A new music video is a love letter to long-lost landmarks and symbols of LA – NBC Los Angeles

Time travel, at least according to many movies and books, involves a swirl of neon lights and some kind of shimmering door, a strange portal to another place.

Yet millions of Southern Californians pass the time every day simply by walking down a street that has been home to numerous businesses over the decades or even centuries.

A music video titled “Ghost Signs (Sleight of Hand)” by indie band Modern Time Machines pays tribute to our region’s incredibly complex and storied past by combining images of what used to be in a place with what stands there today.

Charles Phoenix, the popular historian known for his rollicking mid-century slideshows, makes the perfect cameo: the feisty Los Angeles promoter of all things retro appears as a mysterious salesman of time-travel sunglasses.

Several businesses are featured in the video, including beloved Silver Lake sign superstars Happy Foot and Sad Foot, who add pizzazz to the rockin’ 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 temporarily became The Satellite, and the Sunset Pacific Motel are also mentioned in the striking video directed by Modern Time Machines member Ben Golomb.

Mr. Golomb says it took nearly a decade to complete this passion project, which is movingly evident when you consider how each older photo fits perfectly with a new snapshot taken in the same spot.

The dreamy song is also evocative and upliftingly esoteric, fitting the Southern Californian mood of this trip down memory lane adventure. Or maybe we mean “boulevard” rather than “lane,” since Silver Lake and Sunset Boulevards feature prominently in the video.

As it is, you bet it’s a DeLorean; if you want to make a video about time travel and LA, you should watch a film that still captures our futuristic fantasies.

Modern Time Machines will play an over-21 show at The Goldfish on Friday 12 July; tickets and info here.