Murder, Music, and Mystery in LA: Philip Cohen Reads from His Novel ‘Conflict in the City’

In this episode, Philip Cohen joins the Rock is Lit Season 4 Reading Series to share a few chapters of his novel ‘Conflict in the City’. Mixing and blending the genres of detective noir and music, ‘Conflict in the City’ takes place in greater Los Angeles, home to both classic and modern fictional LA detectives like Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe and Michael Connolly’s Harry Bosch, and music legends like the Doors, Van Halen, and The Mamas and The Papas. It’s in this world that we find Johnny “Whoops” Watson and Billy Bates, young guitarists/singers and their band, Conflict, playing clubs in modern LA, where the days of rock’s zenith and ascendance in the 1960s and 1970s has faded, but the hopes and dreams of aspiring musicians haven’t. Conflict is struggling and chaos ensues when someone linked closely to the band is killed. Billy and Johnny become swept up in the mystery, ill-prepared as they are to confront it. Philip M. Cohen was born in New York City and moved to Los Angeles as a young man. A musician since his pre-teens, he began writing songs and playing with bands in his teens and had a near-encounter with fame with his band The Heaters. He then became a music attorney to pay the bills, but continued to write, perform, and record music. Presently, Phil still consults on legal and business matters but spends most of his time writing and playing music, composing, recording, and performing with his two bands, Dogs and Bones and The Silver Heaters, consisting of former members of The Heaters. ‘Conflict in the City’ is his first published novel and ‘Conflict in the Club’, the second. They are both part of an on-going series dubbed “The Conflict Stories.”   MUSIC IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE: Rock is Lit theme music [Guitar Instrumental Beat] Sad Rock [Free Use Music] Punch Deck—“I Can’t Stop” The Doors “Light My Fire” The Mamas and The Papas “California Dreamin’ ” The Doors “Riders On the Storm” [Guitar Instrumental Beat] Sad Rock [Free Use Music] Punch Deck—“I Can’t Stop” Rock is Lit theme music   LINKS: Leave a rating and comment for Rock is Lit on Goodpods: https://goodpods.com/podcasts/rock-is-lit-212451 Leave a rating and comment for Rock is Lit on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rock-is-lit/id1642987350 Philip Cohen on Facebook: @PhilCohen Christy Alexander Hallberg’s website: https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislit Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube: @ChristyHallberg Rock is Lit on Instagram: @rockislitpodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices