Do you remember the movie Airplane?

Remember the two gentlemen who spoke “Jive?” Remember the subtitles at the bottom that translated what they were saying? Remember whenever one of them would say a certain word, the subtitle always translated it as “Golly?”

Such fun.

It’s in this spirit I would like to remind you, one and all, that The Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nothin’ to Trifle With!

(And if you haven’t seen Airplane, get your golly together and watch the trifling thing.)

In Any Case, I’m giving away Tickets to see The Wu on Saturday, Jan 21st! Wanna Go?

Email your Full Legal Name as it appears on your Legal Driver’s Licence or State ID card to blacontests@gmail.com

Winners will be notified and will show said ID at the Will Call booth the night of the show to claim tickets. Protect your neck.

Wu-Tang Featuring All Original Members: RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God and Masta Killa
Saturday January 21, 2012
Club Nokia
Los Angeles, California
Show time: 9:00pm
Door time: 8:00pm
Age: All Ages+

Step to the Wu.

Read the rest of this entry →

I’ve got Tickets to Give Away again, Kids!
Not just One Night but TWO!!

Spend Halloween Weekend with Nick 13 and TIGER ARMY!

Tiger Army shows are always awesome, and their Halloween shows are Legendary.
They’ll be at The Grove in Anaheim, on October 30th with Jack Grisham & The West Coast Dukes and Throw Rag
and on Halloween October 31st with Mad Sin and Hillbilly Casino.

Not to be Missed!

I have Four Pairs of Tickets to each show to Give Away! And a surprise Extra Pair for one of the nights! Ooooo…Bonus! Which night? Well, you don’t know, do you? Is it a Trick, or is it a Treat?

To enter the contest leave a comment on this post, and make sure to let me know what night you want to go. If either night is fine, let me know that. (That’s a good way to get an edge in the contest, I’m not gonna lie.) Winners will be selected randomly, or perhaps capriciously. It amounts to the same thing.

Oh, and no one will be getting tickets to both nights,  so don’t ask. Seriously.

Have Fun and Good Luck.

Tiger Army Never Die!

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

We have tix to your choice of two, count ‘em TWO, nights this weekend when local heroes Ozomatli take the stage at Club Nokia (show info here).

I’ve seen these guys play in scads of formats: as a secret surprise guest on a benefit bill for a pirate radio station, on the veranda of a swanky 27th-floor penthouse overlooking the Staples Center, and from the floor of a couple local venues, but that variety can’t beat with a stick the diversity of places Ozomatli has been over the last year: they traveled extensively through Africa,  Nepal and the Middle East as official cultural ambassadors of the United States. Neat!

Every freakin’ show they play is dynamite. You will dance your ass off. To win tickets to go, tell me which night you’re available (they play both Fri & Sat) and place a link in the comments to your favorite dance on youtube. It can be classic Argentinean tango, “The Evolution Of Dance,” 70s Jazzercise or something even more desperate and horrifying*. But just let go & DANCE! Oh, and please use an email I can actually reach you at, and that you actually check.

*Excerpts from Dancing With The Stars will result in immediate disqualification

The buzz on this Scottish band is no joke. Pair ‘em with Norwegian rockette Ida Maria, whose complete lack of rock star airs is utterly refreshing, and this is a kickass show. With a Mercury “Album of the Year” prize under their belts, Glasvegas’ anthemic songs balance jangly, bouncy pop driven by an energetic rhythm section, and a top note of expansive, layered effects-laden guitars that call to mind The Cure (when happy), U2 or, dare I say it, Coldplay. But they’re good.

Wanna go? Make up a city name out of two of your favorite cities (a la “Glasvegas”) and post it in the comments. We’ll randomly pick a lucky winner to check out the show at the Fonda.

Also, he's easy on the eyes.

So, my day job is at a radio station, and Eric Hutchinson’s coming in tomorrow to play a little live show in our in-studio performance space–and the viewing is so full that we’ve all been told there’s no more room. That’s the buzz on this guy–this show will sell out, and he’ll be playing way bigger venues in the future. (Haven’t heard him yet? Listen here.)

Then, totally unrelated to my work, Goldenvoice gave Metblogs some tickets to his concert Thursday, to give away! Lucky you!

A mellow evening of piano- and melodic-driven singer-songwriteriness, for fans of The Fray, Dave Matthews Band, the aforementioned Mayer, Jason Mraz, or Jack Johnson.

More info on the show can be found here.

To win tickets just leave a comment telling me why you want to see the show. We’ll randomly pick a few winners.

Darby’s dead, but the Germs are not. With Shane West–the actor whose tour-de-force performance in 2007′s Germs biopic “What We Do Is Secret” brought Darby to life on the silver screen–now singing in Crash’s place, Pat Smear, Lorna Doom & Don “It’s Just Dr. Bronners” Bolles are bringing their snarling punk rodeo back to the stage.

Should be nuts (show info here).

With Agent Orange and Spider Problem opening for them, this show will be off the hook. You’ll kick yourself for not going.

I can hook you up if you leave a comment below telling me why you want to see the show. We’ll pick one lucky winner to go see these rock’n'roll survivors tear up the stage.

I had always heard of the Old 97′s, but I’d never heard them. Until one of the guys in my building, who did a lot of work with indie labels, was let go, and his massive collection of promo cd’s was left behind.

The collection was raided by our entire office, picked and pawed through, but I grabbed the “Hit by a Train: Best of the Old 97′s” cd. I popped it in while driving home. With the first rippling, enormously satisfying chord, my jaw hit the steering wheel. By the first keening, lonely guitar solo, I was utterly sold. How could I have missed these guys while I played my Whiskeytown & Cracker cds down to the nibs? Oh well.

Now you can win a pair of tickets to this show, but you gotta tell me how YOU discovered the Old 97′s, and I hope it has more cred than my story. We’ll pick a random winner. Info on the show is here.

I hate you people.

See, I only have one pair of tickets to give away for The Hold Steady next Tuesday. If I had two pairs, or even three, I could use one for myself. But I only have one. So I have to give it to you people.

Photo by Marina Chavez

The Hold Steady is one of my favorite bands. Introduced to me by a bartender friend (quelle surprise), at first they rubbed me the wrong way. What the HELL is up with him shouting over the songs?

Then I listened to what he was saying, and the lyrics melted into the music and became the sound of the rust belt rocking the night away in dim bars, the sound of hell-bent tours to crappy clubs around the country, the heir to Kerouac, to Springsteen. The piano made me think of the Mississippi River.

So, you jerks, tell me your favorite thing about The Hold Steady. Or your favorite story about them. One lucky winner, who will not be me, will get to go to the show.

Just kidding about hating you. I love you all. Please take me as your plus-one.* Read the rest of this entry →

At least, this leads me to presume as much.

I saw Peaches a few years ago on one of those electroclash tours. She came out wearing a long, blond wig & stripper heels, and the crowd, somewhat nonplussed, not for sure it was her, went into paroxysms when midway through a synth intro line she ripped off the wig & shook out her brown curls with a sneer.

Peaches is not a show to be missed. Plus former LA Metblogs author & Buddyhead creator Travis Keller will be DJing there.

Wanna win tickets? Don’t be shy. Tell me your favorite Peaches lyric in the comments. And if they don’t get past our obscenity filters, I’ll make sure to unmoderate them so you all can see those nasty, nasty lyrics.

Info on the show is here. FYI, she plays two shows: one on the 6th, a 2nd on the 7th. These tickets are for the second date, Sunday.

Bang-on and balls-out, North Londoner Lady Sovereign’s overcome the odds to become one of the biggest talents in music today–tapped by Jay-Z for Def Jam & handpicked by Gwen Stefani as a tour opener, the girl’s got flow and style in spades. Check out her sound here if you haven’t already.

Wanna see the show? Tell me your fave Lady Sov rhyme in the comments. We’ll pick a few lucky winners to go see the show!

Info on the show is here.

Everyone’s favorite proto-punk semi-glam totally rad band the New York Dolls are back in LA for a triumphant show at the Fonda this Thursday. I had the privelege of seeing them a few months ago at Club Nokia and the show blew me away: rollicking, funny, explosive and occasionally elegiac, the Dolls are not a novelty retread. Chops & cred ooze off them. This is a don’t-miss show.

Wanna go? Tell me your favorite New York Dolls story or song. We’ll choose a few winners & send you on your merry way.

Show info is here.

The bombastic Scottish five-piece Mogwai returns to LA in a venue befitting its magestic, cinematic, explosive sound: Downtown’s glittering neo-Classical movie palace The Orpheum. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this show, and I also can’t tell you how essential it will be for you to bring earplugs if you win these tickets.

I started with Mogwai’s Come On Die Young album, was blown away by the loud-soft-loud-soft post-rock landscapes, and then backtracked to their 1997 album Young Team. That sealed the deal. The later Rock Action & Mr. Beast were fantastic as well. A show some years later at the El Rey left me flattened, gasping for air from the wall of sound, and blown the fuck away.

To win, tell me your favorite Mogwai song and why you love it so much. May the force be with you.

The Goldenvoice show info is here.

So many of you entered the contest for tickets to Steve Martin’s “Big Bad Banjo” that it took me a good hour to put all your names into my magic Choose-O-Matic machine. But we have a winner! If you haven’t been contacted, that person is not you. I am terribly sorry, and to all the contestants whom I actually know personally & professionally, I hope you don’t hate me.

BUT you can buy tickets (the money goes to the goddamn LA Library, for crying out loud–buy a ticket!) on Goldstar for very affordable prices. I bought my parents, huge Martin fans, a pair of tickets to the seated section for a very reasonable amount. Go there. Now. (Looks like they also have VIP seats to this weekend’s Derby Dolls bout for half-price as well!)