When L.A.’s Recording Studios Ruled the Music Scene

The City's Irreplaceable "Temples of Sound" Were Customized With Hot Tubs, Personal Chefs, and Waterbeds

It was 1962, and the rock and roll record business was on the rise after the multiyear slump that had followed the debuts of artists like Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard. The industry’s savior, in large part, was a manic, diminutive, wig-wearing, Hollywood-based record producer (and future convicted murderer) named Phil Spector.

The mastermind behind such throbbing, multi-instrumental hits as “He’s a Rebel,” “Da Doo Ron Ron,” and “Be My Baby,” Spector was a gesticulating wunderkind on the other side of the control room glass. And the effects of …

Will Los Angeles Tear Down the Walls That Keep It Apart From Latin America?

By Standing up to Trump and Letting People Move Freely, We Could Become a True LA-LA Land

Los Angeles is a great many things, but it is not Latin America.

Such a statement should be as uncontroversial as a map of the Western hemisphere. But today, elite conventional …

Latino? Sí. Latin American? Not So Much.

A Panel of Angelenos Wrestles with the Changing Identity of Los Angeles

Los Angeles has a Spanish-language name, a distinctly Latino ambience, and a mayor who puffs up with pride whenever he talks about his family’s Mexican roots.

Yet it’s also a …

How to Get L.A. to Update Its Community Plans—Finally

The City Lacks Clear Guidelines on Local Land Use at a Time When It Wants to Create More 'Livable' Neighborhoods

Update the community plans now!

That is the good government proposal of choice in Los Angeles, the recommendation that candidates, elected officials, and blue-ribbon commissions make over and over. The theory …

The Crusty, Dusty Places That Angelenos Love

Zócalo and KCRW Asked Los Angeles What Old-School Places They'd Like to Live Forever

Who says Angelenos only like new, shiny things? When Zócalo and KCRW teamed up to ask locals, “What’s the old-school L.A. spot you love most and why?”, we were bombarded …

Just Another Band from L.A.

A Fictional Journey West from Baltimore

“Music is the only religion that delivers the goods …”

-Frank Zappa, born in Baltimore, died in Los Angeles

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Cherry stole the Apicellas’ still-smells-like-new Ford Granada a couple …