Astra Heights, who is this week's iTunes Latino “Single of the Week,” will play tonight at The Echo. Lemon Sun will also be there. Yesterday was Xena: Princess Warrior picket day at the WGA Strike. Tonight, Xena herself, Lucy Lawless, will be bashing heads and belting out songs over at the Roxy. And earlier this morning, we interviewed Talib Kweli who will be at the House of Blues down the street from the Roxy......

Carmen Rizzo will play the Temple Bar tonight Be joyful with the electro-pop sounds of Hey Willpower (Will from Imperial Teen and Tomo from Tussle) at The Echo or get a more worldly groove on at the Temple Bar. Jackshit, who we interviewed once, plays tonight and there are two in-store performances as well: one at Amoeba (of course) and the other at Active Ride Show. There's a few sold out shows, but you......

Tonight is the most excellent show, Open Road on KCRW, which begins at 9:00 p.m., ending at midnight. DJ Gary Calamar mixes roots of Rock, Country, Jazz, Blues, and Soul with new releases that you can most see on his peer's lists. Calamar got his start at KCRW as a volunteer, moving his way to DJ after literally begging on his knees to Chris Douridas for a show. Douridas made a great choice. 1)......

Marking the first Los Angeles appearance since 1998 (when legend has it members of the Scottish alternative rock band decided to part ways), last night The Jesus and Mary Chain headlined after opening acts Evan Dando and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Earlier this year the band reunited, playing a show at Coachella that seemed to elicit more mentions about Scarlett Johansson on stage than the actual music. If the performance at the Wiltern yesterday......

Peter Case, Ron Franklin @ McCabe's Ice T @ Key Club John Doe @ Malibu Inn Hall & Oates @ Hollywood Bowl Joan as Police Woman, Princeton, Emily Wells @ Spaceland Kings of Leon, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ The Greek The Mother Hips, Broken West @ The Roxy Hawnay Troof, The Octopus Project @ The El Rey Common @ The Wiltern Ben Kweller @ The Echo Jon Brion @ Largo James Intveld, Red......

LAist is proud to offer a weekly chart roundup of Billboard Magazine's most coveted rankings. Join us as we revel in the conventional standard of musical success. Let us cross our fingers, hoist our lighters, and dream together of the supreme resurrection of artist-driven recordings that will forever eclipse the dark cloud of big label greed, A&R sleaze and disposable audio. Amen. Here are this week's chart toppers. Behold the #1s. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Billboard Charts......

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Fratellis @ The Wiltern Joseph Arthur & the Lonely Astronauts, Stars of Track & Field @ Roxy Midnight Movies @ Amoeba (7pm) Aqualung @ Henry Fonda Head Like a Kite @ Cinespace The Abe Lincoln Story @ Spaceland Vienna Teng, Jenny Owen Youngs, Ramon & Jessica, Michael Mangia @ Hotel Cafe Endless Hallway, The Hanks, The Hatch, Goodbye Elliot, In Memory @ Key Club......

A Word or 4 dozen : Somehow I totally missed posting that the Shield was on last night and again it was good. I think one would be hard-pressed to find more raw and compelling performances on any other show available on the networks or basic cable. Being a former SF resident, I haven't been able to get enough of Conan's broadcast from the Orpheum theater on Market Street- too bad that's still bum-junkie......

New Releases May 1, 2007 Dirty Dancing: 20th Anniversary Edition [Soundtrack] [Original Recording Remastered] [Extra Tracks] (RCA) Feist - The Reminder (Cherry Tree) Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position (Universal) Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond (Fat Possum) Joan Armatrading - Into the Blues (429 Records) Nine Inch Nails - Survivalism, Pt. 2 [Enhanced] Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True (Hip-O) Angelique Kidjo - Djin Djin (featuring Peter Gabriel, Carlos Santana, Joss Stone, Ziggy Marley,......

For us there is no better LA street fair than the Sunset Junction annual event in the Silver Lake stretch of Sunset Blvd. One can enjoy eating chicken on a stick and drinking a beer while peoplewatching the hipsters, the kids, those of alternative lifestyles, and the random tourists who don't really know what they've stumbled into. The volunteer "donation" is now a hard $15 admission, but for all the good music, good food,......

It's good to be a live music fan in Los Angeles. We regularly get the opportunity to see shows that people in other cities (with the exception of New York) don't get to see. Last week we attended three "special" performances. Sun 4/2 - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Silversun Pickups played a benefit show at Spaceland. Silversun Pickups wore their fancy clothes and played sitting down. Usually they put on a sweaty, energetic......

Fri 3/31 - Lucinda Williams @ El Rey Theatre (SOLD OUT) - The immensely talented folk and country influenced singer-songwriter in an intimate setting with just her guitarist backing her up. We hope she doesn't throw a tantrum like she did the last time we saw her at the Austin City Limits Festival. Sat 4/1 - Petra Haden & the Sell Outs @ RecCenter Studio ($15) - Listening to her recorded, a cappella version......

THURSDAY • Xiu Xiu, Babyland and The Dead Science are at the Troubadour tonight at 8 PM. Tickets are $12. • Southern Culture on the Skids and The Weary Boys play at The Echo starting at 8:30. Tickets are $15. [18+] • Black Rebel Motorcycle Club performs two acoustic shows tonight at the Hotel Cafe—doors open at 7 and 10 PM. All presale tickets are sold out, but a limited number of tickets are......