50 Best L.A. Bands

Linkin Park, all the way(:

Linkin Park ... OMG i love them(;

Yeah, Linkin Park is the best!

After reading the above with no prior mention, I guess one of the very hippest L.A. bands of yesteryear... Steppenwolf didn't count for anything?
There are bands mentioned here that really never made any real waves at all...........

maroon 5? i just vomitted in my mouth

Tribe of Gypsies - voted best unsigned band 5 years in a row in this last decade and still put out five smash CDs (huge in Japan!). They blow most of these bands out of the water; their lead guitarist plays with Bruce Dickerson on the side. As for Creedence Clearwater ... they're from El Cerrito in the Bay Area and recorded at Berkeley's Fantasy Studio.

The Monkees and the Go Gos ? Really ??? Two bands who were infamous because the so called "musicians" could barely play their instruments and all or most of their music was written for them ? Really ?

wheres the gos gos?

I vote for the Minutemen!

Who paid you to include maroon 5? Does this bag even listen to music or is this just his gig between selling cars?

This list is ridiculous. The Monkeys?!?! The Doors might be the best LA band, but anybody who has seen them knows who is the best live band ever to come out of LA: FISHBONE!

Glad to see SUICIDAL on this list! Best of all time!!

For the x100000000000000000 time , mamas and the papa are NOT from LA.

Nor is missing persons

PEOPLE PLEASE RESEARCH

Isn't Metallica from the Bay Area? Isn't the Motley Crue from New Jersey or s-hole like that?

No Redd Kross?

As others have noted, the list should have included Spirit.

Van Halen! DONE

How come Spirit is not an option? Btw..my dad and uncle were the 'Altones' on gardenia records but became the Beverly Hills Painters later due to not 'trademarking' the name 'Altones." They won Cal worthingtons 'Star Search' like program 2 o3 weeks in a row back in the day...and opened for Aretha franklin in 59 or 60 at the Pan Pacific [I believe the venue was at] in '59 or '60...

Check out soundtrack for A BILLION BUCKS ...

I earned the Getty Oil Company shareholders A Billion Bucks
On the Reserve acquisition; the way they treat me -- it really sucks!
As the Getty inheritors bask in glee;
All I asked for was that they look after me.
A billion dollars they earned on Reserve
My fee I surely deserve.
It turns out J.P. Getty may have been a Nazi;
His family even goes back to Germany.
With Hitler, Goring & Goebbels he did stand;
While trying to undermine the American land!
For paintings & artifacts he did receive
With his oil he was able to deceive?
Hoover & the FBI and Roosevelt they knew
That J.P. Getty & espionage he drew!
Many a young lad and Jew did die
As planes dropped bombs from the sky.
For years while Getty sat in Berlin
He may have committed many a sin.
The ashes and smoke from the chimneys it rose
While old man Getty sat cozy; he chose.
With artwork held tightly under his arm
Still dripping in blood -- as the real owner met harm.
Into the ovens & on meat-hooks, bullets between the eyes
Listen very carefully you can still hear their cries!
While the Gettys sit in England; at their estate at Wormsley
And Gordon sings in San Francisco
With his 727 in tow.
The Getty museum sits atop Malibu
While the corpses of World War 2 scream -- J.P. Getty -- We know you!

Van Halen is by far the best band out of LA and always will be inluencial on many other bands :)

Van Halen is the best band to ever come out of LA. Hands down. No one else even comes close. Eddie can outplay anyone on guitar and DLR is one of the best frontmen ever. No contest.

Sorry,
No excuses,
I should read before I post.
It is LA not CA.

But I'll stand by Minutemen/fIREHOSE and Mazzystar
Two/Three great LA bands imo

Steve, I was aware of my silly mistake shortly after I posted but just now saw this list again.
I now know how Anthony Weiner must feel.
I would have flipped as well if i had read G.D. CCR & CVB from L.A.

Baku Llama!!

No Minutemen? No Spirit? Not a good list. Oh, and the Ambrosia reference made me laugh out loud.

Some of you are making the list to 100 or more. Some are saying bands that are not even from California.

C'mon, the greatest LA band is the wrecking crew - Carol Kaye, Hal Blaine, Don Randi, et al - They were the musicians who actually played on records by The Association, The Beach Boys, etc....

You missed quite a few important ones:
Ritchie Valens
Social Distortion
Descendents
Bad Religion
Agent Orange
Sublime
No Doubt

And some newer ones that are at least on par with Ariel Pink:
Silversun Pickups
Battles
No Age

the Doors are the most over-rated band in music history. Lame organ and overrated poetry have not stood the test of time.The best AMERICAN band by far is Los Lobos.

No EELS??? You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Tierra? El Chicano? The Brat? B-Side Players?

2 out of 3 of my favorite bands are there. You missed Incubus.

Nitty gritty dirt band- Go Long Beach:) Too far away to be considered L.A. ??

Suburban Lawns was from Long Beach, right?

And what about the Bozios and Missing Persons?

The Brothers Johnson didn't make the cut but Ozomatli did? Huh???

Little Feat by all means, Rank and File.Ry Cooder and Chicken Skin Music,Johnny Otis, thee Midnighters

system of a down

How about The Ventures one of the most influential instrumental bands ever.

Wall of Voodoo certainly should have made this list. Oingo should be placed higher also. John Mayall's Blues Breakers were a training ground for many great musicians, just like Frank's "Mothers" and should also be included. If you have a list of LA Bands, you cannot leave Wall of Voodoo off of the list (God Bless you Marc, RIP my friend).

the ventures are STILL NOT FROM LA

The Chambers Brothers should be somewhere in this list.

Are you kidding me? These are the best DEAD bands. What about the bands that are out there every night, slugging it out in bars and nightclubs right NOW? Don't they deserve a little support? Is this your idea of sustaining local talent? No wonder newspapers are in the toilet.

Well, let's see here. Obviously a lot of under 30s here, who never heard of wonderful bands like the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (technically Orange County and Long Beach, but who cares?), Hearts and Flowers, The Merry-Go-Round, Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys, the Doug Dillard and Gene Clark Expedition,,,just so much great stuff. Oingo Bongo and Guns and Roses?? C'mon, gimme a break. You young'uns don't know what you missed.

Glad though to see the Byrds and the Burritos...they were the blueprint and the launching pad for the Eagles and so many more.

p.s. I would be very remiss if I didn't bring up the band that was very close to my family, being that the late Mark Tulin was a cousin of mine - the Electric Prunes. Together with Love, the Seeds, the Strawberry Alarm Clock and yes, I'll echo my friends Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes here too - the great Spirit, the Prunes harkened in the garage band meets pyschedelics age. God Bless You, Mark - and shame that so many groups you guys influenced are on this list, but you're not.

Linkin Park!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good to see The Chambers Brothers on the list...Yeah!!!!

Los Lobos

Hello....
Where's
Snoop Dog,
Ice Cube,
Dr. Dre,
Tupac,
Ice T,
Quetzal?

Chili Peppers and Blasters for sure, why no X Seriously?

Thee Midnighters
Little Feat
Spirit

All should have been on this list.

The most amazing & versatile home grown LA band of all time was The Kaleidoscope. They played everything from Turkish belly dance music to rock.

Van Halen ....o grande Rock ...

maybe some people missed the point .. it's a survey on L.A BANDS NOT CALIFORNIA BANDS ...

Grateful Dead & Metallica are "FROM" San Francisco (even if Metallica spent some formative time in LA). That's why they don't suck.

LITTLE FEAT MUST BE INCLUDED!

There is another LA band you should know about. They're called EdstanleY

http://edstanleymusic.com/news.html.

Knight Stalker

www.facebook.com/knightstalkerislove

I like the Witcher Brothers Band

This shoud be told the 50 best LA Times Magazin bands, or it is not true.

What about Venice!?!?!?!
Doors and Beach Boys are right up there but Van Halen gets my vote.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN

NOT to offend any heavy metal fans, BUT I've always thought that the obsession with "heavy metal" bands was the decline of 'pop' music in a NUTshell...IF any metal fan FLIP F-bombs onto this observation, they are proving my point...pathetically!

Delaney & Bonnie and Friends

U FORGET THE ARTIE VEGAS REVUE!!!!!!!!!!1

This is an L.A. bands list. Grateful Dead, CCR are San Francisco bands, Jackson Browne was born in Germny and although he went to HS in the L.A. area really got his start with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in NYC, Joni Mitchell is Canadian and the Ventures are from Tacoma. Now, Little Feat; that's an L.a. area bands that merits consideration.

Im try'n 2 vote 4 Canned Heat, but my phone wont let me!!!!

are hip hop bands not bands?

Little Feat MUST be on this list....!

The TUBES

Chambers Brothers!

silverlake band PG&E
got a lot of northern ca bands mixed in here-who made up the list-what have you been smokin? must be some of the three finger stuff from the old days

how about benedict arnold and the traitors?

The Brian Jonestown Massacre is definitely missing!

the mothers
beefheart

no other bands are in the same league

People....Black Flag is on the list IIII, Incubus is not, rightfully so. Very glad to see The Blasters and X on here...phew.

eanut Butter Conspiracy Spencer Dryden on Drums before he went to the bay area!

Peanut Butter Conspiracy w/ the late great Spencer Dryden who then played with Jefferson Airplane the late great
Clear Ligh tw/ Dallas Taylor was one of the double drummers on Elektra Records who played with CSN and ended up a consuler in a rehab after his liver transplant
Sprirt was one of the best with The late great Mr Skin Ed Cassidy on drums a SF State Music major who played with all the jazz guys like Monk and Sonny Rollins etc etc

Jurassic 5 anyone?

you forgot the CRAMPS, tex and the horseheads, the flesheaters, minutemen, legal weapon, tupelo chain sex, lester butler, the red devils, screamin sirens, top jimmy and the rhythm pigs, rosie flores and so many more great l.a. bands but glad you included X and the blasters! and you forgot me!! candye kane!

I would have had Fear up there before the Germs,
seems allot of these bands true origins aren't really connected exclusively to LA.
The fact that the Eagles missed the list, but Maroon 5 is included, leads me to believe the writer was watching allot of "Jersey Shore " in college...
Also Fishbone is one of the greatest live bands...and was every bit a part of the music scene as the Peppers were..and managed to stay true to their roots.

pigmy love circus

Eagles Eagles Eagles shame on you Robert Hilburn would have never made that mistake.

Canned Heat
Henry Vestine all about

yes the grassroots should be on th list.

Buffalo Springfield are a Canadian band. The Association are from Eastern Washington. I guess anything with a loose LA connection qualifies.

you guys forgot: reel big fish, vanilla ice, lady gaga, mc hammer, leo sayer, slim goodbody, rob thomas, OMC, squab, dana carvey, the dallas mavericks, fridgidaire, guldens mustard, homosexual pornography, ear mites, explosive diarrhea, the wwf, fruit stripe bubble gum, nirvana, judy tenuta, los tigres del norte, skrewdriver, mariachi el bronx, my underwear, that dude wearing a vest, the naked cowboy, vaseilne, visine, cocaine, pcp, bals, shirts and socks.

For local boys it has to be the Beach Boys!!! I agree with Thee Midnighters but the Beach Boys certainly have the longevity and tremendous portfolio of songs written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Although most of the groups on your list are fabulous musicians, most are not even from California!

Minutemen were the best thing to come out of LA/Pedro in the past century.

Strawberry Alarm Clock, Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention, Van Halen (pasadena) CSN&Y The Doors, Spirit

I'm assuming Tom Waits isn't on here because he's a solo artist. Right?

Dream Syndicate.

Not number one, but how about somewhere on the list? They were a great L.A. band that broke up a little too soon to rise to the top ten. But for a brief season, they were easily one of the top 10 bands rocking L.A. during their heyday.

The Kentucky Colonels. From Burbank, featuring greatest bluegrass guitarist of all time, Clarence White. Later went on to rock fame in Byrds.

Missing: Social Distortion, Bad Religion, Fishbone anyone? Jane's Addiction should be higher on the list. Doors are number 1 all the way. The Monkees? Please, they were a marketing invention from the start. Toto? Maroon 5? Can we have one list of actual musicians and another for corporate shills?

Offspring, Korn, Lit, Strange in the Pocket

this is so wack....totally wrong..monkeys really?..tv band..y tool in top 20...enough said...by the way peep some of the punk rock is very influential but social d, adolescents ,tsol are from o.c. minutemen prob didnt make it cuz tech thr frm san pedro /lbc...

Descendents!
Minutemen!
Dickies!

Concrete Blonde. I like Berlin, but you think Berlin is did more than CB??!!

kaleidoscope!!!!!

What about The Animals. Are they an LA band?

The Beat Junkies
Freestyle Fellowship
Hiroshima
Kinnara Taiko
Shalamar
Smegma
Horace Tapscott & the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra

[also agree with the Minutemen, thee Midniters, and the Weirdos]

I second the motion to include Bad Religion.

50 Years of mayhem, noir, violence and addiction (especially ADDICTIONS) graffically documented by the minstrals of their day.

who made this list...???

go back los lobos ?? monkees ?? poco ??

no system of a down ???

this is not a valid list do ur homework

The ORIGINAL Guns N Roses.
PERIOD. I dare you to listen to Appetite for Destruction and tell me that there is ONE bad song on there.