Long Beach, Calif.—On Saturday, July 25, from 1p.m. to 7 p.m., seven of Southern California’s top tribute bands will battle head to throat for cash prizes and tribute fame, rocking out Downtown Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor amphitheater with spotless renditions of everyone from Bruce Springsteen to The Rolling Stones.

Hosted by Summer And Music (SAM)—Downtown Long Beach’s re-vamped, summer-long music series featuring more than 40 shows—this battle of the bands may even be more impressive than the real thing. Better yet, it’s FREE, conveniently located outdoors at the Nautical Band Shell in Rainbow Harbor, between Gladstone's and PF Chang's on South Pine Avenue.

Any band buff can brag about their favorite music legends, but not many can play the part. Not the case with these tribute groups. In fact, the day’s lineup includes a slew of talent so close to the real deal, you’ll be double-taking all afternoon.

To name a few, No Duh (the acclaimed No Doubt clone), Stepping Feet (a dead ringer for DMB) and The Rising (as close to Bruce Springsteen as you’ll get these days) will compete with favorites like Vitalogy (Pearl Jam’s mirror image), Hollywood U2 (as close to Bono as you’ll get these days), The Cured (The Cure for what ails Robert Smith fans) and Satisfaction (fully equipped with Mick Jagger swagger, speaking of legends).

Killer DJ grooves will be spinning for the first hour. At 2 p.m., bands will begin competing two at a time on the outdoor stage, moving to the next round after a decibel reading from the crowd’s applause and a vote by celebrity judges - including The Press Telegram’s Tim Grobaty - on authenticity, stage presence and musicianship. After the third round, the two tribute bands favored most by the audience and judges will win more than $3,000 in cash prizes.
 

Responsible for the rejuvenated music series, Downtown Long Beach Associates and the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency understand that there is too much incredible local music to ignore—tribute bands included. So, they’ve partnered with two local event-savvy music gurus—Justin Hectus (co-founder of Schooled In Song) and Rand Foster (owner of popular Belmont Shore record shop Fingerprints)—to plan this summer of stellar sound.

At SAM’s Battle of the Tribute Bands, you can munch on some powdered sugar fried dough, eat your butter pecan ice cream and listen to some of the finest collective tribute music Long Beach has to offer. What are you waiting for? Elvis?

Long Beach, Calif.—Pine Avenue restaurant Smooth’s Sports Grille will double as a rock venue this month for the debuting concert series “Twice on Sundays”—an event co-hosted by community groups Schooled in Song and We Love Long Beach, featuring a four-week performance residency with music by Jay Buchanan and a slew of special guests, and live video art performances by Warren Woodward.

In addition to the notable resident artists, special guest bands include Free Moral Agents, 60-Watt Kid, So Many Wizards, Blank Blue and Deep Sea Diver—each slotted for one-time appearances throughout the month (see attached flyer for dates).

Shows are scheduled from noon to 6 p.m. every Sunday from March 15-April 5, 2009, on the first level of Smooth’s (located at 144 Pine Ave on the corner of Broadway and Pine). There will be a $2 cover charge at the door and 2 hour free parking available with validation. Live video art will broadcast across Smooth’s 25 flat screen TVs to accompany the music and $2 drink specials will be offered.

Justin Hectus, co-founder of Schooled in Song, understands the slogan for these weekend outings—“Feed your soul with music every day of the week and twice on Sundays”—all too well.

“Art and music are a city’s vitamins,” he said. “Without them, a city starves. But Long Beach doesn’t have to starve! We have world-class musicians living all over town. This event showcases that local talent, while simultaneously feeding our downtown what it needs to grow.”

We Love Long Beach coordinator Scott Jones is equally energized by the event and excited to partner with Hectus on the project.

“The series will be a great opportunity for residents and music fans alike,” he said, “to celebrate our city and strengthen the downtown community. We Love Downtown Long Beach!"

John Morris, Smooth’s owner and an active community leader, considers the event a great way to bring business back to downtown.

“I think we all know what a great component music can be to get more traffic down here,” he said. “The economy can’t touch peoples’ love for art. Our local musicians and artists are recession proof and I’m honored to give them a place to play.”

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We Love Long Beach is a non-profit community organization actively working to know and serve the People, the Neighborhoods and the City of Long Beach.

Schooled In Song is a cooperative of Long Beach residents that raises money to support music and art education programs and scholarships through high-quality music experiences featuring local artists.

Photos by Brett Bixby

Long Beach News | 01.27.09| ryan@lbpost.com

Benefit Show Gives Artists, Community Time To Shine

On Sat. Jan. 24, “Say Yes,” a benefit show featuring a variety of local artists and musicians, took over the Goods Gallery (former shipping yard at 200 Long Beach Blvd.). The event required a $10 donation upon entry and was the mastermind of the same dedicated citizens and Art Council members who brought you the wonderful Schooled in Song music extravaganza at last year's University by the Sea, and the inaugural Schooled in Song Event at the Carpenter Center in 2007 - including U-Sea founder and Smolarcorp head Ryan Smolar, and Schooled in Song co-founder Justin Hectus. Locally renowned and nationally praised poets Derrick Brown, Mindy Nettifee, Beau Sia and Amber Tamblyn (also an actor and star of "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and "Joan of Arcadia") performed the spoken-word and beat poetry sections of the show.  The musical section of the program was handled by DJ Abel; the band Free Moral Agents, featuring the keyboardist Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, most recently from The Mars Volta. The highlight of the show was one of the town's top singer-songwriter blues enthusiasts and Schooled in Song activist Jay Buchanan.

Buchanan and his band of highly skilled craftsman entertained an attentive audience for over an hour right as the sun was setting over Ocean Blvd. Buchanan certainly set the tone for personal freedom and happiness with new songs such as “Feel Better” and “Internal Dialogue,” singing “There is beauty everywhere… allow yourself the comfort of others.”

It was inspiring and brought the people together with a new sense of pride for their city and each other.

“It was really awesome to see how many different types of artists came out to support such an amazing cause,” Kristina Laney, 22, Long Beach resident said.  “All the arts, poets, and musicians were very talented.”

After Buchanan’s set, there was some power trouble and the show was delayed about 30 minutes, giving the patrons a chance to visit the booths of several sponsors, screen-print a custom T-shirt, or browse the homemade art gallery in what looked like a garbage-dump-turned-walkthrough-display consisting of three cargo containers in a U-shape.

Rob Zabreky, one of the Magic Castle's Trio, performed a magic show and Greg Navarro Pickens and Steve Ellicker gave a presentation on the future of Art Exchange, a multiuse art space planned for the "Broadway Block," where the Goods Gallery now stands. 

According to Justin Hectus, the event grossed nearly $8,000 and brought together over 500 people despite rain warnings. The Goods Gallery will soon be replaced with the Art Exchange and the containers housing local art are for sale on Ebay.

GALLERY'S GOOD; BARN'S BETTER: The Goods Gallery is one of our favorite new buildings in Long Beach, simply because it looks like something we would like to live in, or, should it come to that, work in.
In terms of overall favorites, it follows only The Barn, which is a work commissioned by and lived in by What's Hot!

The two structures have several things in common. Both were built in a matter of a few short weeks; both were built to at least some degree by former city councilman and future king and contractor Mike Donelon; both have been and will continue to be (to wildly varying extents) havens for the arts - in fact, Justin Hectus, president of the Arts Council for Long Beach, has been in both The Barn and the Goods Gallery, though he has only imbibed several Irish Car Bombs in just one of the two places.

On Saturday, from 4 till 10 p.m., while The Barn will be concentrating on sports and various types of rehabilitation, the Goods Gallery, the majestic, reused clump of shipping containers at 200 Long Beach Blvd., will be the site for Say Yes To Art, a benefit show featuring a mess of mostly local but renowned far afield artists in music, poetry, magic and art.

Nationally praised poets Derrick Brown, Mindy Nettifee, Beau Sia and Amber Tamblyn (who's also an actor and star of "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and "Joan of Arcadia") will perform the spoken-word parts of the show, while the musical section of the program will be handled by turntablist DJ Abel; the band Free Moral Agents, featuring the keyboardist-about-town Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, most recently from The Mars Volta; and one of the town's top singer-songwriter rockers and Schooled in Song activist Jay Buchanan.

Rob Zabreky, a sizeable fraction of the Magic Castle's Unholy Trio, will perform a Dadaesque magic show at sunset, and Greg Navarro Pickens and Steve Ellicker will give a presentation on the the future of Art Exchange, a multiuse art space planned for the "Broadway Block," where the Goods Gallery now stands.
The event is being put together by many of the same folks who brought you the fabulous Schooled in Song bandfest at last year's University by the Sea - including University founder and Smolarcorp boss Ryan Smolar, and the Schooled in Song co-founder Justin Hectus, who we last saw just a few paragraphs ago.

Also involved are Write Now Poetry Society's Nettifee, Goods Gallery director Evan Kelly and the founder and president of the State of Art Project Mark Ukleja.

All ages are welcome and a $10 donation at the door is suggested. For info, check your Web at www.goodsgallerylb.com.

tgrobaty@yahoo.com, 562-499-1256

Hopefully you were lucky enough to catch Greg Laswell's record release in-store at Fingerprints Records last July.  It was fantastic.  If you weren't able to join us, we have a double dose of good news; first Greg is playing a special Schooled in Song/University by the Sea Festival kick-off show Saturday night at the Blue Cafe, with an appearance by one f, all the way from San Francisco.  Second, not only do we have advance tickets available at Fingerprints, but the first 200 people who buy a ticket (either at the store or at the door) will get a free copy of a handful of tracks from Greg's July in-store.   Advance tickets are $10 and at the door they're $12.

Greg Laswell goes on at 10, and one f hits the stage at Midnight.  See you there!

Thirty bands, six DJ's, three stages, two spoken word artists and not one penny to you...

Visit www.universitybythesea.com to download the full schedule and register for classes.