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Patti Smith Gives a Nod to Hank Williams, Barack Obama

Hopping off a plane from Australia before hitting the small club's stage, Patti Smith was jet-lagged and in self-deprecating joke-mode last Friday at Zanzibar in Santa Monica, where she turned in a riveting short performance for 100 or so people assembled to benefit the Silver Lake Conservatory of Music, co-founded by her friend and Red Hot Chili ...

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Beck Shares His 'Guilt' in L.A.

Beck debuted songs from his forthcoming Danger Mouse-produced album, 'Modern Guilt,' on Monday night at the Echo in Los Angeles, just around the corner from his hometown Echo Park stomping ground. Also making the scene were his new band: guitarist Jessica Dobson, a singer-songwriter-bandleader (Deep Sea Diver) in her own right from the OC, local ...

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Seniors Rock the Summer Touring Season

And you thought the reign of the baby boomer was over? Not a chance. A At the time of life when most civilians are turning down the volume, musical lifers like Joan Baez, BB King, Leonard Cohen and Roger Waters are cranking it up. Yep, retirement age and bona fide seniors are taking to the road in unprecedented numbers this summer festival season ...

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Michael Franti Gets Schooled on Bob Dylan

Five years after the start of the Iraq war and following his own visit to the war zone for the filming of his 2004 documentary, 'I Know I'm Not Alone,' Spearhead's Michael Franti remains in the trenches fighting for peace (hey, isn't that an oxymoron?). "It's never hard to get people to care but it's hard to get them to show up year after year ...

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