Randi Sumner

Deafheaven' sGeorge Clarke and Kerry McCoy

The metal community are a passionate bunch. Step out of line, and you'll get the horns. Just ask Deafheaven. The San Francisco natives turned heads with their 2011 debut LP Roads to Judah (released on Deathwish Inc), but not everyone was thrilled. Take, for example, YouTube member MorbidDaniel's comment, "LMAO! Emo/Hipster faggots attempting Black Metal amuses me. =D This band is an epic fail and the vocalist ought to be shot in between the eyes with an XM25."

Photo courtesy of Dublab

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.]

Until recently, it was tricky to quantify Alejandro Cohen's contributions to the L.A. underground-music world. He's a Swiss army knife of an artist -- the sort of indispensable but underpublicized figure who inevitably helps form the dorsal column of any vibrant art scene.

The Buenos Aires-raised Cohen is foremost a musician, initially as half of Languis, a fondly remembered Eastside band that toiled for a decade starting in the late '90s. He is the artist as selector: a DJ at online radio shrine Dublab (where he's also general manager), a curator of Argentine post-punk compilations and the creator of audiovisual tributes to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. He's also a composer of original scores for PBS programs and documentaries, and a connector who is responsible for dozens of inspired interactions between seemingly far-flung music worlds.

On a Friday night, West Pico bar The Mint was host to a small, hardcore crowd of hip hop purists donning hi-top fades and African medallions. On stage, a woman dressed in a vintage Nike windbreaker, silver leggings, and gold bamboo earrings grabbed the mic and introduced herself to the crowd. "I like to get my aggressive rap shit out first." With no backing vocals, Inglewood-based emcee iLLCamille rhymed over West Coast influenced breakbeats and soulful arrangements. She carried herself with the professionalism of a headlining artist and the humility of a block party rapper.

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[Editor's Note: Shea Serrano sometimes writes about Why This Song Sucks, and sometimes about his hilarious and poignant life and times. Better put your shoes on because your socks are about to be blown off.]

7:18 a.m.: I'm taking the boys fishing this morning. There's a serviceable little fishing peer about an hour from my doorstep so that's where we're heading. The plan is to just hang out with Boy A and Boy B for a bit, but also there's a secret plan: I've loaded my phone with a SUPER DUPER MR. HOOPER tough playlist that I want to listen to with the boys while we fish and talk and just exist as father and sons. Best case scenario: We get to experience at least one profound moment (hopefully it happens during the bridge of Jimi Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary"). Worst case scenario: I come back home with only one of them because I tossed the other into the ocean in a fit of rage. Fingers crossed.

8:30: Hhmhm. We've been here for two minutes and things are already weird. The lady next to us, an older Black woman, somehow hooked a crow (I didn't even know crows liked the ocean). Like, she just managed to hit it as she was casting and it got tangled in her line. She reeled him while he tried desperately to fly away. Once she got him onto the peer, she started a conversation with him. ("Now hold still, bird. I'm trying to get you off. I don't want you and I know you don't want me. Let me ge--HOLD STILL, BIRD.") Is there some sort of government program that gives homeless people fishing poles. Thanks a lot, Obama.

Credit: Timothy Norris

The Rolling Stones performing at the Honda Center in Anaheim

The Rolling Stones
Staples Center
5-20-13

If last night's concert at Staples Center really was the Rolling Stones' final show in Los Angeles after nearly 50 years of faithful pilgrimages to the Southland, it revealed that the British warhorses are still capable of major gasp-inducing surprises. When the tour officially kicked off at this arena three weeks ago, there was considerable pomp and circumstance to mark the occasion, including visitations from moderately stellar celebrity guests and the stirring spectacle of dozens of blue-jacketed members of the UCLA Marching Band streaming through the aisles, belching out a festive instrumental version of "Satisfaction." However, at last night's bookend sequel at Staples, the thrills and chills were largely musical instead of theatrical.

See also: We Lurked Outside the Rolling Stones' Rehearsals in Burbank

Dust, Featuring Marky Ramone (Center)

Our last article on metal bands better than Sabbath got quite a response. Some people were angry that we would even suggest that there are better bands than Sabbath. Other people tripped over themselves to offer their own list. There are literally dozens of '70s bands that get overlooked in favor of Sabbath, Deep Purple, UFO and Uriah Heep. Here's another batch of five.

Carmen Electra has been a lot of things throughout her twenty year career: Prince protégé, three time Playboy cover girl, host of MTV's Singled Out, Baywatch cast member, Pussycat Doll, wife of Dennis Rodman (for nine days in 1998), and star of the reality show 'Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen & Dave, which she appeared in with her former husband Dave Navarro.

Electra is now revisiting her musical roots with her new EDM-inspired dance track "Bigger Dick." She calls the single a campy homage to how modern women are "coming up and taking over." The synth-laden clubland single finds Electra declaring such lyrics as: "I got that hair, nails, lipstick and a bigger dick than you...I be on my shit, gonna make you come so quick/I got a bigger dick than you/A bigger dick than you/I got a bigger dick than you."

We spoke with Electra about what it all means.

Fan,
I'm in a band of moderate renown. We're a D.I.Y. outfit but the band covers its own operating costs and on tour we can draw a crowd anywhere we play. We're on the cusp of releasing our 2nd album, nailing down dates for a summer tour (including some festival gigs) and shooting a music video for the lead single.

And I am so goddamn bored I want to quit immediately.

Photo: Jesse Fairfax

Danny Brown is a magnetic but troublesome figure in hip-hop. In the past month he's fallen under heavy scrutiny for receiving a blow job while performing in Minneapolis; his opener that night, Kitty, launched into a passionate defense, suggesting that the oral sex was against his will and that the woman who administered it should be arrested for rape. During her opening set in New York a couple weeks ago, meanwhile, certain jackass crowd members chanted, "Suck his dick."

Timothy Norris

ScHoolboy Q

Better Than... Actually being a freshman in high school

Since 2008, hip-hop magazine XXL has named its "top freshmen" each year, and on Saturday night the bulk of them performed at Club Nokia. Black Hippy crewmates Schoolboy Q and Ab-Soul were included in the group, and one expected they would perform together. But that was not the case, even though each performed tracks that had the other originally featured.