L.A. Record

Last updated

L.A. Record
CategoriesMusic
FrequencyQuarterly
Publisher YBX Media Inc
Total circulation
(2010)
40,000
FounderSean Carlson, Dan Monick, Charlie Rose, Chris Ziegler
Founded2005
First issueAugust 2005
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Website www.larecord.com

L.A. Record is an independent music magazine originally published weekly as a broadsheet poster. The poster usually depicts a local Los Angeles musicians and according to the magazine editors is meant to recreate an iconic album cover. In March 2008, it began publishing as a monthly magazine with a poster inside. The magazine is available to the public free of charge at local community spots in Southern California.

Contents

History

The magazine was founded in 2005 by publisher Charlie Rose (not the TV personality), DJ and writer Chris Ziegler, Fuck Yeah Fest promoter Sean Carlson (involved from 2005 to 2007) and photographer Dan Monick. Their first issue featuring the Rolling Blackouts was set up as a parody of the New York Dolls' self-titled album cover. The cover and concept was chosen because the Rolling Blackouts were playing with the New York Dolls at the 2005 Sunset Junction Street Fair. The tradition of recreating album covers was developed by other bands who also wanted to recreate their favorite record cover. While there is no official rule, it has appeared in every issue. Now the publication is known for interviewing many local LA bands before they become popular in the mainstream [1] including the Cold War Kids, Spindrift, Health, Flying Lotus, Moonrats, and Blank Blue. In January 2009, the Los Angeles Times recommended the L.A. Record as a resource to readers who would like to "separate the wheat from the chaff in the world of striving L.A. musicians" and lauded it for its "photography, promiscuous taste from avant-noise to vintage soul, eager but not worshipful writing and rad pull-out posters of RZA." [2]

It concluded its first volume, a 29-issue run which began in August 2005 with the Rolling Blackouts, in March 2006 with Melvins collaborator and solo artist David Scott Stone. The second volume of 46 issues, also a weekly broadsheet, began in February 2007 with Big Business and concluded in December 2007 with AntiMC, leaving 75 total poster issues.

For the third volume, which began in March 2008 with Pocahaunted on the cover and BARR on the poster, L.A. Record began publishing monthly as a sixteen-page newsprint magazine with a poster as the centerfold. The website was also redesigned to make room for more content in February 2008.

Other visual contributors include photographer Chrissy Piper who shot several covers for Volume 1 and Erik Brunetti (owner and founder of FUCT), Ashkahn who did design work on several covers.

In August 2008 the magazine printed what may have been Isaac Hayes' last known interview. [3]

Magazine

The magazine has come in three types of format. It was first a broadsheet format containing an interview with a musician from Los Angeles, also featured on the cover. There is also an interview with a visiting band on tour, and other reviews or previews of local music, art, film, comedy and entertainment events.

The next format type was a monthly magazine which includes several interviews with local and touring bands as well as album reviews, original artwork, illustrated comic reviews of shows and records and expanded interviews. Also each issue includes a 22 × 32 inch poster featuring a local Los Angeles artist recreating an album cover of their choice. In May 2010, editorial staff announced that the magazine will be turning into a quarterly, which will feature local bands in addition to touring artists.

The first quarterly came out on July 31, 2010, and featured Flying Lotus on the cover. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti was pictured in a center gatefold.

The magazine is also known to release vinyl 45 singles. The first one by L.A. Record writer and musician Devon Williams was released in summer 2007 to high acclaim. [4] As a small but growing magazine it is becoming accepted and read among other industry magazines [5]

Website

The website features live reviews and album reviews that are updated multiple times a week. While some of these reviews are reprints of items published in the newspaper, many of them are unique to the website. The site also hosts videos and mp3s of local artists.

Related Research Articles

<i>Rolling Stone</i> American monthly magazine

Rolling Stone is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its coverage of rock music and political reporting by Hunter S. Thompson. In the 1990s, the magazine broadened and shifted its focus to a younger readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors, and popular music. It has since returned to its traditional mix of content, including music, entertainment, and politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Love (band)</span> American rock group

Love is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965. Led by frontman and primary songwriter Arthur Lee, they were one of the first racially diverse American rock bands. Their sound incorporated an eclectic range of styles including garage, folk-rock, and psychedelia. While finding only modest success on the music charts, peaking in 1966 with their US Top 40 hit "7 and 7 Is", Love would come to be praised by critics as their third album, Forever Changes (1967), became generally regarded as one of the best albums of the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steely Dan</span> American rock band

Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Initially the band had a stable lineup, but in 1974 Becker and Fagen retired from live performances to become a studio-only band, opting to record with a revolving cast of session musicians. Rolling Stone has called them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the seventies".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jobriath</span> American singer (1946–1983)

Bruce Wayne Campbell, known by his stage name Jobriath, was an American rock musician and actor. He was the first openly gay rock musician to be signed to a major record label and one of the first internationally famous musicians to die of AIDS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neal Morse</span> American rock musician

Neal Morse is an American singer, musician and composer based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1992, he formed the progressive rock band Spock's Beard with his brother Alan and released an album which was moderately successful. In 1999, he joined Dream Theater's co-founder and then drummer Mike Portnoy, together with Flower Kings' Roine Stolt and Marillion's Pete Trewavas they formed the super-group Transatlantic. In 2002, Neal Morse became a born again Christian, left Spock's Beard and began a Christian rock solo career, releasing many progressive rock concept albums about his new religious faith. In the meantime, he continued to play with Transatlantic and formed three new bands with Portnoy, Yellow Matter Custard, Flying Colors and The Neal Morse Band.

<i>Alternative Press</i> (magazine) American music magazine

Alternative Press is an American entertainment magazine primarily focused on music and culture, now based in Los Angeles, CA. It generally provides readers with band interviews, photos, and relevant news. It was founded in 1985 by Mike Shea in Cleveland, OH. The company is now managed by MDDN.

<i>Blackout</i> (Scorpions album) 1982 studio album by Scorpions

Blackout is the eighth studio album by the German rock band Scorpions. It was released in 1982 by Harvest and Mercury Records.

<i>Monolith</i> (Kansas album) 1979 studio album by Kansas

Monolith is the sixth studio album by American progressive rock band Kansas, released in 1979. The album reached No. 10 on the Billboard album charts, marking their third straight studio album to reach the top ten.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Album cover</span> Photo on the front cover of an album

An album cover is the front packaging art of a commercially released studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to either the printed paperboard covers typically used to package sets of 10 in (25 cm) and 12 in (30 cm) 78-rpm records, single and sets of 12 in (30 cm) LPs, sets of 45 rpm records, or the front-facing panel of a cassette J-card or CD package, and, increasingly, the primary image accompanying a digital download of the album, or of its individual tracks.

<i>Flipside</i> (fanzine) Fanzine based in Pasadena

Flipside, known as Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine, was a punk zine published in Whittier and Pasadena, California, from 1977 to 2002. The magazine was associated with its own record label, Flipside Records, releasing vinyl records and compact discs beginning in 1978.

Killradio is an American punk rock band formed in 2001 in Northridge, Los Angeles, California, United States. They used a mix of music styles, including hardcore, post-punk, ska, funk, and hip-hop. The band officially disbanded in 2009, while the members have remained active in the Los Angeles music scene. In early 2017, Killradio announced that they were reforming with their classic lineup.

Hit Parader was an American music magazine that operated between 1942 and 2008. A monthly publication, it focused on rock and pop music in general until the 1970s, when its focus began turning to hard rock and heavy metal. By the early 1980s, Hit Parader focused exclusively on heavy metal and briefly produced a spinoff television program entitled Hit Parader's Heavy Metal Heroes. The magazine reached its circulation peak in the mid-to-late 1980s selling a half-million copies every month as heavy metal music achieved high levels of popularity and commercial success.

<i>Terrorizer</i> (magazine) Extreme music magazine

Terrorizer was an extreme music magazine published by Dark Arts Ltd. in the United Kingdom. It was released every four weeks with thirteen issues a year and featured a "Fear Candy" covermount CD, a twice yearly "Fear Candy Unsigned" CD, and a double-sided poster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lonn Friend</span> American journalist and author (born 1956)

Lonn Friend is an American journalist and author. Friend is best known for his work in the late 1980s and '90s as editor of RIP Magazine. Friend began his career in 1982, as associate editor of Hustler Magazine, the flagship journal of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP). After rising to senior editor at Hustler, he transitioned to Executive Editor of Chic Magazine, and then to RIP in the Spring of 1987. RIP was the first non-pornographic publication produced by LFP. Friend documented his experiences with the heroes of heavy metal in his 2006 memoir, Life on Planet Rock, and released his follow-up, Sweet Demotion, in 2011. He is currently the host of Energize: The Lonn Friend Podcast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harper Simon</span> American singer-songwriter

Harper James Simon is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He is the son of Paul Simon and Peggy Harper. Simon has appeared on several studio albums, and has been featured in films and television shows, including HBO's Girls. In 2010, Simon released his self-titled solo album, followed by his second album Division Street released in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Bingham</span> American musician

George Ryan Bingham is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose music spans multiple genres. He is currently based in Los Angeles. As of 2019, Bingham has released six studio albums and one live album, the last four of which were released under his own label, Axster Bingham Records.

The Krakow Post is an English-language newspaper based in Kraków, Poland. Owned by Lifeboat Limited since 2008, the monthly newspaper covers local and national news, politics, culture, business, sports, and human interest stories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicole Morier</span> American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1982)

Nicole "Coco" Morier is an American singer-songwriter and producer. She began her career in 2002 as one half of the electronic rock duo Electrocute before becoming a songwriter for artists including Britney Spears, Tom Jones, Selena Gomez, Ellie Goulding, Demi Lovato, and Icona Pop. Her best-known compositions include "Heaven on Earth" and "How I Roll", recorded by Britney Spears, the latter of which was named the #1 song of 2011 by Rolling Stone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger</span> American band

The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger is an American band formed in 2008 by Sean Ono Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl. The couple have stated that they started the band as a way to spend more time together, and while they released a number of recordings and went on tours as a duo, they consider Midnight Sun, released in April 2014, their first real record. Their tour to support the release of the album in May and June 2014 included opening for Beck as he started the East Coast leg of his tour that year.

<i>TeenSet</i> Music magazine for teens

TeenSet was an American music and fan magazine published by Capitol Records. Beginning in 1964 as a free album insert for fans of the Beach Boys, the magazine was sold separately in 1965 and it grew in popularity. It was introduced as a vehicle to promote the Beach Boys and other Capitol artists, but in the hands of editor Judith Sims, the magazine broke new ground, rising above its fan club origin. Quickly establishing itself as the gateway to the inner circle of the Beatles at the height of Beatlemania, TeenSet parlayed this trust to introduce their readers to new artists, in the process greatly increasing the visibility of Buffalo Springfield, the Doors, Janis Joplin and the Mothers of Invention. The magazine benefited from articles by music critic Sue Cameron, London correspondent Carol Gold, psychedelic maverick Robert Shea, and photographs from Jim Marshall and Michael Ochs. It began as an early teen girls' magazine but by 1968 was shifting to focus on late teen girls and young women in their early twenties.

References

  1. "Paper". Papermag.com. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  2. "Your field guide to local hipster music aggregators in a post-Indie 103.1 world". Latimesblogs.latimes.com. January 16, 2009.
  3. Roderick, Kevin (August 11, 2008). "Last interview with Isaac Hayes". LA Observed.
  4. Pitchforks Best of 2007 Guest List, Randy Randall from No Age called it classic pop Archived May 1, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Print Fetish - PF Interview: Jay Babcock, Editor of Arthur Magazine". Printfetish.com.