If you've never heard of Fado, it is a Portuguese folk tradition born out of the Moorish influence in Lisbon, Portugal and Brazilian love songs called modhinas. Since fado songs are usually about heartbreak and loss, (some call it the Portuguese blues), the tradition was actually subverted by the country's dictators in the 1930s and turned into a political tool, encouraging the unhappy lower classes to focus on nostalgia and romantic love as a distraction,......

Van Hunt plays the Temple Bar tonight, the third and last in a series of LA shows | Photo via his MySpace page The Guide to March Rock Music Residencies has been updated with a few more listings -- it seems as if residencies are catching on, which is a good thing. Meanwhile, Howlin Rain plays their last LA concert before a tour promoting their new album, Magnificent Fiend, that was released yesterday. Nicole......

Spaceland is A Place To Bury Strangers | Photo by Redboy via the band's MySpace. More great concert photos by Redboy here SambaLá @ Blue Cafe (Long Beach, Upstairs Room) The Ditty Bops @ McCabe's (Santa Monica) Pigeon John @ Malibu Inn (Malibu) Grizzly Bear @ Walt Disney Concert Hall (Downtown) Aceyalone @ Temple Bar (Santa Monica) Bad Religion @ House of Blues (West Hollywood) Holy Fuck, A Place to Bury Strangers, In Waves......

Photo of Meiko, who plays at the Knitting Factory tonight, by Koga/LAist for 'Meiko & Priscilla Ahn @ Hotel Cafe, 1/23 & 1/24/08' What Made Milwaukee Famous finish up their Los Angeles tour playing along with Tulsa and the British Sea Power/Colourmusic bill moves over to Spaceland. On the Westside, there's only one choice to make and that is hip-hop violinist Paul Dateh at the Temple Bar (check out our interview with him including......

Part of an ongoing series. Last Tuesday, local singer/songwriter Jesca Hoop (MySpace), whose album Kismet was number one on Nic Harcourt's Top Ten Albums of 2007, performed a solo acoustic show at Temple Bar (MySpace) in Santa Monica, opening for Van Hunt (MySpace). Hoop's next local show will be with the Hotel Cafe Tour (MySpace) on April 12th at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, alongside Meiko (MySpace) who was mentioned by LAist last......

We seemed to have missed Santa Monica based Krandon as a Wednesday night resident at Molly Malone's. The lightly meditative and chill alternative indie band's name comes from an abandoned James Joyce play written in collaboration with physicist Neils Bohr according to the band's MySpace page. If that's a little too esoteric for you, our Wednesday night pick this month is a little more down home folk style, but with a loud presence -- Brian......

Van Hunt plays the Temple Bar tonight, Feb. 19 and March 6 | Photo via his MySpace page In an e-mail early, early, early this morning, McCabe's announced something unexpected: The Swell Season will be playing tomorrow night in the guitar shop's intimate performance space. You may not recognize the band's name, but you know them as Irish singer Glen Hansard and Czech pianist Marketa Irglova from the movie Once. The gig got booked......

Sy Smith will be at the Temple Bar tonight | Photo by Marlene Fisher/fatmeatgreasy.com It's a quality night in Echo Park with Super Furry Animals and Holy Fuck are at the Echoplex and if you can swing it, right there at The Echo you'll find The Kooks and The Morning Benders. In Hollywood, Grammy award winning Dirty Vegas front man Steve Smith is slated to play acoustic tonight at the Hotel Cafe (but is......

The Cuban Cowboys, who were profiled on NPR last October, play tonight at the Temple Bar | Photo from their MySpace page Last Friday when A-Trak and Kid Sister played at New York City's Natural History Museum, Kanye West made a surprise visit. Neither Flavorpill or the Natural History Museum list Kanye for tonight's version of the NYC event, First Friday, but rumors are afloat, as they're bound to happen. Nevertheless, the evening looks......

The Airborne Toxic Event at soundcheck (see more photos here) | Photo by Koga/LAist It's the fifth Thursday of the month and this is your last chance to see The Airborne Toxic Event in their January Spaceland residency. KROQ and Indie 103.1 both added their song "Sometime Around Midnight" to their rotations last week and Airborne hears this is the first time in about 15 years KROQ has done this with an unsigned band......

Artist: Cheb i Sabbah Album: Devotion Label: Six Degrees Records Release Date: 01/29/08 Listen to "Qalanderi": Devotion CD Release Party @ The Temple Bar - Saturday, February 2nd The incomparable Cheb i Sabbah has produced Devotion, his seventh release for Six Degrees Records, once again inviting us to enjoy his updated presentation of the timeless music of central Asia. San Francisco-based Cheb i Sabbah traveled to India to record the vocals for several tracks with......

Shelby Lynne will be performing songs recorded by Dusty Springfield (of 'Son of a Preacher Man' fame) tonight at Amoeba at 7 p.m. It can get bit tight and uncomfortable over there, so if you just want to watch from the comfort of your home, well, there'll be a webcast. Here's Lynne playing at a live session on KCRW back in October. &righticonhover=0x333232&text=0x333232&slider=0xF2F2F2&track=0xFFFFFF&border=0xFFFFFF&loader=0x838383&soundFile=http://aprodxn.com/laist/zfiles/shelbylynnekcrw.mp3"> Shelby Lynne @ Amoeba Music Drug Rug @ Spaceland Johnny Polanco y......

Carmen Rizzo will play the Temple Bar tonight Be joyful with the electro-pop sounds of Hey Willpower (Will from Imperial Teen and Tomo from Tussle) at The Echo or get a more worldly groove on at the Temple Bar. Jackshit, who we interviewed once, plays tonight and there are two in-store performances as well: one at Amoeba (of course) and the other at Active Ride Show. There's a few sold out shows, but you......

The Airborne Toxic Event is Spaceland's January Thursday night resident. | Promo photo The Short List Cornelius & Plaid @ Walt Disney Concert Hall (see yesterday's article) Sole @ The Glass House (see yesterday's article, they'll be at Knitting Factory tomorrow) Lenny Kravitz @ Santa Monica Civic Auditorium The Airborne Toxic Event, The Adored, Bloodcat Love, Sunday Drivers @ Spaceland Tower of Power @ Vault 350 (Long Beach) Minibar @ Temple Bar......

Cisco Adler protégé and collaborator, Shwayze (seen to the left), is hitting up Redondo Beach tonight with his happier sounding indie hip-hop. He grew up in a trailer park... a trailer park in Malibu that is. “To me, it was the nicest trailer of all time," the 22-year-old musician says. He and Adler play at the Venezia Italian Grill and you can start your night in Malibu, riding the bus down with the gang (RSVPs......

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 Aman Iman has been making everyone's Best Albums of 2007 list from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork to KCRW. Their next tour is not announced yet, but we'll let you know when they're headed back to Los Angeles.......

Now that the rain has gone away, Spaceland on Ice can continue this week with The Chapin Sisters and their folk/pop. Meanwhile, at Spaceland itself, The Airborne Toxic Event continues their residency tonight with The Morning Benders, The Weather Underground. ALSO TONIGHT Mike Watt and the Missing Men, Monster Cock Rally @ The Prospector Birds & Batteries, The Karabal Nightlife, The Lonelyhearts @ The Fold/Silverlake Lounge Ollin, Omar Torres, La Verdad @ Temple Bar Six......

Venues are still recovering from New Year's Eve as not many concerts are happening tonight. But that doesn't mean there's good music to check out. Local organic hip-hoppers, Swamphouse (a mixture of R&B, rock and jazz), open up at Temple Bar in Santa Monica tonight at 9:30 p.m. They are followed by the Manhattan Beach based reggae band -- International Farmers -- at 11 p.m. Over in Hollywood at the Hotel Cafe, find East Coast......

The Wiggles Do The Humpty Dance. It's trippy! Digital Underground @ Viper Room Social Distortion @ House of Blues Sunset Reverend Horton Heat & Pato Banton @ House of Blues Anaheim Donovan Frankenreiter @ Canyon Club The Electric Prunes & Strawberry Alarm Clock @ Knitting Factory Mere Mortals & Seasons @ The Echo The Root Down @ Temple Bar The Germs & The Adolescents @ Key Club......

If tonight's slim pickings in the music scene had an official theme, it would fall into Western/Country. In mid-country, House of Blues, Sunset Strip, is hosting a night of insane Psychobilly (punk, meet rockabilly). The Southlands of Long Beach finds the baritone country rock sounds of Brad Johnson at Cowboy Country and to the north in the Valley, the straight ahead country rockabilly Jeffrey Michaels visits The Cowboy Palace Saloon. Of other interests and......

Metal Skool with Kelly Clarkson Wu-Tang Clan @ House of Blues The Signatures, DJ BAD @ Temple Bar Capt. Jeffrey & the Chumbuckets, The Phil Friendly Trio, Darren Stout @ Safari Sam's Devils Playground @ The Bordello LA Jones @ Blue Dog Happenin' Harry & the Hap Tones All Star Band @ The Cat Club The Big Manny Band @ Liquid KItty Metal Skool, Handsome Devil, Eject, Coda Vesta @ Key Club Sumitra @......

The Venice Beach Drum Orchestra will play at the Spronto Gallery at 4 p.m. The Curse, Sweetest Perfection, Anna Strafford String Quartet @ Roxy All Wrong and the Plans Change, Pedestrian, Chase Frank, Brutus Gets the Girl @ Spaceland Shiny Toy Guns, Moving Units, War Tapes @ The Wiltern Poncho Sanchez's Latin Jazz @ La Ve Lee Medusa @ Temple Bar The Vandals, Supernova, Hunter Revenge & A Kiss Could Be Deadly @ House......

"Imaginary Places" - Busdriver (and excellent vid filmed on the streets of LA and a great piece too) The Chuck Dukowski SEXTET, Ojos Rojos, Mythmaker @ The Knitting Factory Dave Aude, Noel Sanger, Jumpin’ Jack Frost, JO-S, Xenocide @ Crash Mansion L.A. Imajin, The Wylde Bunch, Mulatto @ Temple Bar Avenue in Oceana, Childhood Dilemma, The Aortas @ California Institute of Abnormal Arts (CIA) Ben Wendel Group @ Cafe Metropol Busdriver @ The Troubadour......

Mariachi USA Fiesta 2007 Rocket, The Satisfaction @ Safari Sam's David Garza @ Largo The Republic Tigers, The Hugs @ Spaceland Mariachi USA Christmas @ Disney Hall Social Distortion, The Johns @ House of Blues (WeHo) Amon Amarth @ Avalon The Binges, Dirty Kings, Jessie Deluxe, Roses on her Grave @ The Troubadour Faraway Places, Fools Golds, Sunset @ The Echo Rose Rossi, B.R.A.M., Learning Music @ Silverlake Lounge Cory Phillips & the Band......

Etta James & Chuck Berry - "Rock n' Roll Music" Etta James and the Roots Band @ Wiltern Stevie Wonder @ Nokia Theatre Les Savy Fav @ El Rey Snoop Dogg's Smokin' XMAS Party @ House of Blues Mellowdrone @ The Echoplex Greyboy Allstars @ The Troubadour Lamb of God @ Long Beach Arena The Nightwatchman, Jill Sobule, Low Stars @ Hotel Cafe Andre Legacy, Dirt Nasty, Beardo @ Safari Sam's Mike Stern Quartet......

"Sticky Honey" - Juliette and The Licks Juliette and the Licks @ The Roxy (LAist says: "a can't miss tonight") Shonen Knife @ The Glass House John Mayer @ NOKIA Theater LA Live Stay Fucked, Good For Cows, Grandpire @ The Smell Tea Leaf Green @ The Troubadour Rocky Dawuni, Leon Mobley, Da Lion, DJ Nnamdi Moweta @ Temple Bar Joe Baiza Congress Of, Fatso Jetson, Half Assteroids, Scrappers, Not in the House @......

"I Used to Dance With My Daddy" - Datarock Spice Girls @ STAPLES Center Ninja Academy @ Safari Sams The Cult, Death By Stereo, Action Action, The Cliks @ The Wiltern Bloodcat Love, The Lieutenants, Hollerado Spoon, Pinback, Datarock, Sea Wolf @ The Avalon Jesse Malin, Holly Ramos, Johnnie Newman, Julia Othmer @ Hotel Cafe Ten Count Junky, Crystal Stafford Project @ The Derby The Diletantes, Electromagnetic, Idyllists, Tom McShane @ Silverlake Lounge Michael......

Never been to Zanzibar in Santa Monica. Definitely would never ever go if all 28 of those popups appeared. However, there's much to love about Zanzibar's sister, Temple Bar, namely Afro Beat and Brazilian nights. Screenshot by Zach Behrens/LAist......

"Steven" - Voxtrot VHS or Beta, Foreign Born, Afrobots @ The El Rey Voxtrot @ The Music Box @ Fonda Dia de Chango @ Temple Bar Soulsavers, Spain @ The Troubadour Tom Paxton, Dan Crow and JP Nightingale @ McCabe's Guitar Shop Cake @ The Grove of Anaheim Summer Darling, You Me and Iowa, Loverlee, Oso @ Spaceland Damon Dae & Burning Wagon @ Jerry's Flying Fox The Locust, Upsilon Acrux, Yip-Yip, Sleeping People......

There are many different ways you could have heard of Tinariwen by now - even if you don't keep up with world music, you could have heard Henry Rollins play them on Indie 103.1, or read that they opened for The Rolling Stones, or heard that Thom Yorke was inspired by one of their guitar riffs while writing 'The Clock' on Eraser. Not your usual buzz band, Tinariwen are part of a nomadic desert......