Syd Straw has a few things to get off of her chest. Her shows are filled with feisty, intense songs and hilarious anecdotes. She always travels with her constant companion, the adorable dog, Henry. He usually ends up on stage at some point in an attempt to steal the show. The last time she played at McCabe's, a member of the audience asked her to marry him. She also somehow ended up with a $20......

For a band of two 16-year-olds and one 17-year-old, Din Caliber has a huge sound that's quite exciting. And Linda Perry, record label owner/producer (credits include Gwen Stefani, Pink, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilara), has her eye on them. The home schooled trio practices four to five nights a week for four hours and has played the House of Blues and a few shows at the Whiskey A Go Go. Tonight they play the Knitting Factory......

A body was found yesterday afternoon in the Angeles National Forest, off Highway 2 near Big Pines. The identity of the person has not been revealed. Now you can get all the penis-biting snake action you want on the web: the next "Jackass" sequel is set to premiere on the web through Blockbuster's new online movie service. In New Jersey, the state assembly has voted to outlaw the death penalty, "poising the state to......

About the above picture: The Rawking Refuses To Stop!, a blog of all things Los Angeles pop culture and MP3, shares with us their best concert photos of 2007. Above, they sneak out of LA to New York to see Les Savy Fav at the Bowery Ballroom (we'll just say they did the same thing when they came here). Don't forget -- you still have today and tomorrow to enter our Rufus Wainwright/Belinda Carlisle......

On News Year's Eve, Belinda Carlisle and Rufus Wainwright will sing classic French cabaret songs and more accompanied by a Parisian band and dancers. You could be with them in Los Angeles' living room, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, as we are giving away a pair of tickets to the 10:30 p.m. show, which will take you into 2008. To enter, leave a comment telling us about your favorite New Year's Eve in the past.......

Last night some of my friends got together to watch the season premiere of "Project Runway". With a very tall surprise up my cap sleeve, I showed up to the viewing party with the one and only Santino Rice. Santino and I had met this summer at the Project Angel Food party backstage at the Rufus Wainwright concert. I thought who better to give us the inside scoop on all things "Project Runway"? First......

When you have a huge music collection and you listen almost all the time, there tends to be a few artists that you come back to over and over. In our house, full of CD's, concert DVD's, and iPods a few artists reign supreme: The Beatles, Elvis Costello, and Loudon Wainwright III. Loudon's music can make you feel, make you smile, and make you think-- he is a master storyteller. Often listed with the......

Sunday night was in a word, magical. Rufus Wainwright transformed the Hollywood Bowl into a beautiful tribute to Judy Garland. At one point he thought he felt a drop of rain, but unlike Judy's 1961 performance at the Bowl, the weather remained cool and cloudburst free. The audience showered Rufus and his guests, his mother Kate McGarrigle, his sister Martha Wainwright, and Judy Garland's daughter Lorna Luft with love and affection and a few standing......

Rufus Wainwright @ Hollywood Bowl Carlos Guitarlos @ Liquid Kitty Def Leppard @ Irvine Meadows The Richard Thompson Band @ Royce Hall The Randies, Girl in a Coma @ Alex's Bar Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood @ House of Blues Pitbull, Akwid, Amanda Perez, Crooked Stilo @ Sports Arena Velouria, Swords of Fatima, Third Grade Teacher @ Mr. T's Bowl 5 O’Clock Somewhere, Welldiggers Banquet, The Horsepainters @ The Echo Tijuanos, Monte Negro, Fitter,......

About the above photo by Jonathan Alcorn: "Sept 15 2007 Los Angeles, CA - A firefighter was injured in a fire that broke out tonight in a single-story commercial building in East Los Angeles and produced a plume of smoke visible throughout the Los Angeles basin, a fire official said. The fire was reported at 6:17 p.m. at 2840 E. Olympic Blvd. and extinguished after an hour and 45 minutes." Don't forget to enter......

This Sunday, September 23 at 7:00 p.m., it's Rufus Wainwright Sings Judy Garland night at the Hollywood Bowl. Following his acclaimed 2006 tribute to Judy Garland's 1961 Carnegie Hall concert, Rufus Wainwright will be performing that famous set at the Hollywood Bowl with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and a handpicked quartet paying tribute to Judy's famous follow-up show at the landmark venue in Los Angeles. And you can be there too! To win a......

When the Hollywood Bowl schedule listed "Rufus Wainwright sings Judy Garland", I thought this is a show I don't want to miss. Now that his website says that this is the last time he will recreate the famous 1961 Carnegie Hall show, I have started packing my picnic basket. As I sit here listening to tracks from his CD "Release the Stars", I am counting down the days until Sunday. In addition to his......

Summer may be coming to an end, but the Hollywood Bowl will be still be there for you. Rufus Wainwright will be performing the famous set from Judy Garland's 1961 Carnegie Hall concert on Sunday, September 23. Bright Eyes, alongside the LA Phil, will play on Saturday, September 29. You have a chance to win and be at one of these concerts with a nice Bristol Farms picnic basket compliments of LAist. No crazy......

Pete Thomas, a drummer since he was a kid in Sheffield, England, joined Elvis Costello to form the Attractions and continues as the drummer for the Imposters. He has also played as a session musician with countless artists including Johnny Cash, Sheryl Crow, Neil Finn, John Wesley Harding, Joe Jackson, Los Lobos, Joan Osbourne, Pearl Jam, Bonnie Raitt, Squeeze, Richard Thompson, Rufus Wainwright, and the Waterboys. In 2003, Thomas was inducted into the Rock......

You never know who you might run into at a KCRW membership phone-a-thon. An old LAister, Ethan Lindsay, used to swear by the free food, musician run-ins and quality stories that he would come away with after volunteering. Out of work actors - practice your phone voice or accent you screwed up in a previous audition! Plus volunteering brings good karma and you'll think twice about the next time someone cold calls you. KCRW's......

Wearing a slimfit, pin-striped pantsuit, and a giant, gold medallion, Joan Wasser, the prolific NYC singer-songwriter who performs as Joan As Police Woman, made a rare, solo, appearance last night at the Hotel Café in support of her new record Real Life, out now on indie-friendly label Cheap Lullaby Records. Switching and bewitching between piano and guitar, she cast all variety of soul-punk voodoo on the captivated crowd. Her voice -- like Chrissie Hynde......

- 2 local acts to check out today: Sexy, electro-pop superstars (who recently got played on Pete Tong's BBC 1 Radio show) Taxi Doll at LA pride, and red headed, 22 year old, piano songstress A Fine Frenzy (who will be touring this summer with Rufus Wainwright) at the Viper Room. - Holy hightops, Batman! Breakdancers in Hollywood? This is the best news of the day. This afternoon there will be a mighty battle......

A Word or 68: At long last, The Sopranos takes its long walk off a short pier, "leave the gun, bring the cannoli" a famous gangster once said. The somewhat heavily promoted (color double spread NY Times) John From Cincinatti follows. Nicole Richie continues to make her last ditch appeals for favorable public opinion before she appears before a judge in the next month or so - watch the rich girl squirm. Tonight -......

A Word or, I dunno, like 80: It seems to be coming together a bit on Lost - another good episode last night. If you want the producers' perspective, they're on tonight after Grey's. Delay goes to his base tonight on Colbert. Tonight the networks will have the typical struggle between comedy and young-doctors-in-love, what will you succumb to? Tonight - Thursday - May 17, 2007 Angels @ Mariners (Fox Sports, 7:00 p.m.) Bob......

New Releases May 15, 2007 Wilco - Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch) Rufus Wainwright - Release the Stars (Geffen) Pink Martini - Hey Eugene! (Heinz) Great Northern - Trading Twilight for Daylight (Eenie Meenie) The Horrors - Strange House [Bonus Tracks] (Stolen Transmission) The Fall - World Bewitched: Best of 1990 - 2000 (Artful) Blacktop Mourning - No Regret (Mega Force) Dungen - Tio Bitar (Kemado) Barry & the Remains - Remains [Epic/Legacy 2007] (Epic)......

Mastodon, Against Me, Cursive, Planes Mistaken for Stars @ Wiltern Sloan, Sea Wolf @ The Troubadour Spank Rock @ Safari Sam's Tim Finn @ Largo Rufus Wainwright @ El Rey Theatre Tourette, Privy Seals, Black Face, Everyday Loneliness, Dude War @ The Smell The Living Sisters, The Chapin Sisters, The Watson Twins @ The Echo Ex-Plex Musexpo, The Stevie Natale Band, Deep Insight, Skybombers, Jyrojets @ Roxy Charlotte Martin, Mozella, Amy Cooper @ The......

Most DJs will tell you that their turntables are in fact musical instruments, and they’d certainly have a point. But has any DJ ever taken the instrumental nature of turntables as far as “Sound Artist” Walter Kitundu? A Rochester, Minnesota-born, Tanzania, Africa-raised artist and musician, Kitundu, 33, has become well known for his phonoharps and phonokoras. The instruments are his original inventions, which he constructs in his San Francisco studio, and are best described......

Austinist gets arty with an interactive guide to SXSW, loved some local art galleries and a new art exhibit and lamented the possible loss of "Friday Night Lights" production to New Mexico. Bostonist was happy they finally found an Anna Nicole Smith connection to their fair city and that an Apple Store was opening up. They were less happy that new rules have been established limiting underage shows and that their Governor spending a......

Like a presidential election, the information is trickling into the newsroom... Earlier today Andy let everyone know who most of the confirmed artists would be for this year's Coachella. Now we let you know who is playing on what days, etc. April 27 - Björk / Interpol / the Jesus and Mary Chain / Arctic Monkeys / Jarvis Cocker / Sonic Youth / Faithless / DJ Shadow / Peeping Tom / Brazilian Girls / Peaches......

Those are the headliners, other confirmed acts via the preliminary lineup ("subject to changes and additions") posted this morning at coachella.com: The Jesus and Mary Chain, Tiesto, the Arcade Fire, Interpol, Manu Chao, Willie Nelson, Air, Happy Mondays, Decemberists, Faithless, Gotan Project, the Good, the Bad and the Queen, Paul Van Dyk, Arctic Monkeys, Roots, Jarvis Cocker, Sonic Youth, Crowded House, Placebo, Satellite Party, Stephen Marley feat Jr. Gong, Kings of Leon, DJ Shadow,......

FRIDAY • The Henry Fonda Theater features Lucinda Williams tonight at 9 PM. Tickets are $32. • Alt country singer Mary Gauthier performs at McCabe's Guitar Shop at 8 PM. Tickets are $16. • Paloalto, 31 Knots and Ringer perform tonight at Spaceland. Doors open at 9 PM. • The Blazers, Carlos Guitarlos and Phil Alvin are on stage at The Echo at 8:30 PM. Tickets are $10. [18+] • Rufus Wainwright, Ben Folds......

THURSDAY • At the Knitting Factory, GZA, Prodigal Sunn, Icon the Mic King, Dosnous, Grit Mercenaries and Dumbfoundead with DJ's Geo & Ron Lee take the stage at 9 PM. Tickets are $17 advance, $20 at the door. • Tangier hosts Cass McCombs, Mt Egypt, Coastal and David Mead tonight at 8 PM. Tickets are $8 advance, $10 day of. • The White Stripes perform tonight with M. Ward at the Greek Theatre at......