Living in Tinsel Town has its advantages. Among them is the variety of music concentrated into a smoggy basin girded by a mountain sign, golden coastline, and a smoggy desert expanse mostly covered by asphalt.
The intermittent heat makes artists half baked. As previously noted,
America is like a box of cereal with its seams split, shaking out on both ends, littering coasts east and west with flakes, fruits, and nuts. Los Angeles has more than its share of nuts. And many of them occupy positions of influence in the music industry.
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| Frenzy of excitement at a big KROQ rock show in Los Angeles (craveonline.com) |
The monopolistic corporate media powers that be have assembled
numerous mega-concerts for the holiday season: (CBS, Inc.) KROQ's alternative "Acoustic X-mas,"
KPWR (
Power 106)'s hip hop/gangsta rap "
Cali Christmas" (to be live streamed Dec. 14, 2013), Ryan Seacrest's pop/rap KISS FM's
giant Jingle Ball. Who's playing? Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Robin Thicke, Selena Gomez... went on last night in an enormous downtown concert stadium.
But tonight and tomorrow,
all for charity, KROQ will be live webcasting a more spectacular alt-rock-pop show featuring Lorde, Cage the Elephant, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, Grouplove, The Neighbourhood, Queens of the Stone Age, AFI (A Fire Inside), Kings of Leon, New Politics, Fitz and the Tantrums, Portugal. The Man, Bastille, Atlas Genius, Foals, Arcade Fire, and Phoenix (plus a
special surprise guest).
(JK) Arctic Monkeys "Do I Wanna Know" on former KROQ DJ Jimmy Kimmel's late night show
You know the song "For What It's Worth"? Based on the footage I saw the night Occupy Los Angeles was "evicted" by police after being foreclosed by the mayor, we MUST come up with more peaceful, productive ways to assemble.
Look at this mayhem. Is it working for anyone? Is it winning the hearts and minds of the 99%, creating positive change or transformation? I'm asking.
When it comes to offering full-length content on the Web, YouTube isn't ready to lose to Hulu. [This comes as it is enjoying a huge surge due to British songstress Susan Boyle (pictured above) teaching Simon Cowell a lesson in humility (see "Simpsons" clip below). WQ debates which site to utilize.]
Yesterday, Google's California-based video site announced that it had reached agreement with notable entertainment companies, including Sony Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment, and CBS (publisher of CNET News) to offer visitors full-length TV shows and feature films.
