The Key Club in West Hollywood hosted the The Roots Jam Session, Saturday night As we mentioned in our interview with Questlove, LAist was on the red carpet for the 5th Annual Roots Jam Session at the Key Club in West Hollywood. While we were hoping that this post would serve as a review of the best live band in the world jamming the night away with a little help from some of their......

Questlove on the red carpet last night at the Key Club in West Hollywood host of The Roots Jam Session | Photo by John Wayne Maioriello Last night, LAist had a spot on the red carpet of the Key Club in West Hollywood, host of The Roots Jam Session sponsored by Rock the Vote, Okayplayer and Keldof. The Jam Session has become a Grammy weekend tradition, for the last five years, the Philadelphia-based influential......

Here at LAist, we really love local folk music, especially The Hollow Trees. In fact, we love them so much that we've interviewed them three times: a little ">over a year ago, then in May about Stagecoach (the roots version of Coachella) and this last December. We'll spare any in depth analysis this morning, but will just say if you're looking for things to do late this morning, whether your a parent or babysitting some......

HIM - "Passion's Killing Floor" Lydia Lunch @ Largo HIM, Bleeding Through @ Orpheum The Roots, Erykah Badu, Keb Mo, Taj Mahal, Cory Chisel @ The Wiltern Film School, Division Day, Eulogies @ Echoplex Annuals, Manchester Orchestra @ Troubadour Jeff Buckley Tribute @ Key Club The Goo Goo Dolls @ Best Buy - West LA Monsters Are Waiting, Sabertooth Tiger, So So So, Aztlan Underground @ The Scene......

From writing to recording and producing, Joe Henry knows how to keep himself busy. This year he released his CD "Civilians", wrote the music for "Knocked Up" with Loudon Wainwright III, and produced several tracks for Todd Hayne's Bob Dylan film "I'm Not There". In 2003 he won a Grammy for producing Solomon Burke's "Don't Give Up On Me". Burke has said about Joe Henry, "He's an exciting young man, a talented gentleman, he......

That faint murmur you heard this morning weren't boos. It was three guys quietly saying "Bruuuuuce" to themselves as they heard that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will return to LA on Oct. 28 to a venue to be named later. The Boss has seem out of sorts since Born in the USA, churning out mopey, cheesy middle of the road forgetables. Even the 9/11-inspired The Rising didn't hold a candle to......

What would you do to see a newly reunited Rage Against the Machine playing on the same stage and day as Wu-Tang Clan, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, The Roots, Nas and Talib Kweli? If you said: Drive over an hour, stand in a line for 80 minutes in the 99 degree sun, avoid a restroom for nine hours, sit in possibly the worst parking lot traffic the Western Hemisphere has ever seen and inhale......

- In the name of the budget, Gov. Schwarzenegger seeks to end the Integrated Services for Homeless Adults With Serious Mental Illness program. The reason? The budget. The cut would save $55 million annually. - The Game was pimpin' while in custody and so a LAPD officer who decided to make a video and supposedly pimp it to TMZ. That doesn't make the bosses happy. - Even at the Downtown Art Walk, Daily News follows......

Paul Dateh & inka one We saw this video on several blogs last week and loved it. Militant Angeleno's blog was one place we saw it. So we had to find out more about Paul Dateh, because seriously, play that video for one full minute and tell us that you didn't want to learn more about him. From reading through his Myspace, we learned that Paul is from LA, he's been around for a......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Sunday there are lots of great bands, culminating with the reunion of one of the best groups ever, Rage Against the Machine. Here's how we're probably going to do it, thanks to the magic of the Coachooser which, if you leave a little early from shows will show you how you too can see 17 bands. Mika: 1 - 1:30 Anathallo: 1:30 - 2 Mando Diao: 2:15 - 2:35 Tapes 'n Tapes: 2:35 -......

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......

Midnight Star, Heatwave, Bloodstone, El Chicano, Evelyn "Champagne" King @ The Forum The Roots, Jill Scott, Lupe Fiasco, Akon @ Gibson Amphitheatre The Ettes, Rocket, The Affair @ The Scene Bob Weir & Rat Dog @ Ventura Theatre Los Lobos @ The Canyon The Mentors @ The Knitting Factory Cindy Lee Berryhill, John Doe @ Largo The Groovie Ghoulies @ Alex's Bar Mirah, Anna Oxygen & Sir DSS, The Sharp Ease @ The Troubadour......

When it comes to explaining the roots of Kwanza, KNBC has no problem dedicating some time in their news broadcasts, a feat they failed to give to this history of Christmas yesterday. In today's 11am "Mid Day Report" KNBC cheerfully said this of the American-made seven day holiday: African-Americans are beginning the celebration of Kwanza. A parade gets way at noon in LA's Crenshaw district. The seven-day long Kwanza holiday was founded back in......

Honky @ The Scene The Roots @ Avalon Vice @ Steve Allen Theatre Brazilian Girls @ The Wiltern Veruca Salt, 45 Grave @ Vault 350 Dios Malos, Future Pigeon @ The Echo My Chemical Romance @ House of Blues Ladytron, Midnight Movies @ El Rey Theater Devo, A Flock of Seagulls, Bow Wow Wow @ Greek The Horrors, The Cinematics, The Deadly Syndrome @ Safari Sam's......

Remember Green Jell-O? Remember when they had to change their name to Green Jelly? Remember when they were given their own studio on Hollywood Blvd. a few blocks east of the Palladium to dig into their endless banks of creativity and bring back gooey nuggets of rock? Remember how they don't have that studio any more and now they have to open for Metal Skool? We kid our local Gwarabees. The Roots @ Avalon......

Congrats Jennifer who won the Vegoose Contest. It was a random pic (since who really can judge haikus since theyre all beautiful) but this is her entry: a band of horses storms the galactic abyss for a special sauce For the rest of youse, Tom Petty, The Roots, Cat Power (pictured), Phil Lesh, The Black Crowes, Fiona Apple, and many many more will be in Vegas for Halloween Weekend so if you like to......

We caught the June 8 performance of Grendel at the Los Angeles Opera, which, due to some previous technical setbacks, turned out to be the world premiere. The opera tells the story of Beowulf, a human epic of a battle against a monster, from the point of view of the monster. The production uses puppets with a variety of influences in addition to the human actor/singers -- this production is from many of the......

For this Laist contributor, the love for The Brand New Heavies began with a little Heavy Rhyme Experience. Before LL Cool J went unplugged and before The Roots became the only contemporary Black (hip-hop, r&b, pop or rock) band with national acclaim and radio airplay in America, there was this eclectic group of British cats getting supremely funky underneath my favorite rap group in high school, The Pharcyde. From "Soul Flower" 14 years ago......

Photo by Anna Martino. DMC would re-iterate that throughout the night as he hosted Guitar Center's Spin '05 Finals at the Wiltern this past Saturday. "The DJ is the foundation of hip hop. Without the DJ we wouldn't be here." The Fantastik 4 and Power 106's Mr. Choc tried to give him his own shine, "Without Run DMC, we wouldn't be here," he said but this godfather of rap wasn't having it. "It is......

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina to the Gulf Coast is almost unfathomable even to people who are there. I've noticed that many of my friends here in Los Angeles, while sympathetic to the destruction they see, don't know what it is like to live through a hurricane. I (I'm dispensing with the editorial "we" for this post) grew up on the Gulf Coast, in Houston, Texas, so I do know about hurricanes, though those......

TUESDAY • Michelle Shocked performs a free in-store at Amoeba Music tonight to celebrate the release of Threesome at 7 PM. • Bright Eyes is on stage at the Grand Olympic Auditorium at 8 PM with The Faint and Airborn Audio. Tickets are $30. • The Raveonettes perform tonight with Gram Rabbit in the first of a three-night gig at Spaceland. Doors open at 9 PM. • Wilco play the Greek Theatre with The......

After much whining and pleading, LAist's inner child persuaded us to call USC and obtain a pass to the "Ready to Share: Ownership of Creativity in Fashion" conference on 1/30 sponsored by USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center's Creativity, Commerce & Culture project, Center for the Public Domain and The Fashion Institute of Desgin & Merchandise/FIDM. (Norman Lear and Michael Patrick King) We're happy to report that the conference was a smooth blend of style......

Tuesday means it is once again new release day, second only to Friday as LAist's favorite day of the week. Check below for the newest in music and video for all your fresh entertainment needs. CD Darkest Hour—Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation (bonus DVD) Dogs Die in Hot Car—Please Describe Yourself (import) Dokken—Hell to Pay Fiery Furnaces—Blueberry Boat The Hives—Your New Favorite Band (bonus DVD) Johnny Thunders & Wayne Kramer—Gang War Kool Keith......