Music “Wonderland” at the Supperclub: Aoki’s Album Release Event

January 19, 2012 - 6:34 pm

Standing at the back of the Supperclub dance floor the bass rattles my chest like an old truck washboarding down a Mexican dirt road. I like it. There are people everywhere, packed in and each more obnoxious than the next. As I stand there observing, a girl in 6 inch heels steps squarely on my big toe. I yelp out loud. Caravanning waitresses caring bottles of vodka stream through the crowd bottles held high adorned with mega sparkler flares burning bright as if to announce the coming of a new king. The crowd pulsates with excitement anticipating Dim Mak founder, DJ extraordinaire Steve Aoki’s “Wonderland” DJ set celebrating the release of his highly anticipated, heavily cameod album.

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Gallery Oddity You Can Leave Your Hat On: No Pants Metro Ride 2012

January 10, 2012 - 10:47 am

It’s not easy to organize a flash mob in a city as notoriously spread out as Los Angeles, which makes the annual international No Pants Metro Ride Day the perfect occasion to rally in the name of fun and public confusion. The requirements: no pants, no explanations.

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Music The Pixies Play The Music Box

November 22, 2011 - 3:08 pm

This past Saturday the seminal band, The Pixies, played a little venue in Hollywood called the Music Box. If you are saying to yourself right now, “I didn’t even know the Pixies were playing”, you are not alone. They opened up tickets to their fans alone and sold out in minutes. It was a very cool way to gather the faithful to pay homage to these alt rock icons.

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Music 8 Albums, 4 Nights, 4 Cities: The Bouncing Souls Go All In

November 16, 2011 - 9:39 am

The Bouncing Souls completed an amazing series of shows recently in Hollywood. They played 8 albums, 2 albums each night, 4 nights in a row, in 4 different cities. That’s something like 106 songs. I mean, sure they have been around now 20 years. And sure they are on the road constantly. And sure, they are great at what they do. But keeping all those songs straight…its kind of an epic achievement even for the consummate professional.

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Film Gallery The Electric Daisy Festival Film Sparks a Hollywood Riot (Sort of)

July 28, 2011 - 3:37 pm

The Electric Daisy Festival is quickly turning out to be the newest Coachella— a massive music extravaganza that has tapped the mainstream pulse of a nation’s youth, drawing in fans by more and more thousands each year.

But did you know it’s also likely to incite mass chaos and rioting in the streets – especially if those punk-ass raver kids ain’t happy?

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Gallery Los Angeles Music Henry Rollins Spins At Amoeba for Record Store Day

April 27, 2011 - 11:08 am

In the country, hell, the world, few other music stores know how to have as much fun as Amoeba. You go there, you remember why there’s no more Waxie Maxie’s, no more Tower. You have an Amoeba, you’re gold.

And what began as a novelty in 2007 — hardcore vinyl fans uniting to officially salute the lo-fi music of their youth — has grown into a global phenomenon, with Amoeba in Hollywood possibly among the best places to go and celebrate. This year, Henry Rollins was on hand to DJ, sign some stuff, talk with fans, and even inspect tattoos.

Not Impressed

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Gallery Music Moving Units Kick Off the Coachella Main Stage

April 17, 2011 - 1:55 pm

If you’re clued into the LA music scene, you’re no stranger to Moving Units. Call ’em what you want—dance rock, post-hardcore, pop—they’ve survived all the ebbs and flows of Hollywood’s fickle tastemaking machine. They’ve also got a fresh new EP out, titled Tension War, that features four new songs (and two remixes) that are unmistakably LA in their cadence and character. Good stuff for sure. Now they’re here in the desert melting faces under the hot Indio sun. So what was it like opening up Coachella’s Main Stage on Day One? We caught up with Blake Miller, Johan Bogeli and Chris Hathwell after their set to find out.

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Gallery Music Eat, Drink and Be Merry: SulaFest 2011

March 3, 2011 - 10:17 am

SulaFest 2011 proved to be an exciting mix of modern Indian culture, with ingredients including a variety of music, wine, chocolate, and of course, goat cheese.  Just a bumpy 4-hour car ride from Mumbai, the festival took place at the Sula vineyards in the otherwise quiet city of Nashik. First to take the stage was the band “Tough on Tobacco.” Their pop and reggae tunes with a positive message gave a chill backdrop for concertgoers to eat, drink and be merry.

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Gallery Music Nikka Costa Gets Funky at The Roxy

January 25, 2011 - 9:03 am

Thursday night, The Roxy was packed with fans sliding as close to the curtain as possible, fighting tooth and nail for front row status. As I waited for Nikka Costa to take the stage, I flashed back to when I saw her perform in 2005 when she toured with Lenny Kravitz in support of her album “Can’tneverdidnothin.” She put on quite a show then and I expected nothing less, six years later, from the feisty singer. Nikka knows how to work over an audience. She has to; music is in her blood. She is, after all, the daughter of renowned arranger/producer Don Costa, and more importantly the goddaughter of ‘”Ol’ Blue Eyes” himself, aka Frank Sinatra.

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Art/Design Featured Gallery Art in the Thick of Hollywood: Open Daybook at LACE

January 24, 2011 - 10:55 am

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions aka LACE – a nonprofit organization encouraging innovation, has been around since the ’70s and found its current Hollywood Walk of Fame home in the mid-1990s. It’s an unlikely site for an art institution: surrounded by “dancer” shoe stores, tourist traps and nightclubs, LACE seems a little out of place, but that’s the genius of it. Because of this prominent yet peculiar location, the space draws colorful crowds and exposes art to a wider arena than the gallery circuit can.

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