Silver Lake's favorite son, Beck Hansen, returned to Los Angeles on Saturday night for a one night engagement at the Hollywood Bowl (9/20/08). In his largest, hometown-headlining gig, Beck took a decidedly different approach to his performance -- rather than relying on the gimmicks and theatrics of previous tours, he put the music on display.......

Now in its tenth year, the Lobster Festival at the Port of Los Angeles offers a mouthwatering array of not only food but local LA bands as well—most notably the Henry Clay People, Weather Underground and Olive Future. The music definitely overshadows the food this time around. And the Smell, in all of its drab glory, will be hosting LA-based experimental artist BARR and San Diego's Crocodiles, who are best known as the phoenix that rose from ashes of TPTBUTET and the Prayers. (Yes, that is in fact Kristen Gundred of Grand Ole Party's hubby.) However, the Hollywood Bowl is hosting what could easily be the best lineup to come through Los Angeles this entire year. While Brooklyn-based MGMT may be old news in Williamsburg, the buzz continues to shroud them here. The formidable and youthful band of bohemians are slated to open the extravaganza with epoch-making psychedelic pop, followed by Austin-based indie rock mainstays Spoon. And lastly, but certainly not least as far as we're concerned, hometown hero Beck will be wowing the audience, sampling tracks from his rather expansive catalog. The mere possibility of hearing anything off of 1996's Odelay excites us. But for your sake and our mental well-being, please, watch out for those bellicose "security" guards! ...

Beck at the Echoplex in 2007 | Photo by Heath Biter/LAist Beck, who tends to throw secret and unannounced (but somehow always announced) warm-up shows in smaller Silver Lake venues might be playing Spaceland on Thursday, September 18. A comment left on a LosAnjealous post hints that a special guest "might be a warm up show for beck. He is playing street scene and the bowl that weekend." Listed for that night on Spaceland's......

Beautiful & Driving Music: Venetian Snares visits the Knitting Factory tonight | Photo via VS' MySpace Update: Bad news. "Due to illness, this evening's Beck performance at the Echoplex has been cancelled.. Tickets will be refunded through Ticketweb."Beck's Echoplex show sold out within minutes of going on sale yesterday. But for those who are hardcore enough to wait early in line, a limited amount of tickets will be sold at the door today. For......

The Helio Sequence plays at The Echo tonight | Photo by mrmatt via Flickr Apparently Beck snuck into The Echo last night for a second secret show (first time caught on video). "Nobody on Wednesday’s regular bill seemed to mind that Beck crashed the party. It was the EP release show for singer-songwriter Daniel Ahearn’s 'Pray for Me by Name.' Once he got started, Ahearn (a familiar face in the venue since he pays......

One week after mysteriously canceling his gig at the Echo, Beck and his brand new band appeared undercover and treated a full house of 300+ to an hour-long set of oldies, goodies, and tunes which remain unreleased. And no, Danger Mouse did not make an appearance.... But here's a song we've never heard before: Beck and the gang are off to Europe for the summer but catch 'em late summer at the Hollywood Bowl (w/......

Beck was scheduled to do his usual pre-tour ritual of a shortly notified concert at The Echo tonight. Tickets were already sold out online, but about an hour ago, the show was canceled for reasons unknown at this point. However, tickets are most definitely still available for his September 20th show at the Bowl where he'll play with MGMT and Spoon. Tonight Beck @ The Echo Coldplay @ Jimmy Kimmel Live Pedestrian, Adjoa Skinner......

Just announced by the Hollywood Bowl, Beck is now confirmed to play the Bowl on September 20. This will be his debut appearance as a headliner at the venue. MGMT opens the show and Spoon completes the bill. Tickets ($20 -$75) go onsale May 10. Beck is currently working on a new record (produced by Danger Mouse) planned for release this summer. Photo of Beck via his MySpace page......

Elvis Costello and The Attractions essential 1978 record This Year’s Model was re-released for the twenty-third time earlier this week as a deluxe 2-CD set. This year’s model of This Year’s Model includes a bevy of previously released bonus tracks, and a previously unreleased live concert. I was going to review it, but instead I decided not to buy it. On Tuesday, I found myself at Amoeba records. After an hour or so, I’d amassed......

Artist: Beck Album: Odelay Deluxe Edition Label: UMe Release Date: January 29th, 2008 I wish I could put a promo track up with this post but UMe won't let me so it's their loss. Just hum "Devil's Haircut" while you read. It's been a dozen years since Beck Hanson put out his best album, Odelay, and listening to this expanded reissue just confirms that this release was his peak (to date). This is not to......

Fairfax Avenue is the Bomb!!! Declining enrollment and rising costs means less expansion and construction to help relieve overcrowding in LAUSD schools. The LA Times reports that "since the fall, the school system has canceled plans for 19 new schools and additions to existing campuses in South Gate, Bell, Van Nuys, San Fernando, Sun Valley and central Los Angeles, among other areas, citing new enrollment projections." Kids, you don't mind sharing that book, do......

The community of Watts seems to be undergoing a shift in atmosphere, reports the Daily News, as the area's gang violence has been decreasing, thanks in part to the Watts Gang Task Force. In terms of statistics, homicides were halved last year from the year before--11 in 2007 as compared to the 24 in 2006, and 2007 saw "a three-month stretch without a single slaying. Gang homicides for the approximately 1-square-mile home to an estimated......

Jack White discussed this bonus re-working of the Patti Page classic on NPR's Morning Edition:For the new B-sides, The White Stripes teamed up with Beck and recorded in his Los Angeles home studio. The new songs include an acoustic, mariachi-style reworking of "Conquest." Being in Southern California, Beck pointed out a place where they could find mariachi ensembles standing around waiting for work. "While we were working on a song, we asked if somebody......

Snow. It's great when you're watching it from inside a heated room, like magic dust bunnies dropping from the celestial ceiling. It's much less magical when you're trying to strategically pee inside your car door to defrost the locks. Call it lifestyle differences, we Angelenos prefer our holidays merry and BRIGHT with a high of 72. The following local heroes offer proof positive that a white Christmas is not a requirement for high spirits.......

People have been asking me what's up with the Weekly lately and hell if I know. They do their thing and maybe new management has made them lose their edge, but maybe they're just getting olde. Seems to me that once upon a time if someone like Juliette Lewis was in town to play a Saturday night show at the Roxy with a decent bill like Scissors for Lefty and Suffrajett, the Weekly would......

Beck - "Where It's At" If you were one of the lucky 700 who packed the Echoplex last night you were treated to Beck's only North American tour date before he head off to Europe to open for a little band called the Police. For the rest of you, here's a nice video of one of his biggest hits. Yes, you're welcome. If this doesn't quite quench your thirst, however, may we recommend checking......

Beck, looking oddly like David Spade, played a not-so-secret show last night at the Echoplex. (Or should I say Beck-o-plex?) The “only North American date of the tour” was to give his new band a chance to get their live feet wet before heading out for some bigger shows in South America. A lucky crowd of about 700 people crammed into the club and were treated to a set comprised of mostly greatest hits......

Beck @ The Echo (the site says tix may be available at the door, so get in line now) Social Distortion @ House of Blues Chaka Khan @ Gibson Neil Hamburger, Imagine the Band, Abe Lincoln Story @ Spaceland Roy Zimmerman @ Karin Tatoyan, Rademacher, One Trick Pony, Killsonic @ All Star Lanes McCabe's Underground Railroad to Candyland, God Equals Genocide, Shark Pants @ Safari Sam's Peanut Butter Wolf @ Urban Outfitters - Melrose......

The Malibu fire is now 25% contained. At least 35 structures have been destroyed and thousands were forced to flee as wind whipped flames ravaged the coastal town. The cause of the blaze is not known at this time, but crews haven't ruled out CNN's Glen Beck. In other fire-related news, two people died this morning when a house fire ripped through their Pasadena home. The cause of the fire is unknown. A woman......

Everyone's favorite perdedor, Beck, returns to Echo Park on Sunday to charm the kids at the Echoplex, the Echo Blast email stated minutes ago: Beck Announces a Special Los Angeles Club Performance SUNDAY NOVEMBER 25TH @ ECHOPLEX Tickets on sale Friday November 23rd at 5pm 2 ticket limit. The only way to retrieve your tickets is at will call the night of the show. You MUST bring the credit card you used to purchase......

The last time we caught up with Wounded Cougar they were also at Safari Sam's where they play tonight. Singer dude had on these skin tight pants that were showing us everything (yet we still had to squint), there was one guitarist with a beard in a cheesy leather 70s jacket that was unzipped, another guitarist looked like he had just done some serious hall monitoring - but best of all was a dude......

There was so much choice at this year's Detour Festival as French Electro duo Justice and British Indie darlings Bloc Party topped the bill however, one couldn't help but compare this year's lineup to last year's, the inaugural year, which featured Beck and Queens of the Stone Age and smaller acts like Of Montreal, Blonde Redhead, Basement Jaxx among others. While sporting more acts and another stage the overall quality or the acts was......

Chris Douridas can currently be heard as the host of "New Ground" on KCRW 89.9FM (Saturdays, noon-3pm) and on the online only version of "New Ground" at KCRW.com (Monday-Friday, noon-2pm & 8pm-10pm and Tuesday-Saturday, 4am-6am). From 1990-1998 Douridas hosted "Morning Becomes Ecelctic." Continuing the celebration of MBE's 30th anniversary, we had a chance to bounce some questions off Chris about MBE, being influential, and new technology. LAist: By definition, MBE gives a DJ wide latitude......

LA Weekly's inaugural Detour music festival rocked downtown last October, with frenzied dancing, drinking, and dope smoking on the downtown streets, City Hall lawn, and even St. Vibiana's Cathedral with the likes of Beck, Blonde Redhead, !!!, Queens of the Stone Age, Basement Jaxx, and Nortec Collective. The second Detour is a day-long music extravaganza that's set up to be quite the, um, party, with headliners: Bloc Party, Satellite Party, Justice, Celebrity Skin, and......

LA is home to dozens of classic, independent, badass rock clubs. Many of these clubs helped launch most of your favorite groups. But those bands would have never made it on stage if it wasn't for the booker, the person who actually hires the bands to play the show on the particular date. Wednesday we introduced you to Patrick from Safari Sam's. Today we are very happy to share with you the all caps......

Tuesday's Crowded House show was, well, just that. I’ve never seen so many people squeeze into the Troubadour, and concert organizers even opened the doors of the Loft (their VIP lounge) in an effort to fit everyone. The crush of people was worth it, though, and thankfully, it wasn’t too hot. The Crowded House guys put on an energetic show that was a mix of their well-known stuff peppered with songs from their new......

Dodgers 10, Phillies 3 - Imagine how good the Dodgers would be if Jason Schmidt were healthy. On Monday it was another All Star, Brad Penny, who notched his 11th win of the season and gave the Blue Crew their 5th in a row. Jeff Kent and Matt Kemp each contributed a three-run shot. The Phillies trailed by as many as nine en-route to their MLB leading 10,001st franchise loss. Beckham Watch - There's drama......

Show Date: Saturday 5/26/2007 Venue: Temple Bar, Santa Monica $15 @ 9:00 p.m. Artist: Cheb i Sabbah Album: La Ghriba - La Kahena Remixed Release Date: June 2006 Label: Six Degrees Records Cheb i Sabbah has been at the forefront of creating and popularizing something that has gone under many different names for over 40 years: global-beat, world music, ethnic fusion, transglobal electronica, and many other monnikers. Sabbah himself refers to these sounds as......

More than 500 federal agents and local officers raided several South L.A. locations this morning and arrested nearly two dozen members and associates of the Rolling 60's neighborhood Crips gang. This is the biggest sting yet in a two-and-a-half year joint investigation involving the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and LAPD. 300 members of the LAPD were in on this morning's sting, along with members of the U.S. Secret Service and......

We're being told that Beck is playing tonight at the Echo and it only cost $15. We are being told that if you follow this link that you will be able to get tickets. But every time we follow that link we are told that it's Sold Out. But then we are being told thru email, no there are tix, we swear. But then the door knocks and the pizza arrives and then we......