Songs of Van Nuys: January 2011 Archives

I get lots of music press releases. I'm generally only interested in the ones that feature L.A. artists, and after 99 of the previous 100 feature scruffy types who extol life on the Eastside (as if the rest of the city has fallen off a cliff into the drink below ... never mind that we all know for all intents and purposes it has done just that), I grow weary.

Didn't musicians used to actually, you know live in the San Fernando Valley not so much because it's hip (because it's not) but because it's cheap, and you're away from the fray (of terminal coolness, not necessarily gunfire).

Hundreds if not thousands of albums, classic and otherwise, have been recorded in studios dotting Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Studio City and other areas because ... they're cheap and, again, away from the fray.

I digress.

I received a release on Henry Wolfe, a singer-songwriter whose Tumblr and MySpace pages happen to feature a video of him performing a song called "Van Nuys." With strings. (Not attached, except to violins, cellos and the like).

It's not even an especially funny song. I get that musicians who expect to be taken seriously don't do funny. Or at least they tamp it down into well-boiled irony.

That's what I love about L.A. in general, the Valley in particular. It's love-hate-annoyance-familarity-contempt-smoggy-shangri-la with dollops of medical marijuana residue and Slurpee sludge on top.

If you want to see the lyrics to "Van Nuys," they live here in JPG form.

Let's face it, Van Nuys doesn't get mentioned that often in song. Especially not in the title. In fact, I really can't think of any other Van Nuys songs off-hand. Can you?

If you want to see this happen live on stage, Henry Wolfe performs Tuesday, Jan. 11 with Willoughby at the Hotel Cafe, 1623 1/2 N. Cahuenga Blvd. in Los Angeles-slash-Hollywood. Showtime is 9:30-11:30 p.m.

Playing with Wolfe on the date are Mark Noseworthy, guitar; Tay Strathairn, keyboards; Jake Blanton, bass; and Mike Green, drums.

Wolfe's album titled "Linda Vista," and featuring "Van Nuys" and other songs, is set for what's being called "late March 2011" release.

I'm not sure whether or not Henry Wolfe really lives ... outside the Eastside (or actually in Van Nuys). It doesn't seem possible. Doesn't city statute require all L.A. musicians to live in Echo Park, Silver Lake, Los Feliz or Eagle Rock (but only with special dispensation for the latter)?

All I know is that with patron saint of Van Nuys Sandra Tsing Loh's recent decampment to Pasadena, good ol' Van Nuys in is need of its own slice of mid-level fame (really the only kind that matters, am I right?).

Image below: Henry Wolfe doesn't always wear a hat, but he does in this image from his Tumblr page: