All right, while I’m not really a fan I’m excited that I finally get a chance to use some bold face font:

METALLICA IS COMING TO TOWN!

There, I’m sure that bold print Times New Roman font will get the fans revved. Metallica is getting ready to release their new album “Death Magnetic” on September 12th, and the band will take their rock show on the road for a full arena  tour which makes its Los Angeles area stops in mid-December. The band plays the brand new Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario on December 12th and the Forum in Inglewood on December 17th and 18th. Lamb of God and The Sword will open the shows. Tickets for the Forum are $62.50-$82.50 and $57.50-$77.50 for Ontario.

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Friday, August 29

• Andy Palacio Tribute with the Garifuna Collective & Umalali | 8:00 pm at California Plaza | Info Here
• Mili Mili World Music | 7:30 pm at MacArthur Park | Info Here

Saturday, August 30

• I See Hawks in LA (featured right) | 4:00 pm at Dexter Park | Info Here
• Lisa Haley & the Zydekats Krewe | 7:30 pm at MacArthur Park | Info Here
• Rock Inc | 6:00 at Redondo Pier | Info Here

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What a GREAT weekend! Sunset Junction on Saturday (Be sure to check out our friends, Castledoor!) and Sunday… but let’s talk about Sunday. The day has finally come and I am more excited than a kid going to Disneyland on their birthday. Radiohead will be gracing Angelenos with their genius tonight at the Hollywood Bowl. Based on how amazing their recent release, “In Rainbows” is and the fact that they never, ever fail to put on a good show, it is likely that this concert will be on the “top-ten-best-concerts” list of many of those in attendance. For those who will be seeing Radiohead another day, Faster Pussycat at The Key Club will be quite loud and quite the hellish affair they promise on their MySpace. Sondre Lerche at the Troubadour is another worthy choice. Wherever you decide to go, whoever you look forward to seeing, enjoy music this weekend…I know I will!

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It’s that time of year again for one of the biggest celebrations of diversity in California, the 28th Annual Sunset Junction Street Festival. With more than sixty performers on three stages and top headliners like the Black Keys, Kinky, Jeffrey Osborne, Cold War Kids, Sister Nancy, and Broken Social Scene, the 2008 festival promises to be the biggest and best yet. There are games and rides, arts and food and the fun starts on Saturday and Sunday at 10am and parties on to 11pm on Saturday and 10pm on Sunday.

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It’s amazing that even after fifteen years and hundreds of shows, the Warped Tour still stays as strong as relevant as it was ten years ago. It’s grown into a tour that not only music fans look forward to yearly, but that band’s build their tour schedule around around and try to befriend tour founder Kevin Lyman for a spot on next years jaunt.

If you talk to Warped Tour artists they usually say the same thing: it’s a brutal summer full of 100-plus degree temperatures, midnight drives, infrequent showers and breakouts of sicknesses that rival any George Romero film, yet is is an also an experience that they would not change for the world. It’s a two month tour where 6-7 days a week you get the privilege to play in front of both established and new fans, as well as a chance to interact with both fans and fellow bands one on one and form close knit bonds. Also, the comped food is pretty good.

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Tuesday, August 19

• Alan Pasqua Jazz Collective | 7:00 pm at the Hollywood and Highland Center | Info Here
• Southern Blues | 12:00 at Pershing Square | Info Here

Wednesday, August 20

• Gin Blossoms | 8:00 pm at Pershing Square | Info Here

Thursday, August 21

• The Cheap Landscape and zocaloZÃŒe| 6:30 pm in Little Tokyo | Info here
• Peter & Gordon with Gerry and the Pacemakers | 7:00 pm at the Santa Monica Pier | Info Here
• The Infamous Stringdusters | 7:00 pm at the Culver City City Hall Courtyard | Tickets Here
• Susie Hansen Latin Jazz Band | 7:30 in Baldwin Park | Info Here

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Comprised of Cashew, Michelle, Mimi, Karma and Cashew’s wife, Uncle Rhea, Eagle Winged Palace are as hauntingly unique as some of the names of its participants.  Originally part of The Prix, Cashew has called upon the help of his friends and his wife: four beautiful women who each bring something incredibly special to the group.  Their performance at Tangiers on Wednesday, August 20th will be the perfect venue to check out Eagle Winged Palace.  This band is an amazing juxtaposition of genres who manage to blend them so well together that the listener will likely wonder why no other band/artist has created such a fantastic fusion before.  Playing songs from their soon to be released LP, “Mansion on A Hill,” this show will be an excellent opportunity for fans and curious music freaks to get a taste of this creative and eclectic group of a man, cashew, and his creative and talented muses.

Eagle Winged Palace| 8:00 PM at Tangiers| 21+ Tickets $8 at Door

It’s that time again, to win two tickets to the Hollywood Bowl! What do we have for you now? Donna Summer’s. That’s right, she rocked the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and now it’s her turn to turn you on. This is sure to be a great night to bring a date, a bottle of wine, and let the fun begin. Summer’s the original queen of the dance floor and five-time Grammy-winner, will be ready with her hit songs such as, “Dim All the Lights,” “Love to Love You, Baby,” “On The Radio,” “Enough Is Enough,” “Bad Girls,” plus selections from her new CD.

So what do you have to do to win? In honor of Ms. Summer’s, please leave a comment below with the name the first song you can ever remember “getting down to” and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win two tickets to the show. For those of you who have yet to “get down” or for SOME reason have never done it to music, then give us a song you think you would like to get busy with (I love coming up with all these different ways of saying sex.) The winner will be announced Thursday, July 21st on LA.CityZine.

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Amy Kuney

On Tuesday August, 12, Amy Kuney performed songs from her album, “Bird’s Eye View” to celebrate with her her family of fans, friends and relatives which was released the same day.  LA.CityZine had the opportunity to attend this event.

It’s a unique experience to watch a performer for the first time and be, in some way, connected to both the artist and her.  Amy Kuney has the uncanny ability to make her audience feel as though she is an old friend for whom you want only success.  While endearing is certainly an appropriate word to define this magic, there is something more within the  complexity of her music and her personality that enable anyone watching her sing feel so dramatically connected.

Amy Kuney seems simultaneously allied with the audience; before going into another brilliant song Amy stated, with regards to her album, “it’s kind of like having a baby… it took nine months… this is kind of like the final push… I hope you’re ok with being a part of the final push.”  While this statement is a reflection of her great sense of humor it also exemplifies the evening: she as the artist had finally reached a significant milestone in her career with the release of her first full length album and we, as the audience, were invited participants of this almost familial event.

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Like baseball, mom’s apple pie and wars with countries we initially can’t locate on a map, the Vans Warped Tour, who is back in 2008 for it’s fifteenth year, has become an American institution. While package tours come and go, the Warped Tour has found a niche and has become more and more successful, continuously finding new fans even as original concert goers now worry more about kids and mortgages than punk rock ideals.

While Warped Tour has always featured big acts like Blink 182, No Doubt, Pennywise, Bad Religion and NOFX, it’s multiple stage setup have also given smaller bands a chance to criss-cross the country and play to crowds bigger then what they might find on their own club dates. “My most memorable experience on Warped Tour has to be the day we played Denver,” stated Beat Union’s Luke Johnson. “Right before we went on almost 600 kids turned out to watch us play. It was crazy, we had only played Denver twice.”

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Friday, August 15

• Flying Lotus | 8:00pm at Amoeba Music Hollywood | Info Here
  

Saturday, August 16

• The Fab Four | 6:00 at the Alhambra Summer Jubilee | Info Here

Sunday, August 17

• Steve Barton and the Oblivion Click | 8:30 at Spaceland | Info Here
• The California String Quartet | 6:00 pm at the Leo S. Bing Theatre in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art | Info here
• Piano Stylings of Esteban Adame | 5:00 pm at Vroman’s Bookstore | Info Here
• Extra and Sidewalk Society | 8:30pm at Spaceland | Info Here
  

Well, well, well, it’s been another week and She-Who-Kissed-A-Girl-&-Shall-Not-Be-Named is still #1 on the chart. In a last-ditch effort to remain positive I’ve decided to take the constructive criticism/commentary of a one Ms. Liana Aghajanian. She commented on my She-Who-Kissed-A-Girl-&-Shall-Not-Be-Named article last week saying the only song on Billboard that deserved to be on the list was Paper Planes, by M.I.A.

This week on Billboard’s Hot 100, at #16 is Paper Planes. Had it not been for Aghajanian, I would never have given M.I.A. a second thought. Her style is new and interesting; it vaguely reminds me of Peaches. She has actually toured with Peaches. Born Mathangi Arulpragasm [July 17th, 1977] in London and of a Sri Lankan Tamil ethnicity, M.I.A. uses her multicultural background as a foundation for most of her work. Her lyrical content ranges from global politics, violence, and poverty to her issues with the war on terror. Her songs sound dance-able [if you're high on X] and shallow at first play; when you read them over you can’t miss the dark tension when she sings about gas, bureaucracy, and ‘the’ system.

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