Rant!
Both of these bands I just mentioned (the Bird and the Bee and No Age) are LA bands. Although NY has a reputation for fueling musical creativity and having lots of cool bands, my experience living in LA taught me that it’s infinitely easier to be in a band there, as the driving culture and relative glut of space lets people transport their instruments and then have a place to practice loudly. Unless you’re lucky enough to have a very large space with soundproofing or unusually tolerant neighbors, it’s common in New York to pay hourly rates to use a practice space — the spaces are nice but paying for the time (30$ an hour is not uncommon) really discourages noodling and messing around, and general creativity I think.
I felt like going to and playing shows was more fun and casual there than it is in New York City, where people feel blessed with the opportunity to play some shitty bar in Chinatown (the 169 bar comes to mind) and beg their friends to come pay 10 dollars to see them so they can afford drinks and the cabs they used to bring their gear.
Step up your game, New York! There’s a cap to how much struggling your artists are supposed to do.