In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and......

Somewhere in between catchy melodies on Stage 1 and pulsating beats on Stage 3 lies a catalog of punk rock bands waiting to rock your nuts off at this year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest. Among them, a punk act from fertile California will occupy Stage 2 at 2:40 p.m. on November 4th. CH3 (that’s Channel Three, not the hydrocarbon unit) formed in 1980 in Los Angeles and their politically charged tracks like “Manzanar” soon became......

You bring up the idea of “art”, and you’re definitely begging for some heated shit talking. Opinions are the first to fly, then potentially followed by epithets, then perhaps some brass knuckles. All metaphoric in form, of course. Why must these disagreements come to pass? Notorious MSG comes to mind. It could be said that this is exactly what art and artists, as functional cogs in the machines of social industry, are supposed to......

Now that we're in mid-January, club bookings for winter and spring shows are beginning to emerge. While much internet browsing has already been done looking for the SXSW 2007 lineup, there are also plenty of great touring shows dropping in outside of those dates (thankfully). New shows from The Roots, Explosions In The Sky, Midlake, and a Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard double bill top the new additions, but there is plenty here for all musical......

FRIDAY [21] [food] Summer Social at the Whole Foods Culinary Center at Whole Foods Market, 525 N Lamar ($15, 5:30-7pm) (link) [music] Appleseed Cast, Criteria, Russian Circles, the Lovely Sparows at Emo's (link) [music] Los Lonely Boys, Shawn Sahm & the Tex Mex Experience at Stubb's (link) [music] Rainer Maria, the Format, Anathallo, Street to Nowhere at the Parish Room (link) (interview) [music] DJ Jester and Lederhosen Lucil at Waterloo Records (link) [music] The Gourds......

We've just come across the incredibly sad news that Houston native Billy Preston has died of hypertension and kidney failure this morning in Arizona. Widely known as the "fifth Beatle" due to his fantastic organ parts on Abbey Road and Let It Be, Preston maintained a lifelong friendship with the Beatles, collaborating with John, Ringo, and George on 70's solo projects as well. Preston's resume is staggering: he played in the touring bands of......

Three weeks after serving the president the most satisfyingly brazen smack-down ever to grace C-SPAN (not that that's saying a lot), Stephen Colbert has some big-time bragging rights: an audio version of his skewering of George W. hit number one on iTunes. Despite being dismissed by much of the mainstream media, which was also targeted by Colbert's rapier comments, his speech, delivered in mock admiration of the president, has spread virally with a vengence. 40......