KROQ has announced it’s lineup for it’s 26th annual Almost Acoustic Christmas. The holiday concert has a tradition of bringing the biggest names in alternative/indie rock to celebrate the holidays. This year, the event will be held at The Forum in Inglewood, CA over two nights- December 12th and 13th.

Night one will feature AWOLNATION, Bastille, Cage The Elephant, Disclosure, Foals, Halsey, Silversun Pickups, The Struts, Twenty One Pilots, Weezer, and X Ambassadors. Proceeds from the evening will go to Para Los Niños, a non-profit family service agency designed to raise at-risk children out of poverty and into brighter futures through positive educational opportunities and support.

The second night boasts performances by Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness, Chris Cornell, Cold War Kids, Elle King, Fall Out Boy, George Ezra, James Bay, Of Monsters And Men, Panic! At The Disco, The 1975, and The Neighbourhood. The evening will benefit Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center, which provides a safe after-school environment where hundreds of boys and girls in South Central Los Angeles participate in tutoring, learn important social skills and are guided to succeed in school and enter college.

Tickets for both nights go on sale Friday, November 20th at 12pm. Get more details here.

Yesterday, iHeartRadio announced it would honor the best in various genres of music with it’s first iHeartRadio Music Awards. The show will air on NBC on May 1, 2014. The iHeartRadio Music Awards will include live performances, never-before-seen collaborations, celebrity guest appearances and live award presentations. Votes will be determined by how many times fans have thumbed up favorite songs, created stations, used Shazam to discover music, and posted about favorite artists on Facebook and Twitter.

Each voting category initially features 10 nominees – listeners will then narrow down to five finalists during a four-week period, with the finalists to be announced during a one-hour special live event on March 26, 2014 at the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles. Fans will then vote over the next several weeks, to determine the winners in each category.

Check out the list of award categories, as well as nominees (so far) below:

ALT Rock Song of the year:
Come A Little Closer – Cage The Elephant
Do I Wanna Know – Artic Monkeys
Pompeii – Bastille
Radioactive – Imagine Dragons
Royals – Lorde
Sweater Weather – The Neighbourhood
Demons – Imagine Dragons
Safe And Sound – Capital Cities
Out Of My League – Fitz & The Tantrums
Ways To Go – Grouplove

Song of the Year:
Royals – Lorde
Mirrors – Justin Timberlake
Roar – Katy Perry
Wake Me Up – Avicii f/Aloe Blacc
The Monster – Eminem f/Rihanna
When I Was Your Man – Bruno Mars
Hold On We’re Going Home – Drake f/Majid Jordan
Stay – Rihanna f/Mikky Ekko
Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke f/T.I. & Pharrell
Radioactive – Imagine Dragons

Best Lyrics:
Wrecking Ball – Miley Cyrus
Crooked Smile – J. Cole f/TLC
Royals – Lorde
Just Give Me a Reason – P!nk f/Nate Ruess
Wake Me Up – Avicii f/Aloe Blacc
Same Love – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Mine Would Be You – Blake Shelton
Say Something – A Great Big World
I Love It – Icona Pop
Demons – Imagine Dragons

Country Song of the Year:
Crash My Party – Luke Bryan
It Goes Like This – Thomas Rhett
That’s My Kind of Night – Luke Bryan
Mine Would Be You – Blake Shelton
Runnin’ Outta Moonlight – Randy Houser
Boys Round Here – Blake Shelton
Wagon Wheel – Darius Rucker
Get Your Shine On – Florida-Georgia Line
Highway Don’t Care – Tim McGraw w/Taylor Swift
Night Train – Jason Aldean

Artist of the Year:
Bruno Mars
Rihanna
Maroon 5
Justin Timberlake
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
P!nk
Katy Perry
Imagine Dragons
Robin Thicke
Taylor Swift

EDM Song of the Year:
Wake Me Up – Avicii f/Aloe Blacc
Clarity – Zedd f/Foxes
What It Feels Like – Armin Van Buuren
I Need Your Love – Calvin Harris f/Ellie Goulding
Alive – Krewella
Get Lucky – Daft Punk f/Pharrell
Sweet Nothing – Calvin Harris f/Florence Welch
Summertime Sadness – Lana Del Rey f/Cedric Gervais
Harlem Shake – Baauer
Stay the Night – Zedd f/Hayley Williams

Hip-Hop/R&B Song of the Year:
Pour It Up – Rihanna
Power Trip – J. Cole f/Miguel
Started From The Bottom – Drake
I Luv This S**T – August Alsina
Crooked Smile – J. Cole f/TLC
Hold On We’re Going Home – Drake f/Majid Jordan
Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke f/T.I. & Pharrell
Bad – Wale f/Tiara Thomas
Holy Grail – Jay-Z f/Justin Timberlake
All Me – Drake f/2 Chainz & Big Sean

Best Fan Army:
Justin Bieber
One Direction
Taylor Swift
Demi Lovato
Lady Gaga
Ariana Grande
Katy Perry
Austin Mahone
Miley Cyrus
Rihanna

Best Collaboration:
Wake Me Up – Avicii f/Aloe Blacc
The Monster – Eminem f/Rihanna
Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke f/T.I. & Pharrell
Stay – Rihanna f/Mikky Ekko
Suit & Tie – Justin Timberlake f/Jay-Z
Get Lucky – Daft Punk f/Pharrell
Just Give Me A Reason – P!nk f/Nate Ruess
Holy Grail – Jay-Z f/Justin Timberlake
Hold On We’re Going Home – Drake f/Majid Jordan
Timber – Pitbull f/Ke$ha

Best New Artist:
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Imagine Dragons
Florida Georgia Line
Lumineers
Lorde
Zedd
Capital Cities
Kendrick Lamar
Icona Pop
Passenger

NOVEMEBR 1 – “I’m going to be brutally honest… This is one of my favorite shows,” frontman Jesse Rutherford told the sold out crowd at The Observatory in Santa Ana, Ca. From the reaction to Jesse’s bouncing steps onto the stage for the first song “Let it Go,” it was immediately apparent- nobody was going to stay still or quiet for the next hour and a half.

The Neighbourhood, made of up Jesse, guitarists Jeremy Freedman and Zach Abels, Mikey Margott on bass, and drummer Bryan Sammis, formed in late 2011 and released their debut album in April of this year. The album, “I Love You,” reached number 39 on the US Billboard charts. Their single, “Sweater Weather” has taken over radio (in CA, turn on KROQ at any given time and you’ll likely hear the song) and reached number one on the US Alternative chart.

Although the band is relatively young (the oldest is 22 and the youngest 19), they command the stage like pros who have been working for years and years. While the entire band entertained the audience, Jesse’s energy translated on a whole different level, dominating attention. From start to finish, he jumped around the stage, only pausing between songs to talk to the audience, which he does with great ease. He acknowledged when “gifts” were thrown onto the stage from the adoring female fans in the front row and remarked that the crowd had literally made his socks fall off after only the first song.

The audience consisted of mostly teenage girls in the front, to a more mixed gender, of-age crowd towards the back. And while yes, the girls against the barricade probably love that all the members are attractive and drool over Jesse’s tattoos, the attention didn’t seem to be focused on those things. Instead of screaming “I Love Yous” and “Marry Mes,” the fans were determined to become backup vocalists as they sang along to every word and every song, including their melody of Destiny Child’s “Say My Name” and Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River.”

The emphasis on the music is no coincidence. The band began with a brilliant master plan to control their image in a way that would allow focus on their music. Nobody knew what the members in The Neighbourhood even looked like until months after their first songs were released. The band now relies on only black and white imagery, which is evident in their music videos, their black and white outfits on stage, and even in the simple (and beautiful) light display on stage.

While their image is pretty black and white (pun intended), describing the band’s genre is a bit more complicated. Sometimes labeled as alternative indie, hip pop, pop, dark pop, The Neighborhood has a wide variety of influences which have shaped their sound. Before The Neighborhood, Jesse was rapping and making hip hop music. The blend of hip hop, pop, and alternative music has created what many have called dark or moody pop. Regardless of the genre you want to categorize the band into, one thing is fairly obvious: the words are written to create another layer of rhythm onto the song. The repetition in many of the songs, like “WDYWFM?” and “Wires,” truly brings out the hip hop background, but is especially evident in “West Coast.” The three songs were played together in the middle of the set, creating a groove amongst the crowd.

The difference between this band of five guys and other bands of five guys around the same age is remarkable. They put the kind of thought behind their craft not typical at such a young age. While some critics have panned The Neighborhood for the simplicity of their angst-y lyrics, you still probably wouldn’t realize that some of the guys in the band are still teenagers. In comparison to bands their same age, they have created a sound that can uniquely be called theirs. Towards the end of the set, the band played “How,” which questioned, “How could you question God’s existence when you question God himself? Why would you ask for God’s assistance if you wouldn’t take the help?” Yes, these words could be attributed to just teenage angst, but as a 22 year old, I know many people who can relate, and at the end of the day, being relatable to its audience is one thing a band needs to be successful.

The band finished their set with their less angst-y single, “Sweater Weather” followed by their latest “Afraid.” The band and audience danced and sang until the very last note was played, which followed a loud and long session of screaming and clapping.

Check out the full set list as well as photographs from the show, below.

Set list:
1. Let it Go
2. Everybody’s Watching Me (Uh Oh)
3. Female Robbery
4. Flawless
5. Alleyways
6. West Coast
7. Wires
8. WDYWFM?
9. Say My Name/Cry Me a River
10. A Little Death
11. How
12. Sweater Weather
13. Afraid

Photography by Rosemary Vega
[See image gallery at hollywoodtimessquare.com]