There were nearly as many people on stage as in the crowd at the Echo last night to witness the phenomenon that was a 35-minute set from Dark Meat, the 17-piece psychedelic rock collective from Athens, Georgia. Dark Meat has been tearing up small venues in the South for a few years. Now signed to Vice Records, this orgiastic cacophony of punk vocals, horns, gospel, double drums, and manic prancing on the dance floor made......

Country diva and Palm Springs native Shelby Lynne treated the folks in the audience for her show last night at Indio's Stagecoach Festival to an earful. But she wasn't serving up just the sweet sounds of her songs--she had an awful lot to say about how unhappy she was with the venue and the attendance."I love singing to empty seats," Lynne sarcastically said as she opened her set, remarking about the vacant chairs in the......

Mike Doughty attracts a particular crowd. They are the kind of people who know how to use the term "irony" correctly. They will dance like your crazy hippie friend did in high school and everyone pointed and laughed but you knew they didn't care because, dammit, they were feeling it and having a good time. They will play vigorous air drums with syncopated head bobs. They cannot get enough of a good thing. Mike......

Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr FILM There aren’t many good movies to see this weekend so why not grab a seat at the Nuart tonight and watch the classic World War II film, The Great Escape (1963)? The film is a part of the United Artists’ 90th Anniversary celebration series, starring Steve McQueen and shown on a new 35mm print. 8:30 p.m. // Nuart Theatre // 11272......

In the previous installations of Coachella there have been some huge headliners. Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead, Bjork, The Beastie Boys but none quite on the level of day two's headliner, the Purple One, Prince. From the moment he hit the stage with Morris Day and Shelia E. it was apparent that the audience was in for a lesson in musicianship and showmanship. As he played through a set mixed of standards and the cover......

Miwa Gemini at the Hotel Cafe | Photo by Lindsay William-Ross/LAist When the opportunity to check out New York-based singer-songwriter Miwa Gemini live at the Hotel Cafe came up recently I jumped at the chance based on one line in the PR materials: "Think Nina Simone meets Sparklehorse meets Cat Power, and you're getting close." Intrigued, I showed up Sunday evening to the Hotel Cafe, nabbed a seat in the room's soothing darkness, and......

Sons and Daughters' entourage and others watch the band perform from the control room. For the third consecutive year, KCRW's Nic Harcourt and crew set up shop in Austin's Tequila Mockingbird studios to produce Morning Becomes Eclectic during South by Southwest. We caught up with them for the first of three live in-studio sessions last week and witnessed the raw power of Glasgow's Sons and Daughters. If our SXSW posts make it seem like......

Dave Koenig of LA-based Spindrift, Little Radio Day Party, Red Eyed Fly, SXSW 2008, Austin, TX We made it through another South by Southwest Interactive, Film, and Music Conference and Festival in Austin, TX. After writing out that sentence, we need a nap but stay tuned for more interviews and live footage documenting LA's presence at the 21st annual event. Shout Out Louds at the Austinist Day Party, The Mohawk, Austin Enjoy some live......

We caught up with Jonathan Coulton after he participated in a live taping of the Heather Gold show, an experience he blogged as well, without noting the more relevant details -- he sang a duet of Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" with Gold reading the lyrics from an iPhone and then sang Billy Joel's "Don't Ask Me Why" with Harvey Danger's Sean Nelson. We had a couple minutes (before running out of hard drive space)......

Big Business, Red Fang, The Cops @ Spaceland (Tho Cops reviewed on LAist, 3/20/06) New York Dolls @ House of Blues (Anaheim) Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra, George Sarah & String Trio @ Safari Sam's (George Sarah video below) The Riders of the Purple Sage @ Live at the Lounge (Hermosa Beach) Peter Himmelman @ McCabe's (Music for the kids) Sunday Residency (See all March Residencies) Alex & Sam, Liz Pappademas @ Tangier ($8), Los Feliz (Read......

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......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Pasadena Art Weekend, for three days of free events. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a week. If you're interested in advertising on LAist or any other site in our network, check out our online mediakit.......

Artist: Rakim Album: The Archive: Live, Lost & Found Label: Koch Records Release Date: 03/04/08 There’s not much to say after mentioning that Rakim released a new album, The Archive Live, Lost & Found, which has live performances of some of Rakim’s biggest hits and new, unreleased tracks. Even the novice hip-hop fan will know that this album is a bona fide crowd pleaser, with nothing even coming close to being comparable, well, that is,......

Photo by Lush.i.ous via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Speaking of that 14-car pile-up this morning on the 101 freeway, how about this fact via the Daily Breeze? There's a near $11-billion price "cost to society" due to car crashes according to a study called "Crashes: What's the Cost to Society?" According to the study -- conducted on behalf of the American Automobile Association by the transportation policy firm Cambridge Systematics --......

UPDATE: Damn it, it's confirmed: A press release issued by the actor's spokesperson Wednesday said: “Patrick Swayze has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and is currently undergoing treatment. Patrick’s physician Dr. George Fisher states The Good news? ‘Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far. All of the reports stating the timeframe of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue. We......

"...And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming" by kpe II via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Newly elected state speaker, a Democrat named Karen Bass who was raised in Los Angeles, has made friends on both sides of the aisle, the LA Times said. She is the first African-American to assume the top spot and has some pretty lofty goals, including providing healthcare and improving education. Wait, those are things EVERY......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Missy Higgins, with an album that is available now. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a week. If you're interested in advertising on LAist or any other site in our network, check out our online mediakit.......

Live, from in front of our television set, it's LAist's Oscar night liveblog extravaganza. I've spent the hours preceding tonight's telecast half-assedly getting ready by drinking beer, making brownies, and marveling over how few movies I actually saw this year (yet again.) I've stocked the larder with movie-going snacks, like popcorn, junior mints, and Twizzlers (sorry, this Canadian cannot do Red Vines; they taste like candles). Last night some amped up pitch gal with a......

"Banksy phone booth crashes Downtown LA?" by xxjetlab via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Five are dead and one person was hurt in an apparent murder-suicide in Yorba Linda, close to the Richard Nixon Library. A 14-year-old called in to report that his father had shot him. Police later found that the gunman shot his wife and 3 of his children before turning the gun on himself. As we have pointed out before,......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Kanye West at the Staples Center, the third show they've added in L.A.! Other People's Love Letters, the book where you can see 150 love letters you were never meant to see. Joe Jackson's Rain, available now on Amazon.com. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a......

Launched last October by Neil Kohan, Max Wanger, and Margaux Elliott, Just One Plate is pretty self-explanatory. They select one plate from some of the top restaurants in town, including Grace, Fraiche, Bastide and La Cachette. They glam things up with some professional-quality food photography, and include a detailed recipe for each dish. It is one beautiful and classy-looking website. The goal is to update the site weekly. Upcoming restaurants include the Saddle Peak Lodge......

Killing on the big screen at the New Beverly tonight, courtesy of Eli Roth. / Photo by hemmob via flickr. TALK Author Katha Pollitt discusses her new book On Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories with UC Irvine Professor Jon Wiener as part of the ALOUD at the Central Library series. Pollitt is a poet and columnist for The Nation who’ll discuss her latest essays that deal with sex, death, ex-lovers, politics, motherhood,......

Photo by [Kwasi B.] via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Just when you thought they had faded into obscurity, Segways are reappearing on the scene. This time they'll be the mode of transport for patrols in LA-area Target stores' parking lots. The company says they like to use them because they add 8 inches of height for the rider, and run on batteries. Some passengers at LAX were evacuated for about two......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Kanye West at the Nokia Theater, tickets went on sale today! Other People's Love Letters, the book where you can see 150 love letters you were never meant to see. Joe Jackson's Rain, available now on Amazon.com. Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, the new album that's available now. Busted......

Zoom in, zoom out, click on the icons and click on the lines for more info and times of closures | View Larger Map Last week Wednesday night, February 6, 2007, Veteran Officer Randy Simmons was killed upon entering the home of a gunman who reported to have shot three family members. This was the first casualty in the 41-year history of the LAPD’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit. Funeral arrangements for Simmons are......

Kanye West tickets for the April 21st concert sold out extremely quickly this morning during pre-sale (uh oh!). But we're happy to announce that they just decided to have a second Kanye West concert at NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE taking place the next day on Tuesday, April 22. Lucky for you, we have one pair of tickets to give away here on LAist. To enter the contest, you must submit a comment on this post......

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that '24' co-creator Joel Surnow is bailing from the show and the Fox network. Surnow is the "right-wing nutjob" who is a personal friend of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and President Bush - he's the one that had the brilliant idea to come up with a right wing "answer" to 'The Daily Show' for Fox, but the failure to produce one is evidence he never understood the question. 8:00pm Survivor:......

Jordan McConnell of The Duhks | Photo via thir Myspace page Willie Nelson may be playing downtown tonight, but if you want some folk rock that's local and amazingly fresh, go hear Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies. We heard them last week at their first show of their Hotel Cafe February residency and it was in-your-face and beautiful. But you've got a tough choice if you like this kind of music because when......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Joe Jackson's Rain, available now on Amazon.com. Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, the new album that's available now. Busted Tees, giving you free shipping when you buy three shirts. If you're interested in advertising on LAist or any other site in our network, check out our online mediakit.......

Back in 1996, Mary J. Blige provided vocals to the hook of "Can't Knock the Hustle," the second single off of Jay-Z's debut album, Reasonable Doubt. 12 years, 12 Grammys and 70 million records sold later, Jigga Man and MJB are back at it again, co-headlining 25 shows across North America. Being billed as "The Heart of the City Tour," the former CEO of DefJam records and the Queen of Hip Hop Soul will......