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
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, ...
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 Manhattans Lower East Side barely allows ...
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 theyre 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 ...
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 ...
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. "Thats the hottest kid Ive 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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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