Hanni El Khatib

"People like to get shit done in L.A.," says Hanni El Khatib. And who better to rep the Angeleno work ethic than the rock 'n' roller, who in his 18 months since emigrating from San Francisco, has toured with Florence and the Machine, landed songs in both an HBO show and Nike ad and revived the dormant L.A. garage rock scene with the release of last year's, Will the Guns Come Out.

The sudden success is even more dramatic (this is L.A. after all) since it wasn't so long ago that the then San Francisco-based Khatib was just filling in on tour with his best friend Marc Bianchi's band, Her Space Holiday -- an excuse for him to take working vacations from his day job designing for the skate-brand HUF. "It was like, 'You want me to play guitar with you in Europe for two weeks? Cool.'"

Though his musician friends have helped him along the way -- Bianchi has backed him up in the studio and his old-friend Nicky Fleming Yaryan plays drums with him live -- El Khatib, for the most part, writes and produces all his tracks himself.

But when the HUF gig took him to L.A., Innovative Leisure label founder Jamie Strong (of Do-Over party fame) took note, releasing Khatib's debut 7-inch "Dead Wrong" a year ago.

Khatib not only found a label (where he came on as both a partner and their in-house designer), but a fermenting scene of groups taking rock 'n' roll back to its primordial booze. Along with bands like Tijuana Panthers and labelmates Allah-Las, Nick Waterhouse and Feeding People (whom Khatib is also producing), these guys are all flying a well-worn but well-made flag of Los Angeles-based vintage-not-retro rock 'n' roll. It's a distinction, Khatib points out, as distinct as it is important. "When I think 'retro' I think replicating--vintage is referencing, making it your own. I like the Cramps' versions of Johnny Burnette and Charlie Feathers songs better than the originals."

Even if his attitude is still pretty NorCal when it comes to sizing up his Southland success ("All this is seriously taking what was a hobby and rolling with it," he insists), Khatib credits the City of Angels with giving him his wings: "L.A.'s shown me being part of the scene can be pretty rad."