The Get Schooled 2010 Challenge dropped in on LA on Friday, surprising the students at Ulysses S. Grant High School in Valley Village with a one-hour assembly hosted by MTV's Sway and featuring Common. more ›

Common, Colbie Caillat, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Robin Thicke, Taryn Manning and Justin Long were among the stars who came out to support Richard and Eve Branson's 4th Annual Rock the Kasbah fundraiser for Virgin Unite at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Thursday night. more ›

While by no means a flop, Robin Hood does bear the scent of an under-performer this morning. The latest Ridley Scott | Russell Crowe collaboration only managed to steal $37.1M in its debut, placing a distant second to the mighty Iron Man 2 ($53M | $212M). Female counter-programming didn't exactly work for Letters to Juliet which only garnered $13.8M in its opening frame. Romantic "comedy" Just Wright was even worse at $8.5M, while powerhouse How to Train Your Dragon continued to print money ($5.1M | $208M). more ›

Some may find Russell Crowe surly and rude, but I think he's a rock-solid actor who always delivers (Bud White deserves induction into the pantheon alongside Michael, Antonio, Carmine, Jack, Giles and Tom ). That said, I'm a bit skittish about Robin Hood. How do I put it? Maybe like this: is anyone really excited to see it? Amanda Seyfried is probably the most weirdly hot actress on the planet, but even that won't be enough to drag me to Letters to Juliet. God, I hope this isn't Vanessa Redgrave's theatrical swan song. Bring your hankies. more ›

Tonight Philadelphia-based Grammy Award-winning hip hop band the Roots and Long Island-bred hip hop act De La Soul will be performing at the Hollywood Palladium with none other than Common, Ludacris and Nas. LA-based DJ collective the Glitch Mob (LAist Review), among many other electronic acts, are poised to take on the 15th annual Nocturnal Festival at the NOS Events Center in good ole San Bernadino. And, lastly, local indie rockers the Deadly Syndrome (LAist Review, #2, #3, #4) will be headlining the El Rey Theatre for this year's Tarfest. But we strongly suggest heading over to Spaceland to catch the phoenix that rose from the ashes of Page France, Maryland-based indie folk act Cotton Jones. Oliver Future are slated to kick things off. more ›

Tonight HARD Summer, a massive multi-stage festival boasting a bevy of prominent electronic acts like Underworld, Chromeo, Crookers, Tiga, SebastiAn, the Bloody Beetroots and many more, will be taking place at the Forum. This year's Rock the Bells, which features the likes of Nas, Damian Marley, Ice Cube, The Roots, Common, Busta Rhymes, RZA, GZA, Raekwon, Slum Village, the Knux (LAist Interview) and many more, is set to take place at San Manuel Amphiteatre. Local producer/musician extraordinaire Jon Brion (LAist Interview, #2, Review) will be jamming at Largo at the Coronet with none other than Wilco guitarist Nels Cline (LAist Interview). And, lastly, Bergen-based experimental indie pop outfit Casiokids will be performing at Spaceland with the Wave Pictures and Slow Club in tow. But we strongly suggest heading over to the Getty Center to catch San Francisco-based psych-folk-pop act the Dodos for this week's edition of Saturdays Off the 405. more ›

Tonight Chicago-bred rapper Common will be performing at the Los Angeles Sports Arena with none other than Ludacris. LA-based singer-songwriter Meiko is slated to grace the stage at the Henry Fonda Musix Box with Joshua Radin. And, lastly, Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan will be headlining the Troubadour. But we strongly suggest heading over to Betalevel in Chinatown to catch Eagle Rock's own multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno, who will be ringing in a brand-new EP with Keenhouse. more ›

The Los Angeles Film Festival officially kicks off tonight with the premiere of the awful-looking Angelina Jolie action flick, . It's something about assassins, tattoos, curving bullets and explosions--you know, standard indie fare. Starting tomorrow, the festival begins in earnest with films and events rolling at 18 locations all around Los Angeles. Most, however, are relegated to Westwood and the surrounding neighborhoods. While parking will certainly be tight and pricey, any cinema lover will find an over-abundance of things to do. more ›

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Convincing people to go to a movie theater and see a documentary is a labor of love for me. Folks always protest that they'd rather see something else--something bigger and shinier!--but if they suck it up and buy the ticket for the doc they are invariably happy that they did. This weekend, a truly great documentary unspools in Los Angeles. It's called Young @ Heart and it's about a group of elderly New Englanders who love to sing, well, Coldplay, Sonic Youth, The Ramones, etc. That's right--it's about senior citizens who live to rock. See it. more ›

Through the presidential election in November, MTV has “Choose or Lose” citizen journalists in twenty-three states to cover the campaign. Here is the Colorado street team member interviewing Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker on the campaign trail for Barack Obama in Boulder, CO on Monday.
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Yesterday the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved additional steps for Project 50, a three year pilot program that will help get some of the most vulnerable people living on skid row into permanent housing. more ›

The critically acclaimed Black Star album not only introduced the world to two gifted emcees, Mos Def and Talib Kweli, it also opened the world's eyes and ears to the sounds of Cincinnati native, Hi-Tek. Born, Tony Cottrell, Tek has since gone on to become one of hip hop's elite producers working with the likes of everyone from 50 Cent to Snoop to Common to Nas to The Game. Today, the follow up to one of my favorite albums of 2006, Hi-Teknology 2: The Chip, Hi-Teknology 3: Underground hits stores. more ›

Close your eyes and gather around the radio and listen to tales that will make you cringe or giggle. This Saturday night brings the next monthly installment of The Thrilling Adventure & Supernatural Suspense Hour, a live old-school style radio performance at the M Bar in Hollywood, which according to the fine folks at Workjuice is comprised of "several serialized short-form comedic radio plays as well as standalone pieces, musical numbers, and the occasional... more ›

This weekend I thought we'd take a break from the sea and the red thing to check out the animal kingdom version of Thanksgiving. Are these not the fattest racoons you have ever seen? It's as if they are a new species. Don't mess with Pedro racoons, man. - Elise The Raccoon (Procyon lotor), also known as the Northern Raccoon, Common Raccoon, Washer Bear or Coon, is a widespread, medium-sized, omnivorous mammal native to... more ›

I'm hoping that no one had time for TV last night and if they did they had the class to watch the Boris Karloff marathon on TCM. 8:00pm Ugly Betty ABC - The Halloween Episode. TV Junkie 8:00pm Pick. 9:00pm To Die In Jerusalem HBO - Have heard enough about this documentary on NPR and elsewhere to know it's a good thing. TV Junkie Pick-O-The-Night 9:00pm The Office NBC - If you don't feel like... more ›

Last week when we were at the MTV VMAs we got to spend a quick minute with Common backstage at the Palms. We not only got to ask him about what he thinks is the reasoning behind his single "The People" making it to the top of the charts, despite it being nothing like 50 Cent, but we also got to ask him about Britney Spears' opening performance. What's interesting is we also got... more ›

The rise of Common from the depths of underground hip hop has been a thing too watch. The Chicago emcee has constantly been one of the strongest and most consistantly solid emcees in the game, but was painfully under-listened and under-respected. He has always enjoyed critical success but it was the mainstream success that eluded him, that was until another fellow Chi-Town emcee by the name Kanye West came and swept him from the... more ›

James Intveld, Red Meat @ Joe's Great American Bar & Grill more ›

Common - "The People" "The People" was one of our most-played summer jamz. It was on Kanye's "Can't Tell Me Nothin" sampler because Kanye produced it and listen to how sweet it is. It's the sort of non-thug, uplifting, positive hip-hop that people once talked about, but now people are buying. This is the direction BEP could have gone if they hadn't chosen the path of the lowest common denominator aka the Gwen Stefani... more ›

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. more ›

Junior Senior - "Move Your Feet" Common, Chrisette Michele @ Boulevard3 Hillary Duff @ Gibson Lee Ritenour @ Hollywood Bowl Hanson @ Viper Room Junior Senior @ Roxy Gore Gore Girls @ Ameoba White Savage, Static Static @ Spaceland The Sirens, The Elegant Bastards @ Safari Sam's RX Bandits, Fall of Troy, Maps & Atlases, Casket Salesmen @ Vault 350 The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, David Scott Stone @ The Steve Allen... more ›

Ever read the Shel Silverstein poem, True Story? That's why New Music Tuesday is on a Friday. Go forth into your weekends, and rock. OUT NOW: Bat for Lashes - Fur & Gold (Caroline) Common - Finding Forever (Geffen) Josh Rouse - Country Mouse City House (Bedroom Classics) Culver City Dub Collective - Dos (Everloving) 1990s - Cookies (Rough Trade) Dr. Hook - Greatest Hooks (Capitol/EMI) G. Love & Special Sauce - A Year... more ›

You may have noticed a new button on our left-hand column with the title We See The Best Concerts. It dawned on us the other day that we really do go to the best concerts and we usually write about them the next day or a few days later. So here's a wrap up of all 37 shows we reviewed this month, with links to the posts just in case you missed it. Chris... more ›

Thursday July 12, 2007 kicked off the first of three concerts being put on for free by Zune. Zune is a machine that can hold songs and videos, and even lets you share them with your buddies. The Concert was a daytime event centering around eating lots of things drenched in BBQ sauce while listening to some of the biggest rappers bust out for the crowd. It was great!@#&*^@ The event was at the... more ›

Chris Cornell, Juliette & the Licks @ The Wiltern Flight of the Conchords @ El Rey Theatre Queen Latifah @ Hollywood Bowl Minibar @ Largo Tony Gilkyson & Kip Boardman, Kristin Mooney, Patty Blee @ Cinema Bar... more ›

The Raveonettes, Electric Duo, Midnight Movies, The Meek @ Spaceland The Black Angels, VietNam, Spindrift @ The Troubadour Deerhoof @ Natural History Museum B-Real @ Key Club The Pharcyde, Ugly Duckling @ Blue Cafe The Colour, Simon Dawes, Takota @ The Roxy Kottonmouth Kings @ Ventura Theatre Matt & Kim, Japanther, Mika Miko, No Age @ The Echo The Moderates, Gliss, The Cheat @ El Cid Sara Hickman @ McCabe's Lorenzo Lamas @ The... more ›

LA’s Stones Throw Records are quickly becoming the most important purveyors of independent hip-hop in the new millennium, much like East Coast indie stalwarts Rawkus were in the late 1990s. There is, however, one particularly notable difference between the two. While both labels are known for their independent spirit and bohemian rosters of hip-hop artists (Stones Throw with Madlib and his many aliases, MF Doom, J Dilla, et al and Rawkus was with Mos Def & Talib Kweli, Common, Pharaohe Monch, et al), Stones Throw has also become ground zero for the “Indie Soul” movement. "Indie Soul" is a throwback to Chicago soul and jazz mixed with modern beats and arrangements, and best represented by artists like Georgia Anne Muldrow and the versatile Aloe Blacc. more ›

Pick of the Day Lemmy's new band The Head Cat headlines The Knitting Factory tonight. The Motorhead frontman has secured Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom and Lonesome Spurs guitarist Danny B. Harvey and turned it wayyyy down -- for him, that is. Opening is Bauhaus' Daniel Ash on the wheels of steel, kicking off the night with Speedbuggy. Single, lonely men rejoice. Common @ House of Blues Ne-Yo @ Key Club Teena Marie... more ›

M. Ward, Victoria Williams @ El Rey Dengue Fever @ Temple Bar Morrissey @ Pasadena Civic Auditorium Gladys Knight @ Gibson The Monolators, Repeater, The Friends of Dennis Wilson @ Mr. T's Bowl KRS-One @ The Knitting Factory Ladysmith Black Mambazo @ Cal State Long Beach Pierre de Reeder @ The Mint Margaret Cho @ Largo Mose Allison @ The Jazz Bakery Ron Sexsmith, Annie Stela @ The Troubadour G Love & Special Sauce,... more ›