Fiona Apple - Walt Disney Concert Hall - October 7, 2013
Fiona Apple and Blake Mills Walt Disney Concert Hall 10-7-13 Better Than...Fiona's tears It's been a tough few months for Fiona Apple. At the end of August, the singer-songwriter stormed off stage at a...
View ArticleThe 10 Best Young L.A. Singer-Songwriters
On these pages we recently took a stab at the 20 greatest singer-songwriters in history. But the exercise was frustrating at times, because we longed to include some of the younger-generation torch...
View ArticleMadi Diaz Writes The Most Danceable Breakup Record Ever
Raised in Pennsylvania surrounded by Amish farms, and homeschooled by a Peruvian mother and Danish father, singer-songwriter Madi Diaz didn't know what to expect when she moved to Los Angeles in 2012....
View ArticleFor Ryan Bingham, Life After Crazy Heart Is All About Staying Independent
Ryan Bingham is holed up in New York City before an impending snowstorm. The 33-year-old singer-songwriter is on tour to promote his new album, Fear and Saturday Nights, and it so happens that he’s in...
View ArticleThe Late Ryder Buck's Lost Recordings Are Found, and Will Be Released
Ryder Buck’s small childhood bedroom is stuffed with his favorite things. Neatly stacked throw pillows cover the bed, one emblazoned with the letter “R.” Two toy banjos hang on the wall, angled in...
View ArticleTobias Jesso Jr. Is Making the Most of His Second Chance in L.A.
Before he plays to a room of insiders at his label's headquarters in Silver Lake, Tobias Jesso Jr. can be seen pacing outside the building on a rainy December night. It's one of his first solo shows...
View ArticleJessica Lea Mayfield and Seth Avett Pay Tribute to Elliott Smith
"Because your candle burns too bright,” Jessica Lea Mayfield sings on her latest release, with her collaborator Seth Avett joining in to finish the line, “well, I almost forgot it was twilight.” The...
View ArticleLaura Marling's Lost L.A. Year
For the better part of the past decade, Laura Marling's voice has become synonymous with the modern English folk scene. She’s been widely acknowledged as one of her country's best and most prolific...
View ArticleOutlaw Country Legend Dwight Yoakam Is Back — With More Reverb Than Ever
They’re located under the conical Capitol Records Building: eight echo chambers, which guitar innovator Les Paul designed for Capitol Studios in the 1950s. Country music maverick Dwight Yoakam makes...
View ArticleHear a New Song From Jon DeRosa's L.A.-Inspired Album, Black Halo (PREMIERE)
Singer-songwriter Jon DeRosa marches to the beat of his own drum. After losing most of his hearing in his right ear, the New Jersey native switched from the gothy folk-rock of his acclaimed band Dead...
View ArticleVeiled in Silence in Saudi Arabia, Rotana Tarabzouni Now Sings in the Clubs...
One of the 54 fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People Issue 2015. Singer-songwriter Rotana Tarabzouni shrugs off the inevitable rejections and shit-paying gigs common to her trade. The...
View ArticleThe New Elliott Smith Documentary Focuses on His Music, Not His Death
The excitement surrounding this week’s premiere of Montage of Heck, the documentary on Kurt Cobain, along with the popularity in recent years of similar features on Jimi Hendrix and Joy Division’s Ian...
View ArticleFor L.A. Folk Duo The Milk Carton Kids, Quiet Is the New Loud
Los Angeles is a city of background noise. No matter where you are, listen close and you'll probably hear the distant thrum of freeway traffic or the buzz of a passing helicopter. We're so used to it,...
View ArticleAndy Grammer Learned How to Write Pop Hits on Third Street Promenade
If you've turned on Top 40 radio in the past couple months, or tuned in to pretty much any competition-based TV show like Dancing With the Stars or American Idol, chances are good you've heard the...
View ArticleIndie-Pop Songstress Zella Day Comes From a Long Line of Hardcore Bitches
Look up any other profile of breakout indie-pop singer-songwriter Zella Day and you'll find a story about a young girl, frolicking barefoot through the wide-open fields of Pinetop, Arizona, a place...
View ArticleButch Walker Honors His Late Father, Big Butch, at Hollywood Forever Shows
In the 2012 documentary Butch Walker: Out of Focus, Willard Eugene "Butch" Walker (aka "Big Butch"), suffering from pulmonary fibrosis and an ailing heart, looks into the camera and talks about the...
View ArticleA Venice Beach Band Heads North to Play "Hempapalooza"
Christopher Hawley, longtime Venice resident and frontman to the Christopher Hawley Rollers is reminiscing over the band's past and looking to a future that includes the legalization of hemp for...
View ArticleBen Lee Writes the Kind of Pop Songs You Can Sing in Someone's Living Room
As cars zip past the Canyon Country Store on a humid afternoon, Ben Lee glances over his shoulder at the passing traffic, takes a sip of his coffee and flashes a grin. Having lived here in Laurel...
View ArticleMad Men, Cruel Intentions, The O.C. ... What Is the L.A. Stage Turning Into?
Name a movie or TV show, and L.A.'s theater scene has probably done a parody musical about it. Harry Potter? Check. A documentary about people who play Donkey Kong? Yup. Cruel Intentions? Why not? Mad...
View ArticleWith Parodies the Rage in L.A., Did The O.C. Musical Work Onstage?
As we've written, plays such as The Unauthorized O.C. Musical have become the epitome of theater in Los Angeles: It’s based on a movie, the cast features some TV stars, it’s a parody of a popular TV...
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