Kate DurocherL.A. Weekly's People Issue 2017 is on stands now, profiling some of the brightest minds and fascinating folks of our amazing city. Music is a big reason as to why L.A. is the iconic city it is today. Within our city limits live some of the most influential, inspirational and imaginative artists, along with the people who helped them rise to fame. Join us as we celebrate these 12 musical movers and shakers.
Dublab's Experimental Internet Radio Is Making the Leap to the FM Dial
To truly tune into the city's vast soundscape, you would need 24-hour programming from a diverse set of DJs, a station unconcerned with Nielsen ratings or fidelity to major record labels. Since 1999, nonprofit internet radio station Dublab has been that place.
Read the full L.A. Weekly article here.
Full Metal Jackie; Credit: Danny Liao
Full Metal Jackie Is on a Mission to Keep Heavy Metal on the Airwaves
As Full Metal Jackie, Jackie Kajzer now rules the airwaves of the night. Her nationally syndicated radio show plays purely heavy metal across 70 stations.
Read the full L.A. Weekly article here.
Gnarly Charly; Credit: Danny Liao
Gnarly Charly Is Just Your Average Anarcho-Punk Chicano Bike Activist
Activist-anarchist-cyclist-rocker-gymnast Gnarly Charly seems to have arrived from another dimension, one where the laws of gravity and the rules of society don't apply.
Read the full L.A. Weekly article here.
Karen Civil; Credit: Danny Liao
Social Media Guru Karen Civil Helps Hip-Hop's Biggest Names Get Bigger
30-year-old social media maven Karen Civil might look like an Instagram princess, but her ascent was no fairy tale.
Read the full L.A. Weekly article here.
Armendariz calls Kera & the Lesbians' music “bipolar folk.”; Credit: Danny Liao
Kera Armendariz Named Her Band the Lesbians As an Inside Joke – Now It's a Political Statement
The stage inside the Masonic Lodge at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery is narrow, barely wide enough to contain the bundle of energy that is Kera Armendariz.
Read the full L.A. Weekly article here.
Jim Smith, founder of the Smell; Credit: Danny Liao
Jim Smith Created L.A.'s Ultimate DIY Venue, the Smell. Now He's Fighting to Save It
There are about 15 people milling around the Smell on a warm early March night, evenly divided between shaggy teens and noise-scene longhairs, all waiting for a two-piece of drums and sax to take the stage. Then there's Jim Smith, standing outside in his buttoned-up Oxford shirt, brown hair trimmed close, leaning against the venue's battered outside wall.
Read the full L.A. Weekly article here.
Credit: Danny Liao
DJ Dahi Was a College Dorm Adviser When His First Kendrick Beat Blew Up
DJ Dahi was then still working as a resident adviser in the Marymount California University dorms in San Pedro — busting kids for smoking weed, often while they were listening to his beat for Kendrick's “Money Trees.”
Read the full L.A. Weekly article here.
Melissa Reese; Credit: Photo by Danny Liao; clothing provided by Nasty Gal; hair by Rachel Lee; makeup by Brenda Lopez
Guns N' Roses' First Female Member Has Become a Rock Icon
“The guys call me Blue,” Melissa Reese says. The blue-haired, classically trained composer is kicking back in holographic sneakers at her home in Larchmont, on break from touring with the guys: Guns N' Roses.
Read the full L.A. Weekly article here.
The Space Yacht crew in a rare serious moment; Credit: Danny Liao
Thanks to Space Yacht, Tuesday Is the New Saturday in Hollywood Clubland
A deep, throbbing sub-bass rattles the floor under a welcoming circle of dancers at Hollywood's Sound Nightclub. For most people, it's a crazy weeknight. For Space Yacht co-founders Henry Lu, Rami Perlman and Ollie Zhang, it's just another Tuesday.
Read the full L.A. Weekly article here.
Daniel Dismal; Credit: Danny Liao
L.A.'s Leading Booker of Underground Metal Still Works the Door and Runs the Sound
One recent Sunday night, Daniel Dismal collected $10 cover charges from behind a folding table at Boyle Heights' gritty BLVD bar for a four-band heavy metal show that had been moved from Complex in Glendale just hours earlier, due to flooding.
Read the full L.A. Weekly article here.
Tom Morello; Credit: Danny Liao
Tom Morello Is Raging Against More Than Just Trump
Tom Morello is an optimist. You might think the former Rage Against the Machine guitarist, famous for his left-wing views, would be sitting on this couch in his home studio slump-shouldered in defeat, contemplating four bleak years of what he calls the “Trump-Pence regime.” Instead, he's leaning forward, animated, punctuating his rhetoric with an infectious laugh.
Read the full L.A. Weekly article here.
Phil Pirrone; Credit: Danny Liao
Desert Daze Founder Phil Pirrone Builds Communities for L.A.'s Psych-Rock Scene
Phil Pirrone is a family guy. He is the father of Desert Daze music festival, the father of the Moon Block parties, the father of independent booker Space Agency and the father of the 1-year-old daughter often seen attached to his hip.
Read the full L.A. Weekly article here.
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