Today we introduce a new recurring feature called Hit City Record Club, in which our artists and friends tell us about one album that’s had a significant impact on their lives.
Here, one of our favorite Los Angeles DJs and producers Cooper Saver details how Cut Copy’s In Ghost Colours changed his life. In so doing, Cooper tells a familiar story with his own unique distinctions — channeling a formative age while explaining how that album helped define his musical taste and sense of self, as well as nudge him to get a fake ID and sneak into dance clubs. As he says, “I owe this record a lot.”
In advance of Astronauts, etc.'s Mind Out Wandering release this Friday, we asked band leader Anthony Ferraro to introduce us to the photographer behind his album's subtly evocative imagery. He sat down with Ginger Fierstein, who he met years ago around the Bay Area music scene, to discuss his friend's creative vision.
After a recent visit, Yosemite National Park easily tops our list of favorite places in California. But we're not alone in our admiration. Through our own trial and error, can offer some tips to make your trip to Yosemite as rewarding and stress-free as possible.
We all have different sides to ourselves, provoked by our surroundings. It is an act of physical space affecting our mental space — for Pearl Charles, like a lineage of amazing musicians before her, an important place for inspiration is the desert around Joshua Tree, California.
Each year we're increasingly impressed by the massive festival production that has become FYF Fest. We hit the The LA Sports Arena & Exposition Park around USC this weekend and took in the whole extravaganza, made complete with epic sets by Kanye West, Toro y Moi, Savages and many more.
When we stopped by our favorite local guitar shop, Old Style, recently we were shocked to hear from owner Reuben Cox that the whole thing started basically by accident. And a bit of an odd one at that, considering he's not even really a musician himself.
Our pal photographer (and Princeton drummer) David Kitz's Instagram account has become a recent infatuation — in part because unlike many photographers out there, his account pulls exclusively from pictures shot on his iPhone. We brought this up recently and he said it’s a matter of liking the limitations that come with it.
What was it like growing up in Iran in the 1960s? It's hard to imagine your parent's youth 8,000 in a country you've never known first-hand, and one that's changed so drastically since as well. In today's feature, our good friend Joe Sharaf retraces his roots, while giving us a peak into a bygone time.
It was by random chance we happened on Jeff Ogiba’s “Things I Found in Records” Instagram account but were immediately smitten by his collection of oddities discovered in album sleeves. His super specific concept makes for amazing bits of micro nonfiction, almost like music-collector archeology.
It's with some reservation we share with you all one of our most frequented camping sites — South Fork Group Campground in Angeles National Forest. Located one and a half hours north of Los Angeles, this hidden valley retreat is a great personal favorite for easy weekend trips away from the city in a surprisingly lush portion of the Antelope Valley.
A week after the summer solstice, we're full on into the seasonal vibes. And, it seems, we're not the only ones. SoKo is onboard too, we're glad to say, as she's shared with us a playlist to welcome these long days — morning to night.
As Kisses' Jesse Kivel and his wife (and bandmate) Zinzi Edmundson were waiting for their son to be born, the one piece of advice our co-founder Colin Stutz could offer the new dad was this: As much it might feel like the birth is an end to the pregnancy, it is only a beginning — and one none of us can really prepare for at that.
As Anthony Ferraro of Astronauts, etc. prepares to release their debut album this fall, he spent the spring playing keys on the road with Toro y Moi, the band he's been a part of since 2013. Their friend and photographer Josh Terris was along for the ride, taking pictures throughout it all.
The record store $1 bin is a bit of a paradox. The lure of cheap vinyl is undeniable, but one can't help but discredit and ignore it — if there was anything worthwhile in there, it wouldn't be on sale for just a buck, right? Not exactly.
We recruited our good buddies Daniel.T. and Cooper Saver, a couple of our city's finest DJs, to find what gems might be found for a bargain.
When he isn't making off kilter bangers as one half of Cologne, Danny Lane is shooting photos — portraits, documentary, commissioned work, what have you. In his series Casual Nudity, Danny desexualizes his subjects with honest storytelling.
With the NBA playoffs in full swing, basketball is at the forefront of our minds — and, lately, it’s not just the gameplay we’ve been thinking about. There’s a strong legacy of the game and hip-hop co-mingling, not just with rappers supporting their favorite starting squads but players throwing down rhymes too.
Los Angeles is an embarrassment of riches with some of the greatest movie theaters in the world. Among those is a special type of cinema slowly vanishing in the era of the multiplex: the single screen theater. These are a rarity worth celebrating, and celebrate them we shall. Our friend Arms Race recently took a tour of the cities finest single screen cinemas, read more after the jump.
French artist Vincent Lamouroux has pulled a disappearing trick with a blighted Silver Lake motel, replacing it with an open canvas for California dreaming.
Lamouroux's new art installment is a whitewashing of the dilapidated Sunset Pacific Motel on Sunset Boulevard he calls Projection that's attracted the area's attention in creating a hulking mass of negative space open for individual interpretation.
Besides a couple weekends of chaos each year, Palm Springs is the ideal place in Southern California to relax, recharge, and have a little fun on a budget. Considering you probably deserve a vacation we decided to throw together a few recommendations for you — where to stay, where to eat and what to do.
Just because you're smoking gage, it doesn't mean you have to be a slob about it. Here's a primer or rolling a great joint and five pieces to clean up your activities.
