College Project Puts Six San Diego Bands on Record

One day last fall, record-production student Rocky Moss was pondering MiraCosta College’s student-oriented recording projects and its then-impending songwriter competition--which was open to non-students--when it occurred to him to combine the two.

He and several others in the school’s record-production program began coordinating an effort that would both provide valuable work experience for aspiring producers and engineers, and give access to low-cost recording to musicians.

The result is “Watering the Wasteland”--a 12-song CD featuring six local bands. The album, which was recorded in MiraCosta’s 24-track studio, was released last week on the students’ Local Buzz Productions label.

For Moss and his colleagues, the release of the CD is the payoff after several months spent soliciting and screening participants from throughout the county, selecting finalists and then working with the bands to capture their individual sounds.

“We relied largely on word of mouth to spread the news about the project,” Moss said in a phone interview Monday. “Plus, some of the people on the production end here actually approached bands they heard live and invited them to submit a tape. Patty Grimes at Musicians Who Care also helped us a lot by letting us use their mailing list to send flyers to musicians.”

From the 43 tapes submitted, six bands--Nobody’s Poet, Iguana Lounge, Skin Trade, Newmatic Slam, Bad Dog, and Visions--were chosen to record two songs each at the relatively inexpensive rate of $350. During the adjudicating process, the would-be producer-engineers split into six production units, one for each of the finalists. “We also dubbed ourselves a record label,” said Moss.

Costs were kept to a minimum because MiraCosta waived any studio rental fees, and the student-producers volunteered their time. The school also donated $1,500 toward the total recording budget of $3,600.

Actually, this is the seventh annual recording produced at the school, but the previous six exclusively featured MiraCosta music students. Moss hopes that “Watering the Wasteland” represents the start of a tradition.

“This seemed like a perfect way to benefit the local music community and also to utilize and draw attention to the school’s recording arts program,” said Moss. “This program at MiraCosta now has full vocational status with a specific curriculum, like nursing for example, and that means we have access to school funds. By taking on a project like this, we can demonstrate the facility’s capabilities while gaining hands-on experience for ourselves.”

Moss, 28, has a degree in sociology from UCSD and a two-year degree in music from Pasadena City College. The keyboardist- guitarist, who has played in several bands both here and in the L.A. area, most recently was a member of the local group Fragile Thunder, a “classic-rock” cover band. Despite his involvement in the MiraCosta program, however, Moss neither produced nor played on any of the sessions for “Watering the Wasteland.”

Moss said 1,000 CD copies of “Watering the Wasteland” are being pressed, of which 600 will be given to the bands to sell. The rest will be sold in selected, independent record shops and in the MiraCosta campus book store. Depending on the retailer, the price will range from $8 to $10. Profits will go to cover expenses incurred this year, and whatever is left over will be put into a fund for next year’s project.

During the current project, Moss and his associates have been assisted by students taking marketing classes at MiraCosta. Not all of their combined efforts, however, have borne fruit.

On June 3, three of the bands on “Watering the Wasteland” (Skin Trade, Nobody’s Poet, and Iguana Lounge) performed at the official CD-release party at Club Oz in Oceanside. Moss described the turnout for the event as “kind of low. This place used to be a country-Western nightclub, and we might have made a mistake by not choosing a venue more frequented by our natural audience. We’ll know better next time.”

The “Celebri-T-Shirt Auction,” held Saturday at the Kona Kai Club to battle homelessness and child abuse, was, by organizer Donna Rankin’s account, “the most successful in the event’s five-year history.” The auction, which offered celebrity-autographed paraphernalia to the highest bidders, raised “about $80,000,” Rankin said. The big sellers included: Carlos Santana’s guitar ($3,200); a Madonna-signed poster from the “Truth or Dare” film ($2,700); and a guitar donated by the group Aerosmith ($2,500). Roughly 500 generous, perhaps star-struck souls turned out for the auction action.

Undoubtedly, Bob Dylan has a lot of fans in San Diego, but only one of them publicly registered his fealty at the recent Dylan convention in New York City. Local performer-songwriter Jon Kanis performed a 45-minute set of original songs and Dylan covers at the shindig, whose official name was “Hard Times in New York Town.” The convention was held over the weekend of May 24 (Dylan’s birthday) at the Skyline Hotel at 10th Avenue and 49th Street.

Kanis, who has performed locally at Megalopolis and other intimate venues, sent a tape to convention organizer Roger Owen, who subsequently gave his blessing. Also performing at the event was Dylan “musical-impressionist” Steve Keene and his band. Kanis considered the convention and his own performance a success, even though only 100 Dylan die-hards were in attendance.

“I got a great response,” Kanis said Friday. “And besides, I’ve been a Beat-poet fan for a long time, and I got to meet Michael McClure and Allen Ginsberg at the Chelsea Hotel. That alone would have been enough for me.” One major no-show: Dylan himself. The folk bard was on tour in Europe.

GRACE NOTES: Tickets for a double-headliner show featuring Bad Company and Damn Yankees at the Starlight Bowl on July 29 go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at all TicketMaster outlets.