An homage to the long-shuttered nightclub The Satellite/Spaceland and to the Silver Lake-Echo Park-Hollywood of yesteryear is captured in a new video from a Los Angeles band.
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Once one of the cultural landmarks of Los Angeles’s east side, The Satellite nightclub in Silver Lake (which was formerly called Spaceland) hosted such acts as Lady Gaga, Foo Fighters, and many more nationally prominent alternative and pop groups before falling victim to the pandemic’s ebb on audiences.
The venue has been closed since 2020, joining other clubs and concert halls across the nation.
Ben Golomb, part of the band Modern Time Machines, came up with the video concept and spent years tracking down photos and footage.
“I’m an LA native, and it always puts a smile on my face to discover before/after images of familiar, local haunts in my hometown,” Golomb said. “I guess it’s a bit like finding a slightly awkward photo of your parents in their high school yearbook. You just have to know more about the little details. I named my band Modern Time Machines, and being a vintage-obsessed time travel nerd in general, it seemed pretty on brand to do this video as soon as the idea came to mind.”
Inspiration struck Golomb in late 2019 when the Amoeba Music location on Sunset was closing, followed soon after by the destruction of the Googie architecture Lytton Savings building on Sunset (it was a Chase Bank in its final incarnation before being demolished).
“I had to quickly jump into action to film sequences for the video, making repeated trips to locations right as they were in the process of being razed,” Golomb said. “Then I had to visually match time progression shots manually – it took a lot of work, but totally a labor of love. Practical effects all the way.
The video also repurposes some unused footage he filmed in 2014 with a DeLorean in Silver Lake, in front of The Satellite for a Modern Time Machines promo video. “So in a way, I was unknowingly working on this video for a decade,” Golomb said.
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Along the way, he became something of a local historian, particularly when it came to The Satellite.
“In earlier decades, going back to the 1950s, it was a restaurant called The Happy Hollow, then later it became known as The Red Chimney,” Golomb said. “The recent loss of The Satellite was particularly difficult for many people in the local music scene. That venue was like the Cheers of Silver Lake – a place where everybody knows your name – and most local folks I know still get a tad emotional when driving by the closed down, boarded up version of what it once was.”
Modern Time Machines performs the music in the video. “We recorded a dreamy space rock tune called “Ghost Signs (Sleight of Hand)” which lyrically hovers in the universe of tearing down memories and signs of the past, and ponders how time travel might (or might not) bring back what we’ve lost.”
Musicians involved include Modern Time Machines bandmates Mike Morgan and Olya Volkova, joined by friends Alex Jack, Nadia Franks, and Diana Christine Hereld, who all collaborated on the recording. Golomb and Josiah Mazzaschi co-produced it.
Actors seen in the video are Charles Phoenix and Happy Hollows lead singer Sarah Negahdari.
Watch the video above.
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