August Brown
Lists
Best Music Venues West of La Brea
Raise your hand if you've ever attended an Echo show where multiple ex-girlfriends' bands are on the bill. Keep them up if you've ever had Leela Thai deliver to you at Spaceland out of sheer laziness, or ripped your Built by Wendy jeans tripping on the skate ramp at the 6th and Alameda warehouse.
You, good soldier, need to break the shackles of the eastside Hipster Corridor. Winding along Sunset Blvd. from the edge of downtown to Hollywood, this stretch of road is to hipsters what electric fences are to misbehaving dalmations: the de facto geographic boundaries of one's life experience. How sad. Below, you'll find a handy guide to music venues and shops that, because God obviously hates them, fall into that fearsome, uncharted expanse of map west of La Brea or south of Wilshire.
For those bored with: Hotel Cafe. An independent guitar shop that doubles as a folk venue, McCabe's takes all the best things about Hotel Café (marquee artists in intimate spaces, sound techs who know the volume knob goes two ways) and removes all the bad (an faceless parade of Fiona-lites and aspiring Pete Yorns, being on Cahuenga for any reason at all, ever). Talk shop about fingerpicking techniques with the luthiers on off nights, and keep quiet for delicious homemade cookies and riveting shows by John Doe and Will Oldham on special occasions.
For those bored with: The Echo. One forgets that Malibu used to be the hot-to-trot artists' retreat in Southern California back in the day. Obviously, you won't run into Christopher Isherwood hiking in Rustic Canyon or Cat Stevens almost drowning in the Pacific Ocean anymore, but this lovely and secluded theater hosts ambitious acts like Joanna Newsom and beloved standbys like Mavis Staples.
For those bored with: Spaceland. Fais Do-Do has some of the same problems as Spaceland as of late (inconsistent bookings, an unnervingly large USC frat contingent), but the ramshackle juke-joint vibe will meet your need for a Dixie fix every time. Come for the free red beans and rice on Mondays, and be pleasantly surprised by the working-class funk band, hotshot bluesman or creaky jazz veteran earning their keep that night.
The only place to find hyper-rare Weirdos' 7-inches with real bloodstains, this gutter-punk clearing house is a treasure trove of wax to make the most crusty Oi! head start salivating.
Long Beach's best bet for the newest and most obscure indie rock records, punctuated by uniformly excellent live in-store performances.
A clearinghouse for local, national and international hip-hop mixtapes, this store will also help you find that NWA hoodie or Death Row skull cap you've been craving.
For those bored with: Amoeba Records. Record collecting in L.A. used to be so much more interesting. The recent demise of Rhino, Aron's and their indie peers can partially be attributed to the omniscience of Amoeba, whose utter dominance of the local record shop scene is a decidedly mixed blessing. Instead, try these far-flung options for wax: Fingerprints specializes in modern indie and stellar in-store performances, Record Surplus is packed to the gills with filthy-cheap used country, soul and rock vinyl, Hip-Hop West is a great depot for mixtapes and NWA shirts, and Radiation is your one-stop destination for out-of-print punk. Now go get dusty.