You think you know…

This town has long been tagged nothing more than an endless sprawl of insufferable douchebags, swollen egos, traffic, smog and good looking people. Stereotypes are usually backed with a bit of truth. It’s how they came to be. So yeah, we do have those things—a few of them in spades. Life out here can feel like you’re Lost In A Supermarket [dot com] if you don’t know where to look. Cut through all the noise, and you’ll find that LA’s underground culture is as complex as the city is big—it’s a melting pot of styles that is constantly being mutated and tweaked by its inhabitants with youthful fury. LA’s once cloutless culture has gone from a lullaby to a rapid-eye-moving beast.

You can throw a lot of quotation marks around words when describing Hollywood nightlife, but the last time legendary could rightfully be used was probably back when Sebastian Bach, Axl Rose and Don Dokken were roaming Sunset. Then came the rave scene throughout the ’90s. It was nuts, and it cemented So Cal’s place as a dance music capital, with tens of thousands of kids spending weekends in a beautiful blur. Then came the superstar, big room DJs with their trance and progressive sets, which dominated the scene, just as in all other big US cities.

What this town still brings is the raw energy, the openness to new, innovative music and trendsetting appeal. A few years ago when LA first started to catch the neon buzz, in large part thanks to Steve Aoki’s now legendary Cinespace Tuesdays, LA started to get its legs back. The electro, indie rock, disco and techno sounds that were cultivated around the Cahuenga corridor, have now spread out to all parts of town. The minority has become a majority and the energy is palpable. Nights span a variety of genres, aiming to avoid pigeonholes and predictability.

You can call LA a lot of things—most people do. AM says it best, “Take that ‘LA people are so fake’ shit and shove it. LA people rule.” And so does the nightlife scene—underground culture all round is on fire right now. DJs, bands, club nights, producers, remixers, art, bloggers, fashion; LA peeps are making their mark. We tip our hat this issue to the city where dreams are made. This is by no means meant to be the complete soundtrack to getting down in LA; it’s simply a few slices of LA life at its best.

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