Photo of Carter Tanton by Amanda Zee Carter Tanton of Tulsa always gets rave reviews about his voice like this one from Pitchfork: "Lead singer Carter Tanton has a spectacular voice... [he] could probably sing a recipe for chocolate éclairs and still make it sound good." And Rolling Stone said "his indie-seraphim voice is not of this world." Both reviews referenced the similarities to My Morning Jacket. And not to forget the band, the......

Sara Melson has been in LA for some time now after graduating from Harvard with a degree in English (she's shy about this fact). First it was acting, now it is music. She loves living in classic Los Angeles area neighborhoods, especially those with history, roots and the word "canyon" in it. Currently living in Beachwood Canyon, which she describes as a "true oasis," her past homes have been Topanga Canyon and Laurel Canyon, both......

Samantha Sidley and Alex Silverman at their Silver Lake rehearsal space | Photo via their MySpace page Alex & Sam may be a duo in title, but their fairly large band, sometimes up to twelve-members on stage, is quite a force of music that just puts a smile on your face. You can't really corner them into a jazz-blues rock or straight rock category. All we can say is that on stage, they've got......

Philly native, Beanie Sigel hit the road for Los Angeles to promote his new album, The Solution which dropped yesterday. The Rocafella representative took a little time in between radio interviews and a late night run to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles to chat with LAist about his latest effort, his time locked up and the current state of hip hop music. How’s the response for the album been so far? Good, you know the album......

The Hollow Trees are the best folk band "for families" that you have never heard. By "for families" we mean little kids would love it as much as their parents. Mixing Americana, folk, and pop, The Hollow Trees keep it simple enough for children with the G-rated lyrics. The music, however, is authentic, pure, and as good as anything you'd hear from your grandpa's best bluegrass records. This year the Hollow Trees have gone......

Listen to the interview here: Deborah Harry is on her way to LA to play the Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theater tomorrow, Friday the 7th. She's got her first new solo album in fourteen years out, Necessary Evil, and you can hear some samples of it at her MySpace. Unfortunately our conversation sounds like I'm contacting her by sat-phone somewhere in Tibet but these are the days of multiline patch-ins so it couldn't......

by Kira Gouriluk for LAist KT would have rather haven been on the DL yesterday in LA, but it's OK. Shortly after landing into LAX yesterday from Scotland, the first thing she had to do was start answering questions from the press, and worse, from bloggers! Such are the ups-and-downs of the 32-year-old KT Tunstall who had to wake up at 4am for a flight that took her 'round the world where today she will......

Attempting to pull sticky, er, bubble gum out of your hair was as vain as trying to banish Hanson's "MmmBop" from your brain ten years ago. A decade ago, that was your little sister's Hanson. Fast forward to 2007 and you've got three grown men who have purposely done nothing to shed their image of the past but have somehow emerged as a band for today. Unlike comparable, so-called boy bands, the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based......

!!! aka Chk Chk Chk (or any other triple repeated expletive) played at the Avalon a couple weeks ago to a large crowd of friends, supporters, party-people, and folks who just effing wanted to dance. The band is 8 months into touring to support their incredible album Myth Takes and are about to embark for another pass through Europe. !!! loves LA - they have a lot of friends here, they make a pilgrimage......

After reviewing his phenomenal show at Hotel Cafe in August, it was only a matter of time before LAist got to interview Fionn Regan about his current US tour, his stunning debut album The End of History, and what it felt like to win the Mercury Music Prize, which honors the best Irish or British album of the previous year. Not surprisingly, he speaks like his songs - melodic and poetic - and I......

If you live in Los Angeles, you may have felt a rumble from rap group Brother Reade. Wait, let me take that back. You can compare them to a 4.6 earthquake. Making heads bop and girls shake their asses, Brother Reade has steadily taken over the eastside, and and soon the world, with their ingenious lyrics “This is for the strippers and the fans of the Clippers / cuz life ain’t easy for y’all”......

"Yeah, I do think this one sounds grittier, but the songwriting on both are kind of dark. On the first album, some of the songs are immediately catchy, where some of the people don’t realize it’s dark and on the second one, the music can be a bit darker, immediately."...

A rock legend will hit the stage tonight. Matt Sharp the alleged heart of Weezer was with the band for their first two records, the debut "Blue" record, and the initially-overlooked but spotlessly perfect Pinkerton. Since he split ways with the band they've never produced anything as good and everyone knows it. Sharp's band The Rentals has been around 13 years now and although that music is sweet and cute and poppy and consistently......

From singing a Pussycat Dolls song in "Wild Hogs" to playing a hobo on "Friends", Kyle Gass is always ready to jump into character. (He and Jack Black have a little band called Tenacious D too.) Since 2002, Kyle's country-rock band has played over 150 gigs across the country. Trainwreck features lead vocals by J.R Reed and Kyle conducting the craziness with his trusty guitar. If you are looking for a honky tonk party......

Former protégé of super producers The Neptunes, Vanessa Marquez has sang alongside big names like Justin Timberlake, Usher and Nelly. Marquez, best known as the female voice on Timberlake's hit single "Rock Your Body" is on her own and looking to make a name for herself. The Rialto native, who takes the stage tonight at the National Orange Show Fairground in San Bernardino opening for Omarion and Marques Houston, took some time out from a......

Artist: Ulrich Schnauss Album: Goodbye Label: Domino Release Date: Summer 2007 I had first heard tracks from Ulrich Schnauss' Far Away Trains Passing By on a bizarre compilation someone handed me back in 2002. Again I heard a couple songs from Schnauss' second release, A Strangely Isolated Place (2004), on yet another compilation. The songs were epic and transformative meanderings through ambient yet driving spaces. Schnauss' current release, Goodbye, takes us down these paths again,......

China Forbes is the ultra-fabulous frontlady of Pink Martini, a 12 piece “little orchestra” based in Portland, Oregon. Pink Martini is the kind of band that serves up a little sumthin for everyone – their multi-lingual repertoire ranges from lounge to Latin, classical to cosmopolitan and they’re huge stars in France. This Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 14, 15 & 16) the band hits the stage at the Hollywood Bowl accompanied by our very......

Catching Brandi Shearer's sultry voice live would be a great way to enjoy your holiday weekend. LAist caught her last show at Hotel Cafe and was humming her tunes and listening to her album for days. This time around, LAist had the opportunity to catch up with Brandi and get to know a little bit more about what makes her sounds so unique, what it's like being signed to Amoeba Records and how living in......

Back Door Slam, the group I swooned over at the House of Blues last month and saw again at Lollapalooza earlier this month, is coming back to L.A. for a show at the Troubadour Wednesday, August 29. In anticipation of this momentous occasion -- is that overstating it? -- I talked to lead man Davy Knowles. Apparently his girlfriend read the review I wrote of their show and was a little concerned that I......

Dear MCA, I would like to marry you and have 1000 of your Buddhist-rapper babies. While this may come across trite or ill conceived I assure you I am neither a crazy person nor a stalker fan. Of course I think you make great music, but what I’m saying is that I have not been harboring these feeling for two decades hoping that one day I’d have a chance to spring them on you.......

Things got off to a rocky start between us and TD Camp. We think he possibly knee-jerk reacted to our review of the new album "From The Ground Up" (see the comments), and wanted to give the San Francisco native a chance to tell his side. Bored Stiff's album comes out today, click here to check it, blah blah blah... OK! here's the interview: LAist: Whats life like as a musician/record label owner? TD Camp:......

Mikel of the Airborne Toxic Event (on the right) One of our favorite magazines, Interview, has this thing where they get actors to interview other actors or singers to interview other singers. We think it's cool, so last week we did it with The Fuxedos and Renfield, and today we get to do it with Mikel of the Airborne Toxic Event and Sara of The Happy Hollows. The Happy Hollows play tonight at the......

The attendees of Safari Sam's tonight will leave the Sunset Blvd club in the wee hours and they might have a few things to say about the evening, but "boring" wont be a word you will hear. With a lineup that begins with Renfield, followed by Quazar and the Bamboozled, and then The Fuxedos, the closing band Uncertain is going to have some strange and unusual acts to follow. One of our favorite magazines,......

Pete Thomas, a drummer since he was a kid in Sheffield, England, joined Elvis Costello to form the Attractions and continues as the drummer for the Imposters. He has also played as a session musician with countless artists including Johnny Cash, Sheryl Crow, Neil Finn, John Wesley Harding, Joe Jackson, Los Lobos, Joan Osbourne, Pearl Jam, Bonnie Raitt, Squeeze, Richard Thompson, Rufus Wainwright, and the Waterboys. In 2003, Thomas was inducted into the Rock......

One of Indie rock's rising stars, Ferraby Lionheart, is out with his new full length eleven song album Catch the Brass Ring and is playing Hotel Cafe tomorrow night. Before we go see this folksy pop singer songwriter, LAist interviewed Ferraby about his name, his love for Judy Garland, and where he hangs out in LA. Ok, so is your real name Ferraby Lionheart? If not, how did your come up with it? Its sounds......

Jesse Harris, New York based singer/songwriter’s new album Feel, definitely has one doing just that. Not only is Feel his 7th album to date, he just recently wrote and composed, but not performed the entire soundtrack to Ethan Hawke’s film The Hottest State. While the soundtrack for the film has Harris performing just two of the songs and the likes of Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, M.Ward, Norah Jones and Cat Power taking hold of......

U.S.D.A. stands for the United Streets Dboyz of America, and stand for more than just the trio of rappers Young Jeezy, Slick Pulla and Blood Raw. It stands for the struggle of having nothing and being determined enough, and good enough to fight the fight, and make it on top. Their album Cold Summer dropped with Def Jam, since then they've become the self-proclaimed "Kings of Youtube" racking up incredible hit counts even when......

Guster is loved for their inventive songs, quirky videos, and unique percussion. I spoke to the man who sits upstage and makes that sound come to life. Brain Rosenworcel, known as Thundergod to Guster die-hards, told LAist about his nickname, his bongos, and what he looks forward to when the Guster tour hits LA. How old were you when you got your first drum set? How did you talk your parents into it? Actually......

The path of terror and destruction heads to Los Angeles with a Dwarves show coming to Safari Sam's on July 20th. The Dwarves are a punk band going strong since the late 80's originating out of Chicago, who are legendary for their wild shows. If you go to a Dwarves show someone's wiener is coming out, and if you're in the front row... you're prolly going to get "involved". Blag Dahlia, the guy without bikini......

Ten Questions with Danny Seim of Menomena by Erin Scholz for LAist they have vocal harmonies which may have you convinced you're in the deep south, sitting in on a church choir practice....their songs range from punch-you-in-the-face rock, to tranquil and uplifting tracks that will put you in a kinder place...oh, and all held together by hip-hop inspired beats and baritone sax. wtf? wikipedia decribes them as 'experimental rock', pitchfork gave their latest album......