 Best News Bands of 2010 list -- as they describe it, "the 50 bands who've blown our minds over the past few months." more ›

I love me some Los Angeles (born, bred, and back again), but one of the things I miss the most about my time in San Francisco is the traffic-stopping, bell-ringing, cyclist rights-asserting celebration that is Critical Mass. Sure, LA has their own regional chapters, but with the city spread out as it is, the full impact of our cyclist army isn't felt as heartily as in our sister city to the North. Until now, that is. more ›

While the official list won't be out 'til sometime in early 2010, Coachella fanatics have been gathering what intel they can for awhile about who is playing and who is just a rumor. more ›

Uber music-technology-film festival, SXSW, is coming in March, but the list of 230 bands has been released. Here are the bands and artists that list themselves as from the Los Angeles area: B-Real of Cypress Hill, The Crystal Method, The Daylights, DJ Revolution, The 88, Princeton, Robert Francis, The Funeral Pyre, Audra Mae, Mariachi El Bronx, Mumiy Troll, of Verona (Mandi Perkins) and Warpaint. more ›

Highly-anticipated sets by Metro Station, Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, the Deftones and dozens of others were delivered with great sound and clock-like precision as the two main stages ping-ponged back and forth, leaving only a few seconds of silence between acts. The artists followed through with great performances and plenty of reconizable hits and classics in the mix. Metro Station's "Shake It" and Ashes Roth's "I Love College" represented some of the current hits as nostalgic performances from the Deftones, Adolescents and Vandals dished up some old classics, more ›

An ever-increasing workload, the recession’s effect on one’s monthly Amoeba habit, a rapidly approaching membership into the “mid-thirties” club - a million and one reasons to stop seeing live music as frequently as my liver could once withstand. But last year’s SXSW/Coachella springtime juggernaut left its indelible mark and a few bands moved to the top of the “must see again and again” list, Cut Copy’s electropop/dance rock eking out the top spot. Who doesn’t love a band you can jump around to? It’s like everything good about the 90s rave scene (without the glow sticks and wide-legged pants, natch) served up with a side of early 80s nu-wave synth. more ›

"I mean, how can I be all crazy and bad if I can... knit you a scarf?" more ›

Venerable Chicago-based band The Sea and Cake hit the Troubadour this week for a pair of shows in support of their October release Car Alarm (Thrill Jockey). Playing together since 1993, core members Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt--along with drummer John McEntire and bassist Eric Claridge--proved in their almost 2-hour set Thursday night that rocking out isn't just for the young. more ›

West Hollywood based Ticketmaster has gone off and become a management company in addition to its ticket selling marketing duties. Soon to be Ticketmaster Entertainment, the company has "acquired a controlling equity interest in Irving Azoff’s music management company Front Line and install Azoff as CEO of Ticketmaster," reports Variety. The $125 million acquisition will be bought from the Warner Music Group. Some of Front Line's artists include the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, Neil Diamond, Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, Christina Aguilera, Stevie Nicks, Aerosmith, Steely Dan, Chicago, Journey and Guns N' Roses. more ›

Local band No Age recently taped a performance at CBS' Late Late Night with Craig Ferguson scheduled to be aired on October 27. Although, they made it through the taping, they almost didn't because of an Obama t-shirt. Guitarist Randy Randall explains to Stereogum in an e-mail: more ›

It was a sad day back in July when Buzz Bands columnist Kevin Bronson was let go from his near six-year LA Times post amid massive cutbacks. He wrote one of the LA Times' more notable blogs called Buzz Bands before it was folded into the paper's Soundboard blog. more ›

The RX Bandits, everybody's favorite progressive/reggae/rock band from Long Beach, are back in town. Playing two nights at the Troubadour, this is the perfect opportunity to whip out your dancing shoes and skank your way onto the dance floor. Their explosive live show will blow you away. I first saw them when I was sixteen and haven't gotten over it since. We caught up with Steve Choi, the RX Bandits' guitarist for a quick and dirty one on one interview. more ›

There are more photos to come soon by Koga, but here's some of what happened on the Bates Stage yesterday, which was booked by Spaceland. more ›

It's about 85 degrees here in Silver Lake and the streets of Sunset Junction are starting to fill with music and the fans that love it. Here are some shots from this early afternoon as things were getting started. more ›

In regards to his July 18 drug arrest in Hollywood, Steven Adler, former Guns N' Roses drummer, pleaded not guilty today in court. The 43-year-old is charged with "one felony count of possession of heroin and one misdemeanor count of being under the influence of an opiate," according to the Daily News. Adler is to appear in court next month and to remain in a Pasadena drug program.
more ›

A good hangout can be hard to find, so for anyone who finds themselves looking for nightlife in Long Beach, LAist's Photo contributor Michael Zampelli (aka rink_rat on Flickr) suggests The Pike Bar & Fish Grill. He tells us: "The Pike Bar in Long Beach is owned by the original drummer of Social Distortion and you can feel the vibe from the minute you cross the welcome mat with the Social D. skeleton logo and hear the first blast of punk rock from the jukebox. There is free live music nearly every night and the real surprise is the kitchen, which churns out gourmet quality food from mushroom tacos to authentic pasta to the crispiest and most delicate beer-battered fish you've ever tasted." (Check out the menu here.) more ›

Here at LAist, we get hundreds of e-mails a day, sometimes at the rate of one e-mail per minute. Press releases, invites, statements and tips all flood our boxes. Many of these e-mails are from bands. Whether they are local or traveling through, there are lots and lots of shows every single night in this town and that adds up in the inbox (and sometimes it's coming at you from multiple sources at the same time: the manager, a publicst, a tour rep/venue, the band themselves). more ›

The 2008 installment of KROQ's Annual Weenie Roast Y Fiesta was decidedly nostalgic this year with sets from punk legends Bad Religion, Orange County rockers the Offspring and the biggest force in metal in its history, Metallica. It was a return to force for the latter band as they finally broke out of a touring holding pattern and "escaped" from the studio to show why they are one of the loudest and most commanding bands in live music today or ever more ›

There is a damn good line up of bands happening this Friday night over in Glendale at The Scene at 9:00 p.m. And despite the Valley club's interesting change in direction with membership, this Friday is still the spirit of the old scene as it is the second-to-last show booked under old management. Friday's line up includes Death to Anders, Fol Chen, Solar Powered People and Layer with the Squaregirls will be DJing between sets. more ›

In the previous installations of Coachella there have been some huge headliners. Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead, Bjork, The Beastie Boys but none quite on the level of day two's headliner, the Purple One, Prince. From the moment he hit the stage with Morris Day and Shelia E. it was apparent that the audience was in for a lesson in musicianship and showmanship. As he played through a set mixed of standards and the cover everyone was talking about (more on that in a second) he demonstrated his true mastery of musical performance. Whether it was his virtuoso guitar solos or his dance moves there was never a dull moment in the performance. But the real treat came when Prince played a cover of Radiohead's breakout hit "Creep." There have been many covers of the song but none as dramatic and unique as this cover. The song was given the Prince treatment, a few word changes and an incredible guitar solo. Before leaving the stage he declared "Coachella will always be Prince's house" and after the performance he gave Saturday, it will take alot to prove that statement wrong. more ›

Finally, after all the hubub and debate of the quality of this year's Coachella lineup, the festival got underway Friday afternoon. Featuring Jack Johnson at the top of the bill, the day featured outstanding performances from the Raconteurs who proved that they aren't just Jack White's side project but rather a band that is developing their own sound and identity. The Verve, playing for the first time in nearly a decade sounded like they hadn't even missed a step. The day also featured standout performances from indie darlings Vampire Weekend as well as Tegan and Sara among others. more ›

A job listing popped on Craigslist yesterday that might be music to the right web and graphics dork's ears. It seems Nine Inch Nails is on the prowl for "an internet-savvy web and graphics assistant who will work with an art director on a wide variety of tasks relating to web development, graphic design, video editing/production, and online marketing." more ›