📄 Transcript [show]
People have powerful feelings about the traffic in Los Angeles.
It says something that local officials warned motorists about a temporary roadwork closure on the 405 last year by calling it Carmageddon.
Angelenos took the hint, and this weekend they're expected to steer clear of the latest 405 closure, named, of course, Carmageddon 2.
That's how it is in L.A., a snarl of overstuffed freeways and commuters who keep their cool, except when they don't.
KPCC's Stephen Cuevas has this profile of a punk rocker whose music expresses the insanity of L.A.
traffic while extolling the virtues of public transit.
Couple of things you need to know about Eddie Solis.
He lives in L.A., loves the band Kiss, and does not own a car.
Being someone who's from L.A., born and raised, and, you know, having a few cars in my past, I saw the city much differently through a different perspective through the eyes of a bus rider.
One just all the way to the back.
Line 18, Wilshire, Western Station.
Just steps from the front door of his home, across the street from a tortilla factory in L.A.'s Boyle Heights neighborhood, Solis catches a bus that connects him with the city's subway, and the commuter train he catches to his day job at an indie record label in Hollywood.
It just opened me up to, like, little neighborhoods, galleries, clubs, bars, just everything.
Just seeing what's out there, little pockets of the city.
Solis' journeys aboard L.A.
buses and subway cars informs a lot of the material on The New Los Angeles Part One, Through the Eyes of a Bus Rider, the latest release by the singer-guitarist band It's Casual.
The New Los Angeles No one has been wet In Solis' vision of a New Los Angeles, people abandon their cars, climb aboard public transit, and, you know, have a good time.
Solis' journey aboard L.A.
buses and subway cars informs a lot of the material on The New Los Angeles Part One, through the eyes of a bus rider.
Solis' journeys aboard L.A.
buses and subway cars informs a lot of the material on The New Los Angeles Part One, through the eyes of a bus rider.
Solis' journeys aboard L.A.
buses and subway cars informs a lot of the material on The New Los Angeles Part One, through the eyes of a bus rider.
through the eyes of a bus rider.
Solis' journeys aboard L.A.
buses and subway cars informs a lot of the material on The New Los Angeles Part One, through the eyes of a bus rider.
Solis' journeys aboard L.A.
buses and subway cars informs a lot of the material on The New Los Angeles Part One, to the writer.
And that's a nod, an homage to the people who know you can even go cheaper and really beat the system and really steer away from spending money on gas and oil profits and all that. $50 is all it takes for me to get to work. $50 is all it takes for me to witness racial tension, for me to witness illegal aliens.
It's not to paint a negative picture, it's just my perspective of what is seen.
Easy pass.
I got a funny backstory.
Off the bus and back on the street, we make our way past a jazz saxophonist playing for pocket change and down a long escalator to catch a train.
So, where are we now?
We're at the Red Line station, the Pershing Square station in downtown L.A.
And what's our destination?
We're going to go downstairs another tier and in about five minutes we're going to get on the Red Line going northbound.
Okay, let's go.
The Metro Red Line snakes from North Hollywood to downtown Los Angeles.
It's the train that inspired its casuals signature tune and spawned a viral internet video.
It was partly filmed late at night on a moving train as it hurtles from station to station.
Solis thrashes away on his guitar and barks the lyrics, which celebrate the Red Line and call out the congested freeways that coil around Los Angeles.
This is a train from the Metro Red Line to North Hollywood.
The 210, 605, the freeways are not so nice.
The I-5, the 210, the freeways are not so nice.
The thread that comes out of the record that ties everyone together is just like, be alive, don't be a victim of having a car.
The 210, 605, the freeways are not so nice.
I-5, the I-10, the freeways are not so nice.
The red line.
The red line.
An MTA spokesman said he couldn't comment on Eddie Solis' furious pro-Metro message, but the Red Line video was a hit at the offices of Move LA.
Eddie's done a good job.
Thank you, Eddie.
It's the public transportation advocacy group headed by former Santa Monica mayor Denny Zane.
He liked the juxtaposition of Solis blissfully riding LA public transit in one scene with scenes of the band raging against those notorious freeway jams.
Eddie is all frantic when he talks about highways and so mellow when he's like grooving on his skateboard and on the bus and on the Red Line.
There's a metaphor for the transformation, you know, from the, oh my God, I just got to get out of the traffic to, hey, this is cool.
I can mellow out.
Or you can blast the tune like too many people as you claw your way across Los Angeles, a car, bus, and a car.
Or skateboard.
Too many people could also be a motto for its casual.
Over the years, the band whittled itself down to a power duo of Solis and a rotating cast of drummers.
So you may think the burly, bearded punk rocker just can't get along with freeways, with people, or his native L.A.
Not true.
I love it.
I love everything about it.
I've traveled throughout the U.S.
many times and I could never look forward enough to coming back.
The weather, the different cultures, the landscape.
I was just like, you know what?
Now I know why everyone moves to L.A.
Solis will bring the love and the volume during a Red Line mini tour next month.
Its casual will play a different venue within walking distance of several Red Line metro stations.
From Union Station to West Hollywood.
For the California Report, I'm Stephen Cuevas.
I watch my driver's license fly.
And that's the California Report, a production of KQED Public Radio in San Francisco.
I'm Stephen Cuevas.
Our director this week is Nina Thorson.
Sil Muller is our technical producer.
We had additional engineering from Danny Bringer and Howard Gelman.
Thanks to Hank Hadley at KCBX.
Our online team includes Lisa Pickoff-White, David Marks, and Don Clyde.
Our interns are Katherine Borgeson and Rachel Johnson.
Taiki Hendricks is our elections editor with production help from Tina Lauerberg.
We had editing support from Paul Rogers.
Victoria Malione is our associate senior producer.
Ingrid Becker is our senior producer.
The news director is Bruce Coon.
I'm Rachel Miro.
Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.
See you next time.
See you next time.
See you next time.
See you next time.
See you next time.
High five, the high tens, the freeways are not so nice The red line, the red line The red line, the red line The red line, the red line The red line, the red line From 10 to 6 or 5, the freeways are not so nice The high five, the high tens, the freeways are not so nice The 101, the 405, the freeways are not so nice The 605, the 101, the 101, the 101 The high tens, the 210, the 605, the 101, the 405 The high tens, the freeways are not so nice The red line The high tens, the high tens, the high tens The Red Light!
The Red Light!
The Red Light!
The Red Light!
The Red Light!
The Red Light!
The Red Light!
Welcome to the 88th episode of Los Angeles Nista.
I'm the creator, producer, and host, Edward Solis.
Eddie Solis!
Tell me, tell the world who I am to you.
Okay, Eddie Solis is...
Eddie Solis is a lot of things to a lot of people, but to me, to me, Dave Gibney, and I am something of a Los Angeles legend, but forgetting that, even just forgetting that, Eddie Solis is my favorite beaner in the entire universe.
Of?
Of the universe.
Of all time, right?
Oh, absolutely.
I'm your favorite beaner of all time.
Of all time.
And it doesn't matter.
It could be alternative universe.
It could be a Josh Whedon universe.
It could be a Christopher Nolan universe.
It doesn't matter.
I don't care who plays him.
Eddie Solis, my favorite beaner of all time.
There you go.
And with that being said, this is the 88th episode, 13 months into Los Angeles Nista.
Ocho Ocho.
Ocho Ocho.
Or is it Ocho y Ocho?
Ocho Ocho.
Ocho Ocho is fine.
You're more fluent than I am.
Has there always been a lot of Mexicans in LA?
How could there not be?
It was disgusting.
It was discovered and built and just made awesome by Mexicans.
There you go.
Yeah.
You know what I want to ask you and articulate for everybody is that who Dave Gibney is?
First of all, Dave Gibney is someone that has been the man behind the masterpieces of a lot of bands.
I mean, you've teched for, let's talk about all the bands you've gone out and teched for.
Okay.
Well, I mean, starting with Black Flag, going on to the Minutemen, going on to St. Vitus, moving up to like Danzig.
Co-Eating Cambria, Bad Religions, Circle Jerks.
It's, yeah, pretty much the gamut.
The whole gamut.
And Front of House, Sound 4.
Oh, it's casual.
There you go.
That's number one on my resume.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You know what?
You know, I understand you might be playing somewhere on January...
Six.
Six, yeah.
We return to the Troubadour and I take it you will be doing Front of House.
Troubadour is always good for its casual.
We've always had awesome shows there.
Remember that last show we did on Black Friday?
I remember the last two shows we had there.
Big turnouts.
And they were really good.
They were really good shows.
And you did great sound.
And you did great whatever it is, whatever the...
Whatever the fuck we do.
Oh, we can curse.
Yes.
Oh, fuck yeah.
Whatever it is the fuck you think you did, you did it well.
Listen, listen.
I want to tell everyone, now, the fact that you're that deep in the music industry and going out with bands on the road and being their saving grace for, you know, the guitar tech aspect of things.
Yeah, I do guitar tech, sure.
Let's talk about the band you used to play bass in.
The LA Bass Band.
The LA Bass Band.
The LA Bass Band.
Fear Factory.
You were in Fear Factory.
I was.
Yeah, I was the original bass player in Fear Factory.
That was an awesome time.
That was a really awesome time.
How did you end up in Fear Factory?
Okay, well, there was this...
This is like one...
It's a cute story.
There was this huge house on West Carlos Avenue in Hollywood, which is right off of Hollywood Boulevard, right behind this place that the older guys will know called Raji's.
Yep.
And it was a big three-story house.
It was leaning.
It was leaning.
There was, you know, every horrible type of person living there.
Horrible people.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Just every...
You know, we had, you know...
It was bad.
But me and Bert Bell and Dino were...
Right.
We lived on the ground floor with another guy named Alex, who now runs a zine called Six Foot Crows.
Cool kid.
He moved to Texas a long time ago.
Gave up on the dream.
And upstairs was a bunch of, like, opera girls.
You know, like, a bunch of Tori Amos's.
Right.
So upstairs was like...
Nothing worse than a bunch of wailing bitches, man.
Seriously?
Upstairs was like four Tori Amos's.
Seriously?
And downstairs was us four.
And Dino was in a band called...
I hesitate to say it, but it's such a great name.
Dino was in a band called Spick Wop Jew Nigger.
Was he really?
And me and Bert were in a band called Hate Face.
Oh, you were in Hate Face?
I remember Hate Face.
And, you know, you know how it is.
You know, you spend a lot of time together.
You start complaining about each other's bands.
You know, you start complaining to each other about your bands.
And, you know, all of a sudden, one day you're in a lockout and you're writing stuff, which turned out to be Fear Factory.
There you go.
Yeah.
And how long were you actually in the band playing bass?
I don't know.
About a year...
Less than a year and a half, but more than a year.
So, you know, there's some demos out there.
I'm on the first album, which wasn't released chronologically.
It's called Concrete.
It was released like fifth, maybe.
It was the first Roadrunner record that didn't get released, but it got released fifth.
So after, like, D-Manufacture and Soul of a New Machine.
Right.
I think I'm on Soul of a New Machine, too.
I wrote a lot of the lyrics on that.
But whatever.
But yeah, Concrete was the first record on a bunch of demos.
It was a good time.
Good stuff.
Yeah, it is good stuff, good memories.
A lot of great memories and a lot of great work you did with that.
Now, as far as your work with UPO on the road, you know what?
I mean, you were a one-man army, dude.
I mean, Ben and Tommy would tell me, like, they would load in.
I teched every instrument on that stage.
They would come back from doing, like, label stuff.
Because they were on Epic, right, at the time?
That's absolutely right.
And, you know, they would get into town.
The reps would take them to the stores and the radio stations.
And they would get back around six or five.
And everything was set up.
Two guitars, bass, and a big drum set.
You know Tommy's drum set.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Always big.
And the backdrop was up.
You get the backdrop up.
Did the backdrop.
The dressing room was already filled.
Everything with drinks and everything.
Well, that was some dude who never lasted.
But, yeah, I did every job on stage.
Absolutely right.
Right, right.
But, you know, don't forget.
I also used to do every job on stage for Coheed and Cambria.
Well, I want to talk about that.
And this is when we were playing Madison Square Garden.
Yeah, exactly.
And I was doing every.
And that's unheard of.
That's absolutely un-fucking-heard of.
So, on that level, you also teched everything?
Guitar-based drums?
Yes, yes.
And until, you know, I'm an older guy.
You know, I'm 50 now.
So, I'm an older guy.
And, you know, I would start to get tired, you know.
And I needed some help.
And they got me some help.
Exactly.
They eventually got me some help.
And here, let me pass this Jim Beam over to you.
Oh, thanks a lot, man.
Yeah, you're very welcome.
Very cool.
Hold that thought.
Yep.
La, la, la, la.
Oh, hey, Andy, the camera fell over.
What should I do, buddy?
Go ahead and fix it.
Oh, go ahead and fix it?
Okay, sure.
This might require some.
Yeah, this requires gaff tape, bro.
There you go, bro.
So, check this out, man.
I'll hold it.
So, being at Los Angeles Nista is about.
It's about public transportation.
It's about.
Love public transportation.
It's about showing everyone Los Angeles one episode at a time.
Yeah.
And showing people how to be car free.
You, my friend, have been car free for a long time.
Well, you know, I.
Well, we were able to get around without a car.
You know, there were times when I've, like, I really enjoyed my El Camino.
Yeah.
Until I realized how destructive it was and how expensive it was.
You know, but.
Tell me how you got here today from Melrose and Fairfax.
Well, first of all, I took the 10 to the 212, the 212 to the red line, and the red line.
And then I went to Pershing Square.
And that's a little five minute walk, right?
It was nothing.
And then you followed the janitor all the way in.
I had to follow the janitor in.
Yes, absolutely right.
So good.
Because I called you, but then I realized, well, he's probably interviewing.
Yeah.
Someone important.
I was doing Miss Latina, Los Angeles, 2013.
Exactly.
And, well, you know.
Okay, let me tell you something.
I'm going to take a quick little side trip.
Okay.
Tell me.
I go to my wife.
Oh, Eddie wants me to be on the radio.
She's like, oh, that's so exciting.
I go, yeah, let me check it out.
So, I went to your webpage.
He's, okay.
Okay, interview 102, Nelson Mandela.
Interview 403, Amy Chen.
You know.
Yeah, yeah.
MTA executive, yeah.
All these people who are like, oh, yes, I'm going to feed the world.
Or, oh, yeah, I'm going to stop global warming.
All I have to say is, oh, yeah, I work for the circle jerks.
You know, I usually have a pretty good opinion of myself.
I usually am pretty happy with who I am.
You are.
You always are.
But then I looked at your, not set list.
My, my, my.
My roster.
Your roster, thank you.
I look at your roster.
Archives, yeah.
Well, I'm not feeding 100 kids.
I'm not, I'm not bringing fucking new jobs to Los Angeles.
I'm not even as good looking.
Look, I'm, I'm, this guy is amazing looking.
Look, I'm not even good looking.
You know, this guy could stand in front of a camera and make $400,000 just because he's good looking.
Right.
You know.
Yeah, yeah.
So, so, so, tell me how to get to Fullerton from, from, from Melrose and Fairfax.
So easy.
And come back with 10 bucks.
It's so easy.
Tell me.
Well, coming back with the 10 bucks thing is actually probably illegal.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
The best, the best quote I've ever heard.
Oh, man.
Dave, give me, tell me.
I must be seen.
Hold on.
I must be seen.
I must be seen.
Don't worry about it.
Well, because I, because I must not be seen.
We got you on the wide shot over here.
Wide shots are not my friend, Andy.
I'm giving a shout out to Andy because I have produced many times and I know that it's not, I know it's not an easy job.
But God damn it, Andy.
I bought you a toy.
Tall boy.
Get in here and fix my fucking, fix my camera.
It's all I got.
There you go.
There you go.
Okay.
Yeah, that'll work.
That'll work.
No, that'll work.
It's a Dutch angle.
It's like Stanley Kubrick.
Stanley Kubrick.
We're good.
We're good.
We're good.
We're good.
Okay.
What was the question?
No, no.
It wasn't a question.
The best quote I ever heard in my entire life.
Yes, sir.
Was, I remember about four years ago, the Circle Jerks were playing shows or five years ago.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you were driving some family members out to all the shows.
And it was raining.
And you were going, I mean, I think, I think it was like four shows in four days, like Ventura, The Glass House.
Yeah, that sounds right.
That sounds right.
And I think you took your daughter.
Yeah, that sounds right.
You know, her friend.
And I remember it was like pouring rain.
It was a storm.
And it was like, you were actually playing the Relax Bar one night and then going to pick them up after the show.
Yeah.
And then coming back.
Yeah.
It was just all this driving for the last four days in the rain.
Yeah.
And you came in and you go, I got no more freeway left in me.
That's true.
I felt that several times, man.
I have felt that several times.
Yeah.
Especially since when I was coming up, I've been out here about 25 years and I didn't have a lot of friends.
But I did meet a lot of cool people down south, Fullerton, Anaheim.
And the only way I could hang out with them is to take the 101 to the 5 to the 91.
And anybody out there who just heard those three numbers is putting a gun to their head right now.
Right.
Because the freeways are not so nice.
101 to the 5 to the 91.
Dude, there's just no doing it.
There's just no getting around it, man.
It's suicide.
It is fucking suicide.
It is suicide.
It's suicide.
So I want to ask you also, how did one Dave Gibney get out to Fullerton from LA in public transportation?
Okay.
Here you go.
All right.
This is pre-tap card.
Okay.
This is pre-tap card.
So there's some wiggle room.
If you guys know what I'm saying.
Again.
Okay.
So first of all, you either take the 10 to the 212 or you just get up your ass and you walk to the 212.
You take the 212 down to Hollywood and Highland and you get on the red line.
Take the red line to 7th and Metro.
And yes, you can go ahead and use that.
I give you my permission to use that in your commercials.
Can I?
In fact, I'll do it again.
7th and Metro.
And from the 7th and Metro.
You take the blue line.
And the blue line's awesome because, okay, here's a little tangent.
Okay.
The red line is completely underground.
There's no sun.
There's no breeze.
There's no internet.
There's no phone.
But the blue line is all, it's all fucking ground level.
It's all ground level.
You get to watch the houses and the pools and you get to watch the kids playing in the parks.
You get to watch the girls walking around in their bikinis.
You get to go past the skate parks.
And the gold line is even nicer.
The gold line is.
The gold line's up in the air, but not quite as high as the green line.
The green line, if you ever wanted to commit suicide, you got to jump off the green line.
That's the one that goes to El Segundo.
There you go.
You think I'm fucking around?
L-A-X.
Well, I would take it to El Segundo because I had a job in El Segundo.
Right.
But yeah, so, okay.
So it's red line underground.
Blue line on the ground.
Gold line a little bit off the ground.
Green line.
Fuck you world.
Fuck you.
Fuck you.
Are you getting me an ashtray?
Because that's really the only reason I can accept you walking out of the room.
All right.
So, hey, this is the Dave Gibney Show.
And so, hey, Andy.
So, did you have a good weekend?
I had a pretty great weekend.
I can't.
All right.
Hold on.
Wait, wait, hold on.
Oh, he's back.
Do you want to smoke in here?
Can I?
There's no smoking in here, huh?
That's why I didn't light it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
Let's really talk about the shop that you live above.
The shop.
Oh, awesome.
Yeah.
What's the name of that shop?
Okay.
The name of the store is called the Never Open Store.
And it was started as an art project by my wife, Stephanie Mata Gibney.
And it's one room with a bathroom and a courtyard.
It's really small.
It's right off Melrose and Poinsettia.
It's a red building.
We got some amazing items.
She's got some amazing items.
We're talking about like Iggy Pop set list, authentic Velvet Underground set list, Johnny Thunder's jacket, a Jack Kerouac trunk, an Evel Knievel trunk.
Just really amazing things that she's found and restored.
And there's a lot of things that don't have a huge celebrity connection, but are just amazing.
It's like a museum to one person.
It's hard to explain.
I mean, I go into it a couple of times a week and it's hard to explain, but it's amazing.
I honestly feel that there's not one person, anybody who would listen to the show and gets this show will get this store.
So just- Well put.
And you know what?
And anybody comes in, anybody comes into Stephanie's store and says it's casual, will get like 15% off of any purchase.
There you go.
Wow.
And that's forever.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
It's like forever.
If you listen- Yeah, you come in, you go, hi Steph, it's casual, and you got 15%.
No, you got 20%.
You got 20% off anything.
Dude, that's amazing.
And we've got some amazing stuff.
And believe me, this is all I'm going to say about it, because I'm not here to promote that.
I'm here to talk about Los Angeles, and I'm here to talk about, yeah, I mean, that's important to me, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about it.
But let's move on to the next bit of excitingness.
And lastly, tell me- Lastly, really?
Have we really gotten through it already?
We have.
That is uncool.
I have so much to say.
Well, you know what that means?
You're coming back on a Monday night for a two-hour episode.
Fair enough.
Let's go ahead with the last question.
Now, being that you're so savvy with sound and you've done sound for bands on the road and arenas, et cetera, when you're home working, what's one of the best sound systems you think that exists in LA when you're doing front of house?
Are you asking which clubs have the best sound system?
Yeah, which clubs?
The Roxy and the Viper Room for smaller ones and the Wiltern.
And the Wiltern is the best for larger and El Rey is right below that.
Will there be a Jingle Era reunion?
I mean, I don't think so.
I would love to because the three of us could never do anything that important or that exciting alone.
And it's kind of a shame that it's not going to happen.
So I wish I could say, oh, maybe, or we're working on it.
But, you know, we're all in real different mindsets right now.
And even if we did right now, it wouldn't work, which is unfortunate because I love those guys.
And I mean, we all love each other, but it just ain't going to happen.
And Dave Gibney, I love you.
Oh, I love you too, Eddie Solis.
And thank you so much for being my guest on the 88th episode.
Oh, my pleasure.
My absolute pleasure.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you, Eddie.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Couldn't do his lines Drop a gun I'm on the corner
