Wall-E prior to the apocalypse that destroyed humanity. | Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Wall-E continued Pixar's long streak of box-office success this weekend as it hauled in $62.5M to top the vile action flick Wanted ($51.1M). The race wasn't expected to be nearly so close, but Wanted somehow managed to blast past early estimates and do huge business in a rare hit for Angelina Jolie. Hold-overs staked out the rest of the top 10:......

But where the hell is Fisher Stevens? | Photo courtesy of Disney Sooner or later Pixar has to release a dud, right? They can't just keep releasing great film after great film can they? Won't the odds eventually catch up to them? Maybe not. The early critical reception for Wall-E has been nothing short of ecstatic. If you thought the first ten, dialogue-free minutes of There Will Be Blood were pure cinematic brilliance, wait till......

Artist: Brownout Album: Homenaje Label: Freestyle Records Release Date: 01/29/2008 I'm really pleased to have a new favorite album and even more pleased to have it be from this year. Brownout is a side project of Grupo Fantasma but they are definitely not on the sidelines - they are an amazing hardcore funk phenomena from Austin and LA's in luck since they will be playing two gigs in town this week: Thursday @ the Rootdown......

After reviewing a few dozen releases this year this is my top ten of reviewed albums plus a few select tracks of items that I went out and hunted down myself. These weren't easy to select out of the great stuff I received so it was a challenge. I'd like to thank the labels and their PR agencies for hunting me down and sending CDs to me. I reviewed everything that I received this year......

A long time ago, but right around this time of year, I was sitting in a living room with a record collector pal, poring through the bins of seasonal vinyl from the likes of Jethro Tull, Merle Haggard and Fear. My friend looked up from his fourth or so glass of nog and remarked, "What am I listening to all this Jesus stuff for? I should put on the Blue Oyster Cult Hanukkah album."......

Layered in funk and schooled in rock'n'roll the bay area trio Honeycut will be busting out the jams at the Echo Wednesday night with Norwegian duo DATAROCK sharing the marquee. Honeycut are a unique band full of soulful lyrics and keyboard riffs, while being counter balanced by the loopy, hip-hoppy drums provided live via an MPC. And of course the rockin' presence they can't help but exude. And what do you get when you......

Dear MCA, I would like to marry you and have 1000 of your Buddhist-rapper babies. While this may come across trite or ill conceived I assure you I am neither a crazy person nor a stalker fan. Of course I think you make great music, but what I’m saying is that I have not been harboring these feeling for two decades hoping that one day I’d have a chance to spring them on you.......

Beastie Boys @ Wiltern (Gala Event) Earlimart, The String Dream Team @ Echo Park Rec Center Studios Echoplex Foreign Born, In Waves @ The Echo Peter Himmelman, Rebecca Pidgeon, Eric Himan @ The Mint The Mormons, Fuckass & the Grease Patrol @ Mr. T's Bowl The Watkins Family Hour @ Largo The Like @ Cinespace The Go, Apache, Thee Makeout Party, Sweet Evil @ The Knitting Factory Kissing Cousins, The Garden Angels, The Pete's,......

Really, who doesn't love robot sounds and music about outer space? The 900 Number sample at 2:49 ain't bad either. This is clearly the Beastie Boys' world and we're just livin' in it. Ps: Adam Yauch is a dreamboat.......

Beastie Boys @ Greek Theatre [two photo essays of last night's show here and here] Ted Nugent @ House of Blues Manic, Dead Ponies, Minutes til Midnight, Policy @ The Echo Low vs Diamond, Oliver Future, The Lonely H, The Scare @ Spaceland Metal Skool, Tattooed Millionaires, The Unwanted Guests, Ramonas LA @ Key Club Resident Hero, Rama Duke, Hello Vegas, Putnam Hall @ The Troubadour The Crash Kings, Birds & Batteries, Walker Young......

Compared to Tony's pictures, mine look like they were taken from outer space. Nevertheless, there is a certain satellite-like grainy quality that makes me tingle when I look at them. I hope it does the same for you. Many more pix from the milky way cam after the jump.........

When Licensed to Ill came out in 1986 I was selling car stereos at the Federated Group in West LA. I sold so many good speakers and subwoofers thanks to "Brass Monkey" and "Slow & Low" that oftentimes my favorite demo tape would go "missing". I bought at least six of those tapes within a year. Only a few had been stolen, the rest had gotten worn out. So when the Beasties played the......

Buzzcocks, Hot Hot Heat, The O'Jays, The Bronx, Airborne Toxic Event, She Wants Revenge, Cheb I Sabbah, Millie Jackson, Thelma Jones & Arthur Adams, Rocky Dawuni, Conjunto Jardin, The Aggrolites, The Movies, Eskimohunter, others @ Sunset Junction Street Fair Beastie Boys @ The Greek Smokey Robinson @ Cerritos Center RX Bandits, The Fall of Troy @ The Troubadour Esthero, One Trick Pony @ Roxy 311 with Matisyahu, the Wailers, Pato Banton @ Verizon Bowling......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

The greatest surprise performance at the 24-hour Live Earth was not Kanye West and John Mayer joining the Police on "Message in a Bottle." Hell, no. It was Spinal Tap (reunited) with some help from Metallica (they actually laugh) bringing down London's Wembley Stadium with hits like "Stonehenge" and "Big Bottom." Madonna's gypsy-hobo-punk performance -- fully choreographed -- of "La Isla Bonita" with Eugene and Serge from Gogol Bordello was also surprisingly excellent (watch......

- Telemundo puts Mayor Tony's corazon on a leave of absence so they can investigate her - AP - 70 year-old bicyclist killed by an SUV in Tarzana - Daily News - Sticky Fingaz' brother X1 found dead this morning in LA, may have committed suicide - HHNLive - A 13 year-old kid get four fingers blown off thanks to fireworks - LAFD - "L.A. now recycles about 60% of its trash, the highest......

Rockers, we've got three pairs of tickets to see the Moving Units rock the Music Box this Saturday at the Henry Fonda, and this is how you can enter to win: 2007 is more than halfway done - time flies, huh - so put in the comments what your favorite cd is that came out in 2007. Only registered commentors will be considered and we will pick three entries by random. The Moving Units......

Dude, the Beasties tickets go on sale tomorrow, and to celebrate we are having a contest today. Which rhymes with Horray! First the good news for all. The Beastie Boys will be at the Greek on August 20 playing those sweet jams from their new cd The Mix-Up that came out yesterday, a collection of instrumental jazzy funky tunes that harken back to The In Sound From Way Out!. Pre-sale happens tomorrow at 10am,......

Beastie Boys - The Mix Up (Capitol) Bryan Ferry - Dylanesque (Virgin) Metric - Grow Up and Blow Away (Last Gang) Love - Blue Thumb Recordings (Hip-O) Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger (Lost Highway) Sinead O'Connor - Theology (Koch) Blondie - Eat To The Beat [REISSUE] (EMI) Chris and Thomas - Land of Sea (Defend Music) Bad Brains - Build A Nation (Megaforce) Nick Lowe - At My Age (Yep Rock) Taste the rainbow.........

What a better way to enjoy the longest Monday of the year than to enjoy free ice cream while listening to the mellow funky goodness that is The Mix Up, the new album by the Beastie Boys? In a deliciously and deviously cool way to get you to listen to their new collection of all-instrumental jazzy grooves that come out tomorrow, the three bad brothers you know so well have arranged for two listening......

- The Beastie Boys will play some mellow, intimate, laid back classy shows in support of their upcoming all-instrumental cd The Mix-Up (6/26). They will also do seven full on old school hip hop shows around the country and one of them is within an hour and a half drive of LA, up in the hills of Santa Barbara at the beautiful County Bowl (8/23) - Pitchfork - Frustrating 9-1-1 calls from King-Harbor showing......

Ocean's Thirteen Music from the Motion Picture David Holmes Warner Bros./ WEA There's no way I thought I would like this cd. There's no way I wanted to like this cd. But it's good. I've been listening to it all day. And I hate myself for it. Clooney, Pitt, Damon... none of them need any more love. They're more handsome and rich than anyone deserves to be. And making a trilogy of films starring sharp-dressed......

Let's face it, the last two Beastie Boys records were hugely disappointing. After a nice run starting with Licensed to Ill, thru Paul's Boutique and thru Ill Communication the Beasties had more hits than Sadaharu Oh. Hello Nasty was eh and To The Five Burroughs was something that we never thought was possible: a Beastie Boys cd that we barely played. Maybe it was because the drunken b-boy skateboarder bit was played out once......

+ Rumors of the new Beastie Boys cd being all-instrumental are starting to come beautifully correct - Stereogum + Hey, our favorite Wilshire Blvd. Mason Hall is up for sale - Curbed LA + They put an Effiel Tower in Japan? - The Cobra Snake + Earthlink's plans to make for a wi-fi Anaheim are being foiled by the thickness of the walls in Starbucks; only 72% reliability in the 20 spots that should......

Adam is asking you, the reader, about movies that you might remember that were filmed at Echo Park Lake. While we can think of many, our favorite non-movie was the music video to Netty's Girl by the Beastie Boys. Who we miss very much and wish they'd put out a metal record or something.......

Money Mark -- cohort on keys and unofficial 4th member of the Beastie Boys -- walks a sunny and winding road on his latest solo effort, Brand New By Tomorrow, out today on Brushfire Records. Mark’s brand of Atari-Americana incorporates the sort of warm, mellow, tra-la-la, quirk you’d find on Wilco’s Summerteeth or Josh Rouse’s 1972 but dots it with arcade flourishes -- sometimes funky, sometimes punky -- over lo-fi, Beatles-esque melodies. The result......

- The Police will play Dodger Stadium on July 23. There's that number again - NBC 4 - Gov. Schwarzenegger's killer plan to export California prisoners out of Cali and let other states deal with our problem was declared "unlawful" by Sacto County Superior Court judge - The Merc - "Homeboy Goes to Harvard" founder speaks to Reseda's Cleveland High thanks to people like Fluke Fluker - LA Daily News - Over 28,000 people......

That film the Beastie Boys adoringly spoofed for this video is the campy 1968 Euro spy movie Danger Diabolik, and it's playing at The New Beverly tonight and tomorrow. Danger Diabolik - If being a super villain really was all about dashing around the globe in the coolest mod clothes and sleekest sports cars while staging elaborate jewel heists before returning to your posh, super-secret lair to shag your blonde accomplice, this movie is......

I had the misfortune to show up late to see Beastie Boys at Hammerstien Ballroom in NYC in '98 where A Tribe Called Quest was opening and apparently playing their last NYC show. So, i jumped at the opportunity to see them at the Wiltern last Sunday night, where Q-Tip, Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheeh Muhammad reunited after 8 years apart. Playing third, Tribe's set lasted an hour, which I heard a lot of......

Love music, free mp3s, social reform, and political justice? If so, you’ll love Protest Records. Established for “musicians, poets and artists to express LOVE + LIBERTY in the face of greed, sexism, racism, hate-crime and war,” Protest Records delivers some of the best politically charged music by world renowned artists. Focusing mainly on the injustices created by the US government, big businesses, and every other bureaucrat out to rape us of our liberty and......