There's No Morale To The Story, It's Just A Bunch Of Stuff That Happened...

Four years isn't really a long time, but much has changed in local music. Not long after I first moved here, the bands that comprised the loosely-affiliated Ship Collective -- a number of LA acts who recorded or practiced at or near Eagle Rock's The Ship Studios -- were still playing around here regularly.

You might go out to Spaceland and see The Silversun Pickups open up for Earlimart on a Tuesday night. Alex Church from Sea Wolf was still playing with Irving, though from time to time on with his own act at smaller shows at El Cid and the like. I even remember a night at The Silver Lake Lounge where Great Northern performed for about a dozen people, while a drunken regular kept wandering up to the stage and tapping out the beat on Rachel Stolte's keyboard, before the bartender would kindly escort him back to the bar.

Meanwhile, a group of six or seven acts across town had formed a collective they called Central Second, based off of the location of the small venue (The Cocaine at Live Jazz) they put on shows at near the intersection of Central and Second avenues. They were made up of Death To Anders, The Transmissions, One Trick Pony, The Happy Hollows, and more. (The Henry Clay People joined them later on.)

Both collectives kind of defied what people generally think of Los Angeles... Instead of the "I got mine, fuck you, every crumb for himself" attitude that folks connect with LA, they supported each other. If one group got a show, they'd invite others to play. If someone got interviewed, they'd mention the others.

These days, most of the acts are headlining shows, either in town or across the country, so you're lucky to see them on a bill together. Some of them rarely play around here anymore at all, unless it's a stealth solo performance at a friend's residency.

But they managed to lay a really great groundwork so that new groups keep coming in and find it just a little bit easier. And the music scene here has kept replenishing itself because not only do we keep getting good acts, but good people as well.

As a guy who moved here basically on accident around that time, I'm glad to have seen and heard some small part of it. I kind of wish someone had chronicled it all because, while it's not hardly over, it was kind of amazing to witness...

RELATED LINKS:
- Mini-Interview: Earlimart
- Mini-Interview: The Silversun Pickups
- Interview: The Central Second Collective Pt 1
- Interview: The Central Second Collective Pt 2