There’s a sweet sadness to the music of Daniel Johnston. He has been around for a while and there is an excellent documentary about him, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, from 2005, that chronicles his life and career, as well as his struggles with manic depression and schizophrenia. His songs have been covered often by artists including Beck (covering the song below for an album of Johnston covers by various artists) Beach House, Yo La Tengo and many more. Johnston also has two songs included on the soundtrack for the movie Kids.
Daniel Johnston is playing tonight (11/02/17) at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles.
Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (5/4-5/7/17)-
Thursday
Day Wave is giving a free in-store performance at Amoeba Records with a record signing to follow
Hammer Museum is having a free screening of Do Not Resist, a documentary on the militarization of American police, with a discussion to follow with Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors
MOCA Senior Curator Bennett Simpson is leading a walk-through of the current Carl Andre exhibition at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (free and free entrance to the museum)
To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Hecho in LA: Taco Madness & Micheladas is taking place at La Plaza de Culturas y Artes downtown, with DJs and live art to go along with the food and drink (free and 21+)
LACMA is having a free screening of an episode of the series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, with a conversation with Bourdain to follow
Chico Mann & Captain Planet, Buyepongo, and QUITAPENAS are performing at the Natural History Museum as part of their First Friday event (and Cinco de Mayo)
The New Beverly is showing a double feature of Terrence Malick’s Badlands and Richard Compton’s Macon County Line
Saturday
Los Angeles Family School is having its daytime Spring Fair 2017 with live music by Moby, The Pop Ups and Freedom Fry
The Eclectic Festival is taking place in Pasadena with an art walk and music that includes OZOMATLI and Irene Diaz (free)
Photographer Robert Herman is giving a lecture at Annenberg Space for Photography on how to self publish a book from start to finish ($15 for lecture only/$50 plus signed book/ $75 book and 20 minute private consultation)
Oddisee and Good Compny are performing at the Regent Theater
The Glitch Mob are playing a DJ set at Exchange LA with Nosaj Thing
Paul Bergmann is headlining a show at The Echo with Bart Davenport and Dimber performing
Sunday
The Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre is having two free site specific dance performance for The 1988 series: Punctuation Station, at Westfield Culver City, and includes a public discussion after (reservation required)
It’s probably a good time to check out the Artists Political Action Network who are having a meeting on Sunday with a voter registration to follow at the American Legion in Highland Park (if you miss this one, meetings are on the first Sunday of every month)
LAXART Executive Director and Curator, Hamza Walker and MOCA Senior Curator Bennett Simpson, will be discussing the Maximalist work of Jason Rhoades at Hauser & Wirth (free but registration recommended)
This is the last night of Feist’s three night visit to the Palace Theatre and at this writing, it’s the only night with pairs of tickets left
There are still tickets left for Stevie Wonder’s benefit concert, House Full of Toys, at the Microsoft Theater with special guests Lionel Richie, John Legend and Tori Kelly
You can get in the Christmas spirit at Union Station’s Holiday Sing-a-Long Cocoa Concert with music by The Music Companie and complimentary hot chocolate (free)
Artist Seth Bogart and curator Bradford Nordeen are leading an informal walkthrough of THINGS: a queer legacy of graphic art and play, an offsite exhibition in West Hollywood’s Plummer Park (free)
LACE in Hollywood is hosting Art and Activism!– an afternoon of making political banners and signs (free)
The Regent Theater and Alamo Drafthouse are celebrating the holidays with a screening of Gremlins and to mark the reissue of the soundtrack which will be available on vinyl
Renegade Craft Fair returns to Grand Park and is a great place to get gifts made by independent makers (free and also on Saturday)
Otherwild LA is hosting a Holiday Bazaar and Benefit (free)
Snake! Snake! Snakes! are playing at The Hi Hat with Bogan Via
DJ Shadow is playing a sold out show tonight, 9/29/16, at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles with Noer the Boy. His new album, The Mountain Will Fall, featuring the track above, was released in June of this year. Watch for cameos in the video of DJ Shadow (in a wig) and the members of Run The Jewels.
This song is from Radiohead’s third album, OK Computer, which was released in 1997. The video was directed by Grant Gee, who also followed the band on tour after the release of the album. The result was Meeting People is Easy, a combination music video/documentary from which the clip below is from. Thom Yorke’s struggles to hold his breath through numerous frustrating takes gives a new appreciation for the video’s visual success.
Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (7/28-7/31-16)-
Thursday
TOKiMONSTA, Gavin Turek, and Ambré are performing at this week’s Disappear Here, the free music night at Hammer Museum
For the closing of the exhibition Shapeshifters at Shulamit Nazarian Gallery in Venice, XINA XURNER (Shapeshifters artist Young Joon Kwak’s musical performance collaboration with Marvin Astorga) will present a new performance that combines voice, music, movement, and interaction with Kwak’s sculptures and features artist and composer Elisa Harkins and Travis R-D of performance collective Project Rage Queen. The performance will be followed by a conversation between Kwak and artist Jennifer Moon.
For the Getty’s Friday Flightsthis week, there will be music by M. Geddes Gengras and wild Up’s Lewis Pesacov, installations by Jim Drain and Jennifer Juniper Stratford, a performance by Ry Rocklen and Nick Lowe’s The Bushes, and a film program presented by Veggie Cloud (free)
Magic Wands are playing with Drinking Flowers, Terminal A, and Fatal Jamz at the Viper Room
LACMA is having a book signing (free) with Guillermo del Toro at 5pm and afterwards he will be introducing his film The Devil’s Backbone (tickets for the film here)
Black Milk is performing with live band Nat Turner at The Echoplex
Gary Wilson & The Blind Dates and Jimmy Whispers will be playing one of the last shows at the original location of Pehrspace
Saturday
Bergamot Station is having a full day of artist talks and exhibition openings for Summer Saturday
The Broad is having the second of their late night events- Nonobject(ive): Summer Happenings, this time with Sky Ferreira DJ’ing, a reading by Richard Hell in collaboration with the music of The Haxan Cloak, music by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Mas Ysa, dance and visual art collaborations by Ryan Heffington and Brontez Purnell within the galleries, and experimental music by Anenon
Reverend Horton Heat is playing a free show in Pershing Square
You can see Trainspotting outside The Autry before the sequel comes out in January of next year
Ice Cube is headlining the first night of HARD Summer Music Festival, which includes performers Flosstradamus, Anderson .Paak, and Dizzee Rascal among others
Sunday
MOCA is having a free screening of Ed Ruscha’s only two films Miracle and Premium and Filipe Lima will introduce his film Ed Ruscha: Buildings and Words, a new short-length documentary about Ruscha’s extraordinary body of work
Major Lazer is headlining the second night of Hard Summer Music Festival with Dillon Francis, Porter Robinson, DJ Khaled and many more also performing
Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros are playing a free show on Saturday (7/9/16) outside the Annenberg Center for Photography in Century City for KCRW’s Sound in Focus series.
The above video is from the Penelope Spheeris’ LA punk documentary The Decline of Western Civilization and features the band’s 1980 performance.
Lead singer and LA native Alice Bag just released her debut self titled album this month and is having a record release party on Saturday 7/2/16 at The Echo with Generacion Suicida and Fatty Cake and the Puff Pasties opening.
For more information on Alice Bag, check out her website or this excellent article from Remezcla.
This song is from The Roots 2010 album of the same name and was used on the film Night Catches Us, which The Roots scored.
The Roots are playing at The Novo in Los Angeles with special guests T.I., The Internet, and more on Saturday June 25th, 2016. This is part of the BET Experience, which has numerous paid and free events all weekend at LA Live.
