The Weeknd to play Hollywood Forever on May 5

The creepy and gauzy Toronto R&B act the Weeknd made its Southland-area debut at Coachella — some of their first live shows as a band, period — just two weeks ago. But now they've joined Sigur Ros, Flaming Lips and Bon Iver with the distinction of headlining their own show on the Fairbanks Lawn at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Tickets for the act's May 5 headlining date go on-sale at noon Wednesday at an eye-popping $30. Its  Coachella sets got strong reviews though, and we can't think of a more apropos place to hear "Initiation" than atop the graves of a bunch of movie stars.

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Sigur Ros to play Hollywood Forever in August

— August Brown

Photo: Abel Tesfaye, a.k.a. the Weeknd, performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio on April 15. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times.

Sigur Ros to play Hollywood Forever Cemetery in August

This post has been corrected. Please see note at bottom for details.

The ethereal, expansive Icelandic art rock band Sigur Ros will perform amid the gravestones of Hollywood Forever on Aug. 12, the landmark mid-Hollywood cemetery announced on Thursday morning. The group, which hasn't released a new studio album since 2008, has been on hiatus for much of the last few years while individual members worked on solo material, but reconvened last year to create its sixth record, called "Valtari." It will be released Stateside on May 29 on XL Recordings.

The show at the cemetery is one of a series of concerts over the last few years presented outdoors in a large grassy expanse near the burial plots of, among others, Charlie Chaplin, Johnny Ramone and Rudolph Valentino. Concerts by Bon Iver, Flaming Lips, and Belle & Sebastian have been highlights, and the Sigur Ros show holds the potential to eclipse them all. (Honestly, can you imagine "Hoppipolla" in such a setting?)

Sigur Ros had already announced shows for the spring in support of the "Valtari" release; in coming months they're playing festivals in England, Europe and Japan, and are confirmed for the Aug. 3 Osheaga Festival in Montreal. 

Expect tickets to go fast for the Hollywood Forever concert. They're $47.50, and go on sale at noon on April 20. Click here for more information. 

[For the Record: 9:45 a.m., April 12: An earlier version of this post listed ticket prices as $49.50. They are $47.50]

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-- Randall Roberts @liledit

Photo: Singer Jón Thór Birgisson of Sigur Ros plays his guitar with a bow in 2003 at the Wiltern. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times 

Former Fleet Foxes drummer pens ode (sorta) to Hollywood Forever

It was only a matter of time before Hollywood Forever Cemetery was immortalized in song. The 62-acre, 113-year-old graveyard over the last few years has become a rock 'n' roll destination, and not just a final one. Though it's the resting place for two members of the Ramones (Johnny and Dee Dee), Hollywood Forever has recently become one of the city's more unique, intimate venues. Thursday night, for instance, rootsy rocker M Ward will grace the cemetary's Masonic Lodge. 

Don't perhaps turn to former Fleet Foxes drummer Josh Tillman for an idea of what a musical experience at the cemetery is like. His track “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” is full of steadily crashing rhythms and blank-stare aggression. There's just enough background clutter and reverb to fog everything up, and his images of drugs, illicit sex and funerals ask more questions than answer them. 

The cut is from his upcoming Sub Pop solo debut, "Fear Fun," due May 1, which he recorded under the name Father John Misty. There is a video starring Aubrey Plaza out there, but it contains a barefoot Tillman, and Pop & Hiss believes men should be seen only with footwear on; therefore, it is not embeded. Actually, it contains some NSFW moments. 

Regardless, Pop & Hiss asked Hollywood Forever's Jay Boileau, the man largely responsible for bringing musical acts to the grounds, for his take on the song. Boileau said he heard the cut about three weeks ago and added, "I am curious what inspired the title. I have tried to decipher it through the lyrics, with no luck as of yet. I do like the song, though!"

Listen below:

M. Ward will play the Masonic Lodge on Feb. 2

Soft-voiced troubadour M. Ward is coming to Hollywood Forever's Masonic Lodge on Feb. 2. The singer-songwriter is probably best known these days for She & Him, his retro-tinged collaborations with forever-ingenue Zooey Deschanel, but his own well-crafted solo music is something to be savored. Keep your fingers crossed for cuts off of his 2007 album, "Post-War."

Tickets (two per "household," please) are on sale now for $25. Parking is free. In other words, you have no excuse not to go. Plus, we have a feeling the "New Girl" may pop in for a song or two -- she's in the neighborhood.

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--Margaret Wappler

Photo: M Ward. Credit: Hollywood Forever

Johnny Ramone tribute set for Saturday at Hollywood Forever

 
 
It’s time again for the annual Johnny Ramone Tribute Concert, in which fans of one of the original punk rockers will gather at — where else? — the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Saturday to celebrate his life and pop-culture legacy.

This year’s show — the seventh since the Ramones guitarist, born John Cummings, died of cancer in 2004 — brings venerable New Jersey punk group the Misfits and latter-day punk band JuiceheaD to perform during the evening’s festivities. Visitors will be led to the cemetery's 8-foot statue of Ramone, and to the grave marker for his band mate Dee Dee Ramone, who died in 2002.

The band’s only surviving original member, drummer Tommy Ramone, also is slated to be on hand for the event that also will include screenings of vintage footage of the Ramones playing live along with a showing of the 1959 Ed Wood camp sci-fi classic “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” The doors open at 5:30 p.m., and tickets are $10. Complete information is available at www.johnnyramone.com.

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Photo of the Ramones in 1998 (l-r): Johnny, Marky, Joey and Dee Dee Ramone. Credit: Monte Melnick. 

Hollywood Forever books Bright Eyes, Jens Lekman for September shows

The shows at the beloved Hollywood Forever cemetery have trended experimental lately, with sets by post-dubstep auteur James Blake, instrumental rockers Explosions In The Sky and a totally madcap event curated by the Flaming Lips. But the venue just announced two new shows in September by a couple of the most lauded young songwriters working today.

On Sept. 23, Conor Oberst's Bright Eyes will play outside on the Fairbanks lawn. Though his most recent album "The People's Key" got mixed reviews, he has a huge catalog of material that tracks his growth from the articulating the front lines of adolescent romantic pangs through a disconnected urbanity and twentysomething political rage to his current eclectic spirituality and relatively positive vibes.

Also, Swedish singer Jens Lekman will be performing inside at the Masonic Lodge on September 28. Ticket information for this show will be announced shortly.

Tickets for Bright Eyes go on sale at Hollywood Forever on Friday, July 22, and are $35.

Live review: Explosions in the Sky at Hollywood Forever

Album review: Bright Eyes, "The People's Key"

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-- August Brown

Photo: Conor Oberst, a.k.a. Bright Eyes. Credit: Butch Hogan.

 

 

The Flaming Lips’ latest comes embedded in a gummy skull. How does that happen? [Updated]

Over the last three decades, Oklahoma City rock band the Flaming Lips has not only created a vast body of work that includes classic albums such as “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” and “The Soft Bulletin,” but it has pushed at the edges of the concert experience through a number of wildly imaginative pieces.

Masterminds Wayne Coyne and Michael Ivins have performed boombox symphonies in which the audience becomes members of the orchestra and “plays” cassette stereos while the band conducts; they’ve done shows in which ancillary musical arrangements were broadcast via FM transmitter to the audience members’ headphones. Their four-CD release Zaireeka requires that all the discs be played simultaneously. And on Tuesday and Wednesday, the band performs at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where it will take over the Hollywood burial grounds for two nights of concerts and multiple performance pieces.

The Flaming Lips latest release is perhaps its most unique yet: a gummy skull featuring new music embedded on a miniature drive entombed in the center. Fans wanting to hear the music will have to eat their way to it. Recently, Coyne explained the genesis of the idea on the phone from Oklahoma City.

The genesis of the skull: Every other month we're doing a big, elaborate 12-inch vinyl release, and then in between, every other month is going to be this other Flaming Lips object. The only one we've done so far is the gummy skull.

Search for the sculptor: In the beginning, the possibilities are endless, but then, little by little, you stumble across these ideas and you hope that they could work. Luckily, we ran into this guy while searching for bubble gum manufacturers. In the beginning we were going to make the skull out of bubble gum — a skull that you chewed into to get the USB [drive] out. But we couldn't find a bubble gum place to do it.

Hollywood Forever comes alive with music

From the Fairbanks Lawn to its Masonic Lodge, the cemetery has become a unique concert venue.

Never mind the more than slightly macabre fact that it's home to a hundreds of buried remains. Never mind that many of these graves host the bones of Tinseltown legends such as Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks and Cecil B. DeMille, as well as musicians Art Pepper, Woody Herman and two members of the Ramones. And never mind that partying in the cemetery is a pastime usually relegated to teenage Goths and metal-heads.

Hollywood Forever, the 62-acre, 113-year-old graveyard abutting the Paramount Pictures lot, has unexpectedly become one of L.A.'s most beloved entertainment venues.

Thanks in part to archivist John Wyatt, who founded Hollywood Forever's' film series "Cinespia" 10 years ago, the cemetery now hosts thousands of people each summer for its outdoor weekend movie screenings. For several months, huge crowds gather on the wide spread of grass beside Fairbanks' tomb to listen to DJ sets, eat picnic dinners and enjoy such flicks as "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," "Dazed and Confused" and "Easy Rider."

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Increasingly, though, the cemetery is opening its gates to welcome musical acts into the same magical atmosphere, both outside on the lush green lawn and inside the grounds' elegant Masonic Lodge. Over the last few years, artists including Bon Iver, Belle & Sebastian, Hope Sandoval, the Swell Season, Broken Social Scene and others have played among the dead.

This summer, Troubadour booking agent Brian Smith and Hollywood Forever's Jay Boileau continue to combine forces to unleash a 2011 performance schedule that highlights the cemetery as one of America's unique concert venues.

"I presented Hollywood Forever's dream artists to Brian at the very beginning, when we first decided we were ready to do music at the cemetery," Boileau says.

"It is true collaboration," Smith adds. "My background is booking the artist and the work relating to them. Jay is very good at getting the details right. He has his eye on getting the highest-quality audio and production for the shows. We both work together on the creative details outside of simply putting on a concert."

The result of their efforts is a series of shows perfectly suited to each of the venue's unique spaces, such as the lush experimental pop of the Flaming Lips out on the Fairbanks Lawn or the raw energy of Appalachian folk singer Marideth Sisco inside the austere confines of the Masonic Lodge. Sisco is performing in Los Angeles for the first time and will be part of an evening with the other musical contributors to the soundtrack for the Oscar-nominated film " Winter's Bone."

Flaming Lips book a Hollywood Forever plot for June concerts

The Flaming Lips didn't really perform a proper Los Angeles date for late 2009 double-album "Embryonic," but this summer the Oklahoma City weirdos will give L.A. denizens two nights of music, essentially taking over the Hollywood Forever Cemetary on June 15 and 16. The first night will see the Lips tackling their 1999 album "The Soft Bulletin," which essentially redefined the psychedelic rockers as a more orchestral-friendly band.

The news was revealed via a tweet from Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne. The mid-June dates are confirmed, but on-sale information and further details have not been released. For instance, the poster teases some kind of all-day or all-night Flaming Lips activity, noting the event is "two nights, one morning." The second night of the Flaming Lips' cemetery stay will be a cover of "The Dark Side of the Moon," which the Lips have regularly taken on the festival circuit of late (the band will also perform it at a three-day Chicago festival in May).

Explosions in the Sky to unveil new album, 'Take Care, Take Care, Take Care' at Hollywood Forever with sound and art installations

 
Fans missing out on Explosions in the Sky’s sold-out show at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on April 30 still have one big reason to knock at death's door. On April 23 from 8-11 p.m., epic instrumental songs from the band’s forthcoming album will be the soundtrack to a wandering art installation on the cemetery grounds.

“Take Care: 6 Visual Interpretations” consists of works by six visual artists, each piece created to represent one of the six cathartic, mini-symphonies on the Texas quartet’s long-awaited new album, “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” (out April 26 in the U.S.). All six songs will be premiered on loudspeakers at locations throughout the cemetery, along with the work of art inspired by each song.

The visual artists creating work for the event include Matt Amato, Matthew Lessner, James Fields, Jesse Fleming, Chris Lipomi and Alexis Disselkoen. Tickets are free in limited supply, and RSVP is required. Considering that the band’s performance at Hollywood Forever sold out within 72 hours, Explosion’s ticket-grabbing L.A. fan base breaks down into two camps: the quick and the dead.

-- Nate Jackson

Photo: Explosions in the Sky. Credit: Nick Simonite