But regardless, careful listening of these records betrays a decidedly local bent to some of their tunes, so in my book they count!
1) Foxygen – We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
(are they from here or SF or NYC or bicoastal? It’s hard to say, just as it’s hard to pin down just about anything about this band. But as they sing in the song “San Francisco”, “That’s OK – I was born in LA,” and if their Wikipedia page is to be believe, they formed in Westlake Village, so I give them the nod for Best LA Album of 2013)
2) Cayucas – Bigfoot
(named after a town in southern part of central Cali, and formed in Santa Monica)
3) Cate Le Bon – Mug Museum
(Welsh-born, but a recent transplant to LA, where this album was recorded)
4) Ty Segall – Sleeper
(another recent transplant, he can be seen playing in a number of local projects (see #6 below))
5) Heidecker & Wood – Some Things Never Stay the Same
(Tim Heidecker & Davin Wood from Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! & frequent Largo denizens)
6) Fuzz (feat. Ty Segall) – Fuzz
(see #4 above)
7) Fol Chen – The False Alarm
(the pride of Highland Park, home to fellow music-makers Beck, Jackson Browne & Skrillex)
8) Queens of the Stone Age – …Like Clockwork
(Although frontman Josh Homme now lives in LA proper, this is a shout out to our desert communities )
9) Julia Holter – Loud City Song
(a true native, down to her CalArts roots)
10) White Fence – Cyclops Reap
(aka Tim Presley, who is a regular in the SF scene as well – but having played in Darker My Love (LA), the Strange Boys (Austin) & even the Fall (Manchester, UK), its hard to say for sure exactly where he hangs his hat. Despite a recent (and equally excellent) live album recorded in SF, I claim him as an Angeleno!)
ERIC J. LAWRENCE