Actor Colin Hanks (son of Tom) could have begged dear ol' dad for a loan to get his movie made, but instead has turned to the crowdsource cash flux of Kickstarter, raising the money he needs to make a documentary on the now-defunct Tower Records music store chain. more ›

The fate of the empty Tower Records store on Sunset Boulevard has been decided: Demolition. more ›

Record shops and CD purveyors are going the way of the 8-track. Joining the now-defunct ranks of Aron's Records, Rhino Records and Tower on Sunset is the Virgin Megastore. The rent's too high (tell us something we don't know!) And maybe, the sluggish music sales don't help much, either. more ›

Yes it's a material world, and we are material girls. But look what they've done to our great record store. Is that really necessary? Isn't there a law against defacing a tomb? The state of outdoor ads in Hollywood is a sorry one. People should say sorry.... more ›

June of 2007" src="http://www.laist.com/attachments/tony/ifroneicky.jpg" width="640" height="406" /> Those of you who saw Jack and Meg at the Tower Records - whoops, we mean the Icky Thump Records in-store concert earlier this summer, you might be the only people in LA who will get to see the duo this year in the Southland. According to an email that was just sent out by the band's email team, the tour has been ixnayed. The White Stripes... more ›

The White Stripes and Warner Bros. Records have transformed our beloved Tower Records on Sunset into Icky Thump Records, named after the Stripes' new cd. As we showed you in this photo essay on Monday, people stood in line for days to not just get the new album, but to also get to see Jack and Meg perform tonight inside the former record store. The first 200 people who bought cds Monday night at... more ›

If you drive home past the former Tower Records on Sunset you'll see that it looks slightly different. And you'll also see about 200 to 300 people melting in the hot parking lot. Warner Bros. Records has turned the classic record store into Icky Thump Records, which will sell the new White Stripes cd Icky Thump tonight at midnight, about 10 hours earlier than most record stores. But then the band will play Wednesday... more ›

In a brilliant melding of marketing genius and a tip of the hat to a bittersweet time in LA rock history, the White Stripes announced today that they will be performing an intimate show at the location formerly known as the Tower Records on Sunset. Transforming it to Icky Thump Records (named after their upcoming cd) the duo will perform at the now-closed-and-shuttered West Hollywood landmark for the benefit of the first 200 fans... more ›

1. Billy Blanks' Tae Bo World Training Center closed. 2. Sherman Oaks Galleria's flagship store, Tower Records, closed and the now outdoor shopping mall "went public" via Douglas Emmett. 3. A Sherman Oaks based political mailer caused controversy in the November election. 4. The Sherman Oaks Street Fair extended to a two day affair. 5. Resident Calvin Broadus, aka Snoop Dogg, made big news twice this year and the media always attached "of Sherman... more ›

- Katie Couric to her critics: "Bite Me." - People - Laker Fans to Britney Spears when her face appeared on the jumbotron: "Boooooooo!" - Pop Sugar - Vincent Gallo to women who want to have sex with him: "Heavy-set, older red-heads and even black chicks can have me if they can pay the bill ($100,000). No real female will be refused." - d listed - Famous rock photographer Ross Halfin on Eddie and... more ›

LAist is traveling around the country to find your next American Idol. But we might have already found him working behind a hot dog cart in New Orleans. As you know we interviewed a Tower Records employee in the French Quarter and a teenage girl in the 9th Ward, but Big John might be the best take on the aftermath of Katrina. But we wont tell you how to think, see for yourself.... more ›

LAist is on the road and we're currently in the dirrrty South. Right in the middle of the touristy area of New Orelans we found ourselves outside a Tower Records. Tower, as you know, is going out of business, which only adds insult to injury for its New Orleans store, whose employees have been brutally affected by Katrina. Strangely, when we told them that we were from LA they asked us about Amoeba, which... more ›

Tower Records has been bought by conglomerate Great American Group, which plans to liquidate many of the stores but hasn't revealed which outlets they plan to close and which they plan to leave open. NPR is reporting that inventory liquidation sales will begin as soon as tomorrow in some locations. Real-life endings are rarely glamorous, but this seems a particularly sad finale for Los Angeles' venerable but crusty flagship Sunset Strip Tower Records. Even... more ›

Color us depressed. Another great record store is going down in flames and no one can blame this one on Amoeba. more ›

Grim news about a Southern California staple: Chris Morris, a 103.1 dj, says in the Hollywood Reporter that the nation's largest free-standing record store chain, Tower Records, is in huge financial debt and may not last another year: The amount of money that Tower owes evidently is staggering. One confidential source familiar with Tower's balance sheet put the company's debt to Warner Music Group's distributor WEA Corp. at $20 million. The same source said... more ›

Sound of Music @ Hollywood Bowl more ›

soul asylum – old-school labelmates with my favorites the replacements – played a set at tower records last night. it was a great mixture of old songs about drugs and being cool to new songs about having kids and wars and all that crap. in-stores are fun because you see the band in their full-on terminator dork mode and how can you not love a bunch of nerdfaces like this: more ›

With the holidays all around us, LAist has noticed that some people aren't fully embracing the "treat your fellow man respectfully and with love" concept. And so, we decided to take advantage of the stress and the chaos and the ill-will around town by seeing just how many annoyed dashboard notes we could elicit by parking in two spaces at once, too close to the driver's side doors, at awkward angles, double-parking and a myriad of other "no-no's." more ›

We here at LAist may not want to rule the world (though from time to time we fantasize about running this city for a while), but that doesn't make the lyrics of Tears for Fears any less true. Almost twenty years after their best-known hit, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," they've moved on to make a new generalization about the entirety of humanity. Now they're insisting that Everybody Loves a Happy Ending. And in this case, at least, we do. more ›

Today in the Daily Trojan there appeared the article "Record Penny-pinching," a profile of the best record stores in Los Angeles. While LAist can't fault the need for such a list—and the conclusion that Amoeba Music is the best in LA—there are some fairly notable omissions. more ›