Music Festival

The push to bring a major music festival to downtown Los Angeles - one with rapper Jay Z expected to play a creative role - has set off a tussle between two L.A. politicians. Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar contends he was left out of discussions, spearheaded by Mayor Eric Garcetti in recent weeks, over bringing the two-day Budweiser Made in America music festival to Grand Park and the nearby steps of City Hall. Huizar, who represents most of downtown, called for the city to withhold approval of any permits for the Labor Day weekend event until the details are properly vetted.

The push to bring a major music festival to downtown Los Angeles - one with rapper Jay Z expected to play a creative role - has set off a tussle between two L.A. politicians. Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar contends he was left out of discussions, spearheaded by Mayor Eric Garcetti in recent weeks, over bringing the two-day Budweiser Made in America music festival to Grand Park and the nearby steps of City Hall. Huizar, who represents most of downtown, called for the city to withhold approval of any permits for the Labor Day weekend event until the details are properly vetted.

Heat, drugs and alcohol can be a deadly combination at large summer music festivals like the Bonnaroo Festival Music & Arts that just wrapped in Manchester, Tenn., where a second death was reported Tuesday. Entertainment Weekly reports that a 24-year-old man died from hyperthermia, a condition that occurs when the body gets too hot and can't cool itself. Temperatures at the festival were in the 90s, and large crowds of sweaty bodies probably didn't help the situation. A few days ago a 32-year-old woman was found dead at the festival's camp grounds, but the cause of death is not known.

AUSTIN, Texas - Here's to bad vibes, colored vomit and off-years. Go ahead and toast those who prevailed at South by Southwest by getting signed, licensed or folded into a future marketing plan, but the losers in this vicious cycle earned more respect. This was a year in which Apple infiltrated the event to put on its own "festival" within the festival, and the year that party sponsors required that before entering, attendees sign away their rights for possible commercial use. The keynote speaker, Lady Gaga, trivialized bulimia with a shocking stunt, and the salted snack brand that funded her bull-in-a-china-shop arrival at South by Southwest further insulted the festival's spirit of creation with ham-fisted ploys to link music and munchies.

Coachella's second weekend is upon us, and if you find yourself again frozen out of the desert festival the merry pranksters of Upright Citizens Brigade have assembled in what they're calling the Desert Tent (better known as the UCB stage) for a music festival that features troupe founder Matt Besser along with provocatively named groups such as Hip Hop Penguin, Cosby Sweater and Up Up Up. As an added bonus, chances of heat stroke are considerably diminished here. 5919 Franklin Ave., Sun. 9:30 p.m. $5 (323)

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival takes place at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif. Th e Black Keys , Radiohead, the Shins, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg and a ton of other bands are featured at this year's outdoors concerts starting this weekend. The Saguaro hotel in nearby Palm Springs puts you close to the action and has a $199 room rate that comes with exclusive pool-side music parties in a kind of mini-Coachella celebration. The deal: The Saguaro , a relative newcomer to the Joie de Vivre chain of hotels, will host Desert Weekender parties 1-6 p.m. featuring DJs such as KCRW's Jason Bentley of "Morning Becomes Eclectic," live performances by Nosaj Thing, Tokimonsta and other bands, plus free food goodies too. The rate requires a two-night minimum stay during the weekends of the Coachella fest.

Re "Cajun Culture Adds Spice to Music Festival," May 28. This article left me pondering several issues. It hardly mentioned the music or the musicians. Isn't the music the main reason people go to this festival? Why didn't you interview some of the musicians participating? I think the quote by festival Chairman George Bercow, that when this annual event started more than a decade ago he didn't even personally like Cajun music, speaks volumes about this event. DENNIS GURWELL Burbank

Leave it to a couple of "ice cold" rap stars to bring the heat back to the desert. OutKast, the trailblazing Atlanta hip-hop duo whose members memorably described themselves that way in their 2003 smash "Hey Ya!," will headline this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, organizers announced late Wednesday. The performance is to be the group's first since it went on hiatus nearly seven years ago, following the release in 2006 of "Idlewild," an ambitious movie musical that spawned a companion album with the same title.

This weekend's Hard Summer festival took a tragic turn Saturday when a concertgoer died at a nearby hospital, promoters confirmed Sunday. In a statement, Hard Events and its parent company, Live Nation, said the 25-year-old male fan suffered "cardiac distress" just before Flying Lotus' Saturday set, and died after being taken to LAC+USC Medical Center.  LA Weekly and Spin witnessed the events and described a quick response by on-site...

A six-story-tall Doritos vending machine served as the backdrop for performances by artists such as Snoop Dog, White Denim and Mystikal at last week's South by Southwest Festival and Conference in Austin, Texas. It was perhaps the most impressive display of corporate sponsorship at the annual festival, which started out 25 years ago as a way to showcase indie bands but has since become a massive, mainstream music event. Chevrolet, Pepsi and FreeCreditScore.com were among 10 official sponsors of the festival, while Taco Bell, Marlboro and Spotify joined other big business names whose banners adorned Austin's dozens of live music stages.

Bail has been set at $3 million for a Texas man accused of drunkenly steering his car into a crowd at the South by Southwest music festival, records show. Rashad Charjuan Owens, 21, of Killeen was booked into Travis County jail and charged with one count of capital murder, though more charges may be added later, the Associated Press reported . A court date was not immediately available. Reports indicate Owens -- an aspiring rapper and music producer -- was in town to try and showcase his music, like thousands of other aspiring artists hoping to get noticed.

AUSTIN, Texas -- A great many of the panel discussions at this year's South by Southwest conference offer variations on a question that goes right to the heart of our digital age: How are musicians supposed to get paid when music is so readily had for free? On Wednesday afternoon, experts including Mike Herring, CFO of the Internet streaming service Pandora, examined the matter in a conversation titled "Will Artists Make Money on Big Music Platforms?" The verdict? It's unclear.

AUSTIN, Texas - Kelly Willis said she'd worn "a Saturday night dress" - a cherry-red number with a cartoon-dog print - but in fact it was Tuesday, the first evening of the annual South by Southwest music festival here. Historically, opening night is when the locals get to shine before the bulk of SXSW's big-name headliners arrive. And though Tuesday's schedule also featured iTunes-sponsored performances by Coldplay and Imagine Dragons, the tradition held this year: At the Main club on Austin's bustling 6th Street, Willis and her husband, Bruce Robison, ran through the kind of winningly low-key set that can only come from folks who drove to their show from home.

These days it gets so crowded at the Low End Theory in Lincoln Heights that by 11 p.m. the door guys stop letting people in. The long-running weekly beat music club, which helped propel the careers of Flying Lotus, DJ Nobody, Nosaj Thing, Tokimonsta, Gaslamp Killer and others, draws fans from around the world who line up each Wednesday. The goal: to gain entry to the second-floor room with a capacity of a few hundred, featuring gut-vibrating bass cabinets, sweat on the walls and nonstop rhythms.

Music insiders offered insights and travel tips about the world of music festivals at a Saturday panel at the L.A. Times Travel Show called "On the Road: Traveling for Music & Festivals. " The panel returns noon Sunday. Times staff writer Jessica Gelt led the discussion with Betto Arcos, host of KPFK's Global Village; Rick Farman, creator of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival and Outside Lands; and Nigel Dick, filmmaker. Secrets to tickets If tickets sell out quickly, Farman recommended companies that sell packages, noting most are VIP packages.

Here's one thing about hype: It's almost impossible to live up to. That's the case of the highly anticipated Shakira and Rihanna collaboration, “Can't Remember to Forget You,” which premiered Monday. News that the pop stars came together to flaunt their sexiness in song sparked plenty of online chatter, especially when the official artwork surfaced of a sultry Rihanna draped over Shakira's lap, herself equally smoldering. Unfortunately, the single, which launches Shakira's follow-up to 2010's “Sale el Sol,” could use more steam.

The 2013 Hear Now Music Festival is meant to be the sound of Los Angeles. What does that mean? No one really can say, anymore than what it means to be an Angeleno. Over two programs at the First Lutheran Church of Venice on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, a dozen pieces will be played by a dozen composers. They don't all live precisely in Los Angeles -- Altadena (William Kraft), Claremont (Karl Kohn), even Berkeley (John Adams) counts. The age difference is great. They come originally from Austria, Germany, New Hampshire and elsewhere.

There's really no question: When it comes to pop songs about spherical implements of destruction, Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" beats Lea Michele's "Cannonball" in every way, not least in the matter of each song's central metaphor. "I came in like a wrecking ball / I never hit so hard in love," Cyrus sings , "All I wanted was to break your walls / All you ever did was wreck me. " That's good writing -- concise, emotional, easy to visualize. Then there's Michele, who sings, "Now I will start living today / Today I close the door / I got this new beginning, and I will fly like a cannonball.