5 Records with LA LOM

In 2019, the three members of LA LOM (The Los Angeles League of Musicians) began assembling in the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel, tasked with providing background music for hotel guests and visitors. Once settled into the five-night-a-week gig, LA LOM began experimenting with a genre-transcending repertoire representing the diverse cultures reflected in their backyard and beyond. From soulful ‘60s ballads to rockabilly, the band started to include influences from the classic Mexican Boleros and the Cumbia Sonidera traditionally woven into the city’s soundscape.

In the process, LA LOM became something very much its own thing.

In August, their debut album, The Los Angeles League Of Musicians, arrived, and the collective members of LA Lom (Zac Sokolow, Jacob Faulkner, Nicholas Baker) spoke to Discogs about the realm of influences that span their record digging and musical exploration. “We put together a list of some records that mean a lot to us, especially in relation to this record,” says guitarist Zac Sokolow.

Zac Sokolow: It’s a record from the early ’80s, and if you look at the album cover of it, it’s kind of based on the Ramones record. I forget which Ramones record but it’s like they are dressed up and it looks just like them, but the music sounds nothing like the Ramones. They play a lot of what gets called “Chicha music,” Cumbia music from Peru.

Their guitar player, this guy Jaime Moreyra is just so cool the way he does all these, I guess a lot of people call hammer ons and pull offs to get these little details that, above and beyond what everybody else was doing at the time. Those slides and things, and he always has this kind of clean tone, it’s something I’m imitating all the time. The two songs on that record that I think are my favorite, “Borrachito Borrachon,” and then “El Aguajal.”

Jacob Faulkner: They are such a technical band. And as all Cumbia music does, it’s fun with Los Shapis how they keep it kind of light and bouncy and dancing, but they’re one of those precise bands of the genre. There are so many details [in their playing].

Sokolow: There are, I believe, 12 volumes of the East Side Stories put together. It was done in the late ’70s by a Greek immigrant. He lived in East LA. My understanding is that he had a booth at a swap meet selling 45s. Initially, he bought all these old soul records because they were cheap. Then he found out that there was a market for them among the lowrider culture, who were really into the oldies and the slow soul ballads. So he started taking all these 45s and making these bootleg LPs. Those became hugely popular, and people started bootlegging his bootleg. I think it was officially put out on a label, but for a while, these records were going around and became legendary.

There’s one song called “Bring Me Happiness” by Rosie and Ron. It’s just slow and dragging and heavy and this sweet ballad. I think it’s from the early ‘60s. There’s a song on our record called “Rebecca” which I was really thinking a lot about that kind of sound for it. Another one that’s in a similar vein on that record is ‘Cradle Rock’ by a group called The Heartbreakers, who were brothers from El Paso.

Faulkner: It really captures the part of LA LOM that we want to represent on our stuff as well.

Sokolow: “When we first got together, we were covering a lot of early ’60s R&B tunes, doing instrumental versions of them, and it’s really influenced a lot of the music we play today.”

Sokolow: My dad gave me a CD of this particular record when I was a kid, and I fell in love with it. I used to listen to it every night when I went to sleep. Later, when I started learning to play guitar, I would learn a lot of the introductions they play between the singing. I would learn all those parts on the guitar and play way up the neck. When we started playing together, we covered and played instrumental versions. So, I would play the melody they sing on the guitar.

Faulkner: There’s a terrific show on KXL-FM. They do the Weekend in the Barrio. There’s a program every Sunday that was my introduction to Trio Los Panchos, and I just remember that every Sunday, I would go to rehearsal and listen to that on the way.

Sokolow: Also, my mom’s dad performed with a group that was touring a lot called the Easy Riders back in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and I understand they used to tour in Mexico all the time. My mom told me that he knew those guys and used to play music with them. I wish I knew more about that.

Nicholas Baker: That’s one of those records that I think connected all of us, because my grandma would play that for me too. That’s kind of one of the first things that really got us playing Boleros.

Sokolow: This is just a huge influence, especially me and Jake.

Faulkner: This was one of the ways that Zac and I connected in high school. [We were] just being electrified by that death defying playing that they’re doing between Johnny Burnette’s yelps. Those solos are incredible, and they just carry that abstract energy of danger and excitement.

Sokolow: Whenever we’re playing something really good, Jake always screams and sounds like Johnny Burnette. That guitar playing and the way the drums are the snare and everything, It’s just so heavy and cool.

Baker: There’s something about when you listen to that music and you hear the power, especially as a trio. I think it’s this exciting moment that happens when we’re playing live where everything feels powerful. 

Sokolow: There’s a song on our new record. It’s the first single we released, called “Danza de LA LOM.” And I would say that it’s heavily influenced by a lot of rockabilly, that group in particular especially with the way it was recorded and a lot of the low guitar stuff on it.

Baker: It’s like punk, Cumbia, and old school 1950s rock and roll, all in the rebel category. It’s always trying to push, and it’s got this kind of fiery energy to it.

Sokolow: That’s some of the first music that me and Jacob used to play together for bars full of dancers, which is what we love to do today with LA LOM. We try to kind of keep that spirit alive, even when we’re playing bigger theaters. We try to give it the feeling of playing in a little room full of dancers.

Faulkner: And making everyone dance, the sweatier it is, the better.

Sokolow: The last record we want to talk about is a record called Nomad by a guy named Bombino. He’s an incredible Tuareg guitar player from Niger. And he’s still around. This record was made maybe 10 years ago or so. He’s still touring all the time.

Faulkner: We opened for him at The Regent last year.

Sokolow: We got the chance to meet him and open for him. He’s probably my favorite living electric guitar player. Just watching him, he plays with his fingers. He doesn’t use a pick. He plays in a way that almost reminds me of playing banjo or fingerpicking guitar or something. It’s mesmerizing to watch him play. Normally I don’t really like that kind of thing when people solo for a long time, I get really bored quickly. But with him, I could just watch him do that forever.

Faulkner: Both times I’ve gone to see Bambino, it’s one of those cliches of walking 16 inches off the ground, but you really do. There’s something so uplifting. He’s one of the only concerts I’ve ever been to where I really walk out floating. Again, he’s an artist that brings so much excitement to the performance, and he’s kind of melding genres in a way that I feel kind of kindred to him musically in what we’re doing with LA LOM.