Tony Pierce

It's amazing that the best rock record to come out in 2007 is by a band a gray haired guy who shreds harder and better than kids half his age. The return of the OG lineup of Dinosaur Jr. is something that should be celebrated, experienced, and savored. Beyond is old school grungy rock with omg guitar solos that twist and spiral and soar like nothing that is being played by today's mascara-wearing youth....

Smooshed between two auto insurance storefronts just a tad west of the official Thai Town boundaries hides Jao^ka, sheepishly, shyly, and easily overlooked. Indeed, inside the quaint restaurant on Hollywood Blvd. one could confuse this little place with any of the others in and around LA. Which is why we put their food up to a standard that no restaurant would ever wish for: the Take Out and Early Morning Re-Heat Test. We ordered...

If you go as far west as you can in West Hollywood on Santa Monica Blvd., right before you wind up in Beverly Hills you will see the Troubadour - one of the most famous rock clubs in the world - established in 1957. Home of the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Elton John, and Linda Ronstadt in the '60s and '70s, the warm, rich club also saw the likes of Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and...

Peter Case, Ron Franklin @ McCabe's Ice T @ Key Club John Doe @ Malibu Inn Hall & Oates @ Hollywood Bowl Joan as Police Woman, Princeton, Emily Wells @ Spaceland Kings of Leon, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ The Greek The Mother Hips, Broken West @ The Roxy Hawnay Troof, The Octopus Project @ The El Rey Common @ The Wiltern Ben Kweller @ The Echo Jon Brion @ Largo James Intveld, Red...

Common - "The People" "The People" was one of our most-played summer jamz. It was on Kanye's "Can't Tell Me Nothin" sampler because Kanye produced it and listen to how sweet it is. It's the sort of non-thug, uplifting, positive hip-hop that people once talked about, but now people are buying. This is the direction BEP could have gone if they hadn't chosen the path of the lowest common denominator aka the Gwen Stefani...

One of the world's most famous singers, Luciano Pavarotti, the most interesting of The Three Tenors, has just died. He was 71. Pavarotti had been treated for pancreatic cancer since last year, which is probably what did him in today. His weight problems led to heath issues, but it didn't stop him from being loved by the ladies. A few years back he divorced his wife of 37 years for a woman 35 years...

Two high ranking former CIA officers are speaking out about the run up to war in Iraq. Namely the fact that the President was briefed about Saddam's lack of weapons of mass destruction, and didn't care, he was set to take the nation into war. Sidney Blumenthal writes in Salon today: On Sept. 18, [CIA Director George] Tenet briefed Bush on [Naji Sabri, Saddam's foreign minister]. "Tenet told me he briefed the president personally," said...

Fueled in part by the injustice described in this post, the Midnight Ridazz will get their protest on this morning at the crack of 7 in the morning. We meet at Vermont/Santa Monica Red Line Station at 7 am and ride at 7:30 am Two weeks ago a cyclist was assaulted by a motorist and then ticketed by a Beverly Hills cop. We think cyclists deserve better! Join us as we encourage Beverly Hills...

Texas congressman Ron Paul pointed his pen at his fellow conservatives at the New Hampshire presidential debates yesterday and won the Fox News text message poll, a day after winning the Maryland Republican Straw Vote, to the outrage of Fox mouthpiece, Sean Hannity. Hannity, who clearly hates freedom and obviously believes that all elections and polls that aren't rigged by Karl Rove must be rigged, flat out accused the American people of cheating when...

If you keep walking west down Hollywood Blvd past the nonsense of Hollywood & Highland, past the tourist and super heroes at the Chinese Theater and down the next block, you will find the Knitting Factory, tucked away beneath what was once a movie theater. Boasting three stages and tons of bands every night, the Knitting Factory comes to us via New York and has hosted some shows this year that LAist had a great...