Kampy

The 2008 Mercury Prize for best UK album of the year went to Elbow for their album The Seldom Seen Kid, besting 11 other finalists, including Radiohead's In Rainbows and offerings from British Sea Power and oddsmakers' choice Burial. Congratulations to the lads from Manchester, who have always been very cordial to us here at LAist, granting us an exclusive interview back in May when they came to LA. You can also read the...

Photo by Ty Parker via their MySpace Looking for something to do after Barack's acceptance speech tonight? Local psychadelic indie powerpop outfit West Indian Girl is headlining a night of music that also includes Mick Kelleher, Todd Hannigan and DJ Caparro tonight at Air Conditioned Supper Club in Venice. A $10 donation at the door goes to the West LA/Malibu chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and their effort to "clean up the 'bu!" In...

Written by Shawn Holt Like a lucky child opening a grand gift the night before Christmas, Los Angeles fans of Amanda Palmer (of the Dresden Dolls) got an early glimpse of the velvet-voiced Goddess' first solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, which is set to drop September 16th. Not one to let her fans down, Amanda's performance was fantastic mix of old and new. A kaleidoscope of popular favorites, unreleased gems, hat tipping collaborations with...

Brooklyn indie rockers Pela were supposed to play Spaceland back on March 8, but a few days before, frontman Billy McCarthy was injured while playing a gig in Chicago, forcing them to cancel the rest of their tour. The injury occurred during the show's triumphant finale... as the band played the anthemic 'Cavalry' the frenzied crowd climbed up on stage to sing and dance along, and when the disorienting strobe lights started flashing, McCarthy...

The Do Lab made a name for themselves by designing mesmerizing interactive art installations for huge, multi-day music festivals such as Coachella and Vegoose, but they have also been producing their own music and art festival, Lightning in a Bottle, for several years now, and the 2008 edition kicks off tomorrow at Live Oak campground (near Santa Barbara) and runs all the way through Monday. The LA-based Do Lab (their headquarters is downtown) describes themselves...

Guy Garvey is a busy... um... guy. As the frontman for one of the UK's most critically acclaimed bands, Elbow, he and his bandmates are in the middle of their global tour's North American leg, which ends here in Los Angeles Friday night at the Avalon. They have a newly-released album, The Seldom Seen Kid (read the LAist CD review here). On top of this, Guy is still selecting songs for his weekly BBC...

Artist: Elbow Album: The Seldom Seen Kid Label: Fiction Release Date: April 22, 2008 (US) Rating: 5 Stars (out of 5) We Americans don't always make the right decisions. VHS or Betamax? George W. Bush or Gore/Kerry? Coldplay or Elbow? Undoubtedly, some of you are reading this and thinking to yourselves, "What is Elbow? Are they a band?" ...and that is, well, depressing. You should know who Elbow is. Both Coldplay and Elbow were...

There were at least a handful of LAist contributors at this year's Coachella Festival, and as we slowly recover from our Coachella "hangover" we'll continue to upload photos and tell the stories from another epic weekend in the desert... (or at least the parts we can remember) Part 1 of 5: THURSDAY - Peanut Butter Cream Pie and Riot Police Our plan was to leave LA by 2pm (or 3 at the very latest) to...

LAist was on hand for the world premiere of The Hammer and the subsequent Stoli-fueled afterparty (read our review of The Hammer here) and got exclusive interviews with the cast, crew, and celebrity guests (read the interviews here); and now that I've finally figured out how to upload photos, here are some photos from that evening as well!...

Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla at the Hammer premiere | Photo by Gary Reisman This past Wednesday night, stars convened at the Arclight Theaters in Hollywood for the Los Angeles Premiere of The Hammer, starring radio/TV personality Adam Carolla. (Read the LAist review of the movie.) The event drew a healthy number of famous faces, including Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Carson Daly, David Allen Grier, Dr. Drew Pinskey, Jeffrey Ross, Joel McHale, Mark Walberg,...