Timothy Norris

Las Cafeteras

See also:
*Las Cafeteras on the Strict Rules of Son Jarocho Music
*Jubilee Preview: XBXRX Have Been Banned From Venues. So Many Times

Somewhere between $4.90 Singhas at Sompun Thai and the 4100 Bar's beer garden, the first day of this year's Silver Lake Jubilee flew by in flashes of neon face paint, bouncing conga lines and one bright, pink tutu. We have yet to recover.

Fidlar canceled, but XBXRX brought the manic insanity, donning matching outfits that looked like puffy dresses cut out from hot air balloons, and various members climbing the scaffolding and a traffic light. (For the finale, they brought out a guy in a gorilla suit and a guy dressed like Alf, to wrestle.)

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Timothy Norris

Syd the Kid

See also: Odd Future's Syd the Kyd Joins The Internet

The Internet, Kilo Kish
The Echo
5/25/12

In September, Odd Future subgroup The Internet (producer Matt Martians and DJ/producer/engineer Syd the Kid) quietly released "Love Song - 1." Already a pretty wisp of a track, Syd elevates it to remarkable. Her voice touches the notes the way you stroke a sleeping baby, and in a scant minute and a half, she captures the entire range of emotion -- confusion, ache, resignation, hopefulness, yearning -- that characterizes the breakup conversation. It's so intimate you almost blush.

But we wondered then, could the one member of Odd Future who seemed to prefer being behind the boards and decks step into the spotlight? Would she be able to command the stage of their first-ever live show without the chaos of the rest of Odd Future there to fill up space?

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Kevin Scanlon

Maria del Pilar performs Aug. 4 at MacArthur Park

In an exclusive to West Coast Sound, the Levitt Pavilions in Pasadena and MacArthur Park have revealed the lineups to their massive, free summer concert series -- almost 100 shows between the two venues.

This year features everything from Latin alternative to folk, indie and world music. Highlights include former Los Abandoned frontwoman Maria del Pilar (aka Pilar Diaz), noisy garage rocker Hanni El Khatib, cacophonic big band Killsonic, Sara Watkins of contemporary folk trio Nickel Creek and Mexico City-based electronic outfit Mexican Institute of Sound. The full list is below.

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Katy Baugh

*Top 20 Worst Bands Ever: The Complete List
*Top 20 Musicians of All Time, in Any Genre: The Complete List
*Top 20 Sexiest Female Musicians of All Time: The Complete List
*Top 20 Sexiest Male Musicians of All Time: The Complete List

Considering that most all of today's popular music -- be it rock, pop, dance or rap -- sprang from genres pioneered by black musicians, being all Caucasian about your songs is to literally betray your roots. To qualify as one of our whitest musicians, then, requires more than a pasty complexion, it requires a near-total disregard for jazz, blues and soul or, even worse, a complete whitewashing of them. Without further ado, then, here are 20 performers who put the you-know-what in honky-tonk. -Ben Westhoff

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Danielle Bacher

See also:
*Glenn Danzig's Amazing Art Collection
*The Craziest Danzig Stalker of Them All
*Glenn Danzig's Head On Other People's Bodies: An Appreciation

Glenn Danzig is a hard man to get face time with, so we were extremely psyched to meet up with him at his management company's Wilshire Blvd. office. The veteran metalhead cut an imposing figure: compact and muscular frame, long dark hair, sunglasses, leather jacket and intense demeanor. Adding to the scene was a creepy life-sized Clown from Slipknot doll staring at us from the corner of the room. You can see it below.

To our surprise, he turned out to be polite and forthcoming, talking about his Danzig Legacy Tour, on which he and his band will be performing songs from the Misfits, Samhain and Danzig, in similar fashion to his Halloween show at Gibson. (It hits SoCal tomorrow night, May 26 at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre.) It was a thrill talking to him, and topics discussed included his feelings about the current Misfits, folks he talks to (Rick Rubin), folks he doesn't (Jerry Only), his fighting background, how he would have played Wolverine in X-Men and how our story about a guy who stalked him was wrong.

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Shannon Corr

Punk legends XBXRX have a reputation for raucous shows, driven by their frenzied stage theatrics that have sometimes left members hospitalized. The group, which is now based in L.A. and performs at Silver Lake Jubilee tomorrow, are quite provocative, donning various uniforms for performances, and sometimes eschewing song titles.

Their name may be intentionally meaningless -- "Just trying to keep the focus on the art and the music, and not about us as people," says guitarist Steve Touchstone -- but they're pretty badass. In fact, they've gotten themselves banned from venues about a million times.

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KCRW Broadcast #166 for Saturday, May 26, 2012

See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! South Africa's Present and Future

Fanatics! What a show! So many new tracks! Besides that, we give our thanks to some great musicians who have recently passed away. The last few weeks have been very tough with all the sad news of Chuck Brown, Adam Yauch, Duck Dunn, Donna Summer and Robin Gibb.

I am back from the shows in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa and what a great time all that was. I got back here a few days ago and almost immediately wanted to go back to the airport and fly back to NZ and start it all over again.

Since I have been out, a lot of records have come into the office. I brought back quite a few from tour, so there's a lot to sort through and over the next few weeks, we will get into some of these.

Tonight, we have a lot of firsts. Let's get into it!

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The new Los Globos

See also: Los Globos Gets A Hip New Reinvention

Less than a year after Sunset Junction went down in flames, Silver Lake's music scene is again the subject of civic tension, as its neighborhood council has threatened to bring down the Los Globos nightclub.

Owner Steven Edelson purchased the venue last summer, and proceeded to overhaul its interior, menu, and musical offerings. According to both him and minutes from a May 7 public safety committee meeting for the council, a handful neighbors living near the club -- located at Sunset and Vendome -- are complaining about noise and rowdy behavior, and are threatening to take action against the club, including seeking a revocation of its liquor license.

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Timothy Norris

See also:
*The Pharcyde's Bizarre Ride, 20 Years Later: 
An Appreciation
*Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List

The Pharcyde
The Roxy
5/23/12

Better than ... listening to the album.

The city's been a little tense lately, honking on the freeway, power drinking, and slinking off to Best Buy to replace smashed television sets. But now that we're out of the basketball playoffs, the Pharcyde did their best to restore our "don't sweat it" mentality. The Roxy last night was packed and steamy, perfect conditions for the group to perform one of the greatest albums ever cooked from the city's time-tested recipe of women, weed and weather, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde.

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Louisville, Kentucky-based punk-metal act the Hookers are among the hardest-hitting and most under-appreciated forces in contemporary music. Their sound -- screamingly pure, brutally focused, dangerously loud, dreamily vehement -- evokes a particularly nasty Southern subculture (ever heard of the Confederacy of Scum?) that has mostly, and thankfully, festered in the dark.

It ain't pretty, it ain't for everyone, but if you're a rocker, these guys are of critical importance. Tonight, they're billed with the 70-something underworld rock & roll overlord Simon Stokes (one of Hookers' lead vocalist Adam Neal's idols) at the Redwood. We spoke with Neal about American culture, Satan and destroying shit.

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