Blame it on the weather? How people 9 miles away heard the pounding of music from Inglewood

Chris Bankoff lives in Westchester and is accustomed to two kinds of noise: the occasional house party hosted by Loyola Marymount University students and the roar of planes taking off from LAX.

What he didn't expect to hear on August 2 was the low, thumping music of HARD Summer, a house and techno festival held at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, about five miles from Bankoff's home.

When he first heard the beats that Friday, he thought it was a neighborhood party and dismissed it. But the next afternoon, Bankoff said, the noise resumed and was even louder than the day ...