The Dirty Heads – headlining the first California Roots Music and Arts Festival this Saturday at the Fairgrounds – was named one of the best new bands of 2010 by Rolling Stone magazine. But the Huntington Beach quintet is far from “new”: For the past 10 years they’ve persevered, playing the local bar scene before gaining notoriety with the release of Any Port in a Storm, featuring legendary keyboardist Billy Preston, known for his collaboration with The Beatles. Preston died 10 months after the album came out; it was his last recording.
The Dirty Heads also enlisted the vocal talents of Rome, Sublime’s new lead singer, and the wizardry of mixing engineer Mario “Mario C” Caldato Jr., one of the Beastie Boys’ behind-the-scenes geniuses.
The Orange County outfit doesn’t deny the Sublime influence that looms heavily upon its music. Even on the nostalgic Cali-roots tune “Believe,” Dustin Bushnell sings, “It was Beasties on my mind pretty much all the time/ till I started smoking pot and listening to Sublime/ Oh my God, I never wanted something so badly/ I wanted to learn to play guitar and sing just like Bradley.”
But the Dirty Heads aren’t just another dime-a-dozen Sublime carbon copy. They drop clever nuggets of humor into lyrics that would otherwise be dominated by burlap sacks of ganja, partying and love notes for Southern California. Check out the bathroom-speak used to slam the music industry on the dub-acoustic “Taint”: “Like the fans and the industry, they both got their complaints, now I’m stuck between an a****** and a d*** just like a taint.”
Along with the accolades from Rolling Stone, the Dirty Heads also appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show this year and are currently on tour with, fittingly enough, Sublime.
Even with a solid headliner like the Dirty Heads, Jeff Monser isn’t expecting his first go at putting together a festival to set any attendance records. But he insists he isn’t worried about it. In fact, he says he’ll be thrilled if 2,000 people show up.
They drop humor into lyrics that would otherwise be dominated by burlap sacks of ganja, partying and a love affair with Southern California.
“This will really be a learning experience for us,” says Monser, whose Santa Cruz-based California Roots Clothing sponsors several bands performing at the festival.
He came up with the idea for a festival featuring Sublime-inspired roots acts more than a year ago while attending the West Beach Music and Arts Festival in Southern California as a vendor.
“I fell in love with the whole festival scene,” he says, “the ambiance, the mellow and chill people.”
It’s only been six months since Monser began putting together the event but he has secured more than 15 bands – including Tribal Seeds and Top Shelf – as well as live painters and a 10-person team of live muralists.
“After people see how good the fest is this year and spread the word, a few years down the road, it could turn into a three-day festival on Memorial Day weekend every year,” Monser says. “That’s what the plan is.”
Monser obtained sponsors like Kona Brewing Co. and Monster Energy to help finance the festival, but most of the cash came from his own pocket. And he believes in his investment.
“I’ve been going to these festivals for the last year and have seen 40,000 people at some of them,” he says. “There’s no doubt in my mind that this festival can be successful.”
Some of the festival proceeds will go to the Boys and Girls Club Music Makers Foundation, who provide instruments for children.
The Santa Cruz reggae band Thrive, playing the main stage at 5:55pm, has also been known to give back to the less fortunate: They recently played a Beverly Hills charity event for orphans of HIV/AIDS victims.
In the reggae tradition, Thrive’s political consciousness is ever-present in its music: “Counterculture” is not only a pro-medicinal marijuana tune; it’s a mantra in support of indie music.
“In this day and age, independent music is taking over in terms of success in the industry; counterculture is the underground,” says singer/guitarist Aaron “Twist” Borowitz. “Mainstream hip-hip has lost a lot of genuineness and substance and is more about material things not the deeper things that humans can relate to.”
Borowitz stresses that Thrive’s music is all about family, community and growing together, a subscription to overall positivity that makes them a perfect fit with the neo-skunk-reggae scene Monser is bringing to Monterey. As the tune “Sufferin” infers, if you can’t get along you’re just not trying hard enough to work it out: “Boy you know you’ve done it wrong if you’re sufferin’.”
Thrive is currently working on its first full-length album, due out late this summer.
Like Thrive and The Dirty Heads, the California Roots Music and Arts Festival may not achieve immediate greatness – but enjoys the kind of roots that, with a little time and dedication, can sprout into something big.
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