Los Angeles is for music lovers.
We could have chosen enough characters just from L.A.'s music scene to fill the entire PEOPLE Issue, but there are too many fascinating folks in L.A. for us to hog all the space.
Here's who made our list his year:
J*DaVeY (Brook D'Leau and Miss Jack Davey): The New Wave Funksters
By Rebecca Haithcoat
When producer Brook D'Leau was a kid, he had a red Tyco Hot Keyz keytar. So as the lights in West Hollywood's Key Club rise on his striking frontwoman, Miss Jack Davey, plucking out a cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on a red electric guitar, it feels like a fulfilled prophecy. … More
Luis Arriaga: The Fiery Limerent
By Chris Ziegler
This is some kind of Sunday for Luis Arriaga. Wake up and go shoot .357s in Burbank, even though he's been scared of guns since losing his best friend to a drive-by. Then to a strip club as soon as it opens, watching hung-over dancers stomp across the parking lot. … More
Timur Bekbosunov: The Reform Tenor
By Erica Zora Wrightson
Ask Kazakhstan-born tenor (and occasional vaudevillian) Timur Bekbosunov about Achim Freyer's controversial staging of Wagner's Ring Cycle last year, and he will tell you it was completely misconstrued by Los Angeles. … More
Chicano Batman: Los Superheroes
By Kristina Benson
Chicano Batman is not just another band from L.A. The tropicalismo-influenced ensemble is composed of three guys, an ironing board (which may be the perfect keyboard stand) and a fictional cartoon character … More
Exile: How West Coast Can You Get?
By Rebecca Haithcoat
Aleksander “Exile” Manfredi used to press his ear against the crosswalk signal poles to feel the rhythm. He figured out how to make beats when he was 15, and he and singer Aloe Blacc (whose “I Need a Dollar” you may recognize from HBO's How to Make It in America) formed a rap group. But Exile … More
Igloo Tornado: Fan Friction
By Siran Babayan
Tom Neely, Gin Stevens, Scot Nobles and Levon Jihanian have balls as big as the muscles on the two singers they've become infamous for satirizing. Last spring, the foursome, an artist collective known as Igloo Tornado, created a stir … More
Mari Iijima: Anime Idol
By Liz Ohanesian
Mari Iijima, an L.A. resident for more than 20 years, has released 21 pop albums, in both Japanese and English. She's worked with famed musicians Ryûichi Sakamoto and Van Dyke Parks. Yet in her native Japan, … More
Julie Ingram: Rockin' the Cradle
By Ali Trachta
In Julie Ingram's music class, freaky little miracles happen. Watch closely. You might spot a diapered kid drumming sticks on the floor in perfect rhythm with Ingram's guitar strumming, or hear a little girl who can't form sentences singing in tune. … More
Victor Lissabet and David Jurs: Everybody Sing Now!
By Heidi Dvorak
When you think of a choir composed of students with disabilities, do you have an “Aw, shucks” Hallmark movie moment of weepy, can-do inspiration? Well, music therapists Victor Lissabet and David Jurs will have none of those pity parties … More
Mark Thompson and Pete Majors: Vinyl Curators
By Travis Keller
The first time I met Mark Thompson, he allowed me to sleep on his floor but warned me not to touch anything. His home was littered with exactly 666 handcrafted, silk-screened Sunn O))) CDs (the infamous “GrimmRobe demos”), made from what appeared to be cut-up garbage bags. … More
Tokimonsta: The Queen Beat
By Rebecca Haithcoat
For a few months, a Hollywood-style hype has surrounded Low End Theory, the weekly hump-day gathering of the local beat elite (the thing you bob your head to, not Kerouac's generation) at L.A.'s Airliner Club. Out-of-towners are in awe of some of the recent lineups … More
Sarah Toon: The Dark Minimalist
By Liz Ohanesian
When Sarah Toon moved to L.A. in 1994, she knew only one person and “had no concept of what the city was about. My only draw to the city was that I was obsessed with the movie Repo Man when I was a kid. I thought it would be like that,” she says. … More
Yoshiki: The Kei Master
By Liz Ohanesian
Not too many people in L.A., no matter how famous they are, can say there is a Hello Kitty doll patterned after their likeness.
Yoshiki can.
Yoshikitty, as the plush character is called, was a bit of an accident. … More
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