Best Rock/Pop Bands in LA History (Los Angeles: how much, club)

[CelticViking]

are you from long beach?

[RobE]

Originally Posted by ShellzBellz

Remember RATT
I did not know that LinkinPark was from OC, I thought they where out of Chi Town.
I just took a trip down memory lane, 70's 80' & 90's style..That was fun!

RATT is originally from San Diego, which is why Jake Williams (Jake E. Lee) was playing with them for a while in their very early days since he is also an SD native.

Nonetheless, I have a RATT story:

The first time I saw them was when they opened for Saxon at the Whiskey in the early 1980's (1981? 1982?). They had already settled on the lineup everyone came to know them for, but Stephen Pearcy was fat at the time (still wore a white spandex jumpsuit, though) and had a Gino Vanelli hairdo. The consensus of the fans at the gig was that the band was passably okay in terms of material, but the singer had to go.

They always bored me even after they did their first album. Liked Robin and Warren's live guitarwork and Juan was a respectable bass player, but Pearcy and their songwriting just never measured up for me.

If I'm not mistaken, none of these bands were named, either:

Dream Syndicate
Redd Kross
Bullet Boys
Badlands
Little Caesar
Rough Cutt (they were managed by Ronnie James Dio's now ex-wife Wendy and one of their guitarists, Craig Goldy, a really nice guy and a former guitarist with Greg Giuffria's band, btw, eventually ended up in Dio after Viv Campbell left). They sucked, but still managed to get a couple albums out (Spencer Proffer's label perhaps? I can't remember).
The Cruzados
The Hollywood Stars (their singer and main songwriter, Michael Anthony---no relation---had written some songs with Kiss before that and actually got a little local airplay)
Venus and the Razorblades (more of a Kim Fowley novelty act than anything else)
The Quick (kinda like early Sparks, except you could understand the lyrics)
The Mentors (who owe Tipper Gore for their notoriety outside of L.A.---Il Duce was one of the great characters in L.A. hard rock history even if his band's music sucked)
Savage Grace
The Busboys
The Flesheaters
Sea Hags

[jc76]

Originally Posted by gypsystar

Red Hot Chili Peppers

End of story

[nickdahammer]

Just listened to 'Wild Gift' and 'Under the Big Black Sun ' and I gotta say 'X', hands down.

[barackbff]

I'm going with --

Tom Waits
The Motels
WAR

in that order.

[nickdahammer]

Well, maybe one hand down- yeah, Tom Waits is our very own LA poet. Problem is, there are MANY great LA bands.

[Bruin5]

X is a great choice, "Los Angeles" is another classic album. A friend of mine saw one of their first shows on the Strip. Needless to say, he was an X for the rest of his life after that.

[Island_OnThe_Land]

Originally Posted by Bruin5

X is a great choice, "Los Angeles" is another classic album. A friend of mine saw one of their first shows on the Strip. Needless to say, he was an X for the rest of his life after that.

Yep, pretty tough to beat X when talking about home grown bands.

Always hard for LA to get respect from the east coast (we are apparently too "shallow" to garner their respect). Yet, when X hit the scene in 1980, even New York's Village Voice had to take notice and admit the depth and pure artistry of X.

The title track from "Los Angeles" (1980) is a gut wrenching chronicle of LA circa 1980. Many of their songs reference the city with a very stark & poetic realism. "Johnny Hit & Run Paulene" and "Some Other Time" are just two that come immediately to mind.

(Of course, the east coast cognescenti INITIALLY IGNORED the hard core of Black Flag and the Germs as thoughtless testosterone and noise. History has proved how WRONG they were.)

[majoun]

Originally Posted by Island_OnThe_Land

Yep, pretty tough to beat X when talking about home grown bands.

Always hard for LA to get respect from the east coast (we are apparently too "shallow" to garner their respect). Yet, when X hit the scene in 1980, even New York's Village Voice had to take notice and admit the depth and pure artistry of X.

The title track from "Los Angeles" (1980) is a gut wrenching chronicle of LA circa 1980.

The title track of "Los Angeles" actually could very well describe certain people Moderator cut: not necessary right now - as it's about a racist woman who wants to leave L.A. to get away from Mexicans and gays.

[nickdahammer]

Making excuses to the East is degrading and completely unnecessary. There's nothing like having a guy who sounds like one of the Bowery Boys tell me how unsophisticated I am. Laughable. That said, I know plenty expats who are great, but there's always an exception or two.

Excerpt from an LA Times interview with Harry Shearer:

Interviewer: "Le Show" airs just about everywhere except Washington, Boston and New York City.

Shearer: It tells you all you need to know about the Eastern Seaboard and [its] presumed hipness and cosmopolitan nature. New York is the world capital of "It can't be good if it ain't from here."

Complete interview: Harry Shearer - Los Angeles Times