What to Know
- The video for "Ghost Signs (Sleight of Hand)" from Modern Time Machines debuted in July 2024
- Historian Charles Phoenix, famous for his snappy slideshows, makes a colorful cameo
- Spaceland, the much-loved Silver Lake music venue, is celebrated in the video, as are the Happy Foot/Sad Foot of Silver Lake Boulevard
Time travel, at least according to many movies and books, involves a swirl of neon lights and some sort of dazzling doorway, a peculiar portal to another place.
But millions of Southern Californians travel through the time each day simply by moving along a street that has been home to numerous businesses over the decades, or even centuries.
A music video called "Ghost Signs (Sleight of Hand)" from the indie band Modern Time Machines honors our region's incredibly layered and story-filled past by pairing pictures of what was formerly in one location with what stands in that spot today.
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Charles Phoenix, the beloved historian known for his rollicking midcentury slideshows, has the perfect cameo: The buoyant booster of all things retro Los Angeles appears as the mysterious seller of time travel sunglasses.
Several businesses make appearances in the video, with those beloved Silver Lake sign superstars, the Happy Foot and Sad Foot, adding gusto to the rocking love letter to LA.
Or should we say gus-toe? (We love you forever, Happy Foot, and you, too, Sad Foot.)
Spaceland, the iconic Silver Lake music venue that tranformed into The Satellite for a time, and the Sunset Pacific Motel are also remembered in the evocative video, which was directed by Modern Time Machines member Ben Golomb.
Mr. Golomb shares that the passion project took almost a decade to complete, something that becomes movingly apparent as each older photo is perfectly paired with a new snapshot taken in the same spot.
The dreamy song, too, is evocative and upliftingly esoteric, fitting the SoCal-flavored mood of this memory lane adventure. Or perhaps we mean memory "boulevard" rather than "lane," as Silver Lake and Sunset Boulevards are featured prominently in the video.
As is, you betcha, a DeLorean; if you're going to do a video about time travel and LA, you should pay Back to a film that still captures our futuristic fancies.
Modern Time Machines will play a 21+ show at The Goldfish on Friday, July 12; tickets and info are right here.
