“Negroes on Ice,” the father-son sketch comedy music performed in the main by Prince Paul (De La Soul, Handsome Boy Modeling School) and son, P.Forreal, at Upright Citizens Brigade last night promised to equally offend all types of viewers. In short, the performance did just that, and did its share of amusing and disappointing. While the show is billed as a musical sketch comedy based on tales told by P.Forreal growing up, we hoped the performance would exhibit some level of comedic maturity. What it did do was offer a slew of hip hop and cinematic references and weave them into bizarre stories with impeccably timed sound effects (thanks to Dad, Prince Paul, on the tables).

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Marquee partners Jason Strauss, Louis Abin, and Noah Tepperberg celebrate the club's one year anniversary.

Marquee Nightclub in the Cosmopolitan Hotel of Las Vegas celebrated its one year anniversary this past Tuesday with  cake, snow, and AVICII.

Marquee’s official mascot, Mr. Q, donned white headphones, sunglasses, and a white tie and threw glow sticks, wristbands, and T-shirts into the crowd. AVICII himself was warmly welcomed with confetti, dollar bills, and napkins that flew from all corners of the club. He played to a sold out crowd and a dance floor that was closed an hour after it opened. 

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Without a doubt, 2011 was a year of great music. Wrapping up the year is no easy task, especially with so many new emerging artists hitting the indie scene and settled greats releasing records as good or better than their efforts decades prior. Our picks for the Top 20 Albums of the year cover a lot of ground, ranging from Indie Beard Rock to Spaghetti-Western, Rockabilly to Hip-Hop, and everything in between. Check out our Top 20 Albums of 2011 after the jump …

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Hopefully you’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of these albums as much as we have, as it’s a promising week for new releases. The new full-lengths from The Black Keys, Chevelle, and even Dia Frampton have been pretty intriguing, so regardless of the “bad” or “good” review, check out what we’ve collected in new releases this week: Continue Reading

Kasabian‘s Velociraptor! contains the greatest variety of sounds and influences the British rockers have released to date. And that level of diversity can be a bit overwhelming. Luckily, the tracks are mixed just right to allow the album to remain, well, mostly connected. Overall, Velociraptor! is about action and movement. At times it feels like each song moves through a different territory; other times it feels surprising, alien and other-worldly.  In fact, we almost expect to hear some of these songs accompanying the next episode of Terra Nova. Maybe it goes back to the album’s title, which even dons an exclamation point. Or maybe it’s something else…

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Lush Hollywood venue Bardot was all about drawing out  a crowd of young beautiful people and modern sounds this past Monday evening. Themed “School Night”, the rebel factor was at the Ultra notch. And with strong enough drinks, high enough spirits, and the music a sufficient enough  fusion of the two, it was a welcome place to see some acts, the up-and-coming and established alike.

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San Francisco-based indie dream pop artist Courtship released his sophomore album Eve in May. Two of the tracks from that album have been re-compiled into a 4-track remix album, Eve Remixes, that features the chimera of four separate artists/bands: :papercutz, Drop/Dead, Albert Swarm, and Drifter.  The result? A peppy fata morgana of Patrick Fallon’s original determinist melodies that keep the mysterious depth but elevate the minimalism into multi-faceted, and even dancable, club hits.

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Long Beach band, The Wind, recently released a brave double disc that has it all. Harum Scarum’s 23 tracks aim at a mostly 60s throwback, with a quasi-circus feel, and keep up the pace of impressive musical reference, ranging from symphony nods to The Beatles and Tom Waits (in a parlor fantasy kind of way).

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What happens when a music festival is canceled just a few days prior to its commencement? A ton of angry tweets, people demanding refunds, bands with no venues to play, and an army of Hanson fans screaming shenanigans.

As you may have heard Sunset Junction, the little community event that became a giant music festival, had the plug pulled just 48 hours before the function and what ensued was not the chaos one would expect. The community got together, venues booked bands, block parties formed, and an almost SXSW style event took over the Silverlake/Echo Park areas for a weekend of free (and some paid) shows. Continue Reading