THE ART OF REBELLION
A thrash-lovin’ graffiti artist has covered a wall in Venice, California with a mural tribute to iconic Venice hardcore band Suicidal Tendencies. We think Mike Muir would approve of the awesome tagging.
Heavy Metal 101
‘HISTORY OF HEAVY METAL’ ROCKS L.A.’S GRAMMY MUSEUM
Downtown Los Angeles’ Grammy Museum is hosting its first-ever heavy metal exhibit, “Golden Gods: The History of Heavy Metal.” The interactive showcase includes everything from a 15-foot tall fiberglass statue of Eddie from Iron Maiden’s “Somewhere in Time Tour” to guitars from every rock god on the planet, including EDDIE VAN HALEN and DOKKEN‘S GEORGE LYNCH. The exhibit runs through February 2013.
Under the Bridge
SILVER LAKE SALUTE
Here’s a view from a Riverside Drive bridge on the edge of Silver Lake, the cool East Hollywood ‘hood that was once the old stomping grounds of iconic L.A. rockers like Henry Rollins, Beck, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Concrete Blonde and Johnette Napolitano and countless other influential artists.
Ill Communication
HOLLYWOOD GIVES A HOLLA TO LATE RAP-ROCKER ‘MCA’
Hollywood honors the memory of late Beastie Boys badass bassist-vocalist Adam “MCA” Yauch with a billboard at Vine Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, just down the street from the trio’s former label, Capitol Records. It’s almost as groovin’ as the Atwater Village memorial across town.
The Offspring Cover Sunset
O.C. ROCKERS SPARK PRE-SSMF BUZZ WITH SUNSET PRESENCE
It’s the mid-’90s all over again on Sunset Boulevard — and we like it! In advertising, placement is everything, and Huntington Beach hard rockers 
The Offspring took that adage to mind and are plastered in a hard-to-miss historic spot on the Strip – on the shell of the old Tower Video. Seeing the band back on the Strip brings us back to the ’90s, when The Offspring were rockin’ future classics like “Keep ‘Em Separated” and “Come Out and Play,” and Tower Video’s famous red and yellow sign was casting a groovy glow over the corner of Sunset and Larrabee.
The Offspring poster is advertising the band’s new album, Days Go By. They’re certain to rock new tunes like the title track and, our current fave, “Cruising California (Bumpin’ In My Trunk)” when The Offspring rock the main stage of the Sunset Strip Music Festival in August!
Saints of Los Angeles
SUNSET STRIP LEGENDS LONDON & TUFF HEADLINE 11TH ANNUAL CRUEFEST AT THE WHISKY, JULY 28
L.A. local legends London — Nikki Sixx‘s pre-Motley Crue band whose earlier lineups included every metal superstar from Blackie Lawless to Slash — is headlining the 11th Annual Cruefest Hollywood at WeHo’s Whisky A Go-Go on July 28. Fellow Sunset Strip refugees Tuff are also on the bill, along with DC4, SkinMask, Stonebreed, Alterna-Chicks and Gutter Boys.
The yearly charity rock event was launched in 2001 by Crue fans and benefits the Skylar Neil Foundation, which was founded in honor of Vince Neil’s daughter, who died of cancer in 1995. The Foundation raises funds for organizations working to find cures for cancer, AIDS and other diseases.
Cruefest is not only a great night of rock for a cool Crue-approved cause, it also always draws out some very cool guests. Ratt‘s Stephen Pearcy, original GN’R drummer Steven Adler and L.A. Guns‘ Tracii Guns made it to last year’s event. Plus, Cruefest also offers a chance to collect some cool rock gear via auctions and raffles, including signed Crue art.
Admission is $25. Or get pre-sale tix for $20 here.
Cinderella to Shake O.C.
L.A. TIMES SUMMER CONCERT SERIES AT O.C. FAIR INCLUDES DYNAMITE DOUBLE BILL WITH CINDERELLA & SEB BACH, AUG. 3
Cinderella and ex-Skidrow screamer Sebastian Bach are bringing the metal to the Orange County Fair’s Los Angeles Times Summer Concert Series, which kicks off July 13 and runs through August 12 at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa. The bands’ double-headliner bill on August 3 is the hardest rocking and best option in the series – although Heart, on August 9, and Weird Al Yankovich, on August 12, are also sure to be great shows.
Following various member changes over the years, the current incarnation of Cinderella is the original killer quartet – frontman Tom Kiefer, drummer Fred Courey, bassist Eric Brittingham and shredder Jeff LaBar – that rocked the ’80s and ’90s with arena anthems and ballsy power ballads like “Shake Me,” “Nobody’s Fool” and “The More Things Change.”
Cinderella, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011, hasn’t had a new studio album since 1994’s Still Climbing, so expect the O.C. gig to be a hits-packed show.
Bach (right) is sure to rock Skidrow classics like “Youth Gone Wild” and “I Remember You” along with tunes from his very hot and heavy latest solo release Kicking and Screaming.
Sunset Strip Shot o’ the Day
SUNSET PEOPLE
A slick street artist — and apparent fan of Poe, A Clockwork Orange, Rob Zombie (maybe) and everything Goth — has added some cool pavement art to the Sunset Strip in front of the Viper Room in West Hollywood.
Linkin Park’s Big Dodge
L.A. SUPERSTARS TO APPEAR AT JUNE 29 DODGERS/METS GAME
The L.A. Dodgers have been trying to entice fans to start attending games more often again after the brutal attack on Giants fan Brian Stowe at Dodger Stadium last March. The free bobbleheads didn’t make a dent for us, but this announcement of a June 29 game against the Mets initially sounded VERY promising:
“GO TO THE DODGERS GAME WITH LINKIN PARK!”
Before you get revved for a great night of live rock and roll, however, you should know that there is good news and bad — really bad — news.
The good: Chester Bennington and his Linkin Park pals will be there to throw out the first ball.
The bad: After tossing the first pitch, the band is, um, splitting the scene! WTH?! Oh, but Dodger Stadium will be cranking LP’s music, including new stuff from Living Things, which drops June 26. The tracks will be synchronized with a post-game fireworks show. Woo-hoo! (Editor’s Note: That was a sarcastic “woo-hoo.”)
L.A. fans will have to wait until June 29 to see the band live, during the X Games at Downtown L.A.’s Nokia Theatre, and in September, when LP will rock the Southland with Incubus.
Cheri Currie’s Crusade
ART WITH HEART: A ROCKIN’ TRIBUTE TO KELLY THOMAS
The Runaways‘ legendary frontwoman Cherie Currie is also a rockin’ chainsaw artist and made this bench to auction off to benefit a foundation set up in memory of Kelly Thomas, the mentally challenged homeless man that was beaten and killed by Fullerton police last year.
Currie had been keeping fans in the loop while creating the awesome work of art, posting pictures on her Facebook throughout her creative process.
Let’s hope Cherie also carves out some time for a potential Runaways reunion!
Sad But True
METALLICA LAUNCHES INITIATIVE TO FIND KILLER OF 2009 CONCERTGOER
Metallica has always been beyond cool to the band’s fans, and now James Hetfield has taken some time out to record a PSA to help police try to catch the killer of a concertgoer who disappeared after attending a Metallica show three years ago. The pitch from the band’s frontman comes amid new evidence that the suspect has attacked again in Virginia.
Hetfield’s pitch is to help find the murderer of Morgan Harrington, a Virginia Tech student who disappeared October 17, 2009, while attending a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena on the UVA campus in Charlottesville, Virginia. According to the FBI report, at approximately 8:30 p.m., she stepped outside the arena for an unknown reason and was unable to re-enter the facility. She was last seen hitchhiking for a ride from passing traffic.
Harrington was dressed that night in a black Pantera T-shirt, which was found a month later in front of a row of apartments along 15th Street in Charlottesville. Her remains were later discovered on January 26, 2010, in a remote field on an Albemarle County farm along Route 29 in Virginia.
Ch-Check It Out
BEASTIE BOYS IMMORTALIZED IN ATWATER VILLAGE
This (body)movin’ tribute to the Beastie Boys is a brand-spankin’ new addition to a utility box on Brand Boulevard just over the hill from Hollywood, in Atwater Village. R.I.P. Adam “MCA” Yauch.
In the Name of Love
COURTNEY LOVE STILL SUFFERING FROM NIRVANA OVER FAMOUS ATTACHMENT TO ‘THAT GUY’
“This has been my glory moment, my glory years, because forever I’m going to be attached to ‘that guy,'” laments Sunset Strip refugee Courtney Love — again — discussing, in L.A. filmmaker and musician Hans Fjellestad‘s new doc Sunset Strip: The Movie, her hard-rocking glory days headlining the Whisky with Hole, a proud moment that she feels will always be overshadowed by her association with “that guy” — you know, the one who made her famous in the first place.
Sunset Strip: The Movie premiered earlier this week, on June 19, at Graumann’s in Hollywood.
Decline of Western Civilization Part 3
JOE ELLIOT BLAMES DEF LEPPARD WANNABES FOR THE DEMISE OF HEAVY METAL’S POPULARITY IN THE AWESOME EIGHTIES
Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliot gives his theory on what led to the demise in popularity of heavy metal in the late ’80s/early ’90s in an interview with Vanity Fair.
“When Kurt Cobain came along and tried to kill off the ’80s, he wasn’t trying to kill off Def Leppard. He could have lived with Def Leppard. What he couldn’t deal with was the hundred of other sound-alikes. And that was the problem. And that’s why the ’80s imploded and started eating itself. There were bands that sounded like GN’R, bands that sounded like Bon Jovi, [and bands that sounded like us] — it was one of those three, copied maybe 20, 30 times. It was just a weaker version. And the novelty wore off pretty quick.”
Sunset Strip Shot o’ the Day
VIPER ROOM BECOMES A GUERILLA-ART GALLERY
The bland black side wall of the Sunset Strip’s Viper Room just got a whole lot more interesting thanks to popular and prolific street artist Becca, whose sexy “Ride or Die” graphic, above, adorns the popular rock club near its Larrabee Street entrance. Over the past few years, Becca’s original art has been popping up more frequently around town and has become an exciting staple of L.A.’s cityscape.
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