Note: I am purposely jumping the gun on this a bit in case someone else has a more specific post planned for the rich musical locale of Los Angeles.

When I was preparing for this post earlier this morning I started to search the web for information on inclusion criteria for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I quickly lost interest in this because, well, I don’t really care and I suspect that you don’t either. Instead I will handle this by using made up numbers (bear with me please). Imagine that whatever the hall of fame requirements/expectations are that they could be expressed as a number. Now suppose that any number over an 80 gets a band or musician in. Perhaps, for reference, we will assume that that the Rolling Stones score out at 99 and Lynyrd Skinner somehow scores out at 81 (probably on the ubiquitousness of Sweet Home Alabama). Now let’s imagine applying these same measures to both Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven. Removing personal preference from the aforementioned hypothetical equation it is easy for me to imagine that both of these bands would clock in somewhere in the mid 60’s.

This brings me to the problem of David Lowery. As founding member and visible leader of both bands is it possible that he, in particular, deserves to get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame even if neither if his bands deserve this on their own? I suspect it might be. What do you think? Should either Cracker or Camper Van Beethoven be indicted into the Hall? Should David Lowery? Which of these bands do you like better? What bands would be in your personal Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Are there any other Southern California bands that need to be discussed?

Here are some songs to help get us going.

Camper Van Beethoven, "Sweethearts", Racine, WI, October 16, 2010 (via dephot)

Another one

This one's for TMISS

Cracker - Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now) (via pithrai)

Another one

Again