Austin

Becoming a Rock Star Is Hard. How Did You Do It?

Exene Cervenka is a writer, visual artist and punk rock pioneer. The OC transplant is the lead singer for X, the Knitters and Original Sinners. 
If you want to ask the legendary vocalist for advice, send an email to askexene@ocweekly.com. DEAR EXENE: I am 16 years old and have been trying t ... More >>

Young The Giant's "My Body" and "Cough Syrup" Go Gold

As has been already established, Irvine's own OC Weekly cover boys Young The Giant have proven to be a force to be reckoned with both on tour and on the radio waves. This was only confirmed with the big news that the band's first two singles, "My Body" and "Cough Syrup," have been certified Gold in ... More >>

Ume's Lauren Larson On What It's Like To Get A Call From Perry Ferrell

Like other bands before them, Ume (pronounced ooh-may), took to Kickstarter in order to help fund their next album. Raising the necessary funds faster than you can say "trip to Seattle," the indie-garage band is planning a quick turn-around, with the album slated to be released in 2013. Not ones to ... More >>

Google To Launch A Food Channel on YouTube With Ex-Food Network Exec

Google has hired a former Food Network exec to head a YouTube channel called HUNGRY this summer. Going live on July 2nd, the new offering will feature at least a dozen original programming, which will include, among others, a new series with Duff Goldman from Ace of Cakes, a show called Brother ... More >>

What Is SxSw And Why The Hype?

​As many have you have likely heard in the past few days, South-by-Southwest, better known in the written form as SxSw, has descended onto Austin for its 25th rendition. What exactly is SxSw? For those of you not aware, SxSw used to be a cool event that took place in Austin every March when p ... More >>

Orange County: The Most Hipster Place in America?

​Pop open that can of PBR. Orange County has been ranked as the No. 1 hipster place in America, surpassing San Francisco, Portland, New York and Austin.     (Go ahead and lift your jaw off the floor--we'll wait.)  Hipsterness, of course, isn't easy to quantify--ironic mustaches ... More >>

Wine Company Trying to Trademark Term 'Taco Truck'

​Today is something called National Taco Day, which is a total bullshit holiday made up in 2000 by Chuy's in Austin. It started as a marketing ploy, and Chuy's actually filed a trademark application for it, but it let its rights to the term slip, meaning hundreds of lazy bloggers and reporters can ... More >>

"Whole Foods Parking Lot" Video: Miracle of Filmmaking!

Everyone's posting this, so we should as well--along with our own Whole Foods Nazi experience!

Drag Queens Turning Lip Syncing Into An Art Form (Happy Pride Month, Everyone!)

www.manilaluzon.comDrag queen Manila Luzon​Lip syncing has always been, in the minds of common folk, one of those faux pas we only see when a member of the Real Housewives collective tries their hand at so-called "singing." (Believe it or not, those microphones in hand are as dead as a clueless po ... More >>

Megafauna

The Prospector

The Five Most Underrated Bands of Orange County

Myspace.com​For a long time, a major topic of discussion between music journalists and musicians alike has been: how does Orange County measure up to the other metropolitan creative hot spots around the country like Austin, Portland, Los Angeles and New York. Is the OC a musical universe unto itse ... More >>

Soon-To-Be-Stuck in Your Head: Cowabunga Babes, "Hot Babez"

​It's often said that the best way to come up with a song is to write about what you know. So it makes sense that Cowabunga Babes (pictured) were able to carve the astoundingly catchy song "Hot Babez" out of the marble slab of their collective imagination. Watch the video and let th ... More >>

Uneasy Riding on the Night Owl Buses

Today in Music News: No Doubt, Sonic Youth, Jay Reatard, Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert

OC's most awesome music export, No Doubt, continues battling with Activision over the group's (mis)use in the game Band Hero.Sonic Youth, which performs at the Fox Theatre in Pomona Jan. 8, plan to record new album in 2010.Garage-punk badass Jay Reatard attacked by fans in Austin--fights back with ... More >>

Ghostland Observatory

House of Blues

Ghostland Observatory Fuses the Best of Man and Machine

[Locals Only] Audacious and Precocious

A pocket-full of SXSW videos

Okay, so another SXSW festival has come and gone. You weren't there, we weren't there...boo-hoo. But it's time's like these where we bow and thank the Lord for You-Tube. I'm not sure whether it was boredom or sheer curiosity that led me to reexamine a previous post I made about OC and LB bands headi ... More >>

OC/LBC Bands Head to South By Southwest

Crystal Antlers Score EW Mention

Long Beach's Crystal Antlers, who this year already netted an 8.5 on Pitchfork for their self-released EP (which was subsequently sntached up by Touch and Go) and just last night played the Bowery Ballroom in NYC as part of the CMJ Music Marathon, saw their good buzz streak continue with a mention i ... More >>

[This Hole-in-the-Wall Life] The Yellow Cup of Texas at Dickey's Barbecue Pit

What you missed over the weekend: Part XIV

Dave Segal and Tom Child spent the weekend in Austin for the South By Southwest Festival, which they live-blogged out of Heard Mentality. Browse the SXSW blog for their coverage here, and do scroll down and flip through some slide shows while you're there. Chelsea Ide wraps up the SXSW weekend quite ... More >>

Crystal Antlers and Banana Hammocks

The problem with blogging SXSW is that every second spent blogging is a second spent not seeing something that you might want to blog about. Having arrived late Wednesday night, while the festival was already in partial swing, and trying (unsuccessfully) to catch up on some lost travel sleep Thurs ... More >>

Coachella lineup announced

Via Coachella.com: FRIDAY, APRIL 25: Jack Johnson, The Verve, Raconteurs, The Breeders, Fatboy Slim, Tegan and Sara, Madness, The Swell Season, The National, Animal Collective, Slightly Stoopid, Mum, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Stars, Battles, Aesop Rock, Midnight Juggernauts, Does it Offend yo ... More >>

"Death" takes to DVD

One (or two, depending on how you look at it) of the highlights of the past Newport Beach Film Festival was the Death Note movies, the latest in a powerhouse franchise from Japan that began with comics, then spawned an anime series and many toys, and finally these live-action adaptations. Death Note ... More >>

Are Your Ears Burning Yet?

Surveying the (potential) sound-good hits of the summer

Brothers Grim

Wendell Baker is a dysfunctional Wilson family affair

Spurfection

Lonesome Spurs

The Awful Truth in Austin, Texas

The case against Michael Moore and for B-list celebs at SXSW

Screw the Industry Weasels

Think small (bands) and youll have a good time at SXSW

South By Southwest, Part 1

Well, it's 8:35 Austin time and I've finally got my room, internet access, and festival badge. Haven't had a chance to see any actual music yet, but I've certainly seen plenty of jaded industry types, giddy young music writers, and desperate publicists. I'm headed out into the evening to actually fi ... More >>

The Call of the West

A solid rendition of Sam Shepards funniest great play

Through the Viewfinder

My SXSW photo album

Commie Girl

Of Fullerton bars and gaygaygay holiday spectaculars

Eight Days

Burning Bush

The presidents conservative critics

The Thermals

Heartwarming, heartbreaking

Dance Disaster Movement

We are from nowhere

Buchanan

Its all a big crapshoot

This Is Nowhere

Stages True West

Screamadelic and Copasetic

Whos the Star Here?

Hey, isnt that James Hall???

Welcome to Schmoozeville

Relishs 29-hour drive as a career metaphor

Kill the Ziggens!

Shitkickers live OCs purveyors of musical standup comedy

Rewind

Great gigs of '00

Vacation, Baby

Locals Only

The Mosleys/Blue Streak/The Alan Broadbent Trio/Jeffries Fan Club/Snack Cake
Beautiful Downtown Fullerton
Friday, Aug. 6

Fast Train Comin'

Havolina Rail Co. are so stupefyingly good you'd swear they were from Austin!