This Thursday, L.A. will host another Soul Clap and Dance Off with New York Night Train promoter Jonathan Toubin. He will also be bringing guest DJ Ian Svenonius, former frontman for Nation of Ulysses and the Make-up and current frontman for Chain and the Gang. If you think you have what it takes, show up and show off! This interview by John Henry.

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Vedder put it best when he said “There are laws in this state against things like gay marriage, but there isn’t a law in California that says you can’t lose your shit at a rock ‘n’ roll concert.” On this night, he was correct.

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Exene Cervenka helped invent what Los Angeles is now and helped save the best of what it used to be. She releases a new solo album Somewhere Gone on Bloodshot in October and is moving back to California after years in a historic farmhouse in Missouri. She speaks now while camping on the beach. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

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Billy Bragg has been mixing pop and politics and hoping to save the youth of America since he started out as ‘one-man Clash’ in 1977. After projects with Wilco and Woody Guthrie, he will present the U.S. premiere of his vocal version of Beethoven’s ‘Ode To Joy’ in Santa Monica. This interview by Dan Collins.

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photography b y ward robinson

Mike Watt and his band performing at the Redwod Bar and Grill on July 24, 2009.

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The Minutemen’s Double Nickels On The Dime is one of the several weathered foundations of L.A. RECORD. Exactly twenty-five years later, it still starts bands and makes friends. Minutemen bassist Mike Watt meets for pizza at San Pedro’s excellent Pavich’s Pizza for remembering D. Boon and George Hurley and that guy Mike Watt in the summer of 1984. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

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L.A. RECORD is proud to co-present Allison and Tiffany Anders’ annual Don’t Knock The Rock music documentary festival, which starts tonight and runs every Thursday at Cinefamily at 611 N. Fairfax Ave. in July and August. Get the complete schedule and musical line-up—plus clips of all the films!—below! THUR., JULY 2 at 8 PM: Chicano [...]

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In the Henry Clay tradition, they finished their set with a lot more people on stage than when they started. To be honest, by time they played their cover of the Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” to close their set, I was so wasted, I couldn’t tell if they had all the members of Airborne Toxic Event onstage with them because I was seeing 1 ¼ people for every person at that point. The great part is that considering there was no stage diving and only one moderately scary wipeout—and I never saw more than a dozen or so (actual) people on stage at the same time—is that this was probably their mild show.

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Spaceland was already filled by the time they took the stage and—like the immediacy of the rest of Watt’s work—it was a plug-in and go affair. The punk-jazz-funk-folk elements were in full display, ratcheted up to the combustive level that Watt brings to his many projects, which is the reason he is the go-to bassist for everyone from Iggy to (dare we say) Kelly Clarkson. This guy has earned any paid gig he gets, and paid or not on this night, he gave nothing less than all for every damn note he played.

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Watt sends out this photo and a short note, and L.A. RECORD pauses to salute the man who gave us our history lessons. d. boon’s birthday today everybody. I never could get as high up as him… but I keep trying, keep pushing! on bass, watt

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