Timothy Norris

ScHoolboy Q

ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Dizzy Wright
XXL Freshmen Live 2013
Club Nokia
5-18-13

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.

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Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion perform at MacArthur Park in July

The Levitt Pavilions have announced their schedules, so you know what that means: It's summer!

In an exclusive to West Coast Sound, the Levitt Pavilion Los Angeles in MacArthur Park and Levitt Pavilion Pasadena in Memorial Park have released their full lineups, with shows held throughout June, July, and August. Highlights include Metalachi, Quetzal, Gangstagrass, a number of Dublab curated performances, Mark de Clive Lowe...too much to mention here. The full schedule is below.

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Universal Republic

Youngblood Hawke -- See Wednesday

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar

Monday, May 20

Holy Ghost!
TROUBADOUR
It's been two years since the release of Holy Ghost!'s eponymous debut. Often hailed as LCD Soundsystem's heirs, the NYC-based duo's sound falls somewhere between Phoenix's precocious little brothers and MGMT's mischievous second cousins -- if those bands put out records in 1984. Keeping this reference year in mind, Holy Ghost! hosts the Doobie Brothers' Michael McDonald's distinct vocals on the R&B-toned, Shannon-style track "Some Children." Staying with the falsetto theme, The Rapture's Luke Jenner guests on "It's Not Over." As sometime yacht rockers, Holy Ghost! have lighthearted synth patterns trickling under "Wait and See" and melodies so happy on "Static on the Wire" that you can hear a smile in the perfectly harmonized choruses. Ultimately, Holy Ghost! make danceable pop music acceptable for hipsters. --Lily Moayeri

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Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony aired on HBO on Saturday. Hopefully you didn't watch it, because it was bad. But pity us: We actually attended the damn thing, at the Nokia Theatre last month.

So, for the sake of catharsis, let's briefly run it down. It's the only way we can move on, and hopefully we can provide you some guffaws in the process. Below is a blow-by-blow account. Also: Fuck Rush fans.

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Kevin Scanlon

Jose Tanaka

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here.

José Tanaka was born in Kyoto, Japan. But his parents were so dedicated to flamenco music that they named him José, to make sure he'd always be tied to the traditional Spanish Romani folk art of singing, dancing, guitar and hand claps.

His father had been captivated by the music as a teenager after seeing legendary flamenco guitarist Sabicas perform on television. His mother, who'd been his father's guitar student, became a flamenco dancer.

"We were a flamenco family," Tanaka says. "There weren't many families like us. In our building, the first floor was our guitar shop, guitar lessons were on the second floor, and the rest was our house."

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See also: Henry Rollins: Why I'm Not Playing Music Anymore

RADIO BROADCAST #216
05-19-13

Fanatics. I am sitting in a Starbucks in Washington D.C. in my old neighborhood. I am on my second pass of the last few singles the Buzzcocks recorded for United Artists. I don't know why I trip on them so often. I guess it's because I think the songs are better than a lot of the ones found on the album they recorded right before these called A Different Kind of Tension. It's a great album but these songs are really happening when some of the ones on ADKoT never really hit me as hard. Perhaps later this summer, we will play all of these songs together and see what you make of them. Perhaps some of them will be new to you and you will dig them. I have been obsessed with the Buzzcocks UA recordings since I was in high school. I am still knocked out how damn good these songs are.

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Photo by Amy Darling

BLISS 525
525 E. Broadway, Long Beach, Sat., May 18; competition starts at 11:30 p.m.

When it comes to gay club carousing and "vogueing" a la Paris Is Burning, Los Angeles has been smoldering something fierce at Los Globos' party called, yes, L.A. Is Burning. This weekend, as L.A. and O.C.'s GLBT communities head to Long Beach for the area's Gay Pride festivities, the popping dance-driven bash from Josie Basford shows everyone how it's done. DJs Desire and Los spin the right '90s house sounds to get everyone moving. And if you've ever seen how the vogue vamps on our side of town do it, know this: They use every square inch of the dance floor.

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Credit: Timothy Norris

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti -- See Friday

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar

Friday, May 17

The International Swingers
VIPER ROOM
With New York's Met Gala "punk" event and exhibit dominating the media last week, it's sadly ironic that the innovators and music makers responsible for this in-your-face aesthetic took a backseat to the celebrity aspect. So un-punk. Thankfully, two of the genre's iconic music makers, The Sex Pistols' Glen Matlock and Blondie's Clem Burke, will be hard to ignore in L.A. this week, as their supergroup is staging a bona fide music blitz here, beginning tonight at the Viper Room. Matlock, the Pistols' original bass player (as heard on Never Mind the Bollocks) subsequently was replaced by Sid Vicious, but he enjoyed more time with the group while playing on their reunion tours. Burke, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, is hands down one of the steadiest and most stylish rock drummers of all time. The pair's talents are complemented by the Swingers' other members, Gary Twinn (Supernaut, Speedtwinn) and James Stevenson (Generation X, Gene Loves Jezebel). This may not be snarling, hot-mess Pistols punk or Blondie-esque beat chic, but the sound definitely references both, as well as '80s New Wave, a little '70s classic rock and modern indie, too. Still, the attitude is all punk, as their latest single, "Gun Control," makes loud and smolderingly clear. Also performing at the Derby Dolls' halftime show on Saturday, May 18, and the Original Farmers Market on Fairfax on Friday, May 24. --Lina Lecaro

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mc_soph

Reporting by Dennis Romero

The buzz on Twitter today: Daft Punk played at surprise set at Avalon Hollywood last night.

Starting after midnight, lots of folks in attendance reported witnessing -- or thinking they were witnessing -- the helmeted French duo, famous for teasing us by not playing Coachella this year:

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Steve Cohn/University of Southern California

L to R: Jimmy Iovine, USC Dean Erica Muhl, Dr. Dre, USC President C.L. Max Nikias

As our sister blog The Informer reported yesterday, Interscope Records boss Jimmy Iovine and boss of all bosses Dr. Dre pooled together $70 million they had lying around to establish the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation. It will offer students the most badass major imaginable, starting with the incoming class of 2018.

Their press conference at Interscope Studios in Santa Monica yesterday brought out Dre for a rare public appearance; he wore a black suit (no tie) and black patent leather shoes, and was visibly nervous. This despite having his wife Nicole Threatt by his side -- in platinum blonde curls and a small black dress, she posed for pictures and briefly turned the small press gathering into a red carpet affair. In any case, the founding of this college feels monumental; not just for the kids, who will probably invent some amazing gadget that lets you design your garage while streaming music videos on your video games, but for hip-hop itself. For a young genre that can sometimes feel faddy, this is some permanent shit right here: The man who taught us to smoke trees will now have his name on the side of the building. Dre and Iovine spoke with West Coast Sound in an extremely rare interview.

See also: The Making of The Chronic

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