Joey Maloney

"Chromeo ohhhhh-oh! Chromeo ohhhh-oh!" chanted the crowd well before the Montreal duo of Dave-1 and P-Thugg hit the stage at La Zona Rosa last night for the Green Label Sound Showcase at SXSW. One of the funkiest groups out today, Chromeo have proven time after time -- including a memorable date at the Hollywood Bowl last summer -- that once P-Thugg's beat meets the wicked voicebox of Dave-1's inner Prince, it is impossible not to...

Imagine a land of wall-to-wall music, booze and BBQ. Now, make it green for St. Patrick's and add the revelry that comes with it, and you have Clusterfuckpalooza '11. The worlds of SXSW and St. Patrick's Day converged Thursday night in Austin in what amounted to a city wide party that would rival the greats. What has been learned and painfully realized in the past few days, is that SXSW is a war of stamina...

While SXSW is at heart a showcase for tomorrow's new groups, Wednesday night was a chance to see some of today and yesterdays breakout groups. The Palm Desert, California natives, Queens of the Stone age headlined the Rolling Stone showcase at La Zona Rosa. Kicking off their 2011 tour in style, QOTSA blew through a blistering performance of their debut album and then a set of hits. They were preceded by the Austin-bred Black Angels,...

Forget your brackets and your cinderella stories, SXSW is the true March Madness. 4 days and nights of non-stop music, and that is only a slight exaggeration. Bands are packed into every bar and tiny venue hoping to be noticed and break out. While the meat of the festival is the official slate that SXSW has organized, there are "Unofficial" parties and performances that nearly every band will play along the way. From around 11...

Local rockers Local Natives gave a stunning performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall last week....

Rihanna rocked Staples Center Sunday night as the halftime entertainment for the 2011 NBA All Star Game. Playing a set of radio hits including "Umbrella" and "What's My Name?" on which she was joined on stage by Drake. The big surprise came at the end when a horn section blared the intro to "All Of The Lights", Kanye West's newest single that features Rihanna. Out of a cloud of smoke Mr. West himself emerged and...

What a week! LA is a funny place. Bands think they can just come into town and surprise people and shit. Secret clues, tiny venues, what's up guys? The Foo Fighters first with their Twitter treasure hunt and then the Arcade Fire got all up in it too. We need schedules, people. On sale dates, pre-sale info, etcetera! Just like it's been done forever. Now this new-fangled Twitter thing lets you up and surprise us...

I never want to see the Foo Fighters again* *This is not a true statement. However, after last night’s show at Spaceland (Yes, it was still Spaceland, for one final night) I could honestly go a while with out seeing them again. Not because it was a bad show, not because I have seen them three times in a week, but rather it was just that good.

“Do you like my little tweets?” Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl asked the crowd after playing through the band’s new album at the Dragonfly on Friday night. The show was the second “secret show” in as many weeks that Grohl teased to fans on Twitter leading up to the announcement of the location/time of the tiny club gig. “Up until last year I had no idea what Twitter was. My 72 year old mother, who can barely use the VCR, told me about it.” Yet another lesson in why you should be following your favorite band on Twitter. Granted they aren’t all going to up and surprise you at a tiny club in Los Angeles, but hell you never know! Now as Grohl says, “If I want to do a super sneaky club gig all I gotta do is tweet that ass.” You’ve been warned!

LAist took a recent trip to FREE DAY at The Huntington to enjoy their vast collection of indoor and outdoor treasures including two Andy Warhol pieces and the very do-not-touch Desert Garden of 60 landscaped beds featuring more than 5000 species of succulents and desert plants. One of the largest and oldest collections of cacti and succulents in the world, the 10-acre garden is nearly 100 years old and grew "from a small area on...