Last Sunday and Monday was Obama Nights! at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. The sold-out Barack Obama Presidential Campaign fundraisers, featuring an all-star lineup of 23 singer-songwriters, included Marina V (MySpace), Caitlin Crosby (MySpace), Laura Jansen (MySpace), Charlotte Martin (MySpace), Charley Turner (MySpace), Brother Sal (MySpace), Terra Naomi (MySpace), Priscilla Ahn (MySpace), Greg Laswell (MySpace), Cary Brothers (MySpace), Jim Bianco (MySpace), and Butch Walker (MySpace) for Sunday, while Monday included Kelly Dalton (MySpace), Marié Digby (MySpace), Tim Myers (MySpace), Schuyler Fisk (MySpace), HoneyHoney (MySpace), Rocco DeLuca (MySpace), David Ryan Harris (MySpace), Chris Pierce (MySpace), Tom Freund (MySpace), Ben Lee (MySpace), and Brett Dennen (MySpace). more ›

Last weekend, the 24th Annual Abbot Kinney Festival took place in Venice. One longtime attendee noted that in past years, the quality of musical entertainment wasn't particularly memorable, so she was pleasantly surprised at the lineup this year, which included locals WAZ (MySpace), Buddy (MySpace), Laura Jansen (MySpace), Holly Conlan (MySpace) with Pedestrian (MySpace), Steve Reynolds (MySpace) with Cary Brothers (MySpace), Brian Wright (MySpace) with Sally Jaye (MySpace), Jesca Hoop (MySpace), Greg Laswell (MySpace), and Chris Pierce (MySpace) on the Brooks Stage (booked by the Hotel Cafe), Paul Chesne (MySpace) and Matt Ellis (MySpace) on the Andaluisa Stage, and War Tapes (MySpace) and HoneyHoney (MySpace) at the Palms Stage (although it should be noted that the set times listed on the website for this stage were woefully incorrect). more ›

Best known for her rendition of Rihanna's "Umbrella" on acoustic -- here she's singing Britney's "comeback" single... A Los Angeles native and former UC Berkeley attendee, she recently drew controversy for using YouTube to get her name out à la LonelyGirl15. It worked. Local radio station STAR 98.7 started plugging her single and it soared in sales on iTunes as a result. You can currently catch her touring the country in small venues.... more ›