O.C. showcase a crazy idea? (April 19, 2002)

April 19, 2002

By ROBERT KINSLER

Special to the Register

Although Orange County has long been a breeding ground for worthwhile musicians, there has traditionally been little commercial radio airplay for them.

Orange County's "Super Cool" 94.3 FM kicked off its "Go Loco" local music showcase at 8 p.m. Sunday with a promising four-hour program featuring music of No Doubt and the Offspring as well as up-and-comers Handsome Devil, Wonderlove, Sparklejets U.K., the Killingtons and dozens of others.

Hosted by Sean "Thumb" Ziebarth, "Go Loco" will please fans with eclectic taste, ranging from punk (U.S. Bombs, Social Distortion) and hard rock (Fu Manchu) to pop-rock (Scarlet Crush) and electronica (Uberzone). To expand the program's freewheeling scope, guest hosts frequently will share the mike with Ziebarth, including Tazy Phyllipz, Austin Brown, and Christian Jacobs of the Aquabats.

"Obviously there is a lot of punk stuff," Ziebarth said of the Orange County scene. "With this show, I'm hoping to see what else is out there."

Ziebarth, of Fountain Valley, has worked for Huntington Beach-based Nitro Records (owned by Dexter Holland of the Offspring) since January 2000. Before going to work at Nitro, Ziebarth was at Salt Lake City alternative station X96, including a stint as music director.

It was while hosting a punk show in Utah in 1992 that he was first able to champion Orange County's Adolescents, Social Distortion and T.S.O.L.

The Orange County weekly show was the idea of Mike Halloran, program director for Anaheim-based 94.3 and San Diego's KFSD/ 92.1 FM, which has scored high ratings with a "Go Loco" featuring artists from south of San Clemente.

"The whole idea is while this is obviously something cool for musicians, it is also for people who have never picked up an instrument and just want to hear cool music," Ziebarth said.

"Go Loco" marks the second significant step by 94.3 to support the ever-growing local music scene, following February's launch of a live "Battle of the Bands" program held at the Irvine Spectrum at 5 p.m. Sundays.

Although "Go Loco" can feature more than 50 songs every Sunday, not every artist who submits a CD will receive airplay. The point of the program is to be inclusive, finding the best in every style.

Ziebarth also intends to focus on solo singer-songwriters, a growing part of Orange County's music scene.

"We will listen to everything," Ziebarth said.

What does it take to get your music on the show? "We want to be honest; it's about good songwriting and good (studio) production," Ziebarth said.

For more information, including how to submit music for consideration, go online at goloco.blogspot.com or catch the show.

Rich Kane gets the Lowballasschatter on Go Loco. (Apr 19, 2002)

LOWBALLASSCHATTER Vol. 7 No. 33 April 19 - 25, 2002 GOOD RADIO INVADES OC!

We acerbic rock critics are eternally hard to please: go on, make us love you, damn it!

So naturally we had some major concerns about Go Loco, the new four-hour local music show that debuted April 14 on better-formatted, Anaheim-based "Orange County's Independent Radio Station" KMXN-FM 94.3.

Among our worst fears: that the show would be 240 solid minutes of the Offspring, No Doubt, Lit and Sugar Ray, with maybe a Social Distortion tune thrown in to appear "edgy"; that it would be overstuffed with tuneless Huntington Beach bro rawk; or that Go Loco would basically be our own Locals Only mail bin come to life, rotting our brains with bad, bad tuneage.

Things didn't sound so hot when the Sunday-8 p.m-to-midnight show started off with a track by Rufio, who aren't exactly OC local they're from Rancho Cucamonga. but they are signed to Dexter Holland's Huntington Beach-based Nitro label, so we suppose that kinda counts. (Their cookie-cutter emo isn't very good, admittedly, but hey, nobody can like everything spun on the radio.)

The Go Loco rule for local bands, as was often spouted by cranky co-host Sean Thumb (a steady stream of guest jocks, including Ska Parade/SPRadio1's Tazy Phyllipz, Aquabat Christian Jacobs and Paul Frank Industries' Austin Brown, will commandeer each hour), is that if you can pick up 94.3's signal, then you qualify to have your song played on the show.

To get your music in the hands of the right people, you're supposed to hand-deliver it to KMXN's sub-station at the Block at Orange on Wednesdays between noon and 2 p.m., which could be a bit problematic for the 99 percent of OC musicians who have classes and day jobs (hopefully, you'll soon be able to mail it in, but in either case, bleep out any cuss words, kids - this is commercial radio).

Judging by the debut, Go Loco won't discriminate in regards to genre, either: on Sunday, we heard hip-hop from Long Beach's Ugly Duckling and DJ/electronic noodling from Uberzone, Simply Jeff and DJ Nobody there were even a couple of gentle singer/songwriter/folkie cuts (no jazz or country yet, but give 'em another week or two). Still, this is primarily a rock show, with electric guitars and such.

Here's an abbreviated list of area bands played on Sunday's quite lovely Go Loco premiere: the Smut Peddlers, Red 5 (a cut off their never-released Interscope disc), Bikeride, the Aquabats, Limbeck, Wonderlove, Scarlet Crush, Smile (a track from their old Maquee album), CodeName: Rocky, Fu Manchu, Sparklejets UK, MelEe, Handsome Devil, Death On Wednesday, Supernova, the Von Steins, Nice, Vavac, Bullet Train to Vegas, the Put-Ons, Inside Out ("No Spiritual Surrender," with Zach de la Rocha on vocals), the Stitches, the Skeletones, Up Syndrome, Stavesacre (their cover of X's "The Hungry Wolf"), TSOL, US Bombs, not one but two Crowd songs ("Modern Machine" and "Surf Ghetto"), a three-song live set from Thrice courtesy of Tazy's tapes, Jay Buchanan (who, as Tazy reported, has finally been signed to a proper label, Ultimatum, and has rechristened his band as simply Buchanan), and thankfully keeping things new and undiscovered just one song each from No Doubt, the Offspring and Social D (but before-they-were-rock-stars oldies from the last two, "Jennifer Lost the War" and "Another State of Mind").

By the time Go Loco's four hours closed out with the Adolescents' "Amoeba," we were more than convinced that the show has set itself up to become something important, vital, needed and very, very special the cult is already forming, and Tazy tells us listeners were waiting on the phone for two hours to call in with requests, which you can do either by buzzing (714) 977-1943 or e-mailing goloco943@yahoo.com. But do not recruit all your friends, family, co-workers, classmates and neighbors to demand your band that's really tacky. (RK)