Los Angeles (Part 2): Breaking on Through to the Other Side

NOTE: If you haven’t listened to Part 1—start there, or this could get awkward.) On Part Two of a special two-part episode of SOOT, host Will Dailey explores another side of Los Angeles—a city of contradictions and contrasts, some incidental, others man-made. Some folks come to California to find gold, literal and otherwise. But some of the gold is content to stay tucked in the canyons. Here’s a tour of LA’s backstages and byways—a map of the healthy ecosystem behind the magic screen.

.css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Double Elvis. So my first thought is that I really
hope you listened to part one of Los Angeles or
this could get awkward, trippier than our time in Atlanta.
But if you have listened to part one and you
just need a refresher, here is a quick recap of sorts.
L A is big. There can be a distortion that

(00:26):
emanates from the Hollywood megaphone. There are many broken hearts.
There's Cantor's Kibbit, two tramp Stamp, Granny's Hotel Cafe, and
beneath the A listers in film, music and the influencers
in the wild, there is a mountain of nearly untouched gold.
The machine is everywhere and it minds that mountain, but
some of the gold in them hills is content to
stay tucked in the canyons and shine on its own terms.

(00:48):
That's why the intimate spaces feel extra special in a
city this large and size. Those are the special places
where influence actually lives, and la is better off for
having them. For the healthy ecosystem just under the frame.
And there is a whole other side of the city
we have yet to touch, the beautifully brutal West side

(01:09):
where Compton Lamert Park, Long Beach, and other artistic cubs rule.
Are you refreshed? Good, Let's get back to it. It's
a long day limited and there's a freeway running through
the yard. I'm a bad boy because I don't even
miss her. I'm a bad boy for breaking her heart.
And now the vampires walking through the valley moved west

(01:31):
down Venturu Blevard, and all the bad boys are standing
in the shadows, and the good girls are home with
broken hearts free falling. Tom Petty, l A is a
city defined by its urban sprawl, scattered over five square
miles of beaches, desert, hills, and valleys. It is a

(01:54):
city of contradictions and contrasts. Some of this is incidental,
the way the palm tree is possibly the original Los
Angeles transplants take to the Mediterranean climate so many thousands
of miles from their ancestral homes. Some of it, on
the other hand, is intentional. That one of America's most
diverse cities is carved up into racially cigretated enclaves by
the efforts of city planners in the effects of freeways

(02:16):
that cord in each section off to itself is an
observation that is rarely lost on newcomers and natives alike,
and on the far side of those freeways, diverse and
dynamic musical scenes flourish in their own unique microclimates of
this rambling, yawning, and ever expanding town. In places like
Compton and Watts, Gangster Rapid reflected the looming menace of

(02:36):
life on the edge, where victims of white flight and
the slummification of primarily Black and Latino neighborhoods were forced
to choose between pusher and prey. In the CNN of
the Ghetto depicted their struggles and blunt, brutally beautiful detail. Meanwhile,
on the west side, the Good Life cafes open mic
Night became a haven for those artists who grew up

(02:58):
adjacent to the harrowing experience of their fellow citizens, but
removed enough to create the antithesis of Gangster rapp. It
was there that the members of Freestyle Fellowship and the
Far Side Jurassic five and X to the Z Exhibit
pone their crafts, planting the seeds for progenies such as
Project Blowed, the massive movement whose members Big Brothered Future Star,
Doja Cat, and whose spinoffs nurtured the burgeoning career of

(03:21):
Kendrick Lamar, who would go on to bridge the gaps
between the heady, high minded musical mischief being made in
Lamert Park in the conflict riddled Compton Outlook. Now good
Life Cafe is gone, in the places to see live
rap music in l A are few and far between.
A venue are an actual scene exists is even harder
to find. Low end theory is no more, and there's

(03:43):
nary a real open mic night to be found anywhere.
Even in a city that birthed huge stars like Snoop Dogg,
DJ Quick, problem Y g Odd, Future, Roddy Rich and
Dom Kennedy. Meeting up in person to enjoy the craft
seems to be lost in a city ruled by gentifer
cation in the pandemic only made it worse. By the

(04:04):
time you're seeing an artist like Vince Staples lording over
the stage at the Fonda, He's already been grinding for years.
It's fitting that at the center of everything at l
A live in downtown across the street from the Novo,
more and more wrap acts are being welcome to apply
their trade. What's even more impressive is how more and
more of those artists are using the venue to stay

(04:25):
connected to the music's roots. The game is well known,
a nearly twenty year veteran with number one hits and
platinum plaques to his name, but he'll still hit the
Novo for strictly for the day one's concert. Famous friends
like Little Wayne and Kanye West and tow The Novo
has hosted hometown shows for the city's next generation of
burgeoning stars. Drake Yo the Ruler Rest in Peace wrapped

(04:47):
a line around the block prior to his uncommonly passing,
and Blast kicked off his two with the New Year's
Eve Get there. The Novo is hardly alone and keeping
support for the city's hip hop close to heart. You
can still catch Kyle at the Palladium, West Side Boogie
at the l Ray Theater, in Vets like Exhibit in
Cypress Hill, at the Wilton, and these are all places
where you can get your face melted if you do

(05:09):
that with bars and beats. No matter how much the
city sprawls and retracts, shifts and re stacks the deck,
and no matter how much locals bemoan the ever changing landscape,
it's still one of the greatest music cities in the world.
And it's still the birthplaces some of the best rappers
in the world. And effortless defunk melody blaring out a
car parked in traffic on the one tent South will

(05:33):
always be part of l a soundscape. California knows how
to dream, survive, build, create, and party forever and ever Amen.
Sound of Our Town is a podcast about the music

(05:54):
that shake the city you're touching down, or that you
live in, or that you're stranded in for two days
because airlines. It's about finding, hearing, and understanding it's best
music happening right now, in what sounds and places of
shape the city's culture and what new sounds continue to
define it. It's about getting together in a room to
listen and why that matters. But you already knew that,

(06:15):
and you know that whether you're quickly dropping in, landing
for a long stay, moving to a new town, or
just wandering in your own mind. In each episode of
Sound of Our Town, I'll introduce you to the real
places and sonic stories echoing in a particular town so
that your time is enriched with music. My name is
Will Daily. I'm an independent songwriter, performer and all the
things that come along with that, and I'm here thanks

(06:36):
to those who seek sounds in the night, venturing out
into the world, chasing our connectivity that defines who we
are culturally and how to survive all of us. And
at this point of season one of Sound of Our Town,
we find ourselves at a very special episode eight. This
is part two of our time in Los Angeles, California,

(06:57):
and looking to get our face melted. The puritanical and
the period are always facing off in this city. The
halves and the have nots, and the moneyed in, the
street fighters, the residents, and the troubadours. They are transient

(07:18):
class that all but disappear when the daylight hits, enveloped
into the warm flow of a city known for cars
stacked end to end as everyone tries to get somewhere.
The troubadours they only come at night, suddenly appearing on
street corners with an upturned hat full of pennies in
the middle of Hollywood Boulevard or Santa Monica's packaged and
pristine shopping strip. When the hack gets full enough for

(07:41):
the right person, here's a tune they can get up
on stage at the troubadour, the local hut for literal
travelers a place out of towners always want to gather.
Why to get their faces melted off, to get their
minds blown, their hearts broken. To climb up into the
exclusive balcony and look across the way at the upstairs
green room saw house, sort of visible from the stage

(08:01):
and the pit in that creaky balcony where thousands of
visitors have looked down on thousands of legends strumming their
makeshift instruments. Music won't stop pouring out of the people,
even when the vampires are hovering. You gotta go to
the troubadour. Who cares who's on stage. It's the spirit
of the room that you're looking to find. Locals my
eye roll, But they've been a hundred times too. It's

(08:23):
easy to take your own gold for granted. This is
your shot. Didn't someone you know see a great set
here way back in the day. You wait your turn
right there on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and
de Hainey Drive, just before the line that turns Wild
and Free Club West Hollywood into the uppitting manicured lawns
Beverly Hills. Let the bouncer give you a once over.

(08:43):
Get your ticket, scan and hang a left into the
anti room bar to grab that first beer you see
on draft. Then trip over the threshold. Watch your step
as you make your way into the sticky, dark and
honestly pretty small room where every sight line is oriented
towards the stage. The Troubadoor is the kind of place
where Bob Dylan would drop by after the show was
over and get wrapped up in a jam session. It's

(09:05):
where the Birds debuted their take on His Tambourine Man,
and Buffalo Springfield made their live debut. Joni Mitchell played
l A for the first time on that stage, and
the same goes supposedly for Neil Young, Don Henley and
Glenn Fryman at the front bar where you got your
quickly spilled beer. And Chris Christofferson made his own debut
in nineteen seventy opening up for Linda Ronstaff. Is that

(09:25):
a bill or what is that? What you want to say?
You were one day there? For? Do you know anyone
who lived in l A in nineteen seventy? These aren't
even the biggest names who have been up on the
stage just some of the earliest. Other acts who debuted
at this venue include Elton, John Billy, Joel Metallica, Pearl
Jam and Fiona Apple. This is the place where Carly
Simon met James Taylor and where James tried out You've

(09:47):
got a friend for the first time live Why because
he heard his opening act Carol King play the tune
in sound check. Your phone lights up. It's your mom
heard you're in l A. Did you know I saw
Bruce play there? Imposs bully. Your mom was at the
Columbia Records showcase in nineteen seventy four, the one that
started at two am. That's quite a flex to keep
for herself. You wonder, do you even know your mother?

(10:09):
You look up at the stage and try to imagine
Bruce waggling and crooning with the East Streaters behind him.
Where did he party after celebrate that night? Because it's
somewhere else in Santa Monica Boulevard or up the hill
at the Sunset Marquis Hotel and already a haven for entertainers.
Phone buzzes and another flex your mom's older brother. These
two are texting about your trip. No doubt I got

(10:31):
your mom beat. I was there that night. Tom Waits
got discovered in an open mic he writes, that's a
long shot, right, that can't possibly be true. Herb Cohen
was a starmaker back then. He knew the Troubadoor well
because of Lenny Bruce. Yes, that Lenny Bruce, the one
who was arrested on obscenity charges for what he set
up on this stage, a scathing satire polite society, the
halves and the money and everything a troubador stands against.

(10:54):
He did it all without a Netflix special. Good on them.
You think your mom and her brother diving into the
seventies strange? They both had memories here until another friend
from Seattle messages, Is that Bill Tonight anything like the
first Fleet Fox's l A show in two thousand and eight?
It was even better when they played the Palladium on
the Helplessness Blues Tour. Their l A debut was fourteen

(11:17):
years ago. Now our Fleet Fox is a veteran band.
What is time and why is it hounding me? Another
memory stirs. October thirty, two thousand and nine, just before Halloween,
a new generation of music lovers gathered before the Spooks
came out, chasing the music of a young harpist from
London to a show at The Troubadour, one of Florence
Welch's first l A shows, where she still played the harp.

(11:38):
Herself and plenty of shiny faced youth let their lungs
expand and collapse with hers. The dog days were over.
This was our new Queen. Were you there? Did a
friend tell you that story? Why does it feel more
real than tonight? Weirdly, though the show is inslated to
start for half an hour, a man takes the stage
by himself, seated at a grand piano under a lone spotlight.

(11:59):
How they call a grand piano in here? And why
does that guy sound? Wait, not just sound, but look
like Elton John? Is this some sort of couseplace? Set
up a drag night? Unannounced? As the throngs pack around
the stage, a hazy mix of old and new, slipping
in and out of focus, Elton John winks and nods
and keeps playing your song. This can't be happening, but

(12:22):
it is. Hey, everyone you know said this room is magical.
You smell your drink because if that would tell you anything,
Just to be sure you're not crazy. Your phone lights
up again. Hey, it's Dave Grohl. Heard it's your first
time at the Troubadour enjoy Man. I'll never forget when
I filled in on drums for Queens of the Stone
Agent two thousand and two. There's just something about that space.
Have one on me, Dave. Girl doesn't even have your

(12:45):
phone number. But the logic of eye messages and privacy
laws don't apply inside the Troubadour if he wanted to
get you a message, pay attention. You don't even know
if the band up there tonight might be making a
new story. That's what This place is a place for
the have nots to finally have something. Or we're the
ones who always knew this kind of currency is the

(13:05):
only thing worth having in this city. Turn off your
phone enough of the outside world. As much as I'd
love to have a huge stereo system in every room
of my home, I have to admit it wouldn't blend

(13:25):
into my color scheme in each room or leave space
for anything else. That's why I listened to my favorite
shows and music with my Son's Room, the portable smart
speaker with size defying sound. The Son's Room ways less
than a pound, and it is about the size of
a sixteen ounce can of soda. A can of soda
that delivers incredible sound. While I was listening to Control
by Janet Jackson, the vocals were clear and every part

(13:48):
of the track was reproduced perfectly, and my dancing was uninterrupted. Plus,
the room has a beautiful design that can fit in
any corner of your home. It comes in a few colors,
so if black and white isn't your style, you can
pick out a room and earthly olive green or a
light blue to match your space. So get Rome and
get ready for your next adventure. Learn more and shop

(14:08):
three new exclusive colors at sonos dot com For our
Vaticans stop in l A. It has to be the
one venue that you can go to right off the
hiking trail. Located within Griffith Park, the historic Greek Theater

(14:30):
stands as one of the nation's most beloved and recognized
outdoor entertainment venues, wrapping almost six thousand people in the
arms of the surrounding park. Throughout its history, the Greek
has played host to some of the biggest legends of
music Elton John, Aretha, Franklin, Frank Sinatra, Springsteen, Santana, and
many more in between, and like the rest of the city,
it has served as a backdrop for television shows and

(14:52):
motion pictures, and some signs that the segregation lines of
l A are fading would be Juice World, making it
all the way to playing the Greek in nineteen before
tragically passing away at the age of one. A bevy
of hip hop royalty congregated at the Greek to pay
tribute to phone star Mac Miller, but bookings for rappers
are few and far between at stages like the Greek

(15:13):
and Troubadour. This speaks to the work that still needs
to be done where America divides what performers it deems worthy. Now,
the Greek and all the famous theaters in l A
are the perfect calendar lineup for your time in the city,
but travel can be exhausting. In a show sitting among

(15:33):
the stars maybe the perfect acclamation. Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the
place where they lay legends to rest and fans of
music go to dance on their graves. No, not literally.
Whoever first got the idea to host outdoors shows at
this historic, beautiful cemetery in the middle of Hollywood, well
they deserve a metal because there's almost nothing better to

(15:54):
do than to go to a show and a place
that's already made peace with the ghosts who lived there laying.
Hollywood Forever Cemetery is another bucket list stage for plenty
of artists because they know it will be a movement,
a night of freedom, celebration, and yes, sometimes sorrow. The
tears are just as much a part of live music
as the dancing, and nothing taught us that like a

(16:17):
complete to your absence of this cathartic force. For those
who have lost loved ones or are particularly moved or
grieved by the wound of legends gone too soon, Hollywood
Forever can be an emotional place. Go anyway. Sign up
for tickets and commit to bringing blankets and chairs, a
picnic or wine, sit and sip and prepare and let

(16:40):
the night fall, and then commune with hundreds of other
people who want to do the same thing, who listened
to the same bands as UNI. They might be perfect strangers,
but a mutual admiration for the songs is a tacit friendship.
And if the artists that are playing when you're in
town aren't a familiar Spotify presence or have never been

(17:00):
on your must have vinylist added to your calendar anyway,
that's the whole point of the venue this special and rare.
It makes the act of attending the show almost as
important as who is playing. See if you don't discover
a new favorite out there on the lawn, or make
the kind of memory that you cherish and look back
on once you're home and remembering the trip. It's a

(17:22):
gorgeous place to sit and talk and let the music
drone on behind your conversation, just as much as it's
a place to sit on the edge of your seat
or blanket and hang on every word of the song.
All different people, all having completely unique experiences. That's the
other beautiful thing about concerts. Everyone needs something different from

(17:43):
the medicine that is music, and somewhere between first Stop
and No Cover is a place that delivered some heartbreaking
news at the set of two. A lot of these
special rooms have been needing our support for years now,

(18:05):
but after COVID nineteen, they need a hero. Are you
that somebody? Because it is now a power that can
turn into saving a hidden gem. If you roll into
the Dresden and ask who's performing, you are participating and
keeping a historical landmark vital after the passing of one
of its musical icons. Some are named Marty, and their
stages should be preserved. The Dresden is a feeling. It's

(18:28):
a throne room. It's where you're so money baby, and
you don't even know. It made into an iconic spot
for those in the know by the cult classic movie swingers.
In the last two decades haven't seen the place change much,
aside from losing one half of the glorious music duo
who lorded over the restaurant and bars less formal side
for forty years. What it will be like now that

(18:48):
Marty of the Indelible Marty and Elaine left this mortal
coil at the age of eighty nine remains to be seen.
But since it opened in nineteen fifty four, this low
speed less joint has been a place where you were
lucky to get a evil and even luckier to know
you wanted one. In this hidden gem, the Dressdine has
been a haven for all the drinkers and dancers and
late night smokers in this town because being around Marty

(19:10):
in Elane kept you in proximity to two artists whose
passion for decades of making music in one spot was
so pure that you could clean up a corner of
your heart dirty by the town that usually sucked that
out of everyone. No one was up there for the
fame or fortune, just the love of the song. When
Marty passed, I felt the swallowed gratitude for having seen

(19:31):
and heard him while seeing Martinis, the same feeling I
had for Prince or Tom Petty. It still is a
hidden gem for a quick stop or a long one
to grab a drink or a snack to check out
who's playing. It keeps the dream alive, baby, while the
dressdine looks for the next iconic pairing. Just let them
know you were there for the music. There is a

(19:51):
rotating cast of musicians on Wednesdays and Thursdays. But grief
is messy and it's hard to recover from the loss
of a legend. Now that doesn't mean that sitting in
this room, sipping a martini and listening to the people
who are trying to pick up the pieces is not
worth your time. Things pass in this city, but that
only adds weight to knowing where to go while it's

(20:12):
still here. One day the dressing might be completely gone,
torn down, and replaced with the relentless ebb of condos
that are beginning to encroach on that old glorious Guyal
los felis for now the bar is still here, and
heading in to pay homage and see what might emerge
from the wreckage is absolutely worth your time and money. Baby.

(20:36):
Two episodes of Sound of Our Town just to get
the vibe of l A. And I still can't do
all the work for you. There might be some prep
that you want to do on your own. So four
places to start that aren't the abyss of Google. Let's
start back in nineteen six with a debaucherous autobiography Wonderland
Avenue Tales of glamour and excess, and it is just that,

(20:57):
but with laughs mingling with the debauchery. A car sary
nineteen sixties nineteen seventies lifestyle tale with a teenager turn
manager turned junkie as its protagonist. Danny Sugarman can't decide
whether to live or die in l A. But these
pages also contain the most humanizing portrait of Jim Morrison,
Raymond z Eric and Iggy Pop. A story that gives

(21:18):
you the lore of old school l A, along with
the receipts and the souls that it took. Number two,
This is the Life the two thousand and eight documentary
by Eva Duverney. It is a study of the alternative
l a hip hop scene that flourished in the nineteen
nineties and the venue at its center, the Good Life Cafe. Sadly,
as we learned, the venue is now defunct. Tale as

(21:41):
old as time for so many of the monumental spaces
where young mcs cut their teeth and tried their most
precious bars on audiences for the first time. It's directed
by Duverney, who herself was an m C who practiced
and performed at this open mic, and members of the
Figures of Speech group. The documentary is now herald It
is one of the most important documents of l a
micro scene that is still deeply influential even decades on

(22:06):
for those who want to get a sense of the creativity,
community and deep fellowship that can exist and does exist
in the West Coast hip hop circles. This just under
a hundred minute film is the ultimate Artifact Number three.
Dubbed l a Punk's House Photographer by the Los Angeles Times,
photographer and Slash co founder Melanie Nison recently released a

(22:27):
photo book, Hard plus Fast that doubles is a gorgeous
testament to the long lost punk a day of this city.
Even if you've never heard of Nissan, odds are you've
seen one of her epic black and white photos. Perhaps
the most famous shot is a snap of Darby Crash
of the Germs in ex scene cervenkov X, each of
them scowling on a dirty, cluttered, Hollywood rooftop, a perfectly unposed,

(22:50):
unpretentious image full of the same insolent energy that drove
the entire scene. Hard plus fast is both the memory
of an l A past and a reminder that's sometimes
the music happening right before your eyes is the history.
And finally, maybe cap your prep with a viewing of
Mulholland Drive. Succumb to the tripped out l A Noir

(23:11):
frame of mind with this David Lynch classic. The iconic
and pivotal theater scene where Betty listens to a Spanish
acapella version of the Royal Orbison classic Crying was filmed
in Tower Theater in Downtown, originally built in n and
now fully restored as an Apple store for your handheld
theater time marts on. I suppose preserving our stories and

(23:31):
digital ambers so that they can be made into an
AI experienced millions of years from now to formally thank
those aliens for the CD technology and nestled between the
hills and the one oh one and oddly not a
long walk from the hotel cafe sits the Hollywood Bowl.

(23:54):
It is and will likely always be there for you,
but it's also the end of the story for the
biggest artists, the last stop and maybe for this special
double episode. One of the ten best live venues in
the world according to Rolling Stone, BuzzFeed, the travel dot Com,
and every other list out there, there is no higher
live music stage until we play Mars. But it has

(24:17):
no more than thirty to forty shows a year, and
maybe you can time your calendar. Undoubtedly it will be magical,
and if there's no show, it is usually dependable for
a tour during the day. But if we've learned anything
in our exploration, the gold of l A may not
be sparkling under its brightest lights, but in the corners

(24:37):
where the sound of the town is humming. Seven nights
a week. On June two thousand and nine, Adele played
the nearly hundred year old Amphitheater, a supersonic trajectory from
an intimate room fifteen months prior to one of America's
most iconic live venues. But if you're an Adell fan,

(24:57):
which show gives you more bragging rights? See awards, sales, streams, followers,
best of lists. They have nothing to do with music,
with feeling. They are constructs of a business around music
measurements as justification for the existence of a business in art.
And that is not to say that those working in

(25:18):
such constructs don't love and help create art, music and connection.
It's just that music would happen with or without it,
not in the same ways, and maybe not with the
same legends we tell ourselves, but it would exist and thrive,
and it would still be a necessity of life. Some

(25:38):
people will look for the heart of this city's music
within the orchestras at the Hollywood Bowl, where the Philharmonic
preens and the rich snack on supper and picnic boxes
near the stage, But it is much more likely to
turn up beating blood red and sky blue on l
A's darker streets, in the Mert Park and in Compton,
where young emerging legends cut their teeth on swap meat

(25:58):
tails and m C memor Rebelia in Ramona Park, where
young Iconvinced Staples spends sad wise yarns with a dead
pants so good you almost don't hear the pain, almost,
or in kibbits. On a Tuesday night, when you think
you can't possibly afford the tickets in this city, you
can go see legends for the price of a beer.
Ask for the story of this city's music, and any

(26:20):
Angelina worth their salt will laugh in your face, spit
the question back, doubt your integrity and asking it's not
this city's music, it's this music city. All the tinsel
town exects s where Hollywood has a choke hold on
the town's bottom line, and when it comes to money,
sure they might be right, but real heads no. As
the hip hop elders say, the lifeblood of this place

(26:44):
is a song, a dream, and a song stacked up
in layers, over and over until the foundation of this
place was built sturdy and with enough metal to withstand
the test of time. If you want to love l
a baby, get ready to get your heartbroken, then go
spin that straw into gold, turn it into your own
Swan song, and watch the angels of this city unfurl

(27:05):
their wings to reveal the path before you. Loving l
a learning the city's music. It's about love, pain and
the whole damn thing. Are you still in? Of course
you are. The pool of the City of Angels is
too damn strong to ignore, even if you've been warned.
My friend Gunner Fox, who dragged me to sixteen forty two,
also dragged me to see a band at the east

(27:27):
Side Silver Lake Lounge. I thought shoegaze dirty all rock
music had no further place to go. But then my
face was melted by the Silver Sun Pickups. Years before
they were all over the radio. When I would see
them on festival stages years later, I got to roll
my eyes at the fawning sea of faces. It was
nothing like that first time at the Silver Lake Lounge,
or in Kibbits on a Tuesday in the nineties when

(27:48):
there is no home for organic and melody obsessed music,
or the Good Life Cafe when mcs were locked out
from not only the machine but the city itself. Music
happens no matter what, and when it does, it off
humiliates the gatekeepers, makes a fool of the construct until
they see gold and move in. So you ditched that
spot for a minute and grab the martini at dressed

(28:08):
in while Marty and alaying seems staying alive for the
five thousandth time. Or you catch the best new indie
band of the month at the Echo, or a friend
calls with last minute tickets to see The Roots and
John Legend on stage together for their l a debut
at the Troubadour. You do this so that when all
is said and done, in the stories of legends of

(28:29):
various sizes have been told, you can say those three
words that truly identify a sonic nomad, a person in
the no a seeker of unmined gold. I was there,

(28:49):
And one more thing, I'm a long way from that
office on the thirteenth floor of Capitol Records who last
month signed the first artificial intelligence artist that makes sense
for the machine. You don't have to have people feigning
interest in an actual person playing guitar in an office.
You find new music by your phone instead of trying
to keep up with the special spots where the new
songs and sounds are taking form with actual humans, humans

(29:12):
that might have to take care of their health or
even one day want to take a break from the grind,
and AI artist is the perfect worker, and they won't
change their name to a symbol and write slave on
their cheek like Prince did. But then, to add to
the fable, Capitol Records dropped the AI Artist less than
two weeks later. The house that NAT built quickly learned
that signing a fake artist with racial stereotypes on their

(29:33):
I G account isn't a good look. The label issued
an apology to the community. The AI artist was dropped
quicker than a real one. AI is here, though slowly infiltrating,
but they will never fully take over, because we will
always find our way to an unreplicable dive bar attached
to a deli, watching a guitarist with a broken string,

(29:54):
a drummer hitting too hard, and a singer perfectly tipsy
as they craft a grooving cacophony that is a saw
off to what haunts us, a reaffirmation of affections, or
just the beat that sets our body unexpectedly moving. Every
piece of gold starts as an unceremonious nugget, raw and real,
the most valuable fine. Okay, that was part two of

(30:26):
l A and we are complete. You've been listening to
Sound of our Town. In case you didn't know, We've
got twelve episodes for you this first season, and this
one makes eight. If you want to chat about the
music scene in your city, hit me up on Instagram
at Will Daily Official or on Twitter at Will Daily.
Sound of Our Town is a production of Double Elvis

(30:46):
and I Heart Radio. Hit us up on I G
at Double Elvis and Twitter at Double Elvis FM if
you want us to cover your town, your venue, or
your basement concert series. The show is executive produced by
Jake Brennan, Brady Sadler, and car Karioli for Double Elvis.
Production assistance by Matt Boden. The show is created, written, hosted,

(31:06):
and scored by me Will Daily. Additional writing on this
episode by Caitlin White and Aaron Williams, and especial thank
you to Morty Coyle for sources see the show notes.
Music for this episode was composed and performed by me.
You can check out my music on Spotify, Apple, band Camp,
and always at Will Daily dot com. Thank you so

(31:27):
much for your support this season. Every share everyone who's
telling their friends about this show following it on all
the podcast platforms that are out there. It is making
a difference and we should be able to keep visiting
other towns. Because of you, I am off to the
next one. By the way, I believe you might be

(31:47):
as well. We got places to go, music to hear.
Thank you for your ears.