ON Culture | Headless Households, Fab Fundraisers and Musical

This edition of ON the Beat was originally emailed to subscribers on August 16, 20234 To receive Josef Woodard’s music newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

ON the Stage

I’m still buzzing a bit from last weekend’s joyful two-fer (three-fer?) of great shows. Friday night’s Jon Batiste show at the Bowl was such a magical evening (read my review here) and then Saturday’s Lobero Block Party with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Ozomatli was equally awesome and energetic (read my report on that here). I’m not sure that we show enough appreciation for how much our fair city punches above its weight in terms of musical entertainment, but we definitely do.

Here’s another example, One805LIVE! Recently announced the full lineup for the September 20 benefit concert at Kevin Costner’s Summerland pad, and the artists giving their all for the first responder support group include: Pink & Dallas Green (You + Me), Kenny Loggins, Alan Parsons, Joe Bonamassa, Al Stewart, Richard Marx , Alyssa Bonagura, Jordan Asher Huffman, Plastic Harpoons, and The Santa Barbara Symphony, which will blend its dynamic sound with selected One805LIVE! performances throughout the show — under the musical direction of the legendary Parsons,  with Tom Brooks as conductor. Tickets are on sale now at one805.org.

The Pacific Jazz Orchestra, who were so terrific at the Granada’s Centennial Celebration last spring, will swing by the Granada Theatre again on Friday, September 6, at 7 p.m. with a program of straight-ahead jazz, swing, soul, and traditional big band sounds. The 40-piece hybrid big band and string orchestra features guest artists jazz guitarist/vocalist John Pizzarelli – hailed for “reinvigorating the Great American Songbook and re-popularizing jazz” (Boston Globe) – and Sy Smith, “one of the hardest working women in soul music” (Plano Magazine). For tickets and information, visit granadasb.org or call (805) 899-2222.

More music hits the Granada stage next Friday, with a heartfelt tribute to Marvin Gaye by Dorian Holley (August 23). This performance will celebrate the legacy of the legendary singer-songwriter and Motown legend. Hunter Hawkins is the opener and Judith Hill is a featured guest vocalist. Click here for additional info and tickets.

If songs like “Sailing” and “Ride Like the Wind,” strike the same place in your memory as they do in mine, you won’t want to miss out on Christopher Cross, who will be at the Lobero on August 28. Then the next night they’ve got local favorites Toad the Wet Sprocket celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the 1994 platinum selling album Dulcinea, which seems impossibly hard to believe. Keep an eye for my interview with Toad next week. Tickets for both shows are available at lobero.org.

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ON the Big Screen

The trailer just dropped for director (and sometimes Santa Barbara resident) Jason Reitman’s long-awaited film, Saturday Night, which comes out in October.  Based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of the iconic show Saturday Night Live, the film looks great and stars Gabriel LaBelle (who was great in The Fablemans) as Lorne Michaels, along with a huge ensemble cast that includes Jon Batiste in a small role as Billy Preston, as well as Licorice Pizza standout Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol. Check out the trailer here.

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ON the Web

I’m so excited to share that one of the projects we’ve been working on for almost a year just launched this week, our newest online entertainment channel — Santa Barbara Independent Live Music Venues. You can read all about the development of this project in this week’s paper or at this link. Basically it’s a painstakingly compiled list of detailed information on all of the area’s live music venues — from intimate jazz lounges to bustling dance clubs playing everything from blues and jazz to rock, pop, electronic music, and more. Please go and check it out here and don’t be shy, email venues@independent.com to let us know what you think.  

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ON the Page

Coming of age novels and their authors will take the spotlight on Sunday, August 18 when Santa Barbara-based Young Adult writers Nikki Barthelmess, who has penned three poignant coming-of-age novels including The Quiet You Carry; Ana Ellickson, writer of the recently-released fantasy adventure The Vanishing Station, set in San Francisco and its sinister under-city; and Lauren Munoz, who boldly wrote a whodunit for today’s young audience, Suddenly a Murder, come together for a roundtable discussion of the joys and perils of contemporary publishing at 2:30 p.m. The event is part of the annual Mesa Bookstore Party and Sale which includes a whole day of fun in the sunshine beginning at noon. Also on the bill at 1 p.m. is Chucamite, a group of son jarocho musicians. Closing the festivities will be the return of Lark Batteau, chanson singer extraordinaire and author of the great memoir Lark Ascending. There will also be hundreds of used books for sale for just a buck or few, as well as free cookies, coffee, and dad jokes. The fun all takes place beginning at noon on Sunday, August 18 at Mesa Bookstore, 1838 Cliff Drive.

In another piece of bookish fun, especially for those of us who enjoyed hearing from Xochitl Gonzalez at the UCSB Arts & Lectures event in May (read my story here), in the new issue of The Atlantic she has a fascinating piece about her childhood and her relationship with her activist mother, who left Xochitl as a toddler to pursue socialist politics. (The story also loosely inspired some of the story for her debut novel, Olga Dies Dreaming.) It’s a great read, in any case, but especially for those of us who were lucky enough to be in Campbell Hall that night. Read “To Save the World, My Mother Abandoned Me” here.

ON the Walls

From left: Jessica Guideri; Amy Tatum | Photos: Courtesy

The beautiful Santa Barbara Museum of Art exhibition A Legacy of Giving: The Lady Leslie and Lord Paul Ridley-Tree Collection (read Josef Woodard’s story here) is getting a very special “Day of Music” on Sunday, August 25, with a series of pop-up performances in the galleries throughout the day, featuring musicians Jessica Guideri (violin), concertmaster of the Santa Barbara Symphony, and Amy Tatum, principal flute for the Santa Barbara Symphony. They  will play a combination of solo pieces and duets. Each piece will be roughly 20 minutes in length, each responding to a different work in the exhibition. Performances are at 1 p.m., 1:15 p.m., 1:45 p.m., and 2:15 p.m. And it’s free with museum admission. How cool is that?

Grace Fisher’s mouth paintings are pretty amazing, as is Grace herself. The talented young artist and composer has not let her journey as a quadriplegic hinder her creative and giving spirit. Check out the MOXI’s summer exhibition of her work in a show called “Imagination: Beyond Limitations.” This collection of mouth paintings, which is on view through September, was created by Grace as well as contributions from members of the community who embraced this technique out of exploration. In addition to engaging with the art itself, additional features at the Museum  include being able to listen to and watch: Critter Fables, an award-winning animated short featuring Grace Fisher’s music and art by kids with disabilities; “Midnight Moon,” an original composition and time-lapsed painting by Grace Fisher performed at the Granada on 12/9/24 by Zachary Hamilton (Viola), Angela Rose Padula (Cello), and Chris Fossek (Classical Guitar); and Inclusive Arts Clubhouse, a promotional video celebrating the Grace Fisher Foundation project’s first anniversary, created in March 2024.

MOXI is not the only organization supporting the Grace Fisher Foundation this summer. The nonprofit, which is dedicated to increasing educational accessibility and promoting inclusive arts,  was also selected as the beneficiary for the ticket sales of the Santa Barbara Studio Artists’ 23rd Annual Open Studio Tour, taking place from August 31 to September 2. More information about that wonderful event can be found here.

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ON the Turntable

Our intrepid reporter Joe Woodard’s “hopelessly eclectic” band Headless Household has a new/old release called Headless Household Takes El Paseo, 1988. In Joe’s words, “This recently-rediscovered board tape from a 1988 live show represents the band in its raw, edgier youthful phase. Recorded five years after the band’s founding — coalescing mostly in the free-spirited and bohemian haven of Baudelaire’s and across the street at the uber-hip Joseppi’s — and one year after its debut album release (and the formation of Household Ink Records), the band took its unique and rough edged sound to the historic Santa Barbara restaurant and community haunt El Paseo (born in 1922, part of an adobe compound dating back to 1826).

“And what was that sound? Punk jazz? Fuso-progressive and free-minded ventures with allowances for humor and genre-bending? Some new blend of aggro ambient music? All of the above?

“Rough edges, in terms of sounds and musical interplay, are intact here, befitting the Headless Household code of conduct.

“The recording also documents the stage of a band which would continue through 2020 and a discography of nine studio albums. Here, the core quartet — keyboardist Dick Dunlap, drum-cussionist Tom Lackner, bassist Chris Symer and guitarist/song-slinger Joe Woodard — appear without additives or the large roster of guest musicians who would soon be joining them for annual Center Stage concerts and more produced albums over the next 20 years.

El Paseo, 1988 is all about the raw goods from the Headless salad days.” Sound intriguing? Heck yes. Click here to learn more.    

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ON the Calendar

The Ojai Film Festival, which takes place October 31-November 4, is having its inaugural fundraiser, OFFSite, on Saturday, August 17 at The Ojai Art Center. A disco-themed event, the evening starts with cocktails, with a screening of the featured film Studio One Forever ( the untold story of America’s iconic gay disco, offering a kaleidoscopic excursion into LGBTQ+ history through the lens of this groundbreaking club), followed by a Disco Party & Auction.

For a complete calendar of events this week and beyond, visit independent.com/events/.