This past weekend the documentary Searching for Elliott Smith continued its travels through the festival circuit with a stop at the Los Angeles New Wave International Film Festival. In the film, first-time director Gil Reyes takes the pilgrimage through Smith’s life. more ›

Five years ago today, on October 21, 2003, Elliott Smith died. The intentions behind his death still not been confirmed, but some time that day, Elliott met the Big Nothing. more ›

http://seattlest.com/2008/02/28/foo_fighters_da.php">announced his presidential bid.

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 of talk going on in the comments: more ›

Who knew an early Monday morning post about graffiti on a mural posthumously made famous by singer/songwriter Elliott Smith would lead to such wonderful results. Nearly six months ago, then-editor of LAist, Tony Pierce, posted a photo of the graffitied wall stating that "this is why we can't have nice things." Then, on Monday, reader Robert T. wrote an e-mail attaching a photo of a new tag on the wall. What we noticed was that the tag from six months ago was still there, under the new one. more ›

On my way to dying my hair pink and eating yuca tacos, as apparently all Silver Lake residents do, I saw some work being done on the Solutions! wall. Yes, the same one we reported on today, which had been horribly defaced. Some Silver Lake locals took it upon themselves to bring the mural, which serves as an Elliott Smith shrine, back to its former splendor. more ›

Last year on August 28, we reported that the Elliott Smith wall had been tagged once again, this time with a rather large "Mouse" tag. Today, almost six months later, the tag still sits there, now with new balloon font tag over it. more ›

M.I.A. struts her stuff at the Echoplex, July 31 more ›

I've always been intrigued by other "best of" lists, but this year I decided to take it to a whole new level. I e-mailed a handful of bands that I've seen this past year in order to unearth what exactly captivated them in '07. As music listeners, it is our duty to take a keen interest in our favorite musician's influences. After all, they rocked our little world, might as well see what rocked their little world. Therefore, this is an act of paying it forward to those hardworking, underpaid musicians who truly made a difference within the music scene this year. more ›

I've always been intrigued by other "best of" lists, but this year I decided to take it to a whole new level. I e-mailed a handful of bands that I've seen this past year in order to unearth what exactly captivated them in '07. As music listeners, it is our duty to take a keen interest in our favorite musician's influences. After all, they rocked our little world, might as well see what rocked their... more ›

Monday Eliot Tiegel presents The Latinization of America 6:30pm @ Book Soup Judith Freeman discusses and signs The Long Embrace 7pm @ Vroman's Roz Chast discusses Theories of Everything 7pm @ Central Library Robert Kuttner in conversation with Arianna Huffington about The Squandering of America 8pm @ James Bridge Theater, UCLA Tuesday Cesar Millan presents Be the Pack Leader 7pm @ Borders, Pasadena Frank McCourt presents Angela and the Baby Jesus 7pm @ Borders,... more ›

Such as a grandpa who was awesome enough to teach a 12-year-old me about binary as well as the difference between analog and digital. more ›

When you find yourself sitting around the house (your house, your parent's house, your friend's house, the house of the weird person you met on the Goldline last week) over the long holiday weekend, you'll probably be too full of beer or wine or turkey or stuffing or pumpkin pie to do much of anything besides sit on the couch and stare at whatever's in front of you. Which is fine - if you're into... more ›

Just surfacing amongst the depths of the Pitchfork servers comes the prospect of an unreleased P.T. Anderson short film featuring our beloved Elliott Smith. 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 ›

One of the nicest things on Sunset Blvd. is the Elliott Smith tribute wall. In October 21, 2003, dreary and brilliant singer songwriter Elliott Smith killed himself by stabbing himself in the heart. Best known for the moody acoustic songs heard in Good Will Hunting, Smith had an Oscar nom in his back pocket in '97 and a contract with Dreamworks in '98. Immediately after the reports of his death began to spread, fans... more ›

released August 21st, 2007 more ›

With three full length albums under their belt, and lyrics that often run the emotional gamut of life in Los AngelesRilo Kiley is as much a fixture on the L.A. music scene as anyone. While their newest album, Under the Blacklight, won't debut until August 21, they are getting ready to kick things off at All Star Lanes for a "secret" show in Eagle Rock in a few hours. After, Rilo Kiley will leave the country and return to Los Angeles, playing the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium October 15. Blake Sennett took some time to sit down with LAist more ›

With a crowd that maybe topped 35, we caught Ferraby Lionheart's appearance last night in the intimate back room of the Tangier Lounge. more ›

There is a song in the early summer evening air and it’s a song of hipsters, small yummy tacos, and very, very strong drinks. I live a considerable distance from Malo, but it’s always a great place to meet up with people before going to the Greek. Malo is on Sunset Boulevard, the décor is dark, iron is very much in evidence, there are lots of curtains. Outside, the décor is minimal, with a... more ›

Björk - Volta (Atlantic) Bone Thugs -N- Harmony - Strength & Loyalty (Interscope) Barbara Streisand - Streisand: Live In Concert [2 CD] [LIVE] (Sony) Keren Ann - Keren Ann (Blue Note) Brakes - Beatific Visions (Rough Trade) Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls (Too Pure / Beggars) Elliott Smith - New Moon [2 CD] (Kill Rock Stars) The Clientele - God Save the Clientele (Merge) Page France - Page France and the Family Telephone... more ›

Most vanilla Oscars ever. Ellen DeGeneres wasn't a bad host. But she wasn't a good one. Her mildly funny jokes and conversational good nature made it feel like we were watching a daytime talk show host wallowing in the oversized britches of a big-time awards ceremony. Oh wait, we were. Thank you, Ellen DeGeneres, for proving that queers can be as bland and conventional as breeders. Jerry Seinfeld's presentation of the feature documentary award was... more ›

Whispertown 2000 is an LA based band that sounds the way a soft velour blanket being dragged across the backs of your knees feels. The band is sweet, silly, and serious about bringing you traditional rock song writing styles, with a female edge. Whispertown 2000 play a lot of LA shows, and aren't afraid to make friends with their crowd. Having been to one of their shows, I wandered in feeling like a stranger... more ›

Because everyone is recovering from the festivities of last night, 99% of the rock clubs are closed tonight. So to fill this space - and that void - with something musical, we present to you a nice live video of Elliott Smith (r.i.p.) singing "Rose Parade", which we think is appropriate since KTLA is currently rerunning their broadcast for the umpteenth time. Although Smith apparently wrote the tune about a lesser parade, we'll still... more ›

We're not going to say that the Solutions audio repair store in Silver Lake drove Elliot Smith to suicide, because 1) we don't know that he actually ever took anything in the shop, 2) readers of this site don't seem to cotton to death-associated levity, and 3) wasn't there some speculation that he was actually murdered? But if somebody else happened to say that it did, we would have to say we understand completely.... more ›

Do you like to be rocked to sleep, or rocked like a hurricane? more ›

">Pandora, aka the Music Genome Project. It’s a streaming radio station that you create on your own. more ›

Bedroom Walls All Good Dreamers Pass This Way (Baria Records) – The All Music Guide gives this local band a 4.5/5 and says: “"If Elliott Smith were still alive and decided to get together and jam with Neutral Milk Hotel, the results might sound a lot like this self-described ‘romanticore’ quintet.” That’s very high praise indeed. They’re appearing live at the Troubadour on 5/30. Download a demo of “In Anticipation of Your Suicide” more ›

Fri 4/21 - Dinosaur Jr @ Troubadour (SOLD OUT) – Here’s a show for the aging indie rocker. That first reunion show a year ago at Spaceland was a little disappointing (packed and a billion degrees inside). While Green Mind and Where You Been are still the best Dinosaur records, the first three with Lou Barlow have some great moments too. The show on Saturday night is sold out too. more ›