Post Present Medium – Chris Writes Things

Dean Spunt on the skins, No Age drummer and PPM Records owner

It’s awesome time in L.A., people. Either get on the Good News train or get left behind. Music, frankly, is great — always has been, but when so much great music exists in one’s own backyard, when the people responsible for tending the flame all seem to gather within the same ten-mile stretch, when there’s no shortage of good ideas or good tunes, well, a person is likely to get real happy and start writing silly things like this.

Far less silly, and actually quite informative, is “Twelve Indie Labels You Should Know, a Primer” (I say “prymer,” please don’t say “primmer”) which is on the L.A. Times blog, Pop & Hiss, right now, as I type. This piece is the culmination of a three-parter. Read the Sunday print feature, “L.A.’s Indie Labels Succeed with a Jack-of-All-Trades Approach,” if you please. And find a supplemental piece (with a choice MP3) over yonder.

Amanda and Britt Brown of Eagle Rock indie label Not Not Fun pose for Los Angeles Times (photo by Jay L. Clendenin)

Well, it has been a long, long time coming, but I’m pleased to share my debut pair of links over to the Los Angeles Times. The main feature, which runs in print in Sunday’s Calendar section, profiles the ways in which independent labels in L.A. are adapting to the changing landscape of the music biz. Read about it here:

L.A.’s string of indie labels succeeds with a jack-of-all-trades approach

With noted input from the Dangerbird, Stones Throw, Alpha Pup and Not Not Fun imprints, plus tons of help from folks at Sargent House, Hydra Head, Southern Lord, Anticon, Manimal Vinyl, and Post Present Medium.

Also, there’s a supplemental blog piece to read, featuring a free download of Aloe Blacc’s stunning “I Need a Dollar” here:

Indies in L.A.: Alpha Pup and Not Not Fun talk the thriving L.A. scene