LA LOM: 2024

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

I had the privilege of sitting down with the retro-styled but forward-thinking trio LA LOM (aka the Los Angeles League of Musicians), and honestly, just wow. Swapping out their snare for a conga drum, these LA natives — Zac Sokolow on guitar, Jake Faulkner on bass, and Nicholas Baker handling drums/percussion — represent the West Coast with a juicy instrumental mix of soul, rockabilly, cumbia, and bolero. Their debut album, released over the summer, is called The Los Angeles League of Musicians.

We chatted about their origins as jazz cats at the historic Roosevelt Hotel and talked about how their story grew and their sound developed. I tried my best to get them to cop to some contemporary favorites or inspirations, but these guys truly walk the talk, giving shout outs to antique deep cuts and genres of music that I'd never heard of.

It was kind of like hanging out with casual PhDs, but instead of needing to dive into a hundred-page thesis to back up their claims, these dudes prove their bonafides in perfect instrumental nuggets, usually clocking in at three minutes or less.

[Recorded:7/30/24; Engineered by Jim O'Hara with Erin Merriman; produced by Meghan Offtermatt. VideograhersL Adithi Vimalanathan, Alena Godas, Louisa Schramm, Olivia Iannaccone.]