Results tagged “rockband”

Now that E3 is over we have had a moment to catch our breath and look back on the week. The most talked about announcement was Project Natal. We asked Ali Miller to describe her impression of the Natal unveiling

It was announced today that Harmonix and Electronic Arts, developer and publisher of the hugely successful Rock Band series, will be releasing the Beatles edition of the record-breaking music game on September 9th of this year. The game will feature tracks from every era of the band's lifespan thanks to Apple Corps., who recently opened up their catalog for the game's development. There will be a limited number of special edition hardware options, including instruments modeled after those used by the Fab Four throughout their career. The game will be offered as standalone software (priced at $59.99), with guitars ($99.99) and as a limited edition bundle ($249.99). Keep track of updates and pre-order information at the game's official homepage.

LA Lakers defeat Portland Trail Blazers 96-76. Um wow. If that's what the Lakers will look like all season, I might have underestimated them. For years the words "Lakers" and "defense" couldn't be said in the same sentence without a snicker, but seeing the beat down they handed to Blazers just changed all of that. Kobe Bryant led all scorers with 23 points while ex-Bruin Trevor Ariza notched a surprising 11. The word of the night was indeed defense with the Lakers holding the Blazers down to 34.5% shooting. Playing in his first NBA after rehabbing his knee last season, Greg Oden left the game in the first half after injuring his right foot. Oden went scoreless in 12:51.

                            

Last Saturday, Little Radio (MySpace) resumed its weekly Summer Camp (MySpace) series Downtown with performances by local bands Crystal Antlers (MySpace), Imaad Wasif (MySpace), and The Pity Party (MySpace).

It’s midnight, and while I write a monotonous series of buzzes and feedback loops razes through my living room. The cats are wide-eyed and alarmed.

Carter Tanton of Tulsa always gets rave reviews about his voice like this one from Pitchfork: "Lead singer Carter Tanton has a spectacular voice... [he] could probably sing a recipe for chocolate éclairs and still make it sound good." And Rolling Stone said "his indie-seraphim voice is not of this world." Both reviews referenced the similarities to My Morning Jacket. And not to forget the band, the Boston Phoenix, their hometown paper, said "we weren’t the only ones who walked out of the club convinced that we had just seen the best rock band in Boston."

If you cannot make it to hear the amazing jazz vocalist, Julia Fordham, at The Roxy tonight, opening up at Hotel Cafe tonight is Tiffany Randol, who we caught at one of <strong>Alex & Sam's Tangier shows. The front woman of NYC based glam rock band, Valeze, has now gone solo singer/songwriter style, making Los Angeles her second home, and is bringing out a new sound that is more folk-acoustic-pop than anything. The LA newbie can belt out her lyrics like a pro and her body and hips swing as if the music has seduced her in some kind of trance. Later at the Hotel Cafe, one of acoustic favs plays his last night of the Hotel Cafe residency -- stay for Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies. ~ Z.B.

Fresh off their tour with Morrissey, Girl in a Coma is playing their third and final show with Killola tonight in Glendale at The Scene. One Killola member says that the "shows have been extra saucy, and filled with hot love." We'll let you make your own decision. Joan Jett did when she visited the two bands last week to just to listen and have a good time.

Arthur Paul Carmona, 26, an advocate for people wrongly accused of crimes who was wrongly accused himself and incarcerated for 2 1/2 years as a teenager in Orange County was killed this weekend. His name became widely known when he was arrested when he was 16 and convicted of robbing two juice bars in Irvine and Costa Mesa:

His mother mustered support for her son and political and community outrage followed over police tactics that led to her son's arrest. Support for overturning his 12-year prison sentence came from law firms, community groups, Hollywood actors and the politically active rock band Rage Against the Machine.

Continue reading "Wrongly Accused, Released from Prison, Killed at Party"

Whether it’s free bands by the river, obscure films at the Silent Movie Theatre or music festivals featuring great non-mainstream bands, Arthur magazine has improved L.A.’s sullied corporate reputation by organizing eclectic, margin-friendly events that embody the magazine’s mission to represent “transgenerational counterculture.” Case in point: Arthur’s Sunday Evenings series at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, which continues this weekend with eccentric songwriter Michael Hurley and next Sunday evening with psych-rock band Wooden Shjips. On Feb. 13, the magazine also presents a launch of Abby Banks’ new book Punk House at Family on Fairfax. The book features photos of punk houses from across the country ⎯ a few of which are reprinted in this month’s issue of Arthur. We asked Jay Babcock, guru of Arthur magazine, a few questions about the upcoming shows. Continue on to read more about the dire state of L.A.’s all-ages scene, the mysterious absence of our rock ‘n’ roll elders, and the fall and rise of Arthur magazine.

Of all the indie bands with some sort of animal in their title, Grizzly Bear might be the top dogs. After all, can Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Caribou, Panda Bear or even Animal Collective claim they are co-headlining a show with the Los Angeles Philharmonic?

We just received an unbelievable e-mail from friend-of-LAist and local indie troubadour Matthew Moon and wanted to share. Some amazing and surprising things really do happen at Sundance. Read on:

Two days ago I was performing at a Sundance Film Festival event in Salt Lake City, UT. After my performance at Rose Wagner Theater, I began driving the 25 minutes it takes to get back up to Park City.

Continue reading "Dear LAist, I Unexpectedly Rocked Out at Sundance with Velvet Revolver"

Sometimes you see rock tonight and sometimes you want to be rock tonight. If the latter, every Wednesday night at the Hyperion Tavern in the Los Feliz/Franklin Hills area, groups of friends gather to unite as one, to test their skills, woo the crowd and find their glory in Rock Band. Wednesday nights at the shack filled with chandeliers used to be reserved for Guitar Hero zealots, now groups of four can hit the stage and cheer the crowd or get booed off stage.

It's uncommon that a rapper takes the name he used for over 6 years and transforms it into an indie-rock band, but founder Yoni Wolf is known for breaking the rules and getting great results. Operating within the Anticon collective Why?'s sound is self described as "smart, shimmering, sweetly soured" and front man Yoni's delivery as a "candytime-dissonant, singsong-suicide style".

Pink Mochi and the feel-good all American folk rock band, Charlie Wadhams.

It's the biggest dance club night in Los Angeles over at The Vanguard and tonight is a special one -- GIANT is having its eighth-anniversary party. Join Steve Aoki, Glycerin and others along it 1500 clubbers. Metromix has the low down.

The Pasadena Star-News is looking for you. Or if there are problems to rant about in general throughout the SGV, then the San Gabriel Valley Tribune might be where you go. Or hey, same goes for Whittier and the Whittier Daily News. "It's a new year and we are on the lookout for letters to the editor. If you have a person that wants to write one, or is expressing an opinion on an article or photo, direct them to write a letter to editor..." That's Mickie of Mickie's Zoo talking. She's a professional belly dancer (swords are her specialty), a singer in a rock band and a full-time journalist. She also has been crowned the Queen of the 31st Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade that will take place on January 20th.

Mi Ami (ex-members of Black Eyes from SF) and Bipolar Bear. Since we love classical minimalism, we thought to ask the band a few questions before tonight's show:

Welcome to Hollywood Today, an LA City commission voted recommending that Charles Bukowski's former home to be designated a historic cultural monument. Yay books and reading! According to state representative Fabian Nunez, who represents the Downtown LA area, the biggest crisis we're facing today is foreclosures. ""It's a more immediate crisis," he told the AP. Meanwhile, protests are beginning to hit the streets over this. Drink up! It's the holidays! Caroline on Crack has...

The WORST NEWS IMAGINABLE: you know that shiny new Fender Strat Rock Band controller? It's probably going to break. I KNOW. Harmonix is finally responding to the issue, but we hear it's fairly easy to fix at home. More fallout from striking writers: the Democratic party has cancelled next month's candidate debate due to a contract dispute between CBS and its many creative staffers. The Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft, is at...

For many of you, this week is all about Turkey Day. For others, it's still all about The Strike. For me? This week will go down in history not because of the strike or Thanksgiving, but because the most awesome video game of all time, Rock Band, was released yesterday. I got my kit set up and ready to go within minutes, and began rocking out almost immediately. First impressions? The drumming element is...

It's a dream date for fans of Canadian songstress Feist and Austin's Spoon. Feist is just now making her break on the world stage, with a little help from Uncle Steve. But anyone with an ear to the Toronto indie rock scene could hear her coming ever since her solo debut, Monarch, was released on the heels of By Divine Right's "Bless This Mess" Tour (she was their rhythm guitarist). For most of this...

Attempting to pull sticky, er, bubble gum out of your hair was as vain as trying to banish Hanson's "MmmBop" from your brain ten years ago. A decade ago, that was your little sister's Hanson. Fast forward to 2007 and you've got three grown men who have purposely done nothing to shed their image of the past but have somehow emerged as a band for today. Unlike comparable, so-called boy bands, the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based...

Somehow "The Tonight Show" scored a trifecta of controversy tonight as they were able to book the most punk rock of punk rock bands, the most conservative member of Congress, and the wackiest Scientologist all to appear on its air in the same hour. Tonight the Sex Pistols, Ron Paul, and Tom Cruise will all be in Burbank to tape the late night chat show. Strangely, whatever wire service the LA Daily News used...

Marking the first Los Angeles appearance since 1998 (when legend has it members of the Scottish alternative rock band decided to part ways), last night The Jesus and Mary Chain headlined after opening acts Evan Dando and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Earlier this year the band reunited, playing a show at Coachella that seemed to elicit more mentions about Scarlett Johansson on stage than the actual music. If the performance at the Wiltern yesterday...

Imagine our surprise when we discovered from the LA Times' Buzz Bands blog last week that our friends Rocket were not only on the new tv show The Next Great American Band but they had made it pretty far already. Rocket is the all-female pop rock band from East Hollywood who we first told you about during the summer of last year when they were playing shows almost every day in LA. Then this...

Ninitendo Wii demonstration units at the 2007 E for All Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center Nintendo extended an invitation for a female writer from LAist to meet Perrin Kaplan , VP of Marketing for Nintendo at the E for All Expo. I sent my R.S.V.P. and planned to check out the latest games and technology that Nintendo has to offer. Now I should tell you that I know next to nothing about...

Sure, the inaugural E For All doesn't really hold a candle to the bloated spectacle of old E3, but then again, the new low-key Santa Monica-based E3 doesn't hold a candle to the old E3 either.

Interpol the international police organization is everywhere (186 member countries), even though you never really take notice of them. So it’s fitting that the post-punk rock band of the same name has reached similar ubiquitous status, though dipping still ever so slightly below the radar. But now it appears the secret is out. Ever since Interpol announced the release of Our Love to Admire in May, they’ve been scouring the world, touring virtually non-stop....

On the last night of a short west coast tour to promote his ridiculously great new record Bluefinger, (review here) Charles Thompson the Third aka Frank Black aka Black Francis hit Safari Sam’s last night with a blistering hour-plus set comprised of the entire Bluefinger “rock opera”, and just a very few extra songs thrown in for good measure. The set was loose and blissfully raw. Like any good maestro, Black was talkative, and...