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Jay Buchanan, slaying on night one of Music Tastes Good. Photo by Stephanie Rivera.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The traffic of people streaming through the gates on day one of Music Tastes Good on Friday halted at times, a sure sign of first-time kinks for a festival of its scale and magnitude in Long Beach.<\/p>\n So two of us reporters at the Post<\/em> didn\u2019t feel like we were missing too much when we picked up drinks and waited next to the band trailers to talk to Long Beach\u2019s own son, Jay Buchanan of Rival Sons early in the evening. Buchanan, outfitted in a leather jacket with his long beard and long hair, calmly acknowledged us after finishing an interview with another reporter.<\/p>\n The Post<\/em> had the chance to chat with him exactly one day after Rival Sons opened for Black Sabbath at the Hollywood Bowl\u2014a pivotal moment for the group.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Hollywood Bowl\u2019s incredible. I got to play the Hollywood Bowl opening for Black Sabbath,\u201d said Buchanan, incredulous. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty incomprehensible. You\u2019ve just got to lock it in the vault. Put it over there with, I don\u2019t know, the first time you had sex, or your first kiss, or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n He was relaxed and happy to talk about all things Long Beach, waxing nostalgic on the days when rent was cheaper and artists had what he considered more freedom in the city.<\/p>\n Perhaps his affinity for all things Long Beach was because\u2014though he recently moved to Nashville\u2014Long Beach was Buchanan\u2019s home for 18 years, a place he said still feels like home.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is an exceptional amount of support and sense of community in Long Beach,\u201d said Buchanan. \u201cWe\u2019re the Brooklyn of LA\u2014we\u2019ve got our own thing here. Long Beach is its own island.\u201d<\/p>\n An island in terms of diversity, especially diversity of sound, which Music Tastes Good chose to capitalize on, booking performers ranging from rap and hip hop to alt rock and more.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have chops,\u201d said Buchanan of the city\u2019s artists. \u201cThe level of commitment and artistry of so many different bands, from singer-songwriter to funk to rap and rap and hip hop. It was just fertile to me.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he\u2019s happy about some of the change in the city, but not all of it has been good for young bands, in his opinion.<\/p>\n \u201cThe economy has priced out\u2014if you\u2019re a starving artist in the late teens or early 20s, all of the cool flats and all of the cool spots aren\u2019t there anymore. They got priced out. And that\u2019s one huge complaint about Long Beach.The Arts Council gives grants to artists, which is great, but at the same time artists can be misguided and lazy and not really know how to interface with institutions like that, you know, it can be tough.\u201d<\/p>\n That, coupled with noise ordinances and a lack of venues made performing in the city difficult, and, according to Buchanan, contributed to the standout nature of Alex\u2019s Bar for making it so many years.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a lack of venues here that the city would always shut down,\u201d said Buchanan, noting that Alex\u2019s Bar is an exception, a testament to persistence and dedication.<\/p>\n Still, Buchanan was all about Long Beach. And very enthusiastic about Music Tastes Good, making it a scheduling priority, which can \u201calways be daunting.\u201d<\/p>\n