Abbot Kinney in Venice, on a regular old normal anyday, is easily one of the coolest streets anywhere. That’s one of the many reasons the Abboy Kinney Festival is my favorite. Throw in free performances by LA area artists that are awesome like Thundercat and Kisses (last year was Abe Vigoda and Crystal Antlers), piles of food trucks, street vendors, and an ocean breeze, and it is almost automatically the best.

You know how whenever you answer a question with the really obvious answer, there’s always someone that says “that’s like saying your favorite band is The Beatles“? I never really understood that person. Everyone’s favorite band is The Beatles, right? Of course, so everyone should be excited for this 2 part HBO documentary about George Harrison, George Harrison: Living in a Material World, directed by Martin Scorsese. It’s probably going to be amazing. (NYM)

Not sure that you’ll find me willing to deal with another all day commitment to FYF Fest (last year’s will call line and warm bottled water weren’t the best), but that doesn’t stop the 2011 [Indie-punk centric] line-up from having some great acts that I love. Oddly not happening at Los Angeles Historic State Park, but in Downtown at 1st and Main. Hopefully conditions will be improved.

Tickets on sale Friday.

TV on the Radio, Arctic Monkeys, Panda Bear, Warpaint, and Smith Westerns are set to play a ‘one epic night’ mini-fest at LA’s Hollywood Bowl September 25. Both epic and mini. Tickets go on sale June 18. Yes. Please.

For those of you in or around the LA LA Land metro area, you should definitely probably go to the Make Music Pasadena fest this summer. Your favorite bands are playing! Best Coast, The Morning Benders, Ra Ra Riot, Kisses, and Zola Jesus are among the initial acts announced today for the free music celebration in Downtown Pasadena.

All day Saturday, June 18. And it’s free/free. Free.

TV on the Radio bassist, Gerard Smith, passed away earlier today after a battle with lung cancer. If you’ve ever seen TV on the Radio live or watched any footage, you’ve probably noticed that Smith often stood in a back corner, unnoticed, facing his amp and playing his bass. I wanted to share a clip of the band doing “Wolf Like Me”, one of my favorite songs that’s defined by its relentless, pounding bassline. The performance (from Letterman in ’06) shows Smith in the back corner, just playing the bass.

R.I.P. Gerard Smith.

‘The Universal Sigh’ will be heard tomorrow by everyone who will be unable to snag a copy of this. Right? Radiohead’s newspaper of short stories and illustrations is out tomorrow worldwide to coincide with the physical release of The King of Limbs, but a pdf copy is here via New Zealand’s Rip It Up (via CoS). Also, two new Radiohead songs are due for Record Store Day. No big deal.

A handful of amazing acts round out this year’s Coachella line-up. Some are a little more surprising than others, and all of the ones you wanted to see are mixed in there somewhere (with a few you’d probably rather not, coughkingsofCOUGH). Overall, it’s got nothing on last year’s.

Plans for Sunday, September 26 so far include Vampire Weekend, Beach House, and The Very Best at Hollywood Bowl. Let’s see if we can’t do the impossible and catch the (FREE) afternoon set by Abe Vigoda (whose upcoming album, Crush, cannot come out fast enough) at the Abbot Kinney Festival before public-transporting it to Hollywood and Vine by 7:30. LOLZ. LMAO.

Fat Beats New York is officially closed – and the hip hop distributor’s LA retail location is next, with its final week of in-store performances starting today at 4:30. West Coast based, linkable acts such as Strong Arm Steady, Exile, Trek Life and dozens of others will stop by the store before it closes for the last time on Sunday. Full schedule, above. Changes, etc.