Flickr user florencia.tomas

Consider Katy Perry--who, a few years before her rapid rise to stardom, was best known as "the girlfriend of that guy from Gym Class Heroes."  Now, Perry sells out stadiums. She's gotten so popular that she's performing at the Nokia Theatre in LA for three nights in a row this weekend before moving on to another SoCal performance in San Diego. What makes this young songstress such a hit?More >>

​It's shocking. . . . We were expecting Jack White to continue joining and developing many more bands because The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather and his solo projects just aren't enough. Sadly, White informed Q Magazine he will never form another new band. Maybe after the White Stripes disbanded, he just couldn't go through the process another time? He admitted, "If I can't say it in any of these bands, then I'll say it by myself."More >>

​​The Gallagher brothers haven't made consistently great music since the late-'90s, so I guess this is an easier way for them to get free publicity. Liam told Uncut magazine that his older brother, Noel, stole songs they wrote and recorded together during sessions for Oasis' 2008 album, Dig Out Your Soul, to use on his upcoming solo release. Apparently, Noel isn't into the idea of crediting his brother for the tracks.More >>

​Seriously, we thought iTunes was going to announce something really cool today, but all it was, is that the Beatles are finally on iTunes. Ho-hum, maybe. You might think, who on earth is going to download the White Album in a new format AGAIN? 

Well, a ton of people, apparently. After all, TechCrunch just announced that ALL 17 ALBUMS ARE NOW ON iTUNES TOP 100!

Poking around the Internet, though, we found a few other artists who are still not on iTunes; read what AC/DC, Kid Rock, Bob Seger and Garth Brooks have to say after the jump.
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​In this week's story about Reel Big Fish, Aaron Barrett talked about Orange County's old ska scene, and how that's propelled their career.

But ultra-charming Reel Big Fish front man also talked about a few other things--regarding karaoke, his iPod and the term "skafather," which came from an OC Register interview last year.

On being the Skafather: "I don't like that term. I think Tazy Phillips is the skafather, he's the guy who's been promoting ska music and telling people about ska bands.

We're a ska band and we've influenced a lot of people but I don't want to take credit for crating a sound or a scene. I was just a ska kid who made the music for fun. When I started going to shows I'd watch four or five bands and I'd dance for hours and hours. I was always proud to just be part of it."

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​Today our sister publication LA Weekly blogged that the musical hippie hideout in the desert, Pappy & Harriet's, is for sale to the tune of $1,890,000 (via LA Record). This is kind of old news, but this is the first time we've seen an actual real estate listing! More >>

www.myspace.com/immortaltechnique

​Revolutionary underground MC Immortal Technique dropped knowledge in Costa Mesa on Wednesday for an assembled group of Los Angeles and Orange County-based community organizations for a panel discussion on immigration and indigenous issues.

John Morales, an activist who attended the panel and filmed the activist/rapper's speech, says "this event with Immortal Technique brought LA and OC folks together, but it wasn't the first time."   He added, "the All-Star game in Anaheim had people from LA and OC as well as the Todos Somos Arizona actions."

Watch his speech after the jump.
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How the hell did we miss this? Not only did NBC recently launch a fluff-tastic version of "local's only" online news, one of our Local's Only bands were actually on it. On Oct. 27 The Growlers were invited to the newsroom of NBC LA to answer a cavalcade of the world's most generic questions. You could say it was just another score in a busy year for the Costa Mesa four-piece, chock-full of record releases, insane music videos and big time tours with Devandra Banhart and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. More >>

Those wacky Cold War Kids. Not simply content with being one of the most successful indie rock acts to come from Orange County, they're now putting their imprints on different forms of artistic expression--starting with drummer Matt Aveiro, whose short film Jen In The Painting premieres at 9:45 p.m. next Thursday, October 15, at the Art Theatre in Long Beach. Tickets for the screening can be reserved here.

Check the trailer out up there (contains some very slight near-nudity in a figure-drawing context; might be considered NSFW for those with less libertine workplaces), and then read our Q&A with Aveiro, to learn more about the film, his experience putting it together and what's next for the now Long Beach-based band.

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Stephanie Williams

This week's Locals Only features Orange County band Janu and the Whalesharks, opening up for Tim Kasher of Cursive and Azure Ray at tomorrow's swell show at the Glass House in Pomona. A lot of juicy tidbits from our conversation with Janu singer/guitarist Jake Pappas got left on the proverbial cutting room floor, so enjoy this Q&A with Pappas and read more pertinent details about how the band came together, their influences and highlights of their young career.

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