Art Tavana
LA Weekly
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Contact Art
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Art:
A&R Legend Tom Zutaut Risked His Job to Sign Guns N' Roses, L.A.'s Most Dangerous Band
In a rare interview at his home in Virginia, the man who signed the world's most dangerous band explains what it took to create the last great rock &... → Read More
Guns N' Roses’ First Female Member Has Become a Rock Icon
As GNR's first female member, the blue-haired Seattle native has become a rock icon. But she's more at home composing in the studio. → Read More
Full Metal Jackie Is on a Mission to Keep Heavy Metal on the Airwaves
Since the mid-2000s, when she made a name for herself on Indie 103.1, Jackie Kajzer's radio alias has become synonymous with metal and hard rock. → Read More
Thanks to Community Outcry, L.A.'s Last Mall Arcade Won't Be Closing After All
The arcade still flickers with electricity and 8-bit melodies that bounce off the deconstructed mall ceiling. Inside the mall, floor tiles have been ripped up and cement dust now covers the a clown standing where the children's play area once was. The arcade is still on the first floor, which is... → Read More
How an Underground Wrestling Match in the Valley Made L.A. an Indie Pro Wrestling Mecca
It's a cloudy Saturday evening in the San Fernando Valley suburb of Reseda, and an uninterrupted chain of pro wrestling loyalists have been in line since 11 a.m. for a show they knew wouldn't begin for another eight hours. The event is called Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and these are the indefatigable... → Read More
Steven Adler's Mom Reveals the Guns N' Roses Drummer's Struggle in Her New Book, Sweet Child of Mine
Deanna Adler gives a candid, harrowing account of life as the mother of Guns N' Roses' troubled drummer. → Read More
DIY Venue Non Plus Ultra Shut Down by City Inspector; Founders Release Statement
After a concert by Thee Oh Sees last Thursday was shut down by the city, founders of the Virgil Village DIY art space were told they can no longer host live music events. → Read More
The 30 Best L.A. Rock Bands of the Past Decade
To those of you who say rock is dead, we say: When was the last time you listened to No Age, Ty Segall, The Growlers, Best Coast, Autolux, etc., etc. → Read More
Two Rancid Fans at Coachella Helped Me Escape Annoying Dance Culture
It was Friday night and LCD Soundsystem was performing "Losing My Edge" when I felt a gurgling sensation bubbling up my stomach, towards my throat. "I need to sit down," I told my editor, who was dancing awkwardly next to me to a song about pretentious youth. Sitting on the sun-dried... → Read More
Best of Coachella 2016 Weekend One
Coachella, man. Wow. Like a fine wine, you just keep getting better with age. After gorging ourselves on Sumo Dogs and indie-pop, dancing ourselves dusty, head-banging to Death Grips and "Welcome to the Jungle," and maybe drinking a beer or seven, we sifted through the rubble and our reporter's notebooks... → Read More
It's So Sleazy: Guns N' Roses Gave Coachella Its Most Epic Rock Set Ever
“Internal fixation.” That’s how Axl Rose’s good-looking foot specialist Dr. Rachel Triche described the lead-singer’s broken foot on April 8. Her ESPN-esque medical update, in which she sat in front of all her various credentials, was both great reality TV and evidence of Team GNR’s belief that rock & roll... → Read More
10 Sleazy Tips for Guns N' Roses Fans at Coachella
How do you survive a hot desert festival full of sweaty hipsters, when all you want to do is see the greatest rock & roll band on earth? It's so easy. → Read More
“Sweet Child O’ Mine” marked a turning point for Guns N’ Roses
In We’re No. 1, The A.V. Club examines a song that went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts to get to the heart of what it means to be popular in pop music, and how that concept has changed over the years. In this installment, we cover Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” which went to No. 1 on the Bi → Read More
Berserktown, L.A.'s Weirdest Music Festival, Returns This August
In just two years of existence, Berserktown has helped reunite such underground legends as Royal Trux and Dead Moon; put L.A. punk pioneers The Zeros and The Weirdos under the same roof; brought to the West Coast, for the first time, NYC hardcore freaks Dawn of Humans; it even put grindcore... → Read More
Here's What It Felt Like Seeing Guns N' Roses at the Troubadour
They came on a few minutes past midnight, an hour late, or really fuckin' early (depending on what you think of Axl Rose). For Use Your Illusion-era converts like myself, who watched the band implode on MTV, this was a miracle, something that's "Not In This lifetime," which is the... → Read More
I Was "Kidnapped" by Instagram-Famous Hollywood Heiress Lauren Alice Avery
On March 17, what would have been another forgettable St. Patrick’s Day, I was "kidnapped" by an heiress. She was wearing a black trench coat with baggy suit pants. With her bleached-blonde hair and L.A. lips, she looked like Jayne Mansfield through a lo-fi Instagram filter. In the canyons of Malibu,... → Read More
Confessions of a 30-Year-Old L.A. Mall Rat
I’m 30 and I work at the Burbank mall. Which sounds like I’ve failed at life. Which is exactly what I want you to think. I say this without irony, because embracing the shopping mall is, for me, a silent protest against yuppiedom’s stranglehold on culture. The mall is my... → Read More
Dear Jason Bentley: Please Add Some Goddamn Metal to KCRW's Playlists
[Welcome to "Art Tavana vs. the World," a monthly column in which L.A. Weekly's angriest [and nerdiest] music critic, Art Tavana, takes on his many nemeses in an ambitious quest to boldly go where no other critic has gone before.] An open letter to Jason Bentley, KCRW music director and... → Read More
The Ultimate Ranking of Every Guns N' Roses Song
I discovered GNR in the '90s, when MTV was deciding what we liked. At eight years old, running around my bedroom in Superman briefs, my first exposure to a genuine rock star was Axl Rose, who seemed like a pirate hijacking my TV screen when he told me that we were... → Read More
Leave Scientology Alone: A Defense of a Religion That's Better Than Yours
My first internship in Hollywood was working for Tom Cruise's publicist. Part of my job was sending Cruise's fans Scientology merch; I never found it to be strange, as most celebrities just send head shots. At least Tom was giving his fans something to read. One Christmas, Tom sent flowers... → Read More