Tonight Canadian indie rock quintet Stars will be headlining the Wiltern with none other than San Franciscan indie pop trio Geographer in tow. LA-by-way-of-Michigan retro soul singer-songwriter Mayer Hawthorne is poised to grace the Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theater with actor/writer/comedian/MC Donald Glover, who performs under the pseudonym Childish Gambino. And, lastly, LA-based Cambodian rock outfit Dengue Fever will be providing the live score for the stop-motion film "The Lost World" at UCLA's Royce Hall. But we strongly suggest heading over to the Echoplex to catch NY-bred indie pop act the Pains of Being Pure at Heart (LAist Interview). LAist favorites, San Franciscan post-punk trio Weekend, who recently released one of 2010's most satisfyingly noisy discs, Sports, and "beach-pop" quartet Sonny & the Sunsets are slated to kick things off. more ›

Tonight Dublin-by-way-of-Mexico acoustic guitar maestros Rodrigo y Gabriela will be headlining the Greek Theatre. London-based DJ trio Patchwork Pirates will be gracing the Airliner for this week's edition of Low End Theory. And, lastly, local indie rock quartet Adeline And The Philistines will be taking on Echo Curio. But we strongly suggest doing whatever it takes to get into the Bootleg Theater to catch actor/writer/comedian/MC Donald Glover, who performs under the pseudonym Childish Gambino. more ›

Last year, LAist got an early leak of the Poindexter album by rapper Childish Gambino. Or, as he's more universally known, actor / writer / comedian Donald Glover. Since then, his show Community has been picked up for a second season on NBC, he's had a stand up special on Comedy Central, the film he co-wrote, stars in, and scored - Mystery Team - has moved from theaters to DVD, and he's gotten press lately for parlaying a few tweets into legitimate talk to play the next Spiderman. Maybe. more ›

Whether or not you really ever believed Hip Hop was Dead, there’s no denying the changes it’s undergone in the past decade. Bass-y beats and mean muggin’ thug rhyme runners are so cliche they’ve become a caricature of themselves; how else can you explain 50 Cent having his own video game? So where does a real hip hop head turn? Like an ostrich: underground. more ›