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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Andrea Domanick

Common at Rock the Bells 2011

See also: Our review of Rock the Bells 2011

Last night Guerilla Union announced this year's Rock the Bells 2012 dates, headliners and lineup.

Beginning in 2010, the hip-hop festival's headliners -- famous acts whose first few albums often outshine their later work -- have performed their classic albums from beginning to end. But to keep the attendees' average age down (let's face it, golden-age hip hop devotees are getting old), a couple supporting acts like Mac Miller have been included.

But this year, there's a surprising twist.

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Emily Shur

Ximena Sariñana

See also:
*Ximena Sariñana: An Indie-Pop Star In Mexico, Anonymous In L.A.
*Our review of Ana Tijoux at Levitt Pavilion at MacArthur Park
*La Santa Cecilia Represents L.A. At The Latin Grammys Tonight

Viva Los Dodgers, a festival celebrating Los Angeles' Latino culture, just announced this season's lineup exclusively through West Coast Sound.

Held in Lot 6 two hours before each of the Dodgers' Sunday home games, the festival is free with a ticket to the day's Dodger game. The schedule this year is a mix of hip hop and traditional folkloric music, and standouts including Weekly darling Ximena Sariñana, badass rapper Ana Tijoux and La Santa Cecilia are all scheduled. See the full list below.

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Ivan Fernandez

Latino 96.3 Spring Break Bash
Gibson Amphitheater
4/14/12

Better than... Listening to 96.3 on crummy car speakers in traffic.

It was ladies' night at Universal Citywalk on Saturday. The girls worked the runway from the parking structure to Gibson Amphitheater, elbows locked and dodging tourists while they chugged the last of their drinks before security pat-down. What a brave parade of too-tight mall fashion: bandage dresses, muffin tops, towering stripper heels. The occasional dude had clearly come only to appease his girlfriend (or to prey on a single lady with a head full of love songs).

Yet the show was far from sold out. The four reggaeton artists on the lineup -- Cosculluela, Alexis y Fido, Plan B and Ivy Queen -- were leftovers from Latino 96.3's annual Calibash festival three months earlier, a packed event at Staples Center headlined by Wisin y Yandel, biggest name in reggaeton.

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Ivan Fernandez

Odd Future watching Dipset

Paid Dues 2012
NOS Events Center, San Bernardino
4/7/2012

Posted by the Paid Dues media check-in, the announcement, "ATTENTION: Photo Pit Closed for Odd Future Performance," seemed an ominous sign. Though it likely was just to ward off further lawsuits, it felt a little pretentious -- and Murs' indie hip-hop festival always has been anything but.

Though it's grown even since last year, when Lil B was still a curiosity and Black Hippy performed on the smallest stage early in the day (Kendrick Lamar headlined yesterday, for contrast), there remains a kind of hip-hop family-reunion feeling. Your favorite rappers come out to be fans of their favorite rappers. Fashawn was wandering around the grounds in house shoes, red SOLO cup in hand. Odd Future geeked out kinda adorably and literally tumbled into the photo pit to watch Dipset. Hell, even Jerry Heller was spotted lurking around the artists' trailers.

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Terry Richardson

A-Trak will have you know that he isn't just a DJ -- he's a turntablist. Raised in Montreal and now based in New York, he was just 15 when he won the DMC World Championship, the prestigious DJ battle competition.

Now 30 and half of the dance production duo Duck Sauce, he's scored a pair of ubiquitous global hits with "Barbra Streisand" and "Big Bad Wolf." He's hit the road with Kanye West and launched uber-hip label Fool's Gold. Did we mention that Terry Richardson took his press photo?

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See also:
*Our Beyond Wonderland slideshow
*Beyond Wonderland Rave Could Get Snow This Weekend. No, Really.
*Dave Grohl: His Grammys Speech About Electronic Music Was Bullshit

This weekend, L.A.-based DJ Fei-Fei Wang performed at Armin Van Buuren's trance party at the Beyond Wonderland rave. Within hours of her set, her Facebook wall was plastered with personal attacks. People were calling her a "dirty whore" and saying things like "Someone take a shotgun to Fei-Fei." Why? The DJ, dubbed the "bad girl of EDM," had played dubstep and other music that wasn't trance during her set.

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Colin Young-Wolff

The star of the show, and B-Real of Cypress Hill

See also:
*Our slideshow of Cypress Hill Smokeout Festival 2012
*Cypress Hill Rallies Medical Marijuana Advocates for Smokeout at City Hall (With Photos)

Cypress Hill Smokeout Festival with Rusko, Wiz Khalifa, Korn, Sublime with Rome, Thievery Corporation
NOS Events Center, San Bernardino
3/3/12

Love was in the San Bernardino air Saturday. Well, that, and the scent of chili cheese fries and pizza mingling with weed smoked out of Grape Swisher Sweets.

Considering Cypress Hill long has dabbled in other genres, plucking and tossing elements from Latin, metal, rock, reggae and psychedelic into their pot, it's no surprise their annual Smokeout Festival embraces them, too. In 2010, French/Spanish singer Manu Chao shared the day with Deadmau5. This year, in anticipation of his upcoming collaborative EP with Cypress, brostep brah Rusko was billed alongside weed connoisseurs Curren$y and Wiz Khalifa.

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Rebecca Haithcoat

Fashawn, unshaven

See also: Our review of Cypress Hill Smokeout Festival 2012

In Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, a young shepherd, Santiago, attends seminary but longs to travel. He embarks on a quest to find a hidden treasure and ends up meeting an alchemist, who teaches him that the treasure really is the journey itself.

Fashawn once lived in a trailer behind a church and wanted to be a pastor. His first label, One, was owned by a Buddhist. He has a song called "Samsonite Man" about his yearning to travel. And of course, his real name is Santiago and one of his closest collaborators is the producer The Alchemist. "Your name has to do with your destiny, your whole existence," Fashawn says, sitting on a Starbucks patio in Glendale's Little Armenia.

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Kinky

Sunset Junction may be a thing of the past, but you can still get your fill of delicious, delicious indie fun on the near-east side. Over Memorial Day weekend, May 26-27, Silver Lake Jubilee -- which would really rather be called simply Jubilee, thanks much -- will take place on Santa Monica Blvd. at Sunset, and feature "the city's most eclectic selection of bands, comedy, literature, artists, food trucks, and shopping," according to its lit.

General admission passes are $20-35; if you get them online you get a t-shirt, but otherwise you can get tickets at Amoeba, Barkeeper, Origami, Vacation, Wacko, and at the event itself. Below is the the list, which a West Coast Sound exclusive. We're particularly psyched for Fidlar, the subject of our feature story this week.

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