Don Williams, an influential and award-winning country singer of hits including the love ballad “I Believe in You,” has died. He was 78. A statement from publicist Kirt Webster said Williams died Friday after a short illness. Williams had 17 No. 1 hits before retiring in 2016. His mellow sound...
The former country wunderkind turned international pop sensation is coming back Nov. 10 with “Reputation,” her sixth studio album and her first new collection in three years, the longest break she’s taken between albums since the 2006 release of her fetchingly precocious debut, “Taylor Swift.” ...
The bassist and composer Holger Czukay, whose death at 79 was announced Tuesday, played a key role in the creation of post-punk — before the term punk itself even existed and while much of Western youth culture was playing hippy-fied variations on electric blues. As co-founder of the influential...
A long-simmering, long-distance courtship between two humble members of the Southern California radio community will culminate Tuesday in a marriage that aims to create a new power couple in the hyper-competitive world of Los Angeles radio. The two noncommercial stations soon to be united are KCSN-FM,...
Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Murray Lerner, who captured Bob Dylan defiantly going electric at the Newport Folk Festival and filmed Jimi Hendrix’s final concert performance, has died. Lerner died Sunday at his home in New York City. He was 90. The filmmaker preserved some of the critical...
Anaheim-raised rapper Phora hasn’t had it easy. The 22-year-old has survived a stabbing, a shooting and has wrestled with thoughts of suicide. But his first album for Warner Bros., the recently released “Yours Truly Forever,” isn’t solely centered on tales of hard living. His steadily growing fan...
When Gary Richards walked off the stage after his DJ set at Hard Summer last month, he knew it would be his last performance at the festival he founded 10 years ago. Just weeks later, however, Richards is ready to announce his new gig. The promoter behind one of L.A.’s largest — and sometimes controversial...
Were Ringo Starr the kind of guy to delve deep into the blues, he might well have taken a stab at Willie Dixon’s classic “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” on his forthcoming album, “Give More Love.” Perhaps not in the original context of being unable to escape a toxic relationship with a romantic partner,...
As David Lynch prepared last year to shoot a musical performance that would help close out his revival of “Twin Peaks,” his direction to singer Julee Cruise was simple. “He said, ‘Julee, you are a child full of wonder,’” recalls Cruise, a longtime musical collaborator with Lynch. “And he meant...
Walter Becker wasn’t easily impressed. Addressing a crowd of show-business luminaries in 2001 as his band, Steely Dan, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he took a typically sly — and typically subtle — dig at the institution’s inflated self-regard by declaring, “We’re persuaded...
Walter Becker, the co-founder of Steely Dan who was known for his acerbic wit and his proficient work with the guitar, has died. He was 67. As one of the key architects of Steely Dan, Becker and longtime musical partner Donald Fagen were responsible for numerous hit songs and albums throughout...
Petra Haden, “Maniac” (YouTube). Musician Petra Haden is perhaps best known as co-founder of beloved ‘90s L.A. band That Dog, but for the last dozen years she's been making infectious a cappella cover versions of unlikely songs. Her best known project is a song for song cover of the Who's early...
Walter Becker, co-founder with Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, died Sunday at age 67. In this Sunday Calendar interview published in The Times on Aug. 22, 1993, Becker and Fagen talked with Chris Willman at the start of their first reunion tour after 19 years away from the stage as Steely Dan and a...
Taylor Swift’s latest single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” is essentially a lock to land at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart, making it the first cut this year by a solo female artist to reach the pinnacle of the tally. But while there’s been some talk of a lack of women atop the charts...
Three years ago, all the signs pointed one way: Tinashe was on her way to pop stardom. In 2012, when she was just 19, she produced two critically acclaimed mixtapes that landed her a deal at RCA. A year later her debut single, “2 On,” made it to No. 24 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Her 2014 debut album,...
The 50th anniversary remix and deluxe reissue of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was greeted with almost universal acclaim upon its release in May. Long ranked as one of the most revolutionary and influential albums in rock history, the “Sgt. Pepper” reissue scored a perfect...
On the surface, pop star Taylor Swift’s ticketing announcement seems simple enough — exciting, even. “Taylor Swift is committed to getting tickets into the hands of fans … NOT scalpers or bots,” reads the statement on Ticketmaster’s site. “So she's collaborating with Ticketmaster #VerifiedFan to...
Well, of course he got the band back together. Going out on top — and then just staying that way? It would’ve seemed counter to the animating spirit of the thing. When James Murphy started LCD Soundsystem in 2002, the singer, producer and vintage-synth connoisseur introduced the group with “Losing...
Family. It’s humanity’s foundational social unit, one that encompasses myriad rich and complex dealings, which makes it somewhat surprising that more musicians haven’t devoted more attention to examining the myriad interpersonal dynamics that they engender. But then there’s Loudon Wainwright III,...
The avant-pop band Sparks has been making curiously brilliant music for over four decades, and for a lot of that time they’ve done so in proximity to Sunset Boulevard. Founded by brothers Ron and Russell Mael, who were raised in Pacific Palisades, the band earned early attention for gigs at the...
It wasn’t Pink. It wasn’t Taylor Swift. It wasn’t even Katy Perry, who hosted the show and gave its closing performance. No, the person MTV clearly wanted to represent the 2017 edition of its annual Video Music Awards — to communicate its heart and soul — was Susan Bro, whose daughter Heather Heyer...
We have to go up to the pink room, Charo insists. “Right now! Let’s go!” It’s pink, all right, with a little round platform perfect for Charo to strike pose after pose, thrusting her hips, shaking that famous mane of cascading curls and bangs, and squealing the catchphrase she has taken all the...
The artists and executives behind the year's biggest song talk about its artistic triumph — and its political motivation.
Inside the Forum on Wednesday afternoon, four days before this year’s edition of the MTV Video Music Awards, engineers checked audio levels with a trap-music remix of the theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey.” One worker swung dozens of feet through the air, attached to rooftop scaffolding above a...
Next time you find yourself in a room with established musicians, ask them about their early experiences along Sunset Boulevard. Whether grizzled '70s rockers waxing about the Roxy, former post-punks recalling Club Lingerie or contemporary hitmakers born long after the Strip's heyday recalling...
On a recent Friday night around midnight, Los Globos general manager Sire Dhone Johnson stood on his Sunset Boulevard sidewalk next to bouncers and chatted with customers. The Sunset Strip and Hollywood may get all the historical ink, but these days Echo Park draws more hipster foot traffic. Located...
If Sunset Boulevard represents a kind of metaphorical artery pumping rhythms across the city and around the world, worth examining is how those sounds were built, heard and danced to. “We always need a through line, and I’m intrigued by the street itself as the through -line that cuts east to...
Although unassuming from the street, a single business along Sunset Boulevard has arguably aided more musical superstars than any other: Studio Instrument Rentals. Founded by Ken Berry and Dolph Rempp in 1967 to service the recording scene along Guitar Row in Hollywood, the company now is celebrating...
Music man Lou Adler lives a few miles north of the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway, where, on a recent afternoon, an anonymous musician had plugged his red Fender electric guitar into an amp and was jamming for cash as cars waited at the stoplight. The ax-man could have...
Last month a shudder rumbled through the L.A. music world when news spread that Amoeba Music in Hollywood, the massive pop-culture retailer at the corner of Sunset and Cahuenga boulevards, might be forced to relocate. The building’s owners, GPI Properties, unveiled plans to construct a 28-story...
L.A. music impresario Lou Adler talks about watching the modern music business take off along Sunset Boulevard.
Attempting to quantify the volume of music stories that have transpired across the 22 miles of Sunset Boulevard is a fool’s game. But a few well-arranged snapshots from the thoroughfare’s recording studios, venues, record labels and shops across the decades can capture a range of tastes, genres...
Musicians, writers and more share their memories from various locations along Sunset Boulevard.
Sunset Boulevard’s evolution over the last century from a former cattle trail to a boulevard of melody has influenced American culture in countless ways.
The storied venue the Whisky a Go Go, which has occupied the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Clark Street on and off since 1964, has seen its share of action. This is the joint, after all, where go-go dancing was born, where Otis Redding brought soul to the Sunset Strip, where the Doors played almost...
Shakespeare and rock ’n’ roll have made strange bedfellows from time to time, perhaps most famously in 1968 in Los Angeles with “Catch My Soul,” a reworking of “Othello,” in which none other than Jerry Lee Lewis, a.k.a. the Ferriday Fireball and one of the founding fathers of rock music, was cast...
Taylor Swift’s sharp-edged single “Look What You Made Me Do,” the opening salvo from her forthcoming album “Reputation” and her first new music in three years, will convey many things to many listeners, but one message is inescapable: This time, it’s personal. OK, so that’s a bit like saying water...
“Tonight feels like a big celebration,” a genial and relaxed Herbie Hancock said before introducing his new band on the Hollywood Bowl stage Wednesday night. His group, which has spent the summer touring the country, superficially reflected Hancock’s predilection for assembling all-star bands during...
The Hollywood Bowl has long been a place to see what are now called legacy acts — often a term that’s a polite way of saying old and critic-proof. But in the case of Bryan Ferry, who this weekend is making his Cahuenga Pass debut, the Los Angeles Philharmonic has invited not only a major artist...
A weekly round-up of must-hear music music, as chosen by the pop staff of The Times. This week’s picks include a new EP from Americana artist Margo Price, a coming reissue from Manu Dibango and Justin Bieber’s collaboration with producer BloodPop. Margo Price "Weakness" (Third Man) On the heels...
It might seem strange for a very young woman, growing up thousands of miles away from jazz capitals like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, to be singing standards from the years before World War II. But Cécile McLorin Salvant, perhaps the brightest star among jazz singers under 40, and whose retro...
When Victoria Meyer was summoned by one of her bosses at La Cañada Flintridge’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory a couple of years ago, she assumed it was for some puzzle related to her daily work poring over satellite imagery for information to better understand issues of climate change and deforestation....
Jerry Lewis will be remembered first and foremost for his contributions to comedy, whether it's his nightclub act with Dean Martin or his work in films. But Lewis, who died Sunday at age 91, also was an ardent music fan, something that he often showcased in his movies, demonstrating the same gift...
Two and a half years after it premiered off-Broadway, “Hamilton” finally reached Los Angeles last week when the touring edition of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash-hit musical opened Wednesday night at the Hollywood Pantages. Fans of the Tony Award-winning show about America’s Founding Fathers probably...
At some point there will come a day — and lately it’s felt uncomfortably close — when Willie Nelson is no longer available to shuffle onstage with his five-piece band, pick up the battered acoustic guitar he calls Trigger and rip into “Whiskey River” with his proprietary blend of wisdom and intensity....
Fifth Harmony offers a track-by-track breakdown of its 'passionate' self-titled album.
Echo Park Rising began six years ago as a hail-mary pass to salvage another free music festival. After the popular Sunset Junction fest in Silver Lake collapsed at the last minute in 2011, the concert promoter Spaceland Presents cobbled together a scrappy, free festival of mostly local acts. It...
Alana Haim couldn’t believe what she was hearing. In need of a new cellphone number, the youngest member of Haim — the Los Angeles-based trio she shares with her older sisters, Este and Danielle — recently took herself to T-Mobile, where a worker informed her that her replacement digits would start...
Fifteen minutes into the new film “Patti Cakes,” Bridget Everett slips in through a side door of a seedy tavern to music straight out of a spaghetti western at high noon. Behind the counter, her bartender daughter sizes up the situation: “Christ.” “Line up your ma a bomb,” Everett’s character says....
Health, “Blue Monday” (Loma Vista). The Los Angeles quartet long ago earned the cred to tackle this dance floor classic by New Order, which was commissioned for the new Charlize Theron thriller “Atomic Blonde.” Originally written in mourning of the late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, New Order’s...
Not long ago, most country music fans would have known the punchline to the ol’ joke about what happens when you play a country song backward. You get back your dog, your job, your house and your wife. The inherent implication — that country is about tragedy, heartbreak and loss — is increasingly...
Fifth Harmony is at a crossroads. Having lost a member in a public fallout right after the group brokeout, the girls are in full control of their sound and brand. Will they finally make it big?
A half-century ago, as turmoil and restlessness stemming from the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the rise of feminism, nascent hippie culture and other social and political changes spread across the globe, Louis Armstrong recorded a simple, unapologetic ode to peace and brotherhood that...
Sam Hunt started out in one place Tuesday night but ended up in quite another. The singer of the year’s biggest country hit, “Body Like a Back Road,” was about halfway through the first of two concerts at the Greek Theatre when he sat down on a stool for a “little chat,” as he put it, about how...