TV on the Radio, Dwight Yoakam to play Annenberg summer concert series

Adventurous art rockers TV on the Radio and veteran country singer Dwight Yoakam are among the acts set to perform in the coming months as part of a free summer concert series presented by the Annenberg Space for Photography.

The Sound in Focus series will bring TV on the Radio to Century Park, next to the Annenberg’s Century City location, on July 25, followed closely by an Aug. 1 concert featuring rap group De La Soul. Yoakam is to perform Aug. 8 on a rootsy double bill with the long-running L.A. punk band X, and Cold War Kids will round out the program with a show on Aug. 15.

Jason Bentley, music director of Santa Monica-based KCRW-FM (89.9) curated this year’s lineup and will perform a DJ set before TV on the Radio’s gig.

Tied to the Annenberg’s “Emerging” photo exhibition, Sound in Focus “reflects the variety of topics and themes in the show,” said Cinny Kennard, executive director of the Annenberg Foundation. Those topics, Kennard added, run from “the personal to the global” and include “youth culture, family, the environment, economic uncertainty, conflict and civil unrest.”

All concerts are open to the public but require advance registration at KCRW.com.

Last year, the Annenberg Space and KCRW put on a series of shows by Shelby Lynne and Sturgill Simpson, among others, inspired by the Annenberg’s “Country: Portraits of an American Sound” exhibition.

Twitter: @mikaelwood