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 required, see the MySpace flier). more ›

Yes, that's right, I have a Donnas album. That damn song "Take It Off" was so stuck in my head and the lyrics were so funny that I ended up just buying Spend The Night, even though the girls had clearly changed a bit from the straight Ramones sound they had when I heard them years ago on the ubiquitous Rodney on the Roq. I got invited by friends to catch their show with... more ›

Common - "The People" "The People" was one of our most-played summer jamz. It was on Kanye's "Can't Tell Me Nothin" sampler because Kanye produced it and listen to how sweet it is. It's the sort of non-thug, uplifting, positive hip-hop that people once talked about, but now people are buying. This is the direction BEP could have gone if they hadn't chosen the path of the lowest common denominator aka the Gwen Stefani... more ›

Rush @ Hollywood Bowl Slint @ Henry Fonda Sanjaya Malakar, Melinda Doolittle, Lakisha Jones, Jordin Sparks @ Staples Center Division Day, Saint Motel, The Health Club, Moving to France @ Viper Room Buckwheat Zydeco, Doug Legacy & the Zydeco Party Band @ Safari Sam's Patton Oswalt @ Largo Snow Patrol, Hot Hot Heat @ Greek Johnny Polanco @ El Floridita Metal Skool, D’Amato, The Hammer, AL-CE-MI @ Key Club Plasticsoul, Brandon Schott, The Breakups,... more ›

Datarock, Hard Lessons, Schoolyard Heroes @ Safari Sam's The Exploited, Phantom Rockers, The Ghouls @ The Knitting Factory Donovan Leitch, Femmes & Phantoms, The Deserters @ Roxy Kate Havnevik, Kelly De Martino, Emma Burgess, Astrid Swan, Jaymay @ The Hotel Cafe The Dollyrots, The After Midnight Project, Kids of Widney High @ Key Club Thicker Than Thieves, Rupa & the April Fishes @ Temple Bar John West, Lauren Mayhew @ Viper Room Calla, Molecules... more ›

It's never too early to plan for the weekend... LA Derby Dolls: Saturday at 6:30 p.m., Little Tokyo It's almost sold out, if not already by the time we press publish. This sport is about as local and special to LA as you can get. Two teams in the country play roller derby on a banked tracked and we have it here. Support your local punk rock kittens because it is a blast. Saturday's... more ›

John Legend @ Wiltern Rooney, Ben Lee (pictured), John Ralston @ Avalon The Hush Sound, Murder By Death @ El Rey Ariel Pink, Beach House @ The Echo Cut Chemist @ Viper Room James Blunt, Starsailor @ House of Blues Howard Tate @ Amoeba The Dollyrots, The Randies @ The Scene Cinder Garden, Pins & Needles, Lo-lita @ Key Club Melt, Jay, Lee Ferris, Jeff Turmes @ The Mint Astra Heights, The Brokedown, Glass... more ›

TUESDAY more ›

Taking it back to junior high, the Knitting Factory has an unusual free show tonight. In the Main Room, see a performance by none other than the man with the wacky fade: Vanilla Ice. The show is being filmed for a VH1 special, so show up early if you want to get in. Things kick off at 7:00 PM. more ›