TriArt Fest

A little repost action for the homey, Craig. Should be a pretty cool event, both lineups look solid. Pedro needs this kinda energy! Please read the 411 below.

Here is the TriArt Mission Statement (taken from their website):

The TriArt Festival was created to increase the awareness and appreciation of San Pedro as a vibrant, sophisticated venue for all aspects of the arts including art, dance, and music and showcase the changing face of San Pedro as an artistic center.

END FWY Spiel:

This is somewhat of an up-and-coming San Pedro (town) civic event with a small budget and no corporate sponsorship. Although the TriArt Fest is in its fifth year, it is just now starting to gain some notoriety. The festival will include 12 professional dance companies from 12:00pm to 3:00pm and music from 3:00pm to 10pm on both days. This is the second year that DannyLou and I have been asked to be music directors which means we pick the bands and handle the sound. Last year we put together the music for one out of the two days with much success. This year we are handling the music end for both days. Thanks to Mr. TriArt himself, Joe Caccavalla for giving us another chance. We feel that this is a huge opportunity for the San Pedro Punk community to showcase the diverse sounds coming from our small town. This is definitely an alternative to the usual cover bands that frequent our town civic events. All roads end in Pedro!

– Craig Ibarra


SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH

TOYS THAT KILL (san pedro) ... 8:25pm
http://www.myspace.com/toysthatkill

DEATH HYMN NUMBER 9 (fullerton/san pedro) ... 7:25pm
http://www.myspace.com/deathhymnnumber9

LENGUAS LARGAS (arizona) ... 6:30pm
http://www.myspace.com/lenguaslargas

IMAGES (carson/san pedro) ... 5:35pm
http://www.myspace.com/images

BOMBÓN (san pedro) ... 4:40pm
http://www.myspace.com/bombonhoorah

THE EXXTRAS (san pedro) ... 3:50pm
https://www.facebook.com/theExxtras?sk=app_57675755167

BLACK SPARROW PRESS (san pedro) ... 3:05pm
http://www.facebook.com/blacksparrowpressband


SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25TH

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TO CANDYLAND (san pedro) ... 8:25pm
http://www.myspace.com/theundergroundrailroadtocandyland

MIKE WATT + THE MISSINGMEN (san pedro) ... 7:25pm
• san pedro debut of watt's third opera, "hyphenated-man."
http://www.myspace.com/missingmen

THE LAST (hermosa beach) ... 6:30pm
http://www.myspace.com/10395802

SACCHARINE TRUST (wilmington) ... 5:35pm
http://www.myspace.com/sactrust

HARI-KARI (south bay) ... 4:40pm
http://www.myspace.com/harikarisanpedropunk

CAN OF BEANS (san pedro) ... 3:50pm
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Can-Of-Beans/252302708008?sk=app_2405167945

KIDS OF CASEY ANTHONY (san pedro/los angeles) ... 3:05pm
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kids-of-Casey-Anthony/178438825533302?ref=ts

DANCE INFORMATION:

http://www.lachoreographersanddancers.org/TriArt_Festival_Dance.html



MUSIC INFO (DAY ONE):

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=248442788502073



MUSIC INFO (DAY TWO):

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187602867967451

http://www.triartfestival.com

Thanks Harry

Cool beans....

Yes, people really say that. Ok so my friend Craig just dropped this rad stencil/collage of the one and only Harry Bridges. All 10 pieces are one of a kind, signed and numbered by the artist. Holler at the friends at Water Under The Bridge Records to get down with the flow.

Vinyl Style

Green, clear, white, oh my!

Unfortunately I do not own a record player. Ebay potential? Staple on the wall? Pedro memorabilia archive? Coming to you by way of y(our) local record company: Water Under the Bridge.

The Reactionaires

My friends Bob Archer and Craig Ibarra have been working on this project for the past year. Rather than give my 2 cent version of the story here is the official press release for your reading pleasure. The record release party is going down @ Harold's on February 20, check it out.

THE REACTIONARIES

(1978-1979)

MIKE WATT – BASS AND BACK-UP SINGING

D. BOON – GUITAR

MARTIN TAMBUROVICH – SINGING

GEORGE HURLEY – DRUMS

THE PRECURSOR TO THE MINUTEMEN.

ON FEBRUARY 1, 2010, NEW SAN PEDRO BASED RECORD DEVICE, WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE RECORDS ALONG WITH 45 RPM RECORDS WILL RELEASE A 12-INCH VINYL RECORD DOCUMENTING A 1979 PRACTICE TAPE BY SAN PEDRO’S FIRST PUNK BAND, THE REACTIONARIES. PLUS A VERY SPECIAL BONUS B-SIDE.

The Minutemen Were Reactionaries

By Joe Carducci

For most of the music world – or rather the much smaller rock world – of the early 1980s, the Minutemen seemed to arrive fully formed, as if from some other planet. Questions must have immediately crossed minds: Where are these guys from? What drugs are they on? Are they carbon-based life forms?

Those reactions were understandable, as it was the 45-song, double 33 rpm Double Nickels On The Dime (SST 028) that introduced the band to most folks outside of Los Angeles. If I remember right, the initial sales jumped from the five thousand range for Buzz Or Howl Under The Influence Of Heat (SST 016), to fifteen thousand for Double Nickels. (Of course all those releases sold far more after the day.)

D. Boon, Mike Watt and George Hurley were always deflecting the effusiveness of fans in clubs, or in interviews – it was part of their charm. But think about it, the Minutemen were telling kids that they could pick up instruments and do the same! Nobody who saw them live believed that for a second.

I was at Systematic Record Distribution and got their first record, Paranoid Time (SST 002), from the label and ordered it for distribution to shops around the country. It was hard enough for me to discern how great they were from that and their early follow-up records and compilation tracks. To my ear, I don’t think I really heard what they were capable of until they were playing the Anti-Club regularly in 1983-84. There was just so much music packed into their short, fast tunes. And at each gig a few older, simpler tunes were replaced by new, even more masterful tunes. At their first San Francisco gig at the Mabuhay, Dirk Dirksen (who ran and MC’ed the club), strolled out on stage to introduce them and the first thing he saw was a four-foot long set-list taped to D.’s mic-stand and Dirk said, “What is this, the history of music?!” It was! When we recorded the long tail of the song “More Spiel” for Project: Mersh (SST 034) I joked to D. that he had just laid down a six-minute history of the guitar solo. At SST, hearing guitarists Greg Ginn, Joe Baiza and Curt Kirkwood all the time, it was easy to underestimate how great a guitar player D. was. That radical reformation the Reactionaries performed on themselves to become the Minutemen encouraged that, because it elevated Mike and George to co-lead players.

But their world-historical, musical summation had a history as well. And that was their late-seventies band, the Reactionaries. Mike and D. had known each other since junior high. They met Martin Tamburovich and George Hurley at San Pedro high, although they wouldn’t claim they knew George because in Watt’s words, “he was a happening cat,” whereas D., Mike, and Martin were on the not-so-happening end of the high school social spectrum. As George tells it: “For a long time Mike would ask me to play music with him. He wanted to jam out, but I really wasn’t into it ‘cause I was a Surfer then and he was sort of a geek. I don’t know, we were kids. Finally, I agreed to it.” This kind of transgression of school social hierarchy is common when music brings young kids together in their first band. It’s an under-appreciated aspect of the power of music.

Thankfully the Reactionaries recorded a practice in their attempt to get gigs so we have these 10 songs to contemplate. What you can hear are the rudiments of the Minutemen’s sound, only unlike most bands, they only got rid of stuff as they improved. D. is already a good guitar player with his trebly sound in place. Mike and George play more standard-rock bass and drums parts, and Martin sounds like he belongs on the mic, though the quality of the lyrics varies widely. Chuck Dukowski saw them and reports, “Martin was a cool singer and I liked his style.” They were just out of high school and though they already had their obsessive interests, the lyrics (by Mike, Martin, and friends outside the band) show an awkward adaptation to the punk style as they understood it. Like a lot of lyrics by seventies punk bands, television is of particular concern – punks who were determined to create a music scene thought watching TV was a fate co-equal to Death.

In February of 1979, Chuck and Greg Ginn were flyering a Clash, Bo Diddley, Dils show at the Santa Monica Civic when they met D. and Mike. The flyer was for what would be the second Black Flag gig and it was going to be in San Pedro. D. and Mike were amazed to learn of a gig in Pedro and Chuck hadn’t known there was a punk band there, so he put the Reactionaries on the bill. It was their first gig; they played with Black Flag, the Descendents (their debut too), the Alley Cats, the Plugz and an impromptu mini-set by the Last. A world-historical night, however many paid at the door.

The Reactionaries played only two more gigs, opening for the Suburban Lawns at their practice pad in Long Beach. They made a pass at getting a gig at the Other Masque up in Hollywood, but the band was falling apart. Mike’s description of D.’s loss of interest in the Reactionaries is interesting. Apparently D. didn’t offer his songs to the Reactionaries and then found them another guitarist (Todd Apperson) so he could quit. They broke up around mid-1979. George found a band in Hollywood called Hey Taxi! and is on their 45. Though soon enough, D. and Mike regroup and eventually pull George back into their new, improved mess after their new drummer (Frank Tonche) walked offstage and quit during their second gig. At the Minutemen’s first gig (May 1980), Greg asked them to do a record for SST.

The devil's playground

I think it is safe to assume that you guys know that I was born and raised in San Pedro (pronounced PEE-DRO for all you out of towners) but in fact I have moved around Cali here and there. In 06'/07' I lived in the LBC aka Strong Beach aka Long Beach. LB is a HUGE city that maintains a blossoming downtown district while still preserving that small neighborhood beach community feeling. Long Beach is definitely a melting pot (I can't help but think of the Bay when I use that phrase but in context LB is not as cool as SF).

Bars are bars. I have done my fair share of boozing in damn near all of them while living in Long Beach. The watering holes that are tucked away off the main drag are usually pretty cool finds. Alex's Bar is a true gem, like stepping into a mini version of hell: red painted walls, cheap drinks, horrible service but live rock and roll almost every night. This weekend Alex is celebrating his 10 year anniversary with a sick lineup of the Adolescents, Mike Watt and Riverboat Gamblers live on stage.

In these tough economic times it's great to hear that the small businessman is still alive and kicking. But then again, recession or economic boom, people will drink regardless. Cheers and I'll see you in the pit!