After the Board of Public Works decided without contest today to uphold Monday's decision that a permit not be issued for this weekend's scheduled Sunset Junction festival, the organizers have come forward with a statement. more ›

In the coming weeks, the city that bleeds purple and gold will find itself less interested in gold, and extra rich in purple. Following the success of winter residencies, the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince is bringing his Welcome 2 America Live tour to Los Angeles with a '21 Nite Stand' of performances beginning this week. more ›

Brian Murphy, the former chairman of Southern California music for Live Nation, will become the West Coast president of his ex-company's biggest competitor, AEG Live. Could this be the final piece for AEG securing a NFL arena downtown? more ›

Concerned about the dominance LiveNation and Ticketmaster would have if allowed to merge when a plan was announced last year, California Attorney General Jerry Brown and 16 others states initially opposed such an idea. "Without serious competition, concert-goers will inevitably pay more for concert tickets," Brown said today in a statement. "With this merger agreement, we're taking an important step to ensure a more competitive market for concert-ticket sales." more ›

The world's biggest concert promoter and ticketing service are now okayed to be one giant-ass company. The deal was approved today, despite opposition over such a game-changing move, by the Department of Justice. One of opponents was Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which owns L.A. Live. The rumor is that Live Nation agreed to sell some of its venues to AEG in exchange for them dropping their arguments of the merger. more ›

At this point in their career, Sonic Youth present a paradox: they’re radicals that are also reliable entertainers. However far out they might go, they eventually come back to something that sounds vaguely like 1987’s “Schizophrenia”: fast, strummy guitar lines, a hazy vocal track, a driving rhythm section, harmonies twisting like vines, a colossal racket wrapped around a deceptively catchy tune that threatens to explode at any moment. The intent is to expand the number of possibilities - see their “serious music” side projects for an example of how far they’re willing to go in this pursuit - but truthfully, they’re not that far off from AC/DC when you look at the big picture. more ›

Maybe the greatest thing about Grizzly Bear, the thing that everyone should know, is this: They are totally enigmatic and impossible to pin down. Of course, this is what makes them difficult to write about and even more difficult to consider what it is that makes this foursome so appealing. more ›

So the Hollywood Palladium has been open since last year and things are rocking along. Next week Thursday, June 25th, Third Eye Blind is playing their big LA show with Low Vs. Diamond opening (if you need tickets stat, you can buy them here). more ›

Ticketmaster has been served...with subpoenas. "Four government agencies in the U.S. and Canada, including the Justice Department, are investigating the West Hollywood company's activities in reselling concert tickets," explains LA Biz Observed. The inquiry is to uncover information pertaining to their work with ticket brokers, "including the names of every broker who resells tickets on its TicketsNow site." more ›

Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged today creating one behemoth of a company called Live Nation Entertainment. The merger, expected to save the companies $40 million and create annual sales worth up to $6 billion, is now subject to an anti-trust review because they would dominate 80% of the market. The new company will fill various rolls including promotion, ticketing and artist management. Ticketmaster has always been under general scrutiny for service charges and the such and most recently some legal complaints. The question now is whether with Live Nation's presence, will the company treat customers with the respect they've deserve? Comment with your predictions below... more ›

West Hollywood based Ticketmaster's heart skipped a few beats yesterday when Cablevision, who runs Madison Square Garden among many other venues, hinted towards leaving Ticketmaster and signing up with Live Nation to do their ticketing. News of that sent Live Nation's stock from $2.82, to $16.82. But after the freakout, Cablevision announced later in the day that they would stick with Ticketmaster, who closed 3% higher at $13.09 but is still down 30% after last week's announcement that SMG, the ticket provider's second largest client, signed up with Live Nation. more ›

In the war of who's going dominate the ticket selling market for concerts and events, Live Nation has only just begun to challenge West Hollywood based Ticketmaster. A recent deal will let Live Nation sell the majority of tickets for SMG, a Philadelphia company that manages more than 200 major venues including The Forum in Inglewood. "SMG, owned by private-equity firm American Capital Ltd., is estimated to be Ticketmaster's second-largest client," reports the Wall Street Journal. more ›

On September 23, 1940, the Hollywood Palladium opened its doors for the first time with the then not-so-well-known Frank Sinatra singing with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. more ›

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. more ›

According to federal agents, rapper T.I. aka Clifford Harris, is in custody for sending his bodyguard and errand boy to purchase machine guns and silencers because T.I. a convicted felon, was unable to purchase them himself - TMZ Kate Hudson and Dax Shepard have broken up, because Kate got bored - Daily News In a hilarious turn of events, Tara Reid, the original party girl herself calls Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan stupid - Page... more ›

Bigmouth couldn't sell out 10 nights? There's no official word if Moz had ticket selling issues or if he's exhausted or has anxiety, or if he just wanted to road trip to Zona to check out the Cubs vs the D-Backs. Either way we have this photo and this explanation via the LA Scumbag: There was a line of people all day long waiting to get into the paladium , I just saw them... more ›

LAist is proud to offer a weekly, chart roundup of Billboard Magazine’s most coveted rankings. Join us as we revel in the conventional standard of musical success. Let us cross our fingers, hoist our lighters, and dream together of the supreme resurrection of artist-driven recordings that will forever eclipse the dark cloud of big label greed, A&R sleaze and disposable audio. Amen. Here are this week’s chart toppers. Behold the #1s. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Billboard Charts... more ›

Just because SXSW and Coachella get a lot of love from LAist (because we seem to think that the between the local fest and the one in Austin most of your rockfest needs are met) doesn't mean that we aren't impressed with the gaggle of bands who have been wooed by the farmlands of Tennessee. Bonnaroo is a four-day festival held in the middle of June in Manchester, TN. It's sorta the east-of-the-Mississsippi version... more ›

For a band that waited 20 years to get back together, and for a band that knew that they were going to announce their reunion tour today at the Whisky, they sure didn't have many tour dates lined up. The Police are arguably the most anticipated reunion tour in recent memory. Only a Pink Floyd reunion, one would think, could eclipse this summer's tour but when it came time for the Police to cough... more ›

The end of times are approaching. There's a female Speaker of the House, an African-American frontrunner for President of the United States, The Police are getting back together, there are no late fees at Blockbuster. So of course Blabbermouth.net scooped the world in December when they were the first to report that Eddie Van Halen wanted to get David Lee Roth back on the mic to front a new Van Halen. One that excluded... more ›