WORLD OF TWIST - QUALITY STREET (1991) World of Twist are one of the greatest one album wonders, on par with The La’s and The Sex Pistols — if unfortunately much more obscure than either. Although they’ve been broken up for more than twenty years, their cult still remains small although it seems inevitable that … Continue reading One album wonders: World of Twist’s Quality Street
Author: Eric Brightwell
Eric Brightwell is an essayist, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener. He lives in Los Angeles, not because he was born here, but because he chose to... for all of the things for which its famous: its verticality, its mass transit, its diversity, its schools, its liminal spaces, its architecture, its wildlife, its museums, its night markets, its cinemas, its theaters, its enclaves, its restaurants, its bars, its libraries, &c
One album wonders: Shop Assistants’ Shop Assistants
In this week's installment of One Album Wonders, we look at the Scottish band, Shop Assistants. On the eve of the Scottish independence referendum they were officially named on of the Top 50 Scottish bands of all time (see Top 50 Scottish bands of all time). The band formed in Edinburgh in 1984, originally as Buba & The Shop … Continue reading One album wonders: Shop Assistants’ Shop Assistants
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Urban Rambles — Exploring the area along Hoover and Virgil with Marvin
Los Angeles is often characterized as a city in which one simply cannot exist without a car. And yet, as the millions of Angelenos who bicycle, take public transit, or walk will tell you, driving a car is no way to get to know the city. Since Los Angeles County is even larger than the … Continue reading Urban Rambles — Exploring the area along Hoover and Virgil with Marvin
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One Album Wonders: The Open Mind’s The Open Mind
THE OPEN MIND - THE OPEN MIND (1969) Around 1963, Putney-based musicians Mike "Mike Bran" Brancaccio (guitar), Phil Fox (drums), Timothy du Feu (vocals), and Ray Nye (bass) formed The Apaches, who recorded a demo with Joe Meek. Nye left the band and du Feu moved to bass after they acquired a new singer, Terry Martin (real name Terry Schindler) and … Continue reading One Album Wonders: The Open Mind’s The Open Mind
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One album wonders: John’s Children’s Orgasm
[A version of this article originally appeared at the Amoeblog] JOHN'S CHILDREN - ORGASM (recorded 1967, released 1971) Today the band John's Children, when remembered at all, are best remembered for two things: one, for having briefly included within their ranks a pre-T. Rex Marc Bolan and two, for their calculatedly outrageousness and provocative live performances. Both overshadow the fact … Continue reading One album wonders: John’s Children’s Orgasm
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One album wonders: Diane Hildebrand’s Early Morning Blues and Greens
DIANE HILDEBRAND - EARLY MORNING BLUES AND GREENS (1967) It's surprisingly hard to find much information online about singer-songwriter Diane Hildebrand, who was a professional songwriter who penned numbers for none other than The Monkees and released a single, wonderful solo album in the 1960s. Hildebrand was apparently about eighteen when one of her compositions, "I'm On My … Continue reading One album wonders: Diane Hildebrand’s Early Morning Blues and Greens
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California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Westlake, Garden Spot of the Old Westside
INTRODUCTION TO WESTLAKE Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography's oil paint map of Westlake -- currently misplaced so no art prints or merchandise available Los Angeles's Westlake neighborhood is home to more people than the entire populations of well-known California cities like Berkeley, Inglewood, Burbank, Compton, Santa Monica, and Santa Barbara. In fact, the neighborhood and Pico-Union … Continue reading California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Westlake, Garden Spot of the Old Westside
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Swinging Doors — The Cat & Fiddle
Pour one out for the Cat & Fiddle -- another pub lost in the Southland... Somewhere I don't want to be If in the bar of your dreams every centimeter of wall (and ceiling) space is covered with banks of televisions flashing seizure-inducing commercials unblinkingly stared at by backwards-capped man-children guzzling plastic pitchers of thin macrobrew … Continue reading Swinging Doors — The Cat & Fiddle
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Happy Discovery Day — Real Geographic Discoveries of the Modern Age
I will not make the argument that Columbus's arrival in the New World was insignificant merely because he was an absolutely awful person or because he didn't actually discover anything (which he himself maintained, claiming until his death that he'd merely found a different route to Asia). But think about this before you dismiss -- … Continue reading Happy Discovery Day — Real Geographic Discoveries of the Modern Age
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Pop-Up Broadway: Exploring L.A.’s Original Great Street
Mayor Garcetti's first executive direction was the launch of the Great Streets program. The first batch of said streets are located throughout almost every region of the city, but especially within the San Fernando Valley, where four of the fifteen streets are located. None of the streets in question are located in Downtown Los Angeles, … Continue reading Pop-Up Broadway: Exploring L.A.’s Original Great Street
Eric Brightwell 