Photo by Zachary Pincus-Roth

The popular Venice Beach Drum Circle has done away with the bongos and embraced the digital age. This week the group, which meets every Sunday just before sunset, announced that it has replaced traditional instruments with a collection of smartphones and Rock Band drum kits.

Ariel Coriander, who describes himself as the group's de facto leader, despite "not believing in the concept of leaders," wants to assure people that even though they've modernized, the circle's core values remain intact.

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"Get your own fucking cab!"

As we noted in our Definitive Guide to the Music of The Big Lebowski, Glenn Fry was not pleased to learn that the Dude hates the fucking Eagles, and had strong words for Jeff Bridges about it. Now, for the first time, a secret source close to Frey reveals what happened when the Eagles co-founder learned that his band was mocked in the film.

March 7, 1998 (morning)
Glenn Frey is polishing his gold records in his Brentwood mansion. He has a collins glass of cheap vermouth on the rocks in one hand and a fistful of leopard-print chamois in the other. He chuckles, "Hey Henley, I just thought of the best idea. Don? Don...?" Henley's not there. The house is empty.

March 7, 1998 (evening)
Frey is seated in his local Loews Cineplex alone. He's got a full bag of popcorn. He's whistling "Life in the Fast Lane." He starts whistling louder and staring awkwardly at the couple next to him, but they are perplexed. No one recognizes him. As the previews are about to start his gigantic cell phone rings.

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See also: Top 20 Hair Metal Albums of All Time

Lately we've noticed a lot of bands have their own brands of wine, including Motörhead, Kiss, AC/DC, and Ratt. (Even Warrant has a wine. Warrant.) One of our friends at Wine Spectator magazine showed us the piece they wrote in April about this trend, and noted they were going to rate many of them in their October issue. But then walking ego Gene Simmons got word that his Kiss wine was rated poorly and threatened to sue. Wine Spectator felt it wasn't worth the hassle, so they killed the piece.

Here at West Coast Sound, however, we're fearless motherfuckers who refuse to be pushed around. Also, we're drunk. So we sent an intern to find the piece in the trash at Wine Spectator and we are running it below. Bring it on, Simmons.

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Big news: Young country-pop starlet Taylor Swift took a bit of time out from making the "Who me?" face to record another album. Red, out October 22, is about "relationships and breakups," according to Swift, and its first single is called (no shit) "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." She's been coy about which one of her famous exes -- Jake Gyllenhaal, Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, John Mayer -- the song is about. The speculation is part of the fun!

But you don't have to have dated Swift; if you hurt Swift's feelings in any way, she will write a song about it. It's no surprise, then, that a good deal of Red's 16 tracks are about slights, beefs and squabbles. West Coast Sound recently spoke to a disgruntled rep from Swift's camp, who handed over an early partial tracklisting of the album and explained the genesis of the songs. We cannot vouch for the veracity of any of this.

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