Tagged: latimes

When Heavy D passed away in November it was uncertain what caused the death. The reports were that he experienced a shortness of breath before tragically passing. It was also rumored that his weight could have been a factor as well. The autopsy was released and the Los Angeles Times reports that he suffered a pulmonary embolism caused by deep vein thrombosis (DVT). A pulmonary embolism is blockage of an artery in the lung. What happened was this DVT or blood clot traveled from his leg to his lung basically stopped his breathing. Heart disease could have played [...]

Vesta Williams, soul singer and actress, has died , reports the LA Times. Although her music never sold in massive quantities - her crossover chart record never matched that of her achievements on the R&B chart - she managed a name recognition that outstripped her sales. (Helped, perhaps, by a recurring role in Sister, Sister.) Williams had been rebuilding her career after something of a slump in the 1990s, which coincided with health problems. She had recently taken on a role promoting awareness of childhood diabetes and obesity; she was performing [...]

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As regular readers will know, The Recommender isn't just an mp3 blog, it's always tried to be provide a little more commentary and opinion alongside the music. The blogosphere is a saturated marketplace and we find that those sites that we regularly return to tend to be those with a real voice. That voice is found in the editorial. Today's Q&A is with Dave Greenwald, the editor for the excellent Californian site, Rawkblog . He's a perfect example of great editorial and takes as much pride in the words he writes as the music he selects for [...]

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The film Dick Tracy hit theaters in 1990 and had an all star cast that included Warren Beatty , Al Pacino , and Madonna . Twenty one years later, Beatty, who still owns the character rights is set to reprise the role of the famous detective. The film opened last weekend's L.A. Times Hero Complex Film Festival and Beatty attended the festival to talk about the film. The 74 year old actor/director held a [...]

So Jeff Weiss over at Pop & Hiss - The LA Times Music Blog - talks about the Lightning In a Bottle Festival ("LIB), which is only a couple days away! The line-up is massive, and we're feeling what LIB has to offer. Here's a screenshot of the article-just click on the image for the full story. This year, LIB has already run a mixtape contest , where the [...]

• Empire Of The Sun - We Are The People (Jimmy2sox Remix)

The 16 th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books marks its first year in its new home at the University of Southern California the weekend of April 30th. The nation's largest public literary festival's change of scenery offers book enthusiasts, families and Angelenos of all ages the opportunity to discover new favorites and reconnect with cherished classics. The two-day schedule is packed with celebrity appearances, live music, cooking demonstrations, author readings, book signings and Q&As. Attendees will find seven outdoor stages in the center of USC's [...]

FMLY RIDE has been rolling strong for a little over a year now and in less than a week it will only get better! As usual we'll meet at Crank Mob Park at 7:30pm. So far we have four bands. FIDLAR 's ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! PROFESSOR CALCULUS Three Piece , Grapes and Nuts , and DUDES ! If you haven't seen today's paper grab the LA Times Calendar section for an awesome FMLY RIDE article ! REMEMBER: When you are on FMLY RIDE, you are FMLY. TREAT EVERYONE YOU SEE AS [...]

• DUDES - Something To Say

Photo of Hannibal Moncrief's girlfriend. Content may be scarce for the next 12 hours or so, while I smoke sativa in my hyperbolic chamber while listening to Joe Chambers. Or not. Deadlines, exhaustion, and a desire to be the world's greatest Sorry! player may preclude me from getting around to writing anything more for this site. After all, fake retirements worked for Jay-Z, Jordan, and Lil Flip (this time, he's back and more Leprechaunic than ever). Tentative plans for this week include a Spring PoTw Mixtape, more Nate Dogg memento mori's, [...]

White Iris Records , the label counterpart to Black Iris, a premiere recording studio and music collective, has announced the release of LA punk outfit Fidlar 's limited edition "DIYDUI" 7" vinyl record. The four-tracklimited edition record is available on March 29 digitally and physically April 12 via White Iris. To celebrate the release, Fidlar is making the single "Max Can't Surf"available for free download.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =_Vutb1OgXdQ Over the weekend, Pop & Hiss ran a Q&A that I did with Don Cornelius, the ex-host of Soul Train. If you're interested, we talk his tenure at the greatest dance show ever, his initial reluctance to play hip-hop, and why I would be willing to wear polyester to have lived through the 70s. The occasion was the release of a triple-disc Best of Soul Train set, that Time Life is currently pushing. While I'm loathe to tell you to spend your money on anything other than [...]

• The O' Jays - Back Stabbers

The platitude proclaims "be careful what you wish for. " Admittedly, I rooted for Graduation over Curti s, myopically confident that Kanye's win would usher in an era of creativity and comedy that had been lacking since the heyday of the Native Tongues. While the King of Louis luggage's victory may have opened the floodgates for rappers to sport jeans tighter than mayonnaise jars and allow for Jay-Z and Lil Wayne to get away with wearing $1,000 tortoise-shell spectacles, it did little to improve the state of major label rap. Maybe the one-two punch of illegal downloading [...]

Janelle Monáe wows reviewers with her new sci-fi opera

Justin Bieber ruins everything, even a trip to the amusement park

Link: http://www.latimes.com/enterta inment/news/la-ca-jayz Via: http://www.thedailyswarm.com/h eadlines/jay-zs-references-dir ty-projectors/ Jay-Z is a popular mainstream rapper who many alt sites give authentic credibility, but I'm not sure why. He enjoys to give interviews where he talks about listening to 'far out, real ass shit', including indie buzzbands like Grizzly Bear and the Dirty Projectors. The Dirty Projectors have a song called "Stillness is the Move", and Jay-Z highjacked that abstract song title and used it to describe what makes Bono so awesome Does this even make [...]

Attraverso un'attenta inchiesta portata avanti in questi mesi, i giornalisti dell'autorevole Los Angeles Times lanciano un vero e proprio grido d'allarme a tutti gli appassionati di musica e agli addetti al settore: il Karaoke , e l'industria collegata che fino a pochi anni fa viaggiava a vele spiegate, adesso si trovano in una condizione che definire pessima sarebbe un eufemismo. Tra le ragioni del crollo verticale degli introiti derivanti dalla vendita delle apparecchiature, dei CD e degli spettacoli di Karaoke (nel 2002 l'industria fatturava nel suo complesso 200 milioni di dollari , [...]

Via: L.A. Times With the release last week of a new EP, Giant Drag's Annie Hardy finally had something to sell other than her hair - or sex toys. Once stamped with next-big-thing status, the Silver Lake-based rock band, centered on Hardy's sweetly vindictive vocals and her dreamily dreary guitar work, has been missing in action [...]