Tag Archives: Whammy! Analog Media

Whammy! Analog Media Celebrates Third Anniversary with Day of Live Music

Chaki performs live at Whammy! Analog Media's third anniversary party in Echo Park on Sunday, February 9, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Chaki reppin’ Zankou Chicken on stage at Whammy! Analog Media’s third anniversary party. (Photo: Liz O.)

Whammy! Analog Media, the VHS shop and microcinema in Echo Park, celebrated its third anniversary on Sunday, February 10, with a day of live music.  While bands were scheduled to play from noon until 8 p.m., I was only able to check out the 4 – 7 p.m. stretch, which included performances from Chaki, Major Entertainer and Pride Month Barbie

A theme running throughout the afternoon was how special Whammy! is and that’s true. It’s actually one of the few places in L.A. that legit lives up to the overused descriptive “hidden gem.” Although the shop’s address is on Sunset Blvd., you won’t notice it from the street, you have to walk down Rampart and enter through the alley. Once you step inside, you’ll feel like you’ve been transported to another past that’s cooler than the one that actually existed. Trust me, you would not be able to find many of the movies here at the corporate video stores that now stoke nostalgia in people. And you certainly wouldn’t be bobbing your head to “Mesopotamia,” the funkiest of the B-52s’ jams, while you browse. 

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Lost in Time at WHAMMY! Analog Media

Hammerman cartoon starring MC Hammer from 1991 on VHS at Whammy! Analog Media in Echo Park. (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
At Whammy! Analog Media, I learned that there was an M.C. Hammer cartoon. (Photo: Liz O.)

On a drizzly, Sunday afternoon, I half-forgot about what I was looking for inside WHAMMY! I was semi-crouched in a small aisle, scooting out of the way of passersby while scanning the spines of VHS releases of old cartoons. There was the Charlotte’s Web movie that I still vividly recall seeing multiple times on TV as a kid. (Was it one of the Family Film Festival movies? Do anyone else who spent ‘80s weekends watching KTLA remember?) Two Care Bears cassettes were filed next to something called Buttons & Rusty, which I don’t remember at all. 

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