Parental Discretion Iz Advised

As I was rolling down the PCH on my way to the beach the other day I was bumping KDAY with the windows down and I found myself in an ironically nostalgic state, reminiscing about my childhood.  Dre and Snoop were on the mic and the lyrics were screaming about nothing but Compton and the "LBC"...

...For some reason the music was connecting my mind to days of riding my bike on Elm St. or around Lake Pulaski.  I had the realization that the songs and sounds that defined my life from 3rd to 9th grade were now defining my late 20's and early 30's because of their revival on the airwaves out here in LA.  Both of these periods were some of the most formative of my life because of drastic geographical moves.  The first period from 3rd to 9th grade my family moved from New Ulm to Buffalo, which might as well have been across the country... this time period was also defined by my ability to buy and trade for tapes and CD's with a brand new group of friends.  The second period, beginning with my move to LA 3.5 years ago, was another time stamp of increased freedom... money to buy a car and pay for gas to sit in traffic listening to this music while driving around making and maintaining a brand new set of friendships.

Childhood Relived
These are the songs that made me think about writing a list.  This is the LA I thought of when I was 11 years old.  The raw and explicit nature of these songs are probably the reasons I never thought this was a desirable city.  In my mind West Coast rap and hard rock were LA... songs about California at-large were beautiful and beach-y... but LA was different.  LA was hard and raw.  When I'm in that angry mood and am trying to compartmentalize and get rid of frustrations (like on days I have to battle the 405) these are my go-to.  Oh, and for those of you that knew me or my parents when I was younger, I owned every one of these albums before I was in the 6th grade.  I think I turned out okay, but honestly, what the hell were they thinking?!

While I condone nothing in the songs I published here, and by no means do they represent my current taste in music, they are the true soundtrack to very important feelings and memories I've had in important times in my life and therefore I like to listen to them... and honestly, who can hold back from nodding their heads to a dope beat by Dre!?!

2Pac- "To Live and Die in LA"

Ice Cube- "Today is a Good Day"

Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg- "Nothin' But a G Thang"

Moving to California Music
Now... to lighten the mood a bit I'll play some non-violent stuff that also bring memories nowadays in relation to LA.  When my girlfriend in residency moved to LA I had no choice but to visit and for the first time truly experience what the city had to offer.  During that year, with me living in the Northern Wisconsin woods and her being out in LA, these were the songs that played in my mind and on my stereo as I thought of the new and real possibility of someday moving away from the Mid-West.  Clearing that sort of difficult mental hurdle was definitely made easier by these tunes.

Weezer- "Beverly Hills"

Beverly Hills was my first introduction to LA.  It is a city that I loved and simultaneously felt like I could never be a part of since it's definitely "...something you're born into..." therefore this song will always have a spot on any nostalgic playlist of mine.

Led Zeppelin- "Going to California"

The melancholy and longing tone of this song and the appropriate lyrics provided a lot of good hours of daydreaming for me as I solo road-tripped across the country in the summer of 2013 on my move from St. Paul to Los Angeles.

Miley Cyrus- "Party in the USA"

"I hopped of the at LAX..."

That's what I was doing when this song was popular.  One of the first things I did when I got to LA was buy a Mini Cooper, which is aptly named... "Miley"

One of my favorite things about living in Los Angeles, maybe, has been driving the cities and streets that so much of American music is written about.  I have always been obsessed with lyrics and have always paid very close attention to my surroundings when driving.  The number of times I have coincidentally been on the street or been driving by the place that a song on the radio is talking about in unfathomable.  And while I don't necessarily think it's that cool of a thing or a reason to be in a city it certainly does put a smile on my face when it happens... which of course quickly gets wiped away when the idiot in the Maserati cuts me off on Sunset.  To live and die in LA...