If you put together a dream lineup for a hip hop show, chances are it would look something like this year’s Rock the Bells festival. This year’s incarnation featured the reunion (finally!) of one of the most acclaimed hip hop outfits in history, A Tribe Called Quest as well as the first performance in years from California’s own Pharcyde. But was from top to bottom a who’s who of Hip Hop both past and present.......

Isaac Hayes was scheduled to headline at the Sunset Junction Music Festival before his death this past Sunday in Tennessee. Tonight, the festival announced that friend of Hayes and a legendary soul man himself, Sam Moore, will play during the Saturday night slot. Moore is a Grammy winner and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in1992 for his work with Sam & Dave. He will be performing on the Hoover Stage......

For beer lovers tired of all these wine tasting events, your time has finally come! A couple weekends ago, the Pine Meadows Lawn of the Autry National Center was the site of the first annual Brew Ha Ha. A few dozen microbreweries and brewpubs represented at the beer tasting festival, and some great catering was provided to soak up all the beer. Live entertainment was provided by Bill Dwyer, who you may know from watching......

If you were planning to take a trip to Tempe, AZ in October for the SoCo Music Experience, cancel those plans or find something else to do. In a statement released today, Southern Comfort "announced that the SoCo Music Experience scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 18 at Phoenix Municipal Stadium has been cancelled due to an unexpected escalation in production costs. At this time, there are no plans to reschedule the event this......

Chairlift | Photo by Ryan Muir via their MySpace page What they say about themselves: "Chairlift are a three-piece with dueling female and male vocals that formed with the intent of making music for haunted houses - instead they ended up with something more akin to the Top Gun soundtrack." Okay, let's check this out: 'Evident Utensil' - Chairlift &righticonhover=0x333232&text=0x333232&slider=0xF2F2F2&track=0xFFFFFF&border=0xFFFFFF&loader=0x838383&soundFile=http://www.kaninerecords.com/mp3s/evidentutensil.mp3"> They play tonight, opening up for Ariel Pink, at Echoplex at 8:30 p.m. (they......

Singer and legend Issac Hayes was found by relatives unconscious next to a still-running treadmill this afternoon at his home in Tennessee today. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital in Memphis around 11 a.m. PST. Hayes, who won Grammy awards and an Oscar for his theme song from "Shaft," was scheduled to headline at the Sunset Junction Music Festival in Silver Lake later this month.......

Today, Councilman Tom LaBonge announced that he has asked City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo for a legal opinion on including cyclists to ride at the Griffith Park holiday light festival that had once been open only to automobile traffic. Public pressure to allow cyclists on all days that cars use the road has been building up for some time now. “I’d like to include bikes along with automobiles, but my first priority is to protect the......

Saturday afternoon on the Pine Meadows Lawn of the Autry National Center in Griffith Park will turn into the site of the "Brew Haw Haw" beer tasting festival to raise money ($50/tix) for the SoCal chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. There will be microbrews, food, comedy and bands. And in case you missed it, yesterday's weekly PhiLAnthropist post featured the Skid Row Neighborhood Watch Walk, a Venice Beach clean-up and an event with High......

Just like LA Weekly's Detour Festival announcement from earlier today, F Yeah Fest, which takes place on August 30 and 31 in the Echo Park area, has recently done the same with their announcement. In addition to a taco eating contest, comedy and art, the first day's line up includes No Age, Negative Approach, Matt & Kim, Fucked Up, Two Gallants, Ladyhawk, David Vandervelde, Glass Candy, High Places, Mika Miko. Monotonix, The Strange Boys, Abe......

LA Weekly just announced the lineup for their 3rd Annual Detour Festival, which takes place downtown in the Civic Center area on Saturday, October 4th. This year’s show features The Mars Volta, Gogol Bordello, Shiny Toy Guns, The Presets, Cut Copy, Matt Costa, Black Lips, Hercules and Love Affair, Grand Ole Party, Datarock, Bitter:Sweet, The Submarines, Adam Freeland, The Bloody Beetroots, Surkin, Para One, Guns n Bombs Live, Peanut Butter Wolf, Buraka Som Sistema, Nico......

The official count for Glow in Santa Monica this weekend is now at 200,000 people with 75,000 there at the same time, according to the Santa Monica Police Department. For the most part, comments left on an LAist post (and other sites) about the event were very strong and negative. However, from there, the biannual event can only come back in 2010 as a slamming success, drawing the same large crowd and pleasing even more......

An estimated 44,000 people visited the first Glow Festival tonight in Santa Monica (Update: the estimates are now to 200,000 people total with the highest peak at one time at 75,000 people, according to police) . The 10 Freeway was jammed late into the night and the oceanside city was packed from the promenade to the beach. Tons of people were having a good time, but many were overheard saying, "where's the art?" How was......

It's the first event of its sort in the country, Santa Monica officials say about this weekend's all-night festival, Glow. For two years, the city's Cultural Affairs Division has been working towards this Saturday night, where an expected 25,000 to 50,000 people are to attend the from dusk to dawn beachside event featuring lots of art and music. "Visitors will have to be strategic on how they spend their time," explained Jessica Cusick, the division's......

The 31st annual Echo Park Lotus Festival is only two weeks away, but something--something central to the event--is missing: The Lotus. The past few years have seen a disturbing and rapid decline in the lotus blooms and leaves that typically spring up in the lake and bathe the water's surface in beautiful pinks and whites. But it's not just a temporary stall in flowering--some believe that the lotus will not be back, and the Lotus......

This guy is so sad. He paid $20 for parking and now can't afford to hit any music venues. | Photo by ClownBog via Flickr The Sunset Strip in West Hollywood is notoriously known for its high parking prices. As the Sunset Strip Music Festival approaches, we decided to see to test Sunset Strip business owner's claims of the myth of high priced parking. On a short drive down the famous boulevard, especially on......

How cool is this? A free all-night festival on the beach and pier in Santa Monica with over 20 multi-media artists and music from KCRW, Machine Project, Dub Lab and other to-be-announced artists? That's what's happening at Glow, a dusk-to-dawn (7 p.m. to 7 a.m.) event put on by the city of Santa Monica on July 19. Of note, Machine Project will have an orchestra play from the buckets of the new ferris wheel as......

That tiny notation at the bottom of your calendar tells you today is indeed Flag Day. And while many Angelenos are inadvertently and loosely interpreting that to mean "stick a Lakers flag on your car" it is actually (and obviously) a bigger deal on a national level. Besides waving your own Stars and Stripes or taking part in a parade, it's tough to commemorate the adoption of the flag. To the north of us, at......

Today, the Office of Vital records told all California counties can start issuing same-sex marriage licenses the minute after the California Supreme Court's order goes into effect, which is June 16, 5:01 p.m. Previously, officials had told county clerks that they could begin officiating gay marriages on June 17. Originally, marriages would have been allowed on June 14, but a request to stay the ban by opponents pushed back the date while justices reviewed a......

Photo LaMenta3 via Flickr Now that same-sex marriages are legalized in California (they begin June 17), this weekend's 38th annual Los Angeles Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Transgender Pride celebration will probably have more energy than ever before. From Friday through Sunday, events including the Dyke March, the two-day Christopher Street Festival (with headliners Joss Stone and Olivia Newton John) and the parade, West Hollywood will be abuzz with activity. And with festivals and parades......

Photo by power corruption and lies via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr. FESTIVAL Come out to the 11th SoRo (South Robertson) Community Festival. There will be lots to do for the whole family including food, live music, and vendor booths. 11 a.m. // Between Beverlywood and Cattaraugus, S. Robertson Blvd, Los Angeles // Free SPEAK Artists Danny Jauregui and Rubén Ortiz-Torres are featured today at LACMA’s Conversations with the Artists series. Their......

If there is a more beautiful place to see a concert than the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington please direct me to it. Each year, this is the home for the annual memorial weekend blowout known as the Sasquatch! Music Festival. A short two-hour drive east from Seattle takes you to the Gorge, built on the side of a cliff, overlooking the Columbia River. The scenery is as gorgeous as anywhere, when you add in some......

Earlier this month, the Sunset Junction Music Festival announced the headliners for their 28th annual street fete, which takes place on August 23 and 24. Now, the rest of the schedule has been announced with many excellent local indie bands including Radars in the Sky, Happy Hollows, Castledoor, Jonathan Rice, Henry Clay People, Oliver Future and Gram Rabbit. For a more r&b/world with a local twist, there's plenty as the festival is featuring Chana, Nikhil......

If the rain doesn't deter you from heading out today, there are some weekend-long festivals that might make it worth your time... Or you can hedge your bets and hang tight today and wait for Sunday--or in some cases Monday--to get in on the fun. Photo of last year's Topanga Days by mackenzieeeee via Flickr Topanga Days Topanga Days, a three-day music and arts festival, features The Living Sisters (Inara George, Eleni Mandell, Becky Stark)......

Shortly before 11 this morning a man with an automatic rifle opened fire at St. John Baptist de La Salle Roman Catholic Church's International Festival in Granada Hills. The gunman wounded three people, [LAPD Officer Norma] Eisenman said. Two were taken to a hospital in stable condition and one in critical condition, she said. Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said another person was treated for chest pains. -- Associated Press "We have a parent who......

Photo by phogel via Flickr After a one year hiatus, one of the best green festivals, Worldfest, is back. Two years ago, the solar-powered festival scheduled near Earth Day was a gem among the numerous green events around the city. Located at Woodley Park in Encino, steps away from the eponymous Metro Orange Line station, a slew of eco-friendly vendors showed off their wares, vegan chefs shared their creations and music and recognizable faces......

There were at least a handful of LAist contributors at this year's Coachella Festival, and as we slowly recover from our Coachella "hangover" we'll continue to upload photos and tell the stories from another epic weekend in the desert... (or at least the parts we can remember) Part 1 of 5: THURSDAY - Peanut Butter Cream Pie and Riot Police Our plan was to leave LA by 2pm (or 3 at the very latest) to......

In the previous installations of Coachella there have been some huge headliners. Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead, Bjork, The Beastie Boys but none quite on the level of day two's headliner, the Purple One, Prince. From the moment he hit the stage with Morris Day and Shelia E. it was apparent that the audience was in for a lesson in musicianship and showmanship. As he played through a set mixed of standards and the cover......

Finally, after all the hubub and debate of the quality of this year's Coachella lineup, the festival got underway Friday afternoon. Featuring Jack Johnson at the top of the bill, the day featured outstanding performances from the Raconteurs who proved that they aren't just Jack White's side project but rather a band that is developing their own sound and identity. The Verve, playing for the first time in nearly a decade sounded like they hadn't......

Jesus Sanchez at the LA Times reports that the 150,000 estimated turn out (based on LAPD numbers) to Sunday's Fiesta Broadway celebration downtown was still was lower than previous celebrations and projections for this year. However, the fire department determined 400,000 people came out, still lower than the expected 500,000. Whatever the exact number may be, one things was for sure... it was hot and looked like a great time. LAist Featured Photographer Tom Andrews......

Photo by puck90 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr. FILM COL COA (City of Light, City of Angels) French Film Festival ends its run today with five screenings, including a series of short films. The program aims to promote French films and the industry’s diversity. 12 p.m. // Directors Guild of America Theater Complex // 7920 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles // $10 FESTIVAL The Green Apple Music Festival takes place today at......