Last August, Aimee Mann, Joan Osborne, Rob Laufer, Ian Ball from Gomez, and Al Jorgensen joined Cheap Trick and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra to recreate Sgt. Peppers on it's 40th Anniversary. They'll do it again June 28th. We're four months out from the official start of the 2008 Hollywood Bowl Season and the schedule is nearly complete. Single tickets won't go on sale for a couple months but the Bowl is offering 16 different......

I'm hoping you got a bunch of DVDs to tide you over during this dead week as well as until the writer's strike ends. It looks like TCM is running an "aviation in movies" marathon tonight and IFC's featuring Harvey Keitel. For further marathon action, check out BRAVO which is showing all of Project Runway's fourth season (starts at 6:00pm). 4:15pm Five Easy Pieces IFC - (1970) If you've got the day off like me,......

Van Halen @ Staples Diana Ross @ Gibson Mary J. Blige @ Nokia Silverchair @ Wiltern Raine Maida @ Viper Room Isis @ Troubadour Trans-Siberian Orchestra @ Honda Center Solare, The Knux, Letter Burning, No One Goes Home @ Key Club Meiko, Katy Perry, Alana Sweetwater, Noah Stone, Fun Tree @ The Hotel Cafe......

Artist: Various Universal artists (mainly Motown) Album(s): Motown Vol.2 and '80s Soul (+ 18 others) Release Date: April 2007 Label: UMe I have to say that I love compilations. Variety is the spice of life and what’s better than an assortment of tunes shoved at you. Universal Music Enterprises (Ume) has put out a set of 20 compilations of “number ones” of various genres, artists, and eras. The eras are by decade from the......

LAist gets and listens to a Lot of music. You can see the bands we like in the concerts that we review, the Tonight in Rock listings that we compile, and in the cds that we review. But we realize that we listen to way more music than we review so we figured we make a list once a week letting you know what we're into. week ending 4/06/07 Charlie Louvin - "When I......

In the six seasons of American Idol, LAist can't recall a more average group of singers -- in voice and personality. Tuesday nights so far have been two hours of tedium, except for one or two standout performances a night. Last night -- British Invasion Night -- was no different. The song choices were unappealing to those under 40, and it's a safe bet that many of the contestants never even heard of their......

Diana Ross -- looking like a big-haired, red-feathered, mythical creature (or possibly Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters) -- vogued, shrieked and crooned a vegas-style rendition of “More Today Than Yesterday,” while Randy tapped along, Paula danced like a drunken sailor and Simon watched smugly all the while thinking, “If she was in this competition, her entrails would be hanging off the lighting rig.” Or maybe he was just looking through her dress. It's hard to......

A Word Or 28: Fox did it again last week. The top 5 most watched programs were a combination of American Idol, Are You As Smart As a 5th Grader?, and House. Tonight - Wednesday - March 14th, 2007 Dick Tracy Marathon (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) The classic from the '40s Clippers @ Rockets (KTLA, 5:30 p.m.) Suns @ Mavericks (ESPN, 6:00 p.m.) Blue Jackets @ Ducks (PRIME, 7:00p.m.) Jericho (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) The Marines......

There are three months left of American Idol. And judging from last night's show, that's three very long months to whittle down from 12 to the two finalists. The singing overall on the Diana Ross-themed show was pretty lousy, except for a few of the usual suspects: Jordin Sparks (who we think sang a Diana Ross tune from The Land Before Time, Melinda Doolitte belting a song from The Wiz, and show-stopper LaKisha Jones singing......

So American Idol stretched out a 10-minute show again tonight, taking 60 minutes to kick off four people and have two performances. So we'll cut to the chase: After 37 million votes, America shipped off: Antonella Barba (about time!), Jared Cotter, Sabrina Sloan (shocker!) and Sundance Head. (Even more of a shocker is that Sanjaya Malakar stays...) The 12 finalists will be coached next week in diva-dom by Diana Ross.......

The Oscars go down in just a few hours, so this is the last call for Oscar Picks! Just go to this post and choose who you think will win in ten big categories. Here are the AMAZING prizes we have for the winners The Grand Prize Winner (person with the most correct picks) will get a copy of the just-released Luscious Jackson's "Greatest Hits", tickets to the Hotel Cafe on March 29th to see......

A Word Or 71: Hey, thanks for calling me on my BS mistakes yesterday, it pleases me that some people have been reading my little list of shows and snarky comments. Have a great weekend - the only thing that will get me through Oscar night is alcohol, here's a link to an Oscar's Drinking Game but there's got to be better ones, please post your own or links to better ones in the comments.......

The first four American Idol contestants were booted last night. While we weren’t surprised at the girls (Amy Krebs left because of her vanilla on vanilla rendition of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and Nicole Tranquillo tried too hard to be Chaka Khan and Rufus all at once), the guys who left kinda did. We thought for sure than smiley Sanjaya was a goner, but he turned out to be in......

The Oscars are right around the corner, everyone's an expert, so let's see what ya got. After the jump we have ten big categories for Sunday's award show. To enter out your picks in the comments and leave your real email address so we can contact you. Please follow this format: 1. Penelope Cruz 2. Jennifer Hudson 3. Forest Whitaker etc... Here are the AMAZING prizes we have for the winners The Grand Prize Winner......

A Word or 33: Is anyone watching "Idol"? I can't believe it's back, I just haven't accepted it. Maybe when Diana Ross comes on as a consultant, perhaps after she sues "Dreamgirls," then I might consider it. Today - Wednesday - January 17th, 2007 Lakers @ Spurs (KCAL, 6:00 p.m.) "Foreign Correspondent" (TCM, 7:00 p.m.) A '40s classic from Hitchcock. "American Idol" (Fox, 8:00 p.m.) Season premiere part deux. "Armed & Famous" (CBS, 8:00......

I humbly present this week's offering of classic crooners, underground rappers, David Bowie, heavy metal, art rock, prog rock, and even a little yacht rock. 'Tis a pity we are built with only two ears. Rock Age of Nemesis - Terra Incognita (Magna Carta) *America (feat. Ryan Adams, Ben Kweller, and Adam Schlesinger) - Here & Now (Burgundy) Isabelle Antena - Carpe Diem/Les Derniers Guerriers Romantiques (LTM / Boutique NL) Atrophy - Socialized Hate......

A Word or 30: Golden Globes redux: was happy that Sacha Baron Cohen won; Forest Whitaker, OK; Alec Baldwin, thank you; but "Cars"? "Grey's Anatomy"? No wonder I hate those award skeet skeet sessions. Tonight - Tuesday - January 16th, 2007 Blues @ Ducks (PRIME, 7:00 p.m.) "American Idol" (Fox, 8:00 p.m.) 2 hour season premiere "America's Funniest Home Videos" (ABC, 8:00 p.m.) A two hour death march of fun "The Unit" (CBS, 9:00......

A Word or 44: The first 1/2 of the "24" season premiere was quite good even though I don't understand how Jack found the terrorist dude before his house got blown up. Also, was there some anal play going on between Jack and the first terrorist guy? Kinky. Tonight - Monday - January 15th, 2007 "Lawrence of Arabia" (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) Quite possibly the best movie ever made. "Hamlet" (IFC, 6:00 p.m.) Classic Shakespeare......

When you write and sing songs as good as Whisper Town 2000, you can make any list you want. Here are Morgan Nagler's Best CDs of 2006 1. The Beatles The White Album 2. The Rolling Stones Exile On Main St. 3. Neva Dinova The Hate Yourself Change 4. Elliot Smith Elliot Smith 5. Notorious BIG Ready To Die 6. The Jackson 5 Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5 7. Tom Petty Wildflowers 8.......

Ambitious-Outsiders has a more complete lineup than the official site (how'd that happen) but what jumped out at us on this year's Sunset Junction Street Fair lineup is all the old school soul showing up on the Edgecliffe Stage. Freda Payne, The Supremes not named Diana Ross and Richard Street all perform on Saturday while 80's R&B songstress Jody Watley shows up on Sunday. We might be most excited about Watley performing. She put......

Diana Ross is scheduled to appear at the MAC WeHo store on N. Robertson today to launch a new color collection. Women's Wear Daily reports, "One little-known footnote to the Motown legend was the fact that Ross put in time at beauty school before embarking on her music career." So that explains the diva's facility with wigs.......