From Hanni El Khatib's "Family" video (below)

This week for our music feature we profile local guitar hero Hanni El Khatib, whose sophomore album, Head In the Dirt, came out Tuesday on the heels of some cherry licensing placements (hello, Super Bowl commercial).

See also: Hanni El Khatib: The hard-partying singer is sexy, raw, wild and, hopefully, dangerous

El Khatib's classic Americana image has positioned him among some prominent roots-rock figures, including the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach (who produced Head in the Dirt at his Nashville studio) and, um, Kid Rock. In preparation for the story, we had a long lunchtime chat and hangout at the pomade-wearing sex symbol's recent Hollywood art opening. Here are some quotes that didn't make the story, plus his new video for "Family."

More »

Jennie Warren

Our music feature this week breaks down the career of KCRW Music Director and Morning Becomes Eclectic host Jason Bentley, who has been a central figure in the L.A. electronic scene since almost before Skrillex was born. We spoke with Bentley a number of times for this story, including in the basement studio at KCRW, about the return of his electronic-focused radio show Metropolis and some new developments at this year's Coachella. Here are some outtakes from Bentley and Hard Events founder Gary Richards that didn't make the story.

See also: Jason Bentley Is the Music Director of Los Angeles

On how he spots new musical trends:
Bentley: It's kind of a magic process, and I only say that because I try and respect a bigger conversation and voice. Sometimes one single record will open the door and then everyone wants to go through that door. It's not a conspiracy, it just happens. Deadmau5's Faxing Berlin is an example; after that, everyone wanted to hear that kind of record.

More »

Credit: Nikko Le Mere

Tokimonsta is the subject of our music feature this week; for the story, we hung out with the beat scene DJ/producer at the dinner party event celeb chef Roy Choi whipped up for her at his restaurant A-Frame. A few days later we sat down with her over green tea to talk about her recently released sophomore LP Half Shadows. A few days after that, we ran into her again on the street after a late night party at SXSW in Austin.

See also: Tokimonsta Leaves the Nest: The producer's new album is on a big-time label

She spoke about her rise through the beat scene, her creative process, releasing her new album on a major label and how rad her cat is. Here's some material that didn't make the story.

More »

Credit: Papa Vic Photography

The album cover for All My Love in Half Light

For our latest music feature, we profile L.A.-based experimental dream pop singer/songwriter Lady Lazarus, nee Melissa Sweat. Although still relatively unknown, Sweat's recently-released sophomore LP All My Love in Half Light has received glowing reviews.

See also: Lady Lazarus Rising: Singer-songwriter Melissa Sweat released her inner artist through great trial and tribulation

We kicked it with her a few times, including last month at the HMS Bounty in Koreatown. In a back booth, over glasses of red wine, she talked art, life, romance and her creative process. Here are some outtakes that didn't make the story.

More »

Aaron Frank

Local Natives

For our music feature this week, we spoke with acclaimed L.A. indie rockers Local Natives about their much-anticipated new album Hummingbird, out next week. Ascending from relative obscurity in Orange County to opening for Arcade Fire on tour in 2011, Local Natives helped breathe new life into the Silver Lake music scene with their debut album Gorilla Manor.

See also: Local Natives' Big Vaulted Ceilings: On their new album, the rising indie-folk act show who they are and what they've become

We caught up with the band at Food+Lab for our initial interview in December and again in January, at lead singer Kelcey Ayer's apartment. The members gabbed openly about everything, from their roots dating back to junior high to recording their new album in Brooklyn last year with Aaron Dessner of The National. Here are some outtakes that didn't make the story.

More »

Open Bar Entertainment

For our music feature this week, we spoke with Xzibit, the Los Angeles-via-Detroit rapper whose hard-core yet introspective albums have earned him a place in the pantheon as one of the greatest West Coast rappers. He's collaborated with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Eminem, and later served as the host of the MTV wish fulfillment program, Pimp My Ride.

See also: *Xzibit Carries the Weight: Post-Pimp My Ride, the rapper strides forward
*Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums

From his Chatsworth studio, Xzibit spoke to us about his new album, Napalm and his experiences over a decade and a half in the industry. Here are some outtakes that didn't make the story.

On his early years in the L.A. hip-hop scene:

I was running around, doing a lot of freestyle shit, a lot of Unity shows, and freestyling with the Alkaholics. I was bouncing from show to show, and just trying to get on wherever I could. But that was the live aspect. We didn't really do mixtapes and all of that shit. I think there's something to be said about being able to rip a live show, and be in a live environment. That's where my breeding ground was.

More »

By Glenn BurnSilver

See also: Who knew? Alice Cooper actually had a great time in high school

In this week's issue, we speak with Alice Cooper about the 40th anniversary of his signature ode to teenage rebellion, "School's Out."

"I've never had a song or heard of any song that's had as much impact on kids," Cooper tells us in the piece. "That song is everybody's national anthem. From presidents of the United States to movie stars to guys you would look at in an airport and think were the furthest thing away from rock 'n' roll, they would come up to me and go, 'School's Out' got me through school.'"

Of course, fans of Cooper's syndicated radio show Nights With Alice Cooper know the man likes to talk, so we ran up with more than we could fit into this week's feature. So read on for our collection of Alice Cooper outtakes.

More »

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

See also: Ariel Pink Is the King of Whatever: Raised in Beverly Hills, he became the preeminent Eastside satirical musical madman

In our music feature this week we profile Ariel Pink, the enigmatic Beverly Hills-raised rocker whose 4AD-released latest album Mature Themes is one of the year's best. Over the course of two interviews at Folliero's in Highland Park and his nearby apartment, Pink showed why he's perhaps the most quotable musician this side of Freddie Gibbs.

On how he picked the name, Ariel Pink:

There's so many bad names and so many weird names that strike you at first as being wholly ridiculous and bad, but then they become pervasive enough and associated enough with the music that the meaning is stripped of it and then you have a different iconic stature. You redeem the name with the music. So I was thinking, 'What's a stupid ol' name? Oh, Ariel Pink. That's a piece of shit.' Great, I'm just going to be another bad piece of art to share with the world. I have to live with that. I can't get away that easily.

More »

Jennie Warren

Tattoo's forehead

See also: KDAY, the Gangsta Rap Oldies Station, Breaks New Ground by Playing Music From the Bad Old Days

Our big story this week is on L.A. radio station KDAY, one of the only terrestrial outlets in the country playing classic hip-hop. The station -- which is independent but gets great ratings -- can be heard at 93.5 FM, and is an echo of the trailblazing AM original, which was found at 1580 AM and went off the air in 1991.

The new incarnation is home to personalities like morning show hosts Cecilia "CeCe" Valencia and David "Tattoo" Gonzalez, the latter of whom was formerly on Power 106. Perhaps his greatest claim to fame is the forehead tattoo from which he gets his nickname, above, which reads "I Slept With Shaq." Yes, it is 100 percent real, and the story behind it says a lot about his ascent in radio. Below is a short excerpt from the story about how he got the ink, as well as a video in which he talks about it.

More »

See also: Lost His Edge | James Murphy and a New Concert Documentary Reflect on the End of LCD Soundsystem

In our music feature this week, we spoke with former frontman James Murphy about Shut Up and Play the Hits, a new film documenting LCD Soundsystem's sold-out April 2011 farewell concert at Madison Square Garden. Below are excerpts from our conversation that didn't make it into the story.

On recreating an interview with Chuck Klosterman for the cameras
When Shut Up and Play the Hits premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, journalist Chuck Klosterman, who appears in the movie interviewing Murphy, said on Grantland that his part in the movie was a "kind of a re-enactment" of an interview he conducted with Murphy for the Guardian a year earlier. Murphy says he and directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern thought of this re-staged interview as "a natural way of providing a lot of information. Chuck didn't get any questions from those guys, I don't think, or from me. Like, just do a normal interview like a normal interview.

More »