Marilyn Manson, Offspring, Bad Religion to play Sunset Strip Fest

Goth rocker Marilyn Manson and rock acts the Offspring and Bad Religion are set to play the final day of the fifth edition of West Hollywood's Sunset Strip Music Festival, on Aug. 18. Local dance-pop act the Far East Movement, veteran hip-hop act De La Soul and electro-rap cut-ups Das Racist are also on the bill for the street fest. 

Tickets are on sale now for the all-day event. Sunset Strip Festival activities officially launch on Aug. 16, but the name acts and ticketed outdoor concert is on Aug. 18.

Other artists that will appear include the Black Label Society, Dead Sara and Steve Aoki. All told, the three-day Sunset Strip Festival will feature more than 50 acts at West Hollywood venues such as the Roxy Theatre, the Whisky A Go-Go and the Key Club.

This year's Sunset Strip festival will pay tribute to the Doors, with many artists on the bill expected to cover a Doors song or two. Sunset Boulevard will be closed on Aug. 16 between Doheny Drive and San Vicente Boulevard and the fest will feature two outdoor stages. Also planned is a silent disco and a VIP rooftop lounge.

Tickets for the concert start at $75 and are on sale now via TicketWeb. A VIP pass costs $135. A three-day pass that will get concertgoers into every Sunset Strip event is $250 and includes all VIP perks. A portion of the ticket proceeds will benefit the Impact Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center in Pasadena.

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-- Todd Martens

Image: Marilyn Manson. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Bad Religion in lineup for March 24 Reason Rally in Washington, D.C.

It’s only logical that veteran L.A. punk band Bad Religion would be chosen as the musical headliner for Saturday’s Reason Rally in Washington, D.C., an event being billed as “the largest secular event in world history.”

Bad Religion has long railed in its music against superstition, prejudice and the kind of divisive factionalism that’s deeply entrenched in the American political system. When he’s not touring or recording with the long-running punk group, lead singer Greg Graffin, author of the book “Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God,” lectures on evolution at Cornell University, where he received a PhD in zoology.

“We thought it was a good gathering of people who want to stress that reason should characterize the citizenry of this country, not affiliation with some religious group or socioeconomic stratum or any other criterion besides the willingness to engage in reasonable debate that is informed by rational knowledge,” Graffin said in a statement issued Wednesday. “All I’ve ever heard from fans (and that includes parents and their kids alike) is that they have been inspired to learn more and care more by listening to our music. I think, therefore, that the Reason Rally — like Bad Religion — can be very inspirational.”

The band will appear with comedians Eddie Izzard and Tim Minchin, comedian-talk-show host Bill Maher, author Richard Dawkins, “MythBusters” co-host Adam Savage and other speakers during the daylong gathering at the National Mall. The mission, as outlined on the Reason Rally website, is “to unify, energize, and embolden secular people nationwide, while dispelling the negative opinions held by so much of American society… and having a damn good time doing it!”

The rally is being sponsored by a coalition of more than a dozen secular organizations, including the United Coalition of Reason, the Secular Student Alliance, the Society for Humanistic Judaism, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the National Atheist Party.

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-- Randy Lewis

Photo:  Bad Religion in 2010, from left, Jay Bentley (seated), Brooks Wackerman, Greg Hetson, Brian Baker, Brett Gurewitz (seated) and Greg Graffin. Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times.

A Bob Dylan tribute album with 76 tracks and a 2012 mind-set

The new  Bob Dylan tribute album, “Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International,” which is being released today, salutes both the songwriter and the human rights organization for half a century of their respective work.

But the album itself has been assembled and is being marketed with a very 2012 mind-set.

Veteran record industry executive Jeff Ayeroff, who is leading the charge for the benefit project, with proceeds going to Amnesty International, fully expects that few potential customers will be equally passionate about all 76 tracks by more than 80 artists appearing on the four-CD set.

Artists that participated constitute a diverse aasemblage spanning the pop music spectrum, and a bit beyond it, from young pop hit makers Adele, Miley Cyrus and Kesha to indie rockers the Silversun Pickups and the Belle Brigade to veteran folkies Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, alt-country musicians Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Brett Dennen and the Avett Brothers, mainstream rockers Dave Matthews, Joe Perry and Maroon 5, hard-edged  rock band Queens of the Stone Age, world music acts Ziggy Marley, Mariachi El Bronx and Somalian rapper K’naan and punk bands Bad Religion and Rise Against.
  
"Whatever I’ve learned in the evolution of the album, I know people who pay $20 for this are not going to like every song,” Ayeroff said. “But there are several records inside this album: There’s a country record, there’s an all female record of women interpreting Bob Dylan songs, which is probably the most significant part of the album for me. It shows that Bob speaks with many voices for many people.

“There’s an adult pop record, there’s a peer record, there’s an alternative rock album, and the rock record,” continued Ayeroff, adding that in the iTunes age he anticipates some people who buy the download version will pick and choose which parts of it they pull down.

In addition to the official four-CD version that’s going to all the usual online and physical music retailers, Starbucks has created a two-CD version.

Live review: KROQ's Weenie Roast stays true to itself and its acts

 
KROQ-FM (106.7) isn't known for curveballs in its well-cemented playlist of angsty '90s survivors and modern takes on SoCal punk. Even at Weenie Roast, its annual summer-heralding showcase of the station's mainstays and scrappier newcomers, a "surprise" unbilled performer is its own tradition.

So when the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre's stage rotated on Saturday night to reveal an unadvertised Dave Grohl and his moppety band of Foo Fighters, no one seemed entirely shocked. But the Foos' sincere and swaggering set was kind of revelatory in its own way: Being a genuine rock star among today's pop synthetics is a tough slog.

After a day of eccentric newcomers and some dragging main-stage fare, when Grohl cheekily admitted midset that "They're all hits. We've got too many hits," the truth of that wisecrack was its own pleasant surprise.

To its credit, KROQ does an admirable job of championing L.A. locals and ushering them from indie bustle to the arena circuit. Acts such as the suspiciously underrated O.C. anthem-slingers Young the Giant and the quirked-up synth pop of Foster the People definitely benefit from a showcase like this.

Silver Lake's Airborne Toxic Event is a living example of the career arc KROQ can offer an artist -- which is what Airborne's bleary, sometimes furious racket deserved. Singles such as "Changing" and "Sometime Around Midnight" scuff up the station's formulas just enough to intrigue and seemed even more adventurous juxtaposed against the local quartet Neon Trees. The latter's proficient neo-Sunset-Strip hommage seemed calibrated to annoy any wandering Echo Parkers who thought they time-warped into a Coachella side stage.

Bad Religion's Greg Graffin to teach evolution at Cornell in the fall

 
Contrary to the adage, punk rocker Greg Graffin is demonstrating anew that those who can, not only do, but sometimes teach too.

The founding member of Bad Religion will begin teaching evolution in the fall at his alma mater, Cornell University in New York, which should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Graffin's other life as an esteemed author and academic.

Graffin got his Ph.D. in zoology from Cornell and, when he’s not touring with his Bad Religion band mates of three decades, he’s often been center stage at UCLA as a lecturer in paleontology and life sciences.

Last year he published his book that covered his thoughts on punk and atheism, “Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science and Bad Religion in a World Without God,” which drew critical praise in various quarters.

Bad Religion's new 'Wrong Way Kids' video features classic band footage [Video]

Bad Religion has been a band for 31 years, which means it survived the entire VHS era and continues to make music in the digital video world. In that time, the band has appeared on both public access cable shows and nationally televised nighttime talk shows, and no doubt has an archive of footage that just had to be scoured for gems both explosive and embarrassing (and -- parental warning -- sometimes rude). Both are evident in the band's new video for "Wrong Way Kids," released Wednesday morning.

-- Randall Roberts