I had the opportunity this year to sit front and center at the California Music Awards, formally, The Bammies. Being a musician myself and seeing the "locals" recognized for their outstanding contributions and achievements left me with much to conclude.
Like most of us "kids" growing up in the San Jose music scene, we can remember watching acts like Smash Mouth, Papa Roach and Alien Ant Farm pay their dues at such clubs like the Cactus and the Usual. We can also remember opening for some band called Train that was from San Francisco, long before Drops of Jupiter ever dropped in at the number one spot in Billboards Hot 100.
The show itself had a good variety of performances from all genres of music. Noe Venable, nominee for Outstanding Female Vocalist, gave a mellow-acoustic performance that seemed out of place for that particular show. As she was engaged in her own world, she was disengaged from the audience. I appreciated the unique quality of her writing, but it’s hard to beat sassiness and hard edge sex appeal of Southern California’s own Gwen Stefani who took home the Outstanding Female Vocalist award for the second year in a row.
Flawlessly performing "Holiday In My Head," a catchy up-tempo pop number was our very own Smash Mouth. The boys were seasoned and succeeded in getting the crowd moving. They surprised us all and covered Van Halen’s "Running with the Devil". Sammy Hagar, not the original author of the song, took notice by sporting a grin 5-miles long as he watched the performance. It seemed to serve as a good icebreaker for the two groups before the all-star jam that took place to close the show. Smash Mouth won Outstanding Rock/Pop Album, beating out their competition of Sugar Ray, Train and Life House. I thought that was appropriate, because if you want to party, Smash Mouth’s Pacific Coast Party is the way to go.
Winning Outstanding Album, was the San Francisco based, Train. Guitarist Jimmy Stafford admited proudly that he remembers how much work it took to hang flyers all over town and establish a following. He was genuine when he said "thank you" and I realized that for musicians, the desire to be heard and sought after on a national level is universal – as is hanging the flyers at two in the morning.
Another genuine thank you came from Outstanding Guitarist, Joe Satriani as he closed the first half of the show with a powerful performance of his song "Satch Boogie". Accompanied by local guitarist Ronnie Montrose and Dave Meniketti of Y&T, it was truly the best guitar wanking session that I’ve ever seen and some of you may remember Y&T from many years back; for you musicians, you may have even opened a show or two.
As I watched the show, I thought about music, the business of music. Taking local acts and making them something: packaging the raw, personal creation of art and selling it to a market. For most bands, their pre-record label sound is much different than what hits the airways. It seems many things change once you get an A&R man, a manager, a producer, a sound guy and gear – good gear – the kind that we drool over through the windows of local music shops. You are told to take your art, your statement, your soul and change it to something that the general public can understand. You are, indirectly, told to water-down the message of what you are and what you want to say. Intensity seems to be the enemy because intensity itself doesn’t feel good. It is a hard pill to swallow, it is confrontational; yet it is with that same intensity that can transform a nation, make you listen, make you believe. It is true that radio, the vessel that delivers this music to the masses is trendy; it tells us where we are as a culture, dictates, what is popular thought. The people tell radio what it is they want to hear. Radio demands this from record labels and record labels, find their artists accordingly. So maybe it’s not the industry after all, but us, the general public: Wanting the truth in the prettiest package and wanting the package in the simplest packaging.
However the packaging or the message, it may not even matter; if you are moving the people then you are moving the people-and who cares if the artist message is not fully realized or delivered to anyone other than the artist. Yesterday’s garage-band-song-that-never-ends, and yelling fest of some angst-ridden vocalist with a talented A&R representative and producer becomes today’s hottest act, all in our neighborhoods. Anything is possible, everything permissible, but not beneficial. Never say never, keep believing, you just never know. 
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