Tuesday nights in LA can be slow in the Spring; the energy of activation to get prettied up and brave the slick streets is much higher than that required to crack open a beer and settle on the couch. But when a heat wave hits with its concomitant restlessness, suddenly a weeknight outing is not only desired but sorely needed. It was in this fitful state I found myself making my way down a......

A few weeks ago, LAist was invited to see Herbie Hancock perform live, at the Nissan Live studio in Century City. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music is a series of performances attended by fans (plus a friend) for an intimate show of around 400 that features A-list artists, and released only on Yahoo! Music. Previous shows mentioned by LAist include Iggy and the Stooges,......

Swedish troubadour Jens Lekman brought his sweet, shy, Burt Bacharach-meets-the-Avalanches sound to the Henry Fonda Theater on Friday and kicked out almost every jam he's got: "Maple Leaves," "Black Cab," "The Opposite Of Hallelujah," a jittery new song and even an Arthur Russell cover. Only bummer was that the show barely lasted an hour and a half, but at least he'll have some fresh tunes to play next time -- and there will definitely be......

Carbon/Silicon took their punk rock pedigrees to the stage at the El Rey Wednesday night and kicked out an inspired, energized set that left the crowd of several hundred white 40-year-olds ecstatic that they’d stayed out past their bedtimes. I have to confess that I hadn’t heard much Carbon/Silicon before the show. Most of the press I’ve seen has been less about the band, and more about the band members – especially Mick Jones......

For a band named after the Hawaiian word for "hello," Aloha seemed a little shy during their too-brief opening set for the Velvet Teen on Tuesday night. But the scrawny indie kids were confident about their musicianship, which was impressive indeed. The band played with a blend of Death Cab For Cutie's melodic sense and the Sea and Cake's jazzy virtuosity, with drummer Cale Parks unleashing a torrent of polyrhythms from his lightning-like hands.......

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. So here's this week's top posts, as endorsed by you via the recommend feature, or as indicated by the level......

These murals outside Pincher's Liquor on Pico were some of your favorites this week on LAist | Photo by Osmany Rodriguez/LAist When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities......

The Kooks and The Morning Benders showcase a plateful of indie pop rock goodness at The Echo on February 8, 2008....

I went to my 15th Tori Amos concert last night. I still remember the high school days of camping outside of Tower records at 7am on a Saturday morning to get tickets to the her shows, or that time I drove 3 hours in the snow to see her play in Boston on my 21st birthday. And then there was the time we got up at 6am to see her do a show in......

Everybody's doing it, right? I don't pretend to be hip or edgy or rebellious. I mean, I grew up on Billy Joel and Madonna and Motown and then the Gen Xer's basic dichotomy of KROQ versus Top 40 in the 90s. I find it increasingly harder to fall in love with albums in the downloading age, and am one of those people who obsessively compiles mixed cds for friends and iPod playlists full of......

One look at the bill for Night Two of KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas one might think with all of the INDIE flavor that that LA's "other" rock station was behind the programming. But alas it was KROQ and Night Two featured great performances by Modest Mouse, Muse, Feist, Silversun Pickups, Jimmy Eat World, Spoon and a surprise unannounced performance from the Killers.......

Nothing says Merry Christmas like mosh pits, sweaty fans and loud rock music, unless of course it is KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas. Night One, the more "edgy" of the two nights of KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas featured performances by rising stars Paramore, legends Bad Religion and chart toppers Linkin Park.......

Happy Holidays LAist Readers! Here's a nice treat for you. We have three pairs of tickets to giveaway for Tori Amos at NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE on Dec 16 at 8:15 p.m. If you haven't been Downtown in awhile, the new LA Live development across the street from the STAPLES Center is really starting to change the neighborhood. All very exciting and all within a short walk from the Red and Blue lines. To enter......

If you like classical new music, then why aren't you coming to Monday Evening Concerts? This is the real deal and a one of the kind music series in Los Angeles. Last Monday night's concert was our Classical Pick of the Week and there was good reason for it. The nearly sold out concert of the young and elderly gathered at Zipper Hall at Downtown's Colburn School of Music. The night started with the......

There is rarely an audience at an LA club show so fully and intensely captivated as the crowd at The El Rey was last night. Leave it to Dap Kings guitarist / emcee Binky Griptite who is a master at his craft: warming up the crowd and introducing the boogieing Miss Sharon Jones. Jones & the Dap Kings performed for solid two hours, no opening act necessary (although the 60's and 70's dusty and......

Bob Thompson’s passionate preview of last night’s Biblical Proof of UFOs show at Spaceland told the story of one of the truly great lost Los Angeles bands. Three unassuming nice guys who subverted the local scene for six-some years, then dissolved into the ether. Bob’s reverence is not undeserved. In their prime, BPUFO mastered the art of dynamics better than any band I’ve ever seen. I always pictured them crammed into a sweaty practice......

Vampire Weekend, decked out in polo shirts and loafers, played their blend of indie rock meets afro-pop to a packed house at The Echo last night. The show was sold out and the band did not disappoint despite singer Ezra Koenig’s ailing vocal chords. Armed with enhanced energy and a couple of new songs since the last time they were in LA, Vampire Weekend proved that they are very deserving of the buzz currently surrounding......

I feel at home at hip hop shows. I am in my element. I am around people who love the same kind of music I love. This past Wednesday night, however, for the first time in my show-going life I was at a hip hop show as an outsider. Nerdcore rap was something that I had only vaguely heard of, all I knew of it was rap with a whole lot of references to......

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......

New Jersey singer/songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs (MySpace), whose song "Fuck Was I" was on Weeds, is arguably best known for her connection with the controversial and self-described "Queen of All Media" Perez Hilton, whose championing of her music led to visits on her MySpace page reportedly leaping from 2,000 plays a day to a whopping 60,000. Youngs debuted locally in December 2005, "...in front of a rather industry crowd of artists, label dorks, and......

"It's so nice and quiet and beautiful in here... from here the lighting kinda looks like a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica." -- Neko Case, melting the heart of every geek in the house while taking in the mysterious angles and lighting inside the Frank Gehry-designed concert hall. Neko Case closed out the first half of Walt Disney Concert Hall's 2007-08 Songbook Series last Friday to a rapt, grateful, near-sellout audience of about 2,000. The......

The wonderful folks over at Arthur Magazine not only organized, but documented the wondrous No Age LA River show Saturday (perhaps you saw the LAist photo essay concert review). This finely edited three-part documentary was conducted by Mark Frohman, Art Director of Arthur Magazine. The videos surfaced merely 24-hours after the show! I'd like to thank Jay Babcock for sending us these links. Parts 1 & 3 after the jump.........

What could have been a humdrum Saturday afternoon turned out to be the most memorable I've had this entire year. No Age and a lucky crowd of about 75 broke history. Actually, I'm not even sure if we broke history. However, I am certain that no other band has had the gall to execute a renegade show of this particular nature before. This is what happens when you combine an Arthur Magazine editor-type guy,......

Its no wonder that Puffy AmiYumi are the huge international superstars that they are because even though they sing in a language you don't understand, they are irresistibly charming and their songs will be stuck in your head for days. I guess it was an all ages show. I was standing next to the most angsty 12-year-old girl i have ever seen, but her along with everyone else had their fist pumping perpetually through......

As a teenager, the Misfits kind of passed me by. They were an East coast band, and I was listening to local SST bands and 70s glammy-junkie punk bands. Like ANGELIC UPSTARTS, it seemed like MISFITS was just another band to paint on your leather jacket. A few years ago I got turned on to their box set, and I felt like I had really missed out. This Ramones - meets - Sabbath -......

Back in 2002 or so, a guy friend of mine introduced me to a band he had discovered, whose lyrics were all about two fictional characters in a sci-fi world, and whose artwork had no band photos, only a drawing of the fictional guy and girl. The music was like a cross between pop/rock, metal, and prog-rock, with high-pitched vocals that immediately called to mind the band Rush. There were some amazing melodies in......

KT Tunstall was supposed to play Leno and Carson Daly's shows this week while she was in town. But since the strike happened she figured "how about playing in front of NBC?" When a better location down the street in front of the Disney gates was suggested she took her guitar and tambourine and supported the writers with three tunes, two of her own, and in the video below you will see her do......

Friday night marked the final performance of Of Montreal's LA stint and it will never slip from my memory. I felt like I was tripping on acid. I had the worst cold I've contracted in years, surely that didn't help, and random imagery (Dave Navarro, grizzly bears, cartoon heads, and iTunes-like visualizers) was in full effect throughout the night. Between MGMT's psychedelic, synth-laden set, Grand Buffet's abrasive, hilarious antics, and the filming Of Montreal's......

There has been no one to hit the music scene in the past few years as original and refreshing as M.I.A. Her infectious blend or hip hop, dancehall, drum and bass and even a bit of electronic, has been getting crowds across the world shaking and moving to her grooves. Friday night she returned to Los Angeles, and after making the crowd wait a bit longer than expected she came through like a whirlwind......

Sunday was the book release party for Live at the Masque: Nightmare in Punk Alley. It was fully sold out, and even those who are in with the in crowd were embarassed to be left standing outside, waiting for a friend to get them in. The party went on all afternoon, all evening, and all night. Everyone seems to have forgotten that we aren't 17 years old anymore. By the time we arrived at......