L.A. Rocks: eleven acts that shatter the cliche that L.A.'s a one-note town

Interview, Nov, 2002

JL: In a lot of ways, this band is a reaction and a way for us to deal with our frustration with music, because we're such music fans. We wanted to build something that had depth and substance, something that wasn't disposable. BB: You wanted to write music that you had yet to hear and were wanting to hear.

JL: Yeah. It's like the perfect amalgamation of everything we've always wanted to hear and music inspired by albums we grew up with, like Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin or the Who--or even bands like Yes or Rush, or the Cure and U2. Bands that had weight.

BB: That's funny, because I can hear Rush in your music.

JL: Oh, shit. [laughs] We're caught.

Brandon Boyd is the vocalist for Incubus, who are currently on tour.

PETE YORN BY R.E.M.'S PETER BUCK

Power-pop pinup boy Pete Yorn's frank gem musicforthemorningafter (Columbia) was one of the pitch-perfect surprises of 2001, but Yarn is already chasing a new muse, recording his follow-up disc, The Day I Forgot (due in 2003), in Culver City.

PETER BUCK: You're from New Jersey and you grew up listening to a lot of English music, so what took you to Los Angeles?

PETE YORN: Growing up in Jersey, I felt like I'd kind of experienced New York. I had family living in L.A., so it was a natural progression for me to move out West. I first came here for the weather, which is pretty lame.

PB: My grandfather moved there in 1919 because he heard it was warm and there were fruit trees. How do you find working in Los Angeles? I mean, I don't know a single person there who has what I would describe as a real job. People have these amorphous jobs, everyone can hang out all the time. [Yorn laughs] Did you ever notice that? Someone'll be like, "Do you want to meet at 2:00?" "Don't you have a job?" "No."

PY: Yeah, I'll be on tour and people will say about L.A., "It's all fake people. It's pretentious." And I would think, Sure, in any city there are assholes but there'll also be great people. You've got to find the right group of people to surround yourself with. There's one section of Los Angeles that's five square miles and full of the tanned and bronzed cliched California people, but you get out of that area and it becomes just another place. I mean, East L.A. is not that glamorous. We're working in Culver City, but we did drums over in Venice, right on the beach, and I'd walk out there on a break, and I felt like Jim Morrison in '68. In fact, I'd walk out of the studio we're at, and right across the street was a giant picture of Jim Morrison's head filling up a whole side of a building. I was like, "Whoa."

Peter Buck is the guitarist for R.E.M., who are currently at work on their 14th studio album, due out next year.

SNOOP DOGG BY ADAM SANDLER

If there's one motto Snoop Dogg has learned in more than a decade in rap, it is "do unto others." After breaking out of Dr. Dre's album The Chronic to personify the gangsta rap sound of the early '90s, the hit-and-headline-maker is now mirroring his old mentor's supporting role, with Welcome to Tha House, Vol. 1. The disc, the first from his label, Doggystyle Records, is an opening act for Snoop's Doggystyle All-Stars--headed by rappers E-White and Mr. Kane, producerrapper Soopafly and songstress LaToiya Williams--who will all release their own CDs in the coming year. Snoop's own album, Paid tha Cost to be da Boss (Priority/Capitol), hits this month.