California Soul.
sun-drenched sounds for a hollywood novel.
California has always been a source of inspiration for musicians, with enough songs about the state to fill an entire playlist. Each band offers its own take on what California means to them. Joni Mitchell leaned into her homesickness and malaise in Europe, her heart crying out for California. The Go-Go’s, all-girl punk turned power pop, embodied the bubbly cool girl of early ‘80s L.A. with stacked bracelets and candied melodies. Jane’s Addiction’s Ritual de lo Habitual explores the city’s drug culture, the harrows of fame and excess on wide, sun-beaten boulevards. Similar themes, as well as a sense of isolation in the concrete jungle, surface in Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik complete with a nod to California novelist, Charles Bukowski. The hedonism of the ‘80s Sunset Strip scene is amped up to ten on Guns n’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction while Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys capture the sun-kissed psychedelic dreaminess in textured tones. Modern bands like Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Beachwood Sparks and others have kept the flaming burning with their brand of California sounds from psychedelic-country to psychedelic garage, proof that the inspiration has yet to run dry.
But it’s not only for musicians. California also fuels us writers, whether our visions bloom on the page or a screen. The mountains, seas, and sunsets shape a dreamscape while the music history and pop culture legacy deepen the mystique, making it a pleasure to weave into words. In my novel, I couldn’t squeeze in every reference (although the temptation was real), here are a few albums that received honorable mentions in Somewhere in Hollywood, my love letter to the state.
Hole Celebrity Skin
Has-beens, makeovers, reasons to be beautiful. Celebrity Skin exposes the dark underbelly of Hollywood, where grit and glamor rub elbows, where models and actresses moonlight as hookers and waitresses. Hole’s much-anticipated third studio album unveiled a glossed-up sound, smoothing the edges of their punk rock roots into the golden waves of the California vibe. Some diehard fans viewed it as miss, but I welcomed what felt like an obvious evolution for Courtney, fresh off her rise not just as a Hollywood actress, but as a full blown A-Lister. Here, the band goes full pop music with the use of digital loops, handclaps, arena-rock power chords, lyrics that shine, oh, and Billy Corgan. It came out the week I got my driver’s license and was the first cassette popped into the deck of my used Honda Accord. With gas being 99 cents a gallon, I pulled out of my mom’s driveway and drove west. Crossing the Williamsburg Bridge as the sun set over the East River, I pictured the sparkling ocean Courtney was singing about in “Malibu.” This album sparked my interest in leaving the east coast where I wouldn’t doodle boys names in my notebook in class, but the major cities out west while wondering if I could ever live in one….
Highlights: “Reasons to Be Beautiful”, “Awful”, “Malibu”, and “Heaven Tonight”.
Elliott Smith Figure 8
Fast-forward five years from Senior Year, and I did live in one. L.A. And up the street from where this Elliott Smith Figure 8 cover was shot. In front of Solutions!, an audio equipment store in Silver Lake, I’d drive by every day, a quiet reminder that I didn’t just live in a city that worshipped reality stars. This was a place with real indie roots, the kind you’d find at the Sunset Junction, not the Sunset Strip. These days Silver Lake is a facelifted version of itself where my favorite vintage store, where I bought my wedding dress, is now an obnoxious Parisian Kitsuné boutique. The army surplus store on Hyperion, where I’d buy my Vans and waitressing work pants, is long gone. And any traces of its bohemian past have since been airbrushed into a clichéd shell of cool. Yet Solutions! still stands, even if it is all tagged up by fans now flocking to the Instagram hotspot. Back then, it was left alone as a silent tribute. And that’s exactly how I wrote it for my character Pete who drove past it with his potential love interest, hoping their story was just beginning, and not fading like the song, “Somebody That I Used to Know.”
Highlights: “Son of Sam”, “Junk Bond Trader”, “Somebody that I Used to Know”, “L.A.”
X Los Angeles
A quintessential L.A. album from the quintessential L.A. punk band, this vinyl is a relic from my time there, purchased used for $4.99 at Amoeba. Produced by Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, his involvement lent a unique touch to their sound, adding organs and keyboards— instruments seldom heard in punk—to brighten the mix. Having read my face off about the New York punk scene, my interest eventually traveled west to L.A’s parallel chaos. The L.A. scene, I found, was a much grittier, darker version of what was happening at CBGB. While L.A. didn’t have the famed chili where it was rumoured to be jerked off into by the Ramones (so. gross.), it had The Masque, and their Debbie Harry was bolder, louder, darker, and went by Exene Cervenka, X’s lead singer. This album represents a raw, fleeting time in L.A. where Matt Groening worked at Licorice Pizza on Sunset, Pat Smear was in a band with scene-icon Darby Crash, and The Go-Go’s were a punk band.
Highlights: “Nausea”, “Johnny Hit and Run Paulene” and of course, “Los Angeles”.
Recommended watching: The Decline of Western Civilization, a 1981 documentary by Penelope Spheeris that perfectly captures the gritty rise of L.A.’s punk scene through live performances by bands like The Germs, X and Black Flag.
Grateful Dead Terrapin Station
Now onto my “hippie side”. A lot of readers equate my main female character, Carla, with me. And sure, there are similarities (haircut, Italian girl, vintage sweaters, and cats), but there’s a lot of myself that also pours into Pete. So, when he reflects on tripping on several doses of liquid acid while watching the turtles dance off the record sleeve of Terrapin Station, that wasn’t me flexing my fiction muscles. That was me remembering this very thing happening while listening to “Estimated Prophet,” the album’s fantastic opener while spun out on L. With husky-voiced Bob Weir musing about California, the lyrics weave almost biblical imagery, alternating between divine inspiration and the burden of foresight. Is it a sacred land or a place of reckoning? A promise or a warning? The apocalyptic undertones lean into my character’s cynicism, bolstered by the unusual 7/4 time signature that creates this sense of unease and restlessness, mirroring Pete’s emotional state. As for my trip, I moved the needle to the next song, “Dancing in the Street” for less intense thoughts and to see the turtles really boogie. And boogie they did.
Sparks Kimono My House
What I’m gathering from reader feedback is one of the book’s most popular scenes is Pete’s bike ride to work. Being eco-conscious, he doesn’t want to contribute to the city’s famed smog, so he pedals a daily ten-mile commute from Silver Lake to his job in Beverly Hills. Down the long stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard, I used this as an opportunity to portray the city’s diverse landscapes by neighborhood while matching the music to his scenery. A California band that I knew my prog-punk-meets-musique-concrète-loving character would naturally appreciate is Sparks (one of my favorite band names, btw). The Mael Brothers’ theatrical bravado pulses through his headphones as he pedals past 2004’s anti-war street art under the tired palms of East Hollywood, the frantic drums amplifying his distress over a political system that felt increasingly less safe to him. Also included in this bike ride scene, as he enters Hollywood, are two other California avant-garde icons, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. Acknowledging the dead eyes and bleached smiles on the movie billboards, it feels like a contrast to the stereotypes, while fitting perfectly into the state’s quirkier side.
From X’s unedited energy to the theatrical pulse of Sparks, California’s kaleidoscope of sound is the soul of my story. These albums—spanning punk grit, acid-dipped psychedelia, and the off-kilter absurdity—reflect the fluctuating emotions of the book in a place where dreams and doubts collide.
Proceeds of the launch of Somewhere in Hollywood (February 7th, 2025 until the Spring Equinox March 20th, 2025) will be donated to Pasadena Humane and MusiCares for animals and musicians impacted by the Los Angeles fires.
