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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Kevin Scanlon

David and Andrew Fung

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

Brothers David and Andrew Fung were raised in Seattle but as kids frequently visited their cousins in the San Gabriel Valley. "Those were some of my fondest memories," says Andrew, biting into a Hong Kong waffle sandwich at a new Asian coffee and tea joint in Monterey Park, before passing it to David for a sample. "I remember thinking, 'I ate that really good thing [there], how come we don't eat that in Seattle?' "

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Kevin Scanlon

Justin Smith

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

For lunch today in Culver City, Justin Smith has ridden his motorcycle up the 405 from Cal State Long Beach, where he teaches U.S. history classes as an adjunct professor. That is, when he's not fronting his band, Graf Orlock, an underground favorite in L.A.'s metal scene.

At first glance, there might seem to be some cognitive dissonance between lecturing about early U.S. colonialism and screaming at shows with Graf Orlock, which plays a chaotic, fast-paced metal subgenre called grindcore. But Smith, who is 30 and wears close-cropped hair and a beard, insists otherwise. In fact, he says, his performances behind the lectern are informed by his tours, not just with Graf Orlock but also with a hardcore group called Ghostlimb.

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Kevin Scanlon

Victoria Justice

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

"I think you go right here," says Victoria Justice, guiding a reporter toward her house in the Encino Hills, overlooking the mountains and just down the street from Martin Lawrence's pad.

At home, Justice's 16-year-old sister, Madison, wearing a mud mask, lounges poolside, while her mother — a chatterbox Bronx native of Puerto Rican descent — talks about the special family dinners they prepare every Friday: beans, rice and chicken. Justice's family uprooted itself from Florida for her career when she was 11, and the singer-actress repaid the favor last year by purchasing this 5,000-square-foot home, which they chose, Justice says, "kind of on the spur of the moment."

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​[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Sunday KCRW broadcast.]

See also: Henry Rollins: Harmony at Dischord

Immediately, I would like to apologize for writing to you from my current degree of exhaustion. Though I am seemingly too tired at day's end to even lift my fork, I have to say that things are going well.

I have been living in the Arlington, Va., area for about two weeks now, working on a history-based television series that probably will roll out later this year. That is a lot of good talk, but we have to get the thing done first. Our excellent producer has set the bar very high, and we are all leaping up to it as best we can.

The days often start early with a crew meeting in our first cameraman's room. Walkies are redistributed, now charged, gear is checked, and our producer breaks down the day's locations, considerations and potential challenges. Permits. Lots of permits. We are briefed about our guests; their time limits, range of expertise, etc. Personnel are divided into groups and directed to different vehicles and away we go, into the snarl of morning Pentagon- and city-bound traffic.

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Kevin Scanlon

Frankie Eder

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

Last year Frankie Eder DJed at underground beat music club Low End Theory, joining the ranks of Thom Yorke, Erykah Badu and Flying Lotus. Pretty cool. He's no professional musician — in fact, he's just a regular eighth-grade kid. Still, the crowd went wild once he started playing his raw, dubstep-inspired piece "Ghost," even though he could barely reach the boards.

Today, a little more than a year later, Eder, better known as DJ Subjection, is attending a weekend Eagle Rock seminar in Ableton Live, a sophisticated music-making computer program. Now 13, he wears a mass of blond hair and seemingly is growing taller by the minute. Yet it's easy to see he's the youngest person in this room of seasoned musicians. Here to add some tricks to his arsenal, the bass-music prodigy is a master of making beats on his laptop. His complex technical orchestrations sound like they're from a composer who's been toiling over the controls for decades, not just a few years.

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