Dave Koenig of LA-based Spindrift, Little Radio Day Party, Red Eyed Fly, SXSW 2008, Austin, TX | Photo by Andy Sternberg/LAist There can't be a better match between Fourth of July and good local rock music than with Spindrift, the indie western-esque band that is one of our favorites. Friday, July 4, 2008 Castledoor @ The Scene Balobi Bandeko @ Temple Bar Marty and Elayne @ The Dresden Orquesta Charangoa @ El Floridita Spindrift,......

Photo by Open Air Control Testing Ground via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr The Hammer museum kicks off it's I Also Like To Rock series in their courtyard tonight with Nico Vega and The Growlers. And for tomorrow night, there are still some quality shows (check before heading out, holiday shows tend to get canceled). Tonight Peter Hook @ Detroit Bar Nico Vega, The Growlers @ Hammer Museum Constantines, Ladyhawk, The Jet Age @......

One of the most requested features on LAist is more warning for events. To that, today we did our first This Month in Rock post with Ali Miller. Check it out and keep your suggestions coming! Also, since Flight of the Conchords are always doing these unannounced appearances, the latest is coming from Bic Runga, who plays next week at Largo. According to an e-mail, the duo will probably show up for a song or......

One of the worst experiences as a "professional" extra in Hollywood was working on music videos. There's something that goes hand-in-hand about an industry that sues kids and grandmas for illegally downloading MP3s and not fully paying background talent for working on a music video because they "ran out of cash" (if you have any bad experiences, write them in the comments section). With that said, local and Cisco Adler prodige Shwayze is filming a......

Photo by Jsome1 via Flickr Kickchella is free and featured 14 excellent bands. It all goes down at 6:00 p.m. at the All-Star Lanes in Eagle Rock. The lineup: Le Switch, Henry Clay People, You Me and Iowa, I Make This Sound, The Flying Tourbillion Orchestra, Tandemoro, Les Blanks, The Hectors, The Voyeurs, Swim Party, Marvelous Toy, The Damselles, The TC4, Nathan Wasilewski. Tonight Willoughby, Graves @ Tangier Meshell Ndegeocello @ Key Club Kickchella......

Photo by Jsome1 via Flickr It's the last night of the 1st Annual Sunset Strip Music Festival and it's also a night for electronica(ish) insomniacs at the Electric Daisy Carnival. Then tomorrow, it's all about indie with 14 or so bands at Kickchella in Eagle Rock. Saturday, June 28, 2008 Louis XIV @ Viper Room Mickey Avalon @ Key Club The Mutts @ Genghis Cohen Cheap Trick @ Hollywood Bowl Electric Daisy Carnival @......

Photo by Jsome1 via Flickr It's a weekend of festivals. First, you've got the 1st Annual Sunset Strip Music Festival, hosted in various classic West Hollywood clubs. Second, the Electric Daisy Carnival takes place Saturday downtown for an all night fete featuring Moby, Paul van Dyk, Rabbit In The Moon and many many others. And third is a pretty killer Sunday lineup of local favorites (14 bands total) at the All-Star Lanes in Eagle......

Photo by Jsome1 via Flickr And today is the first day of the first Sunset Strip Music Festival. Tonight Cyndi Lauper @ Jimmy Kimmel Live Oliver Future, The Gray Kid @ Spaceland Grandmaster Flash, EPMD @ Crash Mansion Sara & Sean Watkins @ Largo at the Coronet The Movies, Pizza!, The Savages, The Voyeurs @ The Echo Katt Williams @ Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal Citywalk Everclear, Soul Asylum, Camper Van Beethoven @ House of......

No big surprise here, but Paste Magazine announced the 17 Coolest Record Stores in America in their soon-to-be-released July issue. “The resources on the Internet are supplements to actual record stores, not replacements," explained Paste editor-in-chief Josh Jackson in a statement. "Fortunately, despite the increasing pressures from illegal downloads and online music stores, many independent record stores have found clever ways to fight back against the electronic tide that was supposed to have run them......

Jessie Baylin, who LAist's Michele Reverte interviewed last month, is holding her CD Release show tonight for her Firesight album at Hotel Cafe (listen below). Earlier today, she interviewed another Hotel Cafe mainstay, Greg Laswell. &righticonhover=0x333232&text=0x333232&slider=0xF2F2F2&track=0xFFFFFF&border=0xFFFFFF&loader=0x838383&soundFile=http://aprodxn.com/laist/TheGlitter.mp3"> Jessie Baylin - "The Glitter" Tonight The Mae Shi @ The Smell Update: To be Rescheduled Billy Idol @ Virgin Megastore Ingrid Michaelson, Greg Laswell @ El Rey Jenny Lewis, The Watson Twins @ Amoeba Music Stone Temple......

Photo by Jsome1 via Flickr Wow. What a week. From outdoor concerts at The Greek, Hollywood Bowl and The Getty to the first Sunset Strip Music Festival, this week is chock full of concerts to see. As always, if anything is missing, contribute it to the comments and we'll make sure to list it in the main section. Tonight Lukas Haas @ Hotel Cafe Ingrid Michaelson @ House of Blues (Anaheim) Death Cab For......

Photo by Jsome1 via Flickr Hot days make for usually cool and perfect nights. There's a good deal to do outside including shows at the Greek Theatre, Hollywood Bowl and at Warner Park where Berlin plays for free at 6:00 p.m (it's also Orange Line accessible at the end-of-the-line stop at Warner Center). Tonight Berlin featuring Terri Nunn @ Warner Park Earth Wind & Fire, Macy Gray @ Greek Theatre Frightened Rabbit, Oxford Collapse,......

Electrocute at last week's Summercamp by Little Radio (more photos here) | Photo by Koga/LAist Two special events are happening today, so get out before going out tonight. Make Music is happening Pasadena today with a great lineup that's free to watch and it's another session of Little Radio's Summercamp in Long Beach (see photos from last week's camp). Last night, Seun Kuti and the Egypt 80 played a spectacular concert at Grand Performances......

Photo by Jsome1 via Flickr There's what looks to be a great issue of Under the Radar magazine coming out the first week of July. The Decemberists, Spoon, R.E.M., Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, Jarvis Cocker, The Flaming Lips, Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine, Moby, Bright Eyes and others will be exploring the 2008 presidential election. Other bands appearing in photos holding protest signs include British Sea Power, The Dresden Dolls, Supergrass,......

The Flight of the Conchords via their MySpace page Rumor has it, according to one post on the Fairfax Avenue, word on the street is that the Flight of the Conchords may open for Jon Brion tomorrow night at Largo at the Coronet. Largo is known for surprise guests, so this rumor is not too far fetched. Officially, Flight is confirmed for the Greg Proops Chat show in July, so that's good. The The......

KCRW announced a new set of celebrities in their ongoing Guest DJ Project where big names from all walks of life sit down with KCRW DJs and share the music that has inspired them. Joining the roster today is actor Jason Schwartzman, “Top Chef” host and author Padma Lakshmi, “Hancock” Director Peter Berg, Danny DeVito (embedded below) and award-winning playwright Neil LaBute. All of the mini-shows are online and can be heard interspersed during......

Photo by Jsome1 via Flickr Both major Hollywood record stores have shows tonight: The Fratellis head to Virgin and Devon Williams over to Amoeba. There's also one of those private Zune LA (as in the mp3 player) events happening and they are showing "Joy Division: The Documentary." Tonight's Airborne Toxic Event show has been sold out for days, but 100 tickets will be sold at the door, first come, first serve. "It's so damn......

Anathallo in Chicago | Photo by John Deeb Yesterday's afternoon traffic reporting focused in on the Playboy Jazz Festival clogging the 101 freeway. The same for today? Probably. Our picks for tonight are The Fratellis and Anathallo. Sunday, June 15, 2008 Anathallo @ Spaceland Steel Pulse @ Vault 350 The Fratellis @ Key Club King Britt @ The Vanguard Playboy Jazz Festival @ Hollywood Bowl Russian Circles, Daughters @ Troubadour Dosh, Anathallo, Kárin Tatoyan......

Tweak Bird plays on Mr. Free's bus (see more photos here). Tonight they play The Smell. | Photo by Tom Andrews/LAist What's with popular acts canceling their shows? Beck, yesterday; The Ting Tings today at the Zero One Gallery downtown. Despite that, from Orange County to Los Angeles, there's good times to be had. One of the most creatively beautiful bands, Anathallo, plays Spaceland tomorrow night. To compete with that, The Fratellis play the......

Beautiful & Driving Music: Venetian Snares visits the Knitting Factory tonight | Photo via VS' MySpace Update: Bad news. "Due to illness, this evening's Beck performance at the Echoplex has been cancelled.. Tickets will be refunded through Ticketweb."Beck's Echoplex show sold out within minutes of going on sale yesterday. But for those who are hardcore enough to wait early in line, a limited amount of tickets will be sold at the door today. For......

The Helio Sequence plays at The Echo tonight | Photo by mrmatt via Flickr Apparently Beck snuck into The Echo last night for a second secret show (first time caught on video). "Nobody on Wednesday’s regular bill seemed to mind that Beck crashed the party. It was the EP release show for singer-songwriter Daniel Ahearn’s 'Pray for Me by Name.' Once he got started, Ahearn (a familiar face in the venue since he pays......

Priscilla Ahn plays at her CD Release Show last night at the Hotel Cafe. Tonight she'll play on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. | Photo by Koga/LAist In the comments section of yesterday's post on changes at The Viper Room, concert goers are hoping for Indie 103.1's Check One... Two moves eastward while saying such things as "the Sunset Strip is dead." To that, owner of The Roxy, Nic Adler commented back: "True......

Billy Bragg visits El Rey tonight | Photo by Tracey Ashfield via his MySpace page It's still a week away from the Airborne Toxic Event's Spaceland show and tickets are already sold out, they wrote in an e-mail annoucement. "Advance tickets for our show at Spaceland on Tuesday, June 17th are sold out. Spaceland is saving 100 tickets for sale at the doors which open at 8:30. We highly recommend you get there early......

Oslo plays this week in the OC and LA County | Photo by Glen Wexler via Oslo As usual, there's a lot to go around this week. Anything missing in the upcoming days? Add it in the comments! Tonight Danity Kane @ Wiltern Oslo, Solare @ Detroit Bar Santogold @ Virgin Megastore Aimee Mann @ The Tonight Show with Jay Leno MGMT @ The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson Spider Problem, The Nightbirds,......

One of the best jazz pianists and composers in town is playing tonight at El Rey. If you've never heard what Brad Mehldau does, pick up an album, preview it on iTunes, just make sure to get to know this local a little bit. He even has a tune called "Los Angeles." Also, a great indie folk-country band has their CD release party today -- I See Hawks In L.A. They take the stage with......

Liz Pappademas plays at pehrspace tonight Hed(Pe) @ Key Club Frog Eyes @ The Echo Will Champlin @ Hotel Cafe Jonathan Richman @ The Mint KC & The Sunshine Band @ Greek Theatre Los Campesinos!, Parenthetical Girls @ Troubadour The BellRays, Architects @ Sainte Rocke (Hermosa Beach) Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Rihanna, N*E*R*D @ Staples Center The Queers, Lemuria, Bomb the Music Industry, Kepi Ghoulie @ Safari Sam's The Sweet Hurt EP release, Alex......

Photo by pink_fish13 via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr MOCA is starting up a six-week film series tomorrow night at their The Geffen Contemporary location in Little Tokyo and who better to be there to play a music set than Henry Rollins? The film screened will be "Underground Forces," a film about the early punk scene with footage of Black Flag, the Cramps, etc. Rollins will be on for two hours from 7:00 to......

Photo by Sakurako Kitsa via Flickr With a comprehensive line-up beginning to take shape, the Hollywood Bowl re-opens its summer gates for some fantastic shows. More and more press keeps flooding into the pipeline about the 10 year anniversary of KCRW's World Music Festival kicking off on June 22, so your schedule is bound to be packed with outdoor music bliss. Tonight Peter Murphy @ HOB Sunset The Chapin Sisters @ Silverlake Lounge Dilated Peoples......

Bluegrass extraordinaire Chris Thile plays solo tonight | Photo via his MySpace Four weeks after the Sunset Junction Music Festival, audiophiles may head up to San Francisco to the Treasure Island Music Festival, whose lineup was announced yesterday. Justice, Hot Chip, Antibalas, Vampire Weekend, Tokyo Police Club and many more will be playing. Also, for your get-to-know-the-LA-music-scene tip of the day, the new music site, Web In Front has a great podcast about The......

Colin Hay plays at Largo tonight | Photo via Hay's MySpace Profile Slow night in music, but make sure to check out Michele Reverte's interview with Newton Faulkner, who plays at the Troubadour tonight. Also, tonight is the second night of Largo at the Coronet featuring folk musician Colin Hay. "Higher rent and increasingly restrictive parking helped push [Largo Owner Mark] Flanagan away from Fairfax," reported the LA Times a few weeks ago. "But......