Acoustic shows, by their very nature, are generally quiet affairs. Every chord can hang; every strained note can fall softly to the floor. But when you're Ryan Adams and you open with "Oh My Sweet Carolina" in front of a hundred or so KCRW kids at a studio in Santa Monica, you might as well be belting out vibrato notes in space. more ›

It's rare you get the chance to see a live performance of a popular band in a very intimate setting, so when Death Cab for Cutie came through L.A. to do such a show for KCRW, the invite was impossible to turn down. more ›

Perhaps in an effort to bring music back to Music Television, Nic Harcourt, the tastemaking ten-year DJ and former Music Director of the famed and fabulous KCRW radio station, has packed his bags for the land of cable, and according to a news release. more ›

"This and Coachella are what we've been looking forward to," observed Local Natives' Taylor Rice during their soundcheck at KCRW's . Two weeks ago, the local indie rising stars were the in-studio guests on the Jason Bentley-hosted program, serving up a concoction that had much of the press buzzing at South By Southwest. more ›

Last month, local art-rockers Fol Chen dropped by KCRW in Santa Monica for an in-studio performance and interview on hosted by Jason Bentley. more ›

Today Santa Monica-based public radio station KCRW divulged the details of the latest addition to their DJ roster. Black Flag front man Henry Rollins, who completed his first radio work nearly twenty years ago at the aforementioned station, will commandeer local airwaves every Saturday from 6 to 8 PM. The big move, of course, comes on the heels of Indie 103's untimely demise in mid-January. It is uncertain what the exact driving force of the decision to sign on with KCRW was. However, it can be surmised that since Indie shuttered—subsequently regressing to an online-only broadcast—its demographic has been severely constrained. KCRW is poised to anoint Rollins during tomorrow's edition of Morning Becomes Eclectic with Jason Bentley. more ›

Jason Bentley began his journey at KCRW 89.9 FM in 1988 as a volunteer. Today he takes the helm with the one of the most important jobs at the radio station: Music Director. He succeeds Nic Hartcourt who announced that he was stepping down earlier this month. That means Bentley leaves his weeknight show, Metropolis, for the popular Morning Becomes Eclectic, which airs this morning at 9 a.m. We shot over a handful questions, thanks to LAist staff and readers, to ask him about the changes, local bands and more. more ›

Stoking the flames of independence, KCRW released its latest compilation album from live Morning Becomes Eclectic performances cut from twelve different in-studio acts. Crowd pleasers like The Shins and The Swell Season imbibe the album with not so new takes on their even older songs while Spoon and Indie Brits, The Orange Lights dig deep into their live repertoire to deliver interesting versions of their already strong songs. more ›

Last month, local band The Airborne Toxic Event (MySpace) returned to Spaceland (MySpace) in Silver Lake to headline a show that included The Deadly Syndrome (MySpace), and The Henry Clay People (MySpace) with support from I Make This Sound (MySpace) and Le Switch (MySpace). As aptly described by Mouse from Classical Geek Theatre, "Before a mixed-crowd of longtime fans and recent, true-believing converts, The Airborne Toxic Event rewarded ticket holders with a near flawless-set that could have just as easily been played at The Hollywood Bowl, The Kodak Theatre, or Coachella. There was no melodrama, very little hype, and nobody on stage had to prove anything. It was just the band and their songs; naked, raw, hard-boiled." more ›

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. more ›

Local singer/songwriters Meiko (MySpace) and Priscilla Ahn (MySpace) share similar qualities -- they are part-Asian (Meiko is quarter-Japanese and Ahn is half-Korean), and originally from back east (Meiko from Georgia and Ahn from Pennsylvania). So perhaps it was coincidental that both were booked in back-to-back shows last week at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, with Meiko onstage last Wednesday and Ahn last Thursday. more ›

Tonight is the most excellent show, Open Road on KCRW, which begins at 9:00 p.m., ending at midnight. DJ Gary Calamar mixes roots of Rock, Country, Jazz, Blues, and Soul with new releases that you can most see on his peer's lists. Calamar got his start at KCRW as a volunteer, moving his way to DJ after literally begging on his knees to Chris Douridas for a show. Douridas made a great choice. 1)... more ›

If you totally dug the soundtrack to American Beauty (not the orchestral score by Thomas Newman, which is amazing too), then you must know that KCRW DJ Chris Douridas was behind it. His choices in music for that movie led to a Grammy nomination, but that is only one of many movies and accomplishments under his belt. As a DJ, Douridas hosts New Ground on Saturdays at noon for three hours. In September, we... more ›

Right around Labor Day we interviewed KCRW dj Jason Bentley about the 30th anniversary of Morning Becomes Eclectic. Today he provides us with his top ten albums of 2007, and you Radiohead fans will be glad to see that he adds them to his list just like most of his cohorts did. Interestingly when Mathieu Schreyner left Radiohead off his list, not only was he not criticized, but he received many more positive comments... more ›

You might recall that right around Labor Day we celebrated KCRW's 30th anniversary of Morning Becomes Eclectic with a series of interviews with a handful of their on-air personalities. Today we are lucky enough to get the Top 10 list of Nic Harcourt's top albums of 2007. We are very happy to see that he's just as down with local kids Sea Wolf and Great Northern as we are. Not only that, but atop his list is another local girl, Jesca Hoop! more ›

They are the Go! Team. They are from Brighton, England. They sound like a group of cheerleaders dancing to Motown at the end of a tunnel while you're on acid listening to Sonic Youth. more ›

Last week we celebrated the 30th anniversary of KCRW's flagship show, Morning Becomes Eclectic with interviews with Jason Bentley, Chris Douridas, Nic Harcourt, Anne Litt, Liza Richardson, and we conclude our special with Gary Calamar, the host of KCRW's Sunday night staple, The Open Road. For those of you who might be watching tee vee at night instead of listening to the radio, you might not know it but you were probably listening to... more ›

Jason Bentley spends four nights a week in the basement studios of KCRW at Santa Monica College. 20 years ago that was virtually the job description of a DJ, but Jason's one of those DJ that didn't exist 20 years ago. He's as likely to be found talking music on the radio as he is to be spinning to four city block's worth of dancing revelers in downtown Los Angeles. If you've enjoyed "Metropolis"... more ›

They say it's who you know. They also say, you have to be at the right place at the right time. For many KCRW DJs the "who" to know is Chris Douridas and the right place is standing next to him. more ›

When Chris Douridas moved from Dallas to take over "Morning Becomes Eclectic" at KCRW, his first hire was Liza Richardson. Liza's had a varied career at the station, hosting multiple shows over the years and her musical choices are as varied as her resume. She currently hosts Saturday night's "The Drop" from 9pm to midnight. She specializes in underground music and limited releases on vinyl. Continuing our series on the occasion of the 30th anniversary... more ›

Chris Douridas can currently be heard as the host of "New Ground" on KCRW 89.9FM (Saturdays, noon-3pm) and on the online only version of "New Ground" at KCRW.com (Monday-Friday, noon-2pm & 8pm-10pm and Tuesday-Saturday, 4am-6am). From 1990-1998 Douridas hosted "Morning Becomes Ecelctic." Continuing the celebration of MBE's 30th anniversary, we had a chance to bounce some questions off Chris about MBE, being influential, and new technology. LAist: By definition, MBE gives a DJ wide latitude... more ›

While public television has a reputation of stuffiness with TV classics like "Masterpiece Theatre" and "Nova" documentaries, public radio, especially here in Los Angeles, is on the cutting edge of music and news reporting. Keeping that edge sharp on the music side is KCRW's (89.9 FM and KCRW.com) morning music show "Morning Becomes Eclectic." MBE celebrates is 30th anniversary this week. To celebrate, the station is offering special programming today. The three DJs, Tom Schnabel,... more ›

The Magic Numbers, "Crazy in Love" The Magic Numbers are in town which is always a good thing. This morning they visit Nic Harcourt at KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic where they will perform songs from their two records, and hopefully bust with that Beyoncé tune that they did for this year's KCRW's Sounds Eclectic - The Covers Project. The fact that that tune is our favorite cut from the album, which you might have... more ›

Sea Wolf played right around this time yesterday. They were great (photo essay here). Unfortunately our cameraman was not. He had been drinking, and it appears the camera that he spent a fortune on isn't so great. And neither is the Google Video uploading compression ratio. Fortunately you get the gist of what it was like on the roof of Dangerbird Records as Sea Wolf played "The Garden You Planted" (above) and a new... more ›

Though it might be tempting to stay home tomorrow night and embrace the melancholy void left by The Sopranos, I’d like to suggest an alternative that’ll at least get you out of the house. A little more than a year after playing a hypnotic set at the Hotel Cafe, Israeli-born French chanteuse Keren Ann will be performing Sunday evening at the Troubadour. Though initially known for her gorgeous, laid-back French songs, her last three... more ›

I've been experimenting this new year by trying to de-car and commute by bus and subway more often. So when it came to volunteering at KCRW last Friday, I thought I would try to avoid the morning rush hour by taking the bus to my Morning Becomes Eclectic phone bank spot. Before we get to that, last week on my way the LA Phil, I picked up this brochure called the '12-Minute' Map that... more ›

It’s difficult to argue that KCRW, 89.9 FM, isn't one of the better things we, the citizens of Los Angeles, get to experience firsthand. Yeah, the station offers podcasts and streaming radio, but it’s not the same as actually living in the city the station is broadcast from. Not only does the station play some of the most innovative and unique music in the world, but broadcasts daily news and cultural information unable to... more ›

LAist was fortunate enough to see Lily Allen, the Brit-pop sensation, play the Troubadour last month, and she was light and youthful and made a great wisecrack against her record label, Capitol Records. For all of these reasons and more, we heart her. So if you're online, go to kcrw.com right now and listen to her live set on Nic Hartcourt's Morning Becomes Eclectic. more ›

Even though they have some original songs, it's nice to think of Dengue Fever as a Cambodian cover band because it would be nice to think that when Cambodians hear American cover bands it sounds this great. The LA group formed by two brothers from Topanga have pretty much the most exotic sound going in the Indie scene. The V2 recording artist's website spells it out pretty nicely: Vocalist Chhom Nimol, whose family is... more ›