Teena Marie, the funkified 70s and 80s "Ivory Queen of Soul," has died at age 54. She was found unconscious in her Pasadena home about 3 p.m. on Sunday by her daughter. Born Mary Christine Brockert in Santa Monica in 1956, Lady Tee began singing professionally before the age of ten and graduated from Venice High School. After signing with Motown she teamed up with Rick James... more ›

The Republic of Loose is only a "new band" to Americans. In Ireland they have been drawing huge crowds, and impressing the pants off of anyone they encounter since 2005. The best way to describe their sound is: if James Brown had a baby with Rick James, and the baby grew up the be a gang-bangin, gospel-singin, cowboy of funk.

Last night LAist attended their only Los Angeles show at the Troubadour, which was the 3rd and final stop on their US mini-tour. It's sorta like being first in line to find out about the next big thing, because Republic of Loose are going to take the US by storm. There's no question about it.

The show was great, and LA came ready to jump around and bust a move. We certainly don't want these Irish chaps to take back to Dublin the impression that Los Angeles is full of whiney hipsters who are too cool to dance and have fun (even though that IS what LA's full of, as well as being full of shit). Nobody danced harder than Big Tanky, of course.

Don't sleep on this! Act now. pick up their cd and perhaps for once you won't be the last to know about the next cool thing.

Video uploaded by Nudgy via YouTube.com more ›

Sorry for the short notice, but with a guy like Chappelle you never quite know where he'll pop up...or when. Hell we've been waiting for him to re-appear on Comedy Central for years now. more ›

Locate the Ape Answer: Our furry friend hangs off of a building on 2nd Street at Western in the St Andrews Square district. more ›

For us kids who grew up in the 80s, his tunes and beats helped us learn to dance while the grown ups could enjoy the abundance of double entendres that escaped our comprehension. The next generation was introduced to Rick via M.C. Hammer’s sampling of James’s biggest hit “Super Freak,” to which LAist says: better late than never. And Rick James continues to provide pop culture with awesome material used for unexpected purposes. Sounds bites from Dave Chappelle’s brilliant comic salute to the legacy of Rick James has recently become one of the most widely-quoted bits around; the timing of this trend has now proven to be uncanny. more ›