OMFG. Seriously. This show, on Tuesday–I don’t even know what to say. I can’t even imagine what it will be. Except “weird.” And “good.”

This is a live stage show from the psychotic creators of Adult Swim’s most postmodern and bizarro series, “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” which stars a combo meal of a self-centered and thoughtless milkshake, a paternalistic serving of French fries, and a childlike, naive wad of ground meat.  The trio interact primarily with their hapless trogdolytic Jerseyite neighbor, Carl, and a rotating cast of various & sundry aliens, monsters, and forces of evil, who they often outwit through no actual effort of their own. The show always ends with a masterfully executed non sequitur.

The live show combines stand-up and senselessness from creators Dave Willis & Dana Snyder, animated clips “that may never be shown again! But probably will!”, free stuff, a Meatwad competition (I have no idea what this could entail), and general epic hilarity for people whose idea of “funny” is what most average people consider “confusing.”

To win, tell me your favorite ATHF episode in the comments. One lucky winner and a pal will see the show!!!!!!!!! If for any reason you can’t create a new account with us right now (pardon our dust), email me at lucindamichele (at) gmail (dot) com. Word.

Ok, so you all know about the Grilled Cheese Invitational this Saturday at Los Angeles Center Studios in the warehouse district of downtown. (Right?) You should probably get your tickets now, because they’ll be more expensive at the door.

Of course there’s also LA Metblogs’ Classic Eats, Saturday evening, visiting Johnny’s Pastrami and the Apple Pan;

[edit--just remembered this one!] There’s also the US Air Guitar Championships at the Troubadour on Saturday;

But there’s also the LA Times Festival Of Books on both Saturday & Sunday at UCLA;

Unique LA’s amazing extravaganza of creativity (read our own Queequeg’s post on it here for more info–both Sat & Sun);

The Vintage Clothing Expo (Sat & Sun) allows ample opportunity for clotheshounds to geek out over vintage hats and 50s sundresses;

The TCM Classic Film Festival actually started yesterday and runs through Sunday at many of Hollywood’s most historic theatres, from the Chinese to the Egyptian, showing everything from A Star Is Born to Casablanca to 2001 and The Day Of the Triffids;

The Nuestra Tierra Conference happens Saturday at Olvera Street, commemorating Olvera St’s 80th anniversary, with environmental workshops, bands, mariachi, Aztec dancing and environmental speakers plus a tasty dessert fundraiser;

If you want lots of free junk, visit Fiesta Broadway downtown on Sunday; there will be lots of performers, but as LA Eastside has discovered, it’s mostly an opportunity for sponsors to give away lots of free samples of their products.

Then on Monday The Foundry On Melrose is hosting a “Happy Hour For Hunger,” a home-run if I ever heard one: from 6-10pm you can get one of Chef Greenspan’s epic gorditas and a handcrafted Latin-inspired cocktail.

Have fun campers!

Woooo! METALLLL!!! Yeah, these guys pretty much blow it all out of the water. With a heavy-handed approach and a sound that crashes like thunder, High On Fire is the quintessential “power trio.” Less a band than a supersonic exercise in volume and sheer heaviness, the band has burned the metal rulebook and forged a new style.

Good stuff.

To win your way in to a solid night of bitchin’ aural assault, leave a comment telling me why you wanna see this show SOOOOOOOOO bad. We’ll randomly pick a few lucky weiners.

Show info is here.

It’s that time of year again. The 1st 8th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational is returning to Downtown LA (different location from last year’s, however) to flood the LA basin with melted butter & cheese.

They’ve added a costume contest to this year’s roster of events–apropos, given the number of insanely costumed people that descend on the event every year–and a Cheese Calling contest, similar in nature to a Hog Calling contest, but for cheese. Of course there will be the three sammich categories–Missionary, Kama Sutra, and Honey Pot (standard grilled, any-contents-goes, and sweet, respectively)–for all festivalgoers to vote on, and the overflow (there always is some) will get to enjoy Tillamook grilled cheese sammies chez this year’s sponsor (last year’s sponsor was Kraft, this year promises what will prolly be a more robust sandwich for the people).

Deets:
4/24/2010
12:00pm – 6:00pm
Los Angeles Center Studios, 1201 West Fifth Street, Los Angeles, CA.
http://grilledcheeseinvitational.com/

Tickets are $10 now but will prolly be $15 at the door. That’s still cheap, for a bizarro day full of fun, freaks and cheese.

Butch Walker’s infectiously melodic tunes graft classic Americana onto Elvis Costello-style songcraft. H’e also an accomplished songwriter, with an impressive roster of famous folks who’ve covered his songs, often to the tune of high record sales. But it’s his own work that’s worth the price of admission.

Photo by Scott Penner on flickr used under a Creative Commons License.

You won’t have to pay any price, though, if you win these tickets. To win, tell me a song of Walker’s that you like, and tell me why you’re so fond of it. We’ll pick a few lucky winners to see the show Monday night (yes, that would be tonight, since most of you won’t see this tonight as I’m typing it).

Info on the show is here. Please check your email often to see if you’ve won.

I love this video not only cause the song’s great and the narrative of the video is just precious, but he’s driving past all sorts of places I used to when I’d take my random desert road trips back in ’06 and ’07.

I didn’t know anything about cherry blossom festivals or superhero-themed burlesque performances, so big ups to Queequeg for writing those up, below. Looks like we were writing up our to-do lists at the same time. So, here’s mine…it’s a busy weekend!

Friday:
Adam 12, Skeet Skeet and Han Cholo DJ at PYT: Danceydance time with the dude from She Wants Revenge, the dude from Shwayze and Boys Like Girls, and the dude who makes the bitchin’ jewelry. Oh yeah, they also put on a great party.

The Knux at Spaceland: These Nawlins guys break it down with powerful rhymes and a garage-hop style of hip hop. Quality.

Owl City with Lights at Club Nokia: Get there early for the performance from Lights, last year’s Juno winner and unfuckingbelieavably adorable–with a great voice.

Mutaytor & Cannibal Flower at Club 740: Mutaytor bring their retrofuturistic drumsplosion carneypunk–and their super hot ladies who fly through the air–to the equally lovely, equally genuine Club 740 downtown, along with Cannibal Flower, curators of some of LA’s best underground art.

Amanda Visell’s “Primeval Love” at the Natural History Museum: If the recent artwork by Shag got it on with a diorama of bighorn sheep at the Natural History Museum, you’d end up with Visell’s engaging and charming imagery.

Saturday:
“Showdown LA”: Jerkin’ competition: I’m not much of a hip-hop lifestyle gal, but this sounds freaking awesome. Jerkin’ is a dance style that’s grown up in, yes, LA. What rock have you been under?

Hitchcock! with organists Christoph Bull and Stephen Tharp: UCLA Live presents the organ scores from “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “Vertigo” and “Psycho”, plus a live improvised score to the early Hitchcock silent film, “The Lodger.”

CityRace Urban Adventure Hunt at Olvera Street: I’d recommend margaritas mid-race at La Golondrina, but that’s just how I do races.

Sunday:
Artillery Art Debates at the Standard Downtown: LA-based artculture mag Artillery presents scads of people talking about art & culture: Juxtapoz founder Robert Williams, Flavorpill’s Shana Nys Dambrot, Coagula’s Mat Gleason, gallerist Robert Berman & more.

Monday:
Helen Stellar at Spaceland: It’s great to see Helen Stellar back with April’s Monday night residency at Spaceland. They deserve it.

“School Nite” at Bardot: The softlaunch for KCRW’s Chris Douridas’  Monday night throwdown mixes up DJs (many with KCRW pedigrees) and local bands.

We offer a lot of rock and indie-rock tickets on this site but I didn’t want to neglect those of you who love a good slow jam. Mint Condition has been delivering prime cute of quality R&B that fuses influences as diverse as traditional jazz, funktastic grooves, even Latin and Jamaican rhythms, and plenty of soul. This should be a great date night. Grab some sushi at Katsuya next door, then hit Club Nokia for a night of music from some seriously experienced musicians.

Wanna go? Tell me your favorite R&B classic. We’ll pick a few lucky winners to go. Grab your date now.

Photo by alterna2 on flickr under a Creative Commons license

I had the chance to see Liars the last time they played the El Rey. Both LA Metblogs’ own Travis and myself were blown away by the epic performance, the charisma and the utter creativity. Liars are not an easy band. They are not hooky, jangly, beachy or full of earworm melodies. They’re a band for people who love to get meta with sound, who love to dissolve and discuss layers of sonic assault, for…record store geeks. Yep.

So, to win tickets, tell me your best record-store-geek anecdote. Make it clear to me how much cooler you are than the rest of us. Go all the way. Tell me about that band you loved before anyone else or how you really prefer this one seven-inch Japanese pressing of this one-off side project of this one obscure band that primarily did field recordings. Go. Win!

Info on the show is here chez Goldenvoice.

I’m not even into metal and this looks awesome.

I always thought Slash was some iconic silent untouchable rock god, like in the song “Slash From Guns & Roses” by I See Hawks In LA. Never did I expect that when I actually met him he’d be approachable, down to earth, humble and not only articulate, but chatty and outgoing. So I’m doubly stoked to have a chance to give these tickets away. Here’s the deets (link for tix &  more info):

• It’s at Club Nokia on Thursday, April 8 and will air on VH1 Classic on May 22
  
• Slash will open the show with several numbers from his upcoming debut solo album, Slash. Natch.
  
• Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother and Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge, who appear on his album, will be his special guests.
• Lemmy will team up with Slash and Dave Grohl to perform the Motörhead classic “Ace of Spades.”
  
• Ozzy Osbourne will present the Metal Blade Golden God Award to Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford.
• Later in the evening, Grohl will be on hand to present Lemmy with the Revolver Golden Gods Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Rob Zombie will be joined for the first time by new touring drummer Slipknot’s Joey Jordison. Two songs from the group’s live set will air on ABC-TV’s Jimmy Kimmel Live Friday, April 23.
  
• Black Label Society leader Zakk Wylde will be on hand to perform a very special metal version of the national anthem.
• The show is hosted by Andrew W.K. and Chris Jericho
• See performances by Fear Factory (their first LA appearance ever with their new line-up), As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wears Prada and last year’s host, Brian Posehn, with an all-star band featuring Scott Ian, Brendon Small, John Tempesta, Brett Anderson and Joey Vera.

To win a pair of tickets to what’s sure to be an epic show, tell me in the comments–what’s the most METAL thing you’ve ever done! I can’t wait to hear your stories. Whether you make ‘em up or they really happened, bonus points for evidence.

Fixnation, the fantastic organization that helps me spay & neuter the feral cats in my ‘hood is now offering monthly vaccine clinics for pups ‘n’ kitties. You can get vaccines for distempter for $8, rabies for $12, and even microchip the little scamps for $25(!). Do right by your best friend! If only we could innoculate our human friends similarly, and with such ease.

Fixnation is located in north Burbank near the airport at 7680 Clybourn Avenue, south of San Fernando. Times, dates of future events, & more here.

For all you fankids out their who cried for weeks when you found out the Wave Goodbye tour was the last tour Nine Inch Nails would ever see (or, conversely, who rolled their eyes and turned back to their Jhonen Vasquez comics), boy do we have a nifty surprise for you.

By working together, the Nine Inch Nails fan community have created “This One’s On Us: Another Version of the Truth” — bringing together scads (dark, brooding scads) of editors, designers, and web programmers to create a professional digital film, big enough to take up three discs. And on April 11 you can catch it in all its light-strobing, blaring, bombastic growly glory when it gets a screening at the Echoplex, where the sound system and the lighting should help do justice to the film’s great sounds & visuals.

So apparently, Nine Inch Nails released “The Slip” for free via their website on 5th May, 2008, as a gift to their fans. Or as Trent Reznor put it: “This one’s on me.”

The footage for “This One’s On Us: Another Version of the Truth” was gathered when on Dec. 13th, 2008, dozens of Nine Inch Nails fans recorded the last show of the Lights In The Sky tour in Las Vegas. Then, just about a month later, on Jan. 7th, 2009, over 400Gb of video from the Victoria, Portland and Sacramento shows from the same tour were unofficially released by the band.

Info & tickets here. I expect this to sell out.

While he’s been honored by the glitterati with the golden idol that is the Oscar award for his performance in Crazy Heart, to me Jeff Bridges will always be The Dude. And Lebowskifest is back in LA this weekend to celebrate all things Lebowski.

Tomorrow kicks it off at the Wiltern with appearances by lots of the folks who inspired the story & the characters, plus a screening of the film itself and a Creedence cover band, Paddy & the Poor Boys.

Then on Saturday check out the bowling party & costume contest at Cal Bowl, featuring games, celeb appearances, bowling (natch) and nihilists.

More info on the whole shebang here. And if you “don’t roll on shabbos,” well, you’re screwed.

Big yay for Jack B. of Temecula and Kika D. of Sherman Oaks. The two of them each won a pair of tickets to Coachella!

Thank you’s go to Goldenvoice for the tickets, and to everyone who wrote in to recommend their friends or who tweeted at us. Your enthusiasm will be remembered in subsequent contests.   :)

Photo of Girl Talk live @ Coachella '09 by vonlohmann on flickr via a Creative Commons license

I have it on good word that a bunch of zombies will be making a zombie-ish cacophony at Mile 12 of the Marathon in Hollywood, on the south side of Sunset from Gardner to Sierra Bonita. Join the zombie army and show up in your own makeup as they stagger after the hapless runners, incentivizing them to run faster, ideally. From about 10:30a-2p.