Apr 162015
 

Bad Religion- Los Angeles is Burning

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (4/16-4/19/15)-

Thursday

William Pope L.’s Migrant (2105), which was made for his current exhibit, will be performed at MOCA – free and free evening admission

The Replacements are playing at the Hollywood Palladium

Toro y Moi are at the Fonda Theatre

The Live Read series at LACMA continues this week with Major League, guest directed by Joe Manganiello (Magic Mike). A limited number of tickets will be sold at the door two hours before start time

Friday

Bad Religion are playing at the Fonda Theatre with OFF!

Peaking Lights are playing at The Echo

WAND and Dunes are playing along with two other bands for $8 at The Smell

Saturday

Record Store Day is back and there are lots of venues doing something special to celebrate. Origami Vinyl is having DJ sets, bands (including Fever the Ghost), giving gift bags to the first group of customers and there will be a free ice cream truck. Permanent Records is also having performers including John Doe and Exene from X.  Amoeba Records isn’t on the list but is having events at the store as well as one across the street at Space 15 Twenty. The official list of venues is here.

You may not have heard of many of the bands playing Brokechella, BUT it is an annual event that gets bigger every year, just like its namesake, and it’s a pretty good deal. For $20 you get art shows, bands, comedy and variety, giant jenga puzzles, a vendor fair, Puppychella for dog owners, and more- all in Downtown’s Warehouse District

Always wanted to see the inside of the Magic Castle but never scored an invite from a magician? One way to get a peek is to check out their Swap Meet taking place 9am-3pm (from the Terrace to the Peller Theatre) where you can also shop around for a variety of magic related items ($8)

If you are around WeHo and see people dressed in black with bowler hats and wearing artistic looking sandwich boards, they are part of the 100 Walkers performance piece. More info here

Saturday and Sunday

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is back with a huge list of free and ticketed (many only $1) events and readings- authors include Tavis Smiley, Billy Idol, Octavia Spencer, Kate Mulgrew, Amber Tamblyn, Patton Oswalt, Vikram Chandra, Roy Choi and many, many, more

Sunday

CAFAM (Craft and Folk Art Museum) is hosting a gallery tour and conversation  with exhibition juror Cat Jimenez, Executive Director of the Lucie Foundation, and a group of exhibiting artists from the show Focus Iran: Contemporary Photography and Video (free with RSVP)

Apr 092015
 

Interpol- NYC

NYC is a single from Interpol’s debut album Turn on the Bright Lights, which was released in 2002. This video was created and directed by multimedia artist Doug Aitken.

Interpol are playing on the Friday (4/10) of Coachella this year. For the full lineup and set times for the first weekend, check here.

Mar 262015
 

Pete Rock & CL Smooth – The Creator

This song is from All Souled Out, Pete Rock and CL Smooth’s 1991 EP, and is the only Pete Rock solo track on any of their albums. They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)  is the song they are most famous for but they were also on Run DMC’s 1993 hit Down With the King, which Rock also produced. He went on to produce and sing the chorus on Nas’ song The World is Yours, from Illmatic, and later worked on several projects with members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

If you haven’t heard this song before but it sounds familiar it may be because it was just used in Android’s handshake commercial.

Pete Rock is performing at the Echo tonight (3/26) with Slum Village.

Mar 242015
 

Mini Mansions- Death is a Girl

Tonight (3/24) Mini Mansions are signing their new album The Great Pretenders and performing a live set at Amoeba Records Hollywood (and Amoeba San Francisco on 3/27). They also just released a video for their song Vertigo which features Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys.

Mar 192015
 

of Montreal- Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse

This was the first single off Of Montreal’s album Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer, released in 2007. The video was directed by The Brothers Chaps who are most famous for creating Homestar Runner, a Flash animated series that started in 2000 back in the days before YouTube and Facebook.

of Montreal are playing on Sunday (3/22) at the Regent Theater in Los Angeles.

Mar 122015
 

Repo Man Trailer

Repo Man (1984), Alex Cox’s film about aliens, car repossession, and punk rock takes place in Los Angeles in the 1980′s and stars Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton. It received good reviews at the time of its release and has since become a cult classic. The punk rock soundtrack is great too and includes tracks like the one below- Black Flag’s TV Party, as well as songs from Fear, Iggy Pop and Circle Jerks, who make an appearance in the film.

Alex Cox went on to make Sid and Nancy and Straight to Hell (which features Joe Strummer and Courtney Love) .

Repo Man is playing at the Regent Theater on Sunday (3/15) with a performance afterwards by Harry Dean Stanton and a band that includes Harper Simon.

Feb 262015
 

Jon Brion- You Can Still Ruin My Day

Even if you have not heard of composer, musician and producer Jon Brion, chances are you probably have heard something he created or participated in creating. He has produced albums for a huge list of artists including Best Coast, Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, Spoon, and of Montreal.  He also co-produced Kanye West’s Late Registration.

Brion also composed the scores and created original music for a number of films including Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, ParaNorman, and Synecdoche.

This Friday (2/27) he is playing original music and covers at Largo