​​In order to broach the subject of musicians appearing in video games, we're legally obligated to mention Rock Band and Guitar Hero in the first sentence, so there. Putting aside those big franchises, several other games have featured musicians in increasingly unusual capacities.

Both The Beatles and English punk act The Stranglers appeared in text-based home computer games for the ZX Spectrum in the early ''80s; Journey peddled absolutely horrid-looking 1983 arcade action game; Aerosmith were the selling point of a 1994 gun game (which also weirdly featured a riff on the Nine Inch Nails logo); and NBA Jam: Tournament Edition had the pleasuring of hosting Will Smith, Jazzy Jeff, and all three Beastie Boys.

Michael Jackson has been in at least three titles himself: Moonwalker, where he rescued kids (seriously); Space Channel 5, where he danced with Teletubby-esque aliens; and Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2, where he had the opportunity to punch Shaq in the face if he pleased. We're not even going to delve into the sundry pinball games devoted to rock bigwigs such as The Rolling Stones, The Who, Elton John, and Guns N' Roses.

In 1999, Staten Island's signature hip-hop ensemble joined this esteemed list with the release of a PlayStation fighting game called Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style. It's not a very good game--actually, it's mostly awful--but seeing as the Clan play the Grove of Anaheim tonight at 7.p.m., there's no harm in revisiting this strange curio from the band's history.

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​Christina Pazsitzky is pure comedy: honesty and a lot of outspokenness. She's been on Chelsea Lately, has a hysterical podcast along with her husband Tom Segura, headlines comedy clubs nationwide, has a new comedy CD, and is on the upcoming Showtime special filmed in Amsterdam, Red Light Comedy. Tonight at the Brea Improv, she will be "Keepin' It Reality" along with her comic hubby, Real Housewives of Orange County stars Gretchen Rossi and Slade Smiley with proceeds benefiting the "Spark of Love" Toy Drive. With so much going on with Christina Pazsitzky the question is, why would you miss seeing her live?

OC Weekly (Ali Lerman): Sum up your comedy style a few words ... just as a warning to my parents to not read the rest of this.

Christina Pazsitzky: That's the hardest question! What I try to do is just be honest. I don't try to shock or be edgy; I just say what's in my heart. I think that it's about yourself and telling the truth. I don't do impressions but I would just describe it as trying to be truthful and if it comes across as gross or crude, I hope people don't  judge. Hopefully people click into that.

It's quite a double standard with men and women, huh?

I think people have a problem with female comedians talking the way boys do. If I say something that a dude would say people will be like, "Whoa! She's so crude!" But really I'm just saying the same shit anyone else would. For some reason because it comes out of this body, people like to think of you as wild!

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​Guitar slinger Dave Mason first found fame as a member of British rock group Traffic. In the half-decade that followed, he popped up on Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower" and George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, but his most lasting legacy has been his song "Feelin' Alright." Although initially recorded by Traffic in 1968, the song began paying his bills when Joe Cocker covered it the following year. In honor of Mason's appearance at the Coach House tonight, we present five undeniably funky covers of "Feelin' Alright" that don't involve Joe Cocker.

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Kendrick Lamar

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Kendrick Lamar is a man after our own heart. After penning the honest, yet tragic "Keisha's Song (Her Pain)" song about women caught up in the cycle of prostitution, the Compton rapper follows up with a concert to benefit L.A.'s Downtown Women's Center and Project RISHI.

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Michael Nika

​Some bands devote short eternities to toiling away at their craft, playing shows wherever they can, and getting acquainted with industry folk, only for things to never really pan out. The Static Jacks aren't one of those bands. In 2007, the Westfield, NJ-based four-piece were in their most primitive form as a bunch of high schoolers who loved The Killers; last August, their debut release If You're Young came out on emo/pop-punk/post-hardcore heavyweight label Fearless Records. They've also done a substantial amount of performing, playing alongside Biffy Clyro, The Futureheads, and The Wombats. Three-quarters of The Static Jacks are under age 22.
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OFWGKTA's Frank Ocean

​Whether you know it or not, tonight's a big night for L.A. music lovers. Especially those who fell for the soulful musical stylings of Frank Ocean's Nostalgia Ultra mixtape and the abundance of leaked tracks that comprises his discography. Tonight, the resident crooner of hip-hop collective Odd Future will play at the El Rey Theatre as a finale to his five-date mini tour that has taken him from his hometown New Orleans, to London, Amsterdam and back to Los Angeles.

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​London-based trio Male Bonding sure has been part of a whole lot of action since forming some four years ago. The band, who play the Constellation Room (inside the Galaxy) in Santa Ana tonight, began their career by creating sundry home-made cassettes and 7-inch split records, recording covers of GG Allin and Mission of Burma along the way.

In July 2009, the ever-august Sub Pop Records announced they had signed the act, making Male Bonding the first UK group to be inked to a worldwide deal on the label in a decade. Nothing Hurts, their debut LP, came out in May 2010, doing a killer job of introducing their effervescent yet conflicted indie rock to the world-at-large. The wonderfully ramshackle record was lo-fi at its most functional: None of the 13 songs crossed the three-minute mark, and the act still managed to lob out hook after hook. Their lyrics took another tack, tackling downer subjects like ennui, regret, and failure, allowing the album some depth. More >>

​The revolutionary hip-hop duo Dead Prez has been active in the game for 15 years now. Over the course of their journey, rappers M-1 and stic.man gained prominence with their instant classic debut "Let's Get Free" in 2000. Since that time, they've released a sophomore follow up plus a number of mixtapes under the banner of "Turn Off the Radio" where their music never enjoyed rotation anyway. A forthcoming independent release titled "Information Age" is said to be in the works, but there's no release date yet in sight.

Dead Prez brings all of that and more to the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa tonight. In keeping pace with the group, here's three reasons in three videos as to why their musical contributions always remain relevant and why you should head down to the show tonight and pump your fist in the air. More >>

Henry Denander

​Poetry readings are boring. And I'm not just saying that as a guy whose sole exposure to the genre was a force-feeding of Maya Angelou in community college. Nope, I actually read -- and try to write -- the stuff and even I think most of these gatherings are really great if you are
suffering from insomnia and not much else.

Gerald Locklin agrees. The 70-year-old Long Beach writer (who also spent approximately two decades in Seal Beach) doesn't just get behind a podium, stick his face into a book and mumble through some poems. This guy goes for it, and by that I mean he makes this shit come alive. During a Locklin reading, audiences are bound to get a handful of really solid narrative poems about life in academia (of which he knows something about seeing how he begin teaching at Cal State Long Beach in 1965), jazz, art and day-to-day slices of life, but the highlight of these shows is when Locklin puts down the poems and moves away from the podium for a song-and-dance routine that never fails.

Locklin's repertoire is limitless, but lately he's been almost guaranteed to tap dance, sing a Lady Gaga routine and tell the story about the time he auditioned for a talent show when he was in elementary school. 

For the uneducated, it's easy to dismiss Locklin's showmanship as his way of hiding the fact that he can't write. Nothing could be further from the truth. With more than 125 published books and 3,000 published poems, short stories, articles, reviews and interview, Locklin is a master of the written word. Don't believe me? Well, you should because Charles Bukowski agreed. The two were friends and anyone who knows anything about Bukowksi knows his persona leads us to believe that he A. didn't care much for people and B. cared even less for other poets. To give a detailed account of his career would take up too much space, so visit his website at www.geraldlocklin.org. Trust me, I ain't getting paid to plug his site, so that must mean there's something worth checking out there.

In the meantime, Locklin is reading tomorrow night at Golden West College Community Room 102 (15744 Goldenwest St., Huntington Beach) with John Brantingham and Pam Arterburn. The reading begins at 8.  

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