So-Cal Music Playlist?
December 30, 2005 4:12 AM   Subscribe

So-Cal Music Playlist? A friend of mine has requested a CD of songs from my music collection... specifically the Southern California sound.

My take on this is like some songs from the second side of the Eagles The Long Run (Teenage Jail, Those Shoes), some Rolling Stones (like Emotional Rescue or Tattoo You) but I'm wondering if I'm barking up the wrong tree here. I typify it as a slickly-produced, cocaine-fuelled sound with the tempo of the songs being slow and not fast. And from the early eighties. Am I right? I have plenty of music so throw as many examples at me as you want.
posted by bdave to Media & Arts (24 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I would've thought something like the beach boys, and as a modern take on them, the thrills (who, um, are like irish or welsh or something)
posted by echo0720 at 5:15 AM on December 30, 2005


The Thrills are Irish, but were formed in CA and most of their music has the SoCal vibe, particularly Santa Cruz and Big Sur.

To be honest though, I think you might be barking up the wrong tree, they don't strike me as particularly SoCal, but I may be wrong. I often make SoCal playlists as I travel between Europe and So-Cal on a semi-regular basis and like to "get in the mood". Stuff like No Doubt, Reel Big Fish, The Thrills, etc.

Another album worth getting is "Bali" by the Wondermints (though the title track sucks), who are yet another modern reincarnation of the Beach Boys. Of course, the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson's "Smile" are good choices. Smash Mouth also typify a SoCal vibe IMHO and they have some great SoCal songs like Pacific Coast Party.
posted by wackybrit at 5:43 AM on December 30, 2005


I think of SoCal music as a much more current proposition.

The Thrills was my first thought, but I've been beaten to it (twice). Blink 182 is particularly SoCal. Rooney is a rockin' band built solidly on a foundation of the Beach Boys. Also try Papas Fritas. Weezer is SoCal to me (even though Rivers grew up in Connecticut) - particulalry something like "say it aint so" or "surf wax america." And Pas/Cal's song "Bronze Beached Boys" (which can be downloaded here).
posted by AgentRocket at 6:01 AM on December 30, 2005


sublime. snoop/dre. beachwood sparks. beach boys.
I think we might have different conceptions of the socal sound.
posted by carsonb at 6:25 AM on December 30, 2005


So-Cal sound? NWA. Or anything else with that Dre/G-funk/whatnot production. Wait, no, that's not it. Not Parliament samples, surf guitar. No, wait, West Coast jazz. Or maybe it's more of that rich-hippie '70s Laurel Canyon sound. Or the LA Guns and early Motley Crue. Or else it's that Fishbone/Red Hot Chili Peppers axis.

Whatever the So-Cal sound is, though, I suspect that the Rolling Stones aren't part of it, for obvious reasons.

It's a good time to recommend Barney Hoskins' book about California pop music, except that I can't remember the title right now and I've got to get to work.
posted by box at 6:30 AM on December 30, 2005


Hoskins' book is called Waiting for the Sun: Strange Days, Weird Scenes, and the Sound of Los Angeles.
posted by carsonb at 6:33 AM on December 30, 2005


Response by poster: I am barking up the wrong tree... the Rolling Stones are obviously not from Southern California however I think box nailed it with "rich-hippie '70s Laurel Canyon sound". That's what she means, but lacked the genreology (is that even a word?) to express it.

So I guess I'm looking for artists in that genre.

Although the idea of giving her an LA Guns and early Motley Crue compilation appeals to the evil in me ;)
posted by bdave at 6:48 AM on December 30, 2005


This is what I think: my Mum's record collection. Probably half of these people have never set foot in California but I don't care.

Fleetwood Mac
Those Buckingham-Nicks albums
Steely Dan
Crosby, Still, Nash, and Young
Jackson Browne
Linda Ronstandt's rock stuff
Emmylou Harris
Rolling Stones "Faraway Eyes"

also the Byrds, especially their ballads: It's All Over Now, Baby Blue; the Ballad of Easy Rider, the Notorious Byrd Brothers album
posted by dydecker at 6:51 AM on December 30, 2005




Gram Parsons too, then.
posted by carsonb at 7:01 AM on December 30, 2005


My first thought at "So-Cal" was slightly more current, like No Doubt or Red Hot Chili Peppers.

But after seeing your [mi], I'd add Boz Scaggs, Steely Dan, Jackson Browne (maybe songs from "Hold Out") to your Eagles. And David & David's "Welcome to the Boomtown," if you have it.

Maybe some Mamas & Papas if you want to go back a bit; the melancholy stuff (i.e. "Twelve Thirty").
posted by SashaPT at 7:31 AM on December 30, 2005


Ah, the rich-hippie Laurel Canyon sound. The heyday for that kind of stuff was probably the early '70s. Check out Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (and, Neil Young possibly excepted, the individual members thereof), and some of Joni Mitchell's output (Ladies of the Canyon, not shockingly, would be a good starting point). Carole King's from Brooklyn, but I'm pretty sure Tapestry made her an honorary member (similarly with James Taylor and Jackson Browne). The Eagles, The Mamas and the Papas, Gram Parsons, The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, etc. have all already been mentioned, right? Ditto Fleetwood Mac, or the Nicks/Buckingham part of Fleetwood Mac at least. That's a start, anyway. Oh, and 'Lay Lady Lay.'
posted by box at 8:43 AM on December 30, 2005


Yacht Rock has the answers to your questions.
posted by saladin at 8:44 AM on December 30, 2005


Is there another song better than Second Hand News by Fleetwood Mac? That shit is golden.
posted by dydecker at 8:51 AM on December 30, 2005


Jefferson Airplane "White Rabbit"
Arlo Guthrie "Coming into Los Angeles," "Alice's Restaurant"
Scott McKenzie "San Francisco"
Joan Baez
Santana
posted by lola at 11:05 AM on December 30, 2005


Phantom Planet, "California"

What? It wasn't always the O.C. theme, you know.
posted by designbot at 11:10 AM on December 30, 2005


The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Jane's Addiction
The Doors
Joni Mitchell's "Blue"
posted by pazazygeek at 11:32 AM on December 30, 2005


p.s. how much time do you have? you could always submit to TMT and see wht the robots come up with.
posted by echo0720 at 11:32 AM on December 30, 2005


that TMT seems rather biased toward indie rock though.
posted by dydecker at 12:25 PM on December 30, 2005


My take:-

Don Henley's Boys of Summer (though I think he is from Texas).
Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
Foo Fighters (maybe too new).
Light my Fire.
L.A Woman.
posted by Chimp at 1:41 PM on December 30, 2005


Bob Seger.
Fleetwood Mac.
Santana.
Malo.
Ozomatli.
posted by lilnemo at 3:22 PM on December 30, 2005


Love, The Doors, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Byrds, Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention, the Butterfield Band, the Beach Boys, Joni Mitchell, Jefferson Airplane, The Greatful Dead, Van Morrison (Moondance and later), Carole King, The Eagles, Jackson Browne
posted by tinamonster at 10:44 PM on December 30, 2005


Response by poster: Yacht Rock for the win ;)

Seriously though, thanks all, you've been a great help.
posted by bdave at 7:15 AM on January 1, 2006


I think The Radar Brothers do Pink Floyd via the 70's SoCal sound awesomely.
But Bad Religion is what came to mind for me.
posted by black8 at 9:20 AM on January 2, 2006


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