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Erik Himmelsbach

Erik Himmelsbach

A native of the San Fernando Valley, Erik Himmelsbach (now Himmelsbach-Weinstein) grew up to be Managing Editor at the L.A. READER and SPIN, and is a contributor to BLENDER, REVOLVER, ROLLING STONE and other publications.

40 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Kirsty MacColl

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Los Angeles Reader, 26 November 1993

ALTHOUGH I liked punk when I was growing up, my real adolescent obsession was with women who went pop. From Lene Lovich and Blondie to ...

Victoria Williams: Victoria, Victorious

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Los Angeles Reader, 21 October 1994

THE WINDING drive up to Victoria William's house in Laurel Canyon inspires an unshakable seventies-era image – a la Joni Mitchell's ‘Ladies of the Canyon’ ...

The Go-Go's: The Beat And How To Get It (Again)

Profile and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Los Angeles Reader, 18 November 1994

"YOU LOOK FAMILIAR," Kathy Valentine says as she scavenges through the remains of what were once many bags of bagels. "We didn't have our way ...

Letters to Cleo: What’s To Be Bummed Out About?

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Los Angeles Reader, 28 July 1995

LETTERS TO CLEO frontwoman Kay Hanley sits at a pay phone in a strip mall in Augusta, Georgia, near the Garden City Music Hall, where ...

Medicine: In The Proper Dosage

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Los Angeles Reader, 8 September 1995

BRAD LANER needs to stand up. After a half hour of kneeling against his bed in a sort of praying position – simultaneously answering questions ...

Van Dyke Parks: California Dreamer

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Los Angeles Reader, 17 November 1995

THE KITCHEN door swings open, and a tiny voice wafts into the dining room, warbling with gusto "...are the luckiest people in the world." Suddenly, ...

Beck: New Weird Order

Profile and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Pulse!, June 1996

IT'S THE MIDDLE of a lazy Los Angeles spring day, and the view from the roof of the Griffith Observatory reveals a sprawling basin shrouded ...

Blur: Blur Knocks The Pulp Out Of Oasis, Right?

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Pulse!, April 1997

CLEARLY, Damon Albarn has studied his rock 'n' roll history. "When you start wearing tight trousers, you're fucked," notes the metaphorically astute 28-year-old. ...

That Dog: Bow Wow Wow! That Dog Learns New Tricks

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, BAM, 11 July 1997

TONY MAXWELL is hedging his bets. Sure, the floor of the Mercury Lounge – a sweaty club on Manhattan’s Lower East Side – barely allows ...

The Apples in Stereo, The High Llamas: The Apples in Stereo: Tone Soul Evolution (spinART); The High Llamas: Hawaii (V2)

Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Spin, December 1997

FOR BRAIN-CELL-overloaded teen nerd-boys sitting alone in their bedrooms, grown-up nerdboy Brian Wilson was always a more realistic role model than, say, Steven Tyler. With ...

Victoria Williams & Mark Olson: I Dip, You Dip, We Dip

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Option, February 1998

The forecast for the Los Angeles basin is bleak, but it doesn't take a weatherman to see this one coming. A moist stillness hangs in ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: The Last Brother

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Los Angeles Times, 12 July 1998

ALL OF ST. CHARLES is racing to eat before the sunsets and the kids melt down. At 5:30 p.m. on a Saturday, a time when ...

Ben Folds Five: The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner

Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Spin, June 1999

NOW THAT they have your attention, Ben Folds Five want you to feel their pain. Although the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, drums-bass-piano combo rose through ...

Willie Nelson Picnics At Woodstock

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, woodstock.com, 26 July 1999

WILLIE NELSON WAS FAR, far away from Woodstock in 1969, at least physically. He was about to return to Texas after a tumultuous decade as ...

Cher: Live At Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, California, August 20th, 1999

Live Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1999

BY EMBRACING her inner Studio 54, Cher recently landed the biggest hit of her four-decade career with the dance-house thumper ‘Believe’. Her mammoth stage show, ...

Rock and Television: The Tube Top 40

Report by Erik Himmelsbach, Request, November 1999

DAWSON HAS Joey on a boat, and they’re passionately kissing. Adolescent hormones are quietly raging, and Dawson makes it clear he wants to, um, get ...

Tommy Lee, Methods of Mayhem: Methods of Mayhem: Tommy Lee's Second Coming

Report and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999

Ex-Crüe drummer out of jail and back on the radio ...

Beck: Beck To The Future

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Request, January 2000

BECK WAKES up at 8 a.m., alone on the rock-star bus, wondering what the hell happened last night. He and his band were in Santa ...

The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt: The Eagles/Jackson Browne/Linda Ronstadt: Live at Staples Center, Los Angeles

Live Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Rolling Stone, 17 February 2000

THE KINGS of Country Rock have been on ice for the better part of two decades. Still, they earned most of their reported $7 million ...

Beachwood Sparks: Sons of The Pioneers: Beachwood Sparks

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, L.A. Weekly, 3 March 2000

THE SOUND was pure post-Sunset Strip riot chillout, a yanking of the reins away from pop chaos. It was all sweet, mournful harmonies, the plaintive ...

Aimee Mann, Michael Penn: Aimee Mann and Michael Penn

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Rolling Stone, 31 March 2000

In which two of L.A.’s best songwriters get dumped by their labels, get married and live happily ever after. ...

Hanson: Boys Are for Noise: Hanson Busts Out

Profile by Erik Himmelsbach, L.A. Weekly, 9 June 2000

LIKE MANY of us, comedian Jay Mohr has a Hanson fixation. "That’s the hottest kid I’ve seen in my life," he said, referring to vocalist ...

Snoop Doggy Dogg: Snoop Dogg: The Workaholik

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Revolver, Winter 2000

Snoop finds time for big business, Doggystyle ...

Elliott Smith: Coming Up Roses: Elliott Smith

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Revolver, Spring 2000

ELLIOTT SMITH indulges in a poor man's speedball – coffee and a camel light – while an engineer loads a tape containing rough mixes from ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: Sounds Unsilenced

Retrospective and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Revolver, Fall 2000

BRIAN WILSON made Paul McCartney cry. The cute Beatle readily admits that the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds has, on occasion, made him positively weepy. Sir ...

Electric Light Orchestra: I Love That ELO! A Jeff Lynne interview

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Rock's Backpages, 2001

IT IS JEFF LYNNE'S DIVINE RIGHT to wear women's clothing. British rockers d'un certain âge are afforded no-questions-asked lifetime passes for ambiguous sartorial choices simply ...

Full Tilt Boogie: The Long And Sometimes Bumpy Relationship Between Pop Music And Pinball Machines

Retrospective by Erik Himmelsbach, Revolver, May 2001

FEW INDUSTRIES RIVAL THE PEOPLE who bring you pinball machines when it comes to slavishly exploiting trends in popular culture. Back in the Forties, existing ...

Weezer: 50,000,000 Weezer Fans Can’t Be Wrong

Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Request, May 2001

BEFORE IT finds a cozy place in the annals of rock mythology alongside Ozzy's bat-biting, Rod Stewart's stomach pumping, and Mama Cass' deadly ham sandwich, ...

The Deviants, Mick Farren: Mick Farren on the Deviants, Fantasy Fiction and Blowing Things Up

Profile and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, L.A. Weekly, 23 November 2001

PUBLISHING MOGUL Felix Dennis was staring at the Caribbean Sea a few months ago, sucking down cocktails with fellow gazillionaires at Basil's Bar on the ...

Argent, Colin Blunstone, The Zombies: Zombie Heaven: Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone

Profile and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, LA CityBeat, 27 August 2003

MOJO MAGAZINE recently anointed the Zombies the fourth unluckiest band in pop history, largely because it scored its biggest hit, ‘Time of the Season’, more ...

Emitt Rhodes: Happy Happy, Joy Joy: Emitt Rhodes

Retrospective and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, LA CityBeat, 22 January 2004

EMITT RHODES still doesn’t know what hit him. Thirty years ago, he was the new Paul McCartney, an ambitious kid who craved the perfect pop ...

The Great Pretenders

Report by Erik Himmelsbach, LA CityBeat, 24 February 2005

Putting on the hits at Paladino's in the Valley ...

Martha Wainwright: Going Her Own Way: Martha Wainwright Makes Her Musical Mark

Report and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, LA CityBeat, 31 March 2005

MARTHA WAINWRIGHT almost didn't bother to pursue music. Because of her parents, singer-songwriters Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, who occupy certain esteemed places in ...

Petra Haden, The Who: She Can Sing For Miles And Miles: Petra Haden

Report and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, LA CityBeat, 30 June 2005

WHEN I WAS SINGLE, I had a litmus test for first dates: If a woman could tolerate my musical taste, she was worth a second ...

Harry Nilsson: A Roundhead in a Pointy-Head World: The Tragedy of Harry Nilsson

Retrospective by Erik Himmelsbach, Rock's Backpages, December 2007

IT WAS A brisk fall day in 1978 when the stretch limo appeared like a sore thumb onto a tenement block of Brooklyn's downtrodden Bushwick ...

Damon Krukowski: The New Analog – Listening and Reconnecting in a Digital World (Naomi Yang; The New Press)

Book Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Los Angeles Times Book Review, 27 April 2017

WE HAVE ALWAYS been such suckers for the shiny new object, especially now, with digital technologies coming fast and furious at consumers' kryptonite – the ...

The Music Festival That Time Forgot: Inside Steve Wozniak's US Fest

Retrospective and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Los Angeles, 28 June 2017

In 1982 Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak put on the US Festival, drawing huge bands and massive crowds. But its biggest claim to fame is how ...

David Hepworth: Uncommon People – The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars

Book Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Los Angeles Times Book Review, 16 November 2017

IT'S PROBABLY SAFE TO assume that most of us have wanted to be a rock star at some point in our lives. The impulse is ...

X: Los Angeles' Wild Gift

Retrospective by Erik Himmelsbach, Journal of Alta California, 28 May 2018

LIKE ITS New York counterpart the Velvet Underground, whose props as a fundamental rock and roll influence came only after years in oblivion, Los Angeles's ...

The GTOs: Miss Christine: The Fast Life of a Rock Legend

Retrospective by Erik Himmelsbach, Alta Journal, 11 December 2018

Christine Frka was a muse to Alice Cooper, a secretary to Frank Zappa, and a member of a pioneering all-girl band. The glamour goddess-icon of ...

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