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......

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......

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......

Mayor Ray Nagin and his n'awlins constituents might not know this but LA has had it's own Chocolate City for the past 10 years. Garth Trinidad has been the wizard of sound for KCRW's Chocolate City program since 1996 and has been the key figure in launching important "urban alternative" acts for that time. It is safe to say that without Chocolate City, artists like Jill Scott and Goapele and labels like Ubiquity would......

It's nice to know that, this weekend, people won't be complaining about the "Air" in Los Angeles, but embracing them at The Hollywood Bowl instead. Although some might be from the camp that can't wait for Saturday's performance by Seal, Zap Mama, De La Soul and Van Hunt, we here at LAist are salivating at the idea of Sunday's performance of French band AIR with Roger Neill conducting the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and Stereolab......