The GRAMMY Museum is getting set to debut their newest exhibit -- John Lennon, Songwriter -- on October 4, 2010 in association with Hard Rock International. John Lennon would have been 70-years-old on October 9. The exhibition is a tribute to "the seven-time GRAMMY winner's songwriting genius," and highlights influences... more ›

Amoeba Records, along with its two other California locations, took top honors this week on Rolling Stone's list of 25 top U.S. record stores for unique vinyl and CDs. No surprises there and no other local stores were listed (Chicago garnered three spots!). more ›

Merril Shindler of ZagatBuzz, the blog from the influential Zagat guide folks, has published his picks for the most-anticipated Los Angeles restaurant openings of this year. more ›

With the ongoing recession and continued threat of piracy, 2009 may have been tough for the multi-billion dollar adult industry, but it was also Sasha Grey's most prominent thus far. With the leading role in Steven Soderbergh's labeled her "The Dirtiest Girl in the World" and Fleshbot included her in their Top Ten Crush Objects of 2009 (NSFW). So it's no surprise that she will be honored with The Jenna Jameson Crossover Star of the Year at the AVN Awards this Saturday at the Pearl Theater inside the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. more ›

Although the Hollywood & Highland area lost the Knitting Factory, it will soon gain a new club, of sorts. Rolling Stone Magazine this summer will open a two-tiered nightclub and restaurant. It won't be a music venue, however, as it will be more DJ-based (though they say live events will happen time to time). How will the 10,000 square-foot space work? The top floor, which will open up into the Hollywood & Highland outdoor mall will be a bar and restaurant, meant for tourists and locals a like. On the street level, the vibe gets more exclusive and will include heftier prices and the like. more ›

At a time when Hollywood has scaled back significantly on Web video productions, . more ›

If the AVN Adult Movie Awards are the Oscars of the adult industry, then the X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) Awards would be the equivalent of the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. more ›

NOTE: See LAist's coverage of world premiere and UC Irvine's Sociology 69: Sociology of Sexuality. more ›

David Wild is one of those people who has the dream job that he imagined when he was a kid. His childhood was spent worshiping rock music and he grew up to find himself interviewing his icons and writing about their work. more ›

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." more ›

I wasn’t much of a Tom Petty fan in my pre-L.A. years, but like most people, I knew him from the basics…I had caterwauled the lyrics to "Free Fallin’" alongside other angsty Massachusetts teens at a dance or two, and I had been baffled by, but pretended I knew what the hell was going on in, the "Mary Jane's Last Dance" video. more ›

This is a good time to be a Kinks fan. Last year Ray Davies put out a solo album, then "A Well-Respected Man" and "This Time Tomorrow" popped up this year in movies like Juno and The Darjeeling Limited. And now a Kinks Retrospective box set is scheduled for release in 2008, and NME has announced that a reunion tour for the seminal 60s, fighting-brothers band The Kinks is supposed to take place this year. (For the love of God, please come to L.A.) Dave Davies is reportedly recovered from his stroke in 2004 but bassist Pete Quaiffe has supposedly also been suffering from kidney problems. According to Ray, however, everyone is on board. more ›

If you missed Tinariwen at Temple Bar last November, Fader and a few other blogs have posted this from the Taureg band's instore at Other Music in New York. The group's latest cd has been making everyone's Best Albums of 2007 list from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork to KCRW. more ›

Cardinal Roger Mahoney revealed that he had been assaulted in July outside of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral; the attacker was "enraged by the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal within days of a record settlement with hundreds of victims." Karl Dorrell will not be coaching UCLA in its upcoming Las Vegas Bowl game. Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker will coach in the interim. If the world weren't already all shook up by Jakob Lodwick's departure... more ›

James Jean signing at Gallery Nucleus. more ›

The shiny happy and beehived B-52's have been playing a handful of intimate shows around the country that started with a Halloween show with The Rapture at NYC's Roseland Ballroom. Tonight, for example they will be up at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez (wonder if they'll do a Jackson 5 cover?), tomorrow they're at the Roxy, and Saturday they wind up the mini-tour at the Depot in Salt Lake City. Clearly we are... more ›

LA Times staffer and Buzz Bands blogger Kevin Bronson's story "Taking the L.A. indie rock scene personally" hit stands last Thursday. By means of an intimate portrayal, Bronson set forth his pick of indie rock up-and-comers for L.A.'s indie rock scene in 2008. While I completely admire that he would put his neck out there for three rather small, entirely worthy bands (The Airborne Toxic Event, Castledoor, and The Deadly Syndrome) at the forefront of... more ›

Here's what we know: on Thursday night at 7pm, Walter Kirn (who we believe is a genius, but we cannot prove it), former U.S. Senator George McGovern, writer James Q. Wilson and editor extraordinaire Robert Vare will be in discussion at the Central Library. more ›

As Kanye West says in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, "Hip-hop is the only sport of music. Rock artists aren't thinking about each other to that extent. And these are like the championship moments." more ›

You’ve heard it already, “Wow, they’re like 13 years old and in a band!” The Jack Bambis have gotten a lot of attention for their ages – guitarist Indio, bassist Jasper and singer Lia are all 13. Cash, the drummer, shies a few years behind. But the Jack Bambis sound better than a whole lotta crap on the radio being made by people 21 and up (i.e. old enough to know better). Cash graduated from Flea’s Silverlake Conservatory of Music, so they’ve gotten some nice attention from the RHCP crowd, such as a slot on the conservatory’s fundraising concert Hullabaloo and some kudos from Kiedis in the press. Check The Jack Bambis out for yourself at 9 p.m. Thursday night (tonight) at Pershing Square downtown as part of Spaceland’s Thursday Night series. It's free! more ›

A Word or 17: Season finales are upon us friends, keep your eyes open for your favorite shows wrapping things up. Tonight - Thursday - May 10, 2007 Indians @ Angels (Fox Sports, 7:00 p.m.) Dodgers @ Marlins (PRIME, 7:00 p.m.) Survivor: Fiji (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Major challenges this evening. My Name Is Earl/The Office/Scrubs (NBC, 8:00 p.m.) Season Finale!/Will Michael be replaced?/JD and Turk head to a surgeon convention Smallville/Supernatural (the CW, 8-10:00... more ›

A Word or 4 dozen : Somehow I totally missed posting that the Shield was on last night and again it was good. I think one would be hard-pressed to find more raw and compelling performances on any other show available on the networks or basic cable. Being a former SF resident, I haven't been able to get enough of Conan's broadcast from the Orpheum theater on Market Street- too bad that's still bum-junkie... more ›

There are hundreds of bands who make their way to Los Angeles to try to make it big, but sometimes it seems like they refuse to learn the lessons being laid down by their forefathers. And one of the greatest rock legends is still doling out the lessons on how to be a rock star, even though he says he's not. In an article published today in NME, 63-year-old Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards... more ›

Just a teeny bit shy of Daydream Nation's twenty-year anniversary in June, Sonic Youth is hitting up festivals this summer with their performance of their classic album, in its entirety. Their first stop is in Chicago on July 13th as part of the Pitchfork Music Festival in collaboration with ATP’s Don’t Look Back Series. From there, the foursome (Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, and Steve Shelley) will move onto dates in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Munich, Berlin and three shows in London. more ›

Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time. Rolling Stone contributing editor Vanessa Grigoriadis just happened to be finishing up an indepth, behind-the-scenes look at the medical marijuana craze here in LA when 11 dispensaries were raided. Needless to say a good story suddenly got a lot better and even more timely. Taking the reader pretty much everywhere medical marijuana dispensary owner "Daniel" goes throughout his day, Grigoriadis describes a world that's... more ›

Tonight - Thursday Kings @ Sharks (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) "Survivor: Cook Islands" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) The scheming gets more intense, it's all in your head. "The Office" (NBC, 8:00 p.m.) Christmas party double episode! "The OC" (Fox, 9:00 p.m.) For those that can stomach its Chrismukkah episode. "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" (Comedy Central, 11:00 p.m.) Rajiv "Say it 10x Fast" Chandrasekaran of the Washington Post "The Colber(t) Repor(t)" (Comedy Central, 11:30... more ›

- The Simpsons have their Tire Fire, LA has its Tire Store Fire - LAFD blog - Some Hollywood women too Busy to shave their armpits? Say it ain't so! - Reuters - Martini Republic asks "who's the bigger idiot, Instapundit or Bill Kristol?" Which makes us finally understand that IT WAS A CONTEST ALL ALONG! - Martini Republic - Mom calls cops on her 12-year-old son for opening his videogame before Christmas -... more ›

- John Kerry calls the President stupid, President and his bros are too stupid to know that they were being called stupid, so Kerry calls them stupid again - johnkerry.com - The Political Director of ABC News is stupid - Tristram Shandy via Martini Republic - Drew Brees doesn't want his mom to use his image in her stupid election - Austin Statesman - Vice President Cheney says Charles Rangel "doesn't understand how the... more ›

The posterboy of rock 'n roll drug excess, Keith Richards, is quiting the illegal activity because of shitty quality, the scrawny guitarist told London's Q magazine recently. "I think the quality's gone down. All they do is try and take the high out of everything." Richards slurred, not specifying who "they" are. "I don't like the way drugs now are working on your brain area instead of just through the blood stream. That's why... more ›

Lindsay Lohan is lounging at the beach in a bikini - Egotastic more ›