Despite being the 36th most populous city in the United States — and one with a hell of a music scene — Long Beach has little in the way of professional-grade recording facilities.
Holding on to what we do have is the focus of Saturday’s free show at Fingerprints, as Avi Buffalo, Free Moral Agents, the Marc Ford & Neptune Blues Club, Chris Lizotte, and Chris Paul Overall will hit the stage to help promote S.O.S. (Save Our Studio), a benefit album for The Compound Studio.
“Having a top-flight studio is really important to any music scene,” says Fingerprints owner Rand Foster, who floated the idea for the free show when discussing the benefit album with Compound owner Anthony “Antoine” Arvizu. “As much as the DIY ethic is so strong and so easy at this point, I think having someone in town who knows how to get professional recordings is really important, somebody who knows how to make things sound good.”
Although S.O.S. (Save Our Studio) was conceived as a download-only album available for 90 days beginning May 29, CD versions will be for sale at Saturday’s show. The album, which you can listen to and download here, features 25 unreleased tracks — recorded at The Compound, of course — by Crystal Antlers, Mike Watt and the Black Gang, Jay Buchanan, Matt Death & the New Intellectuals, Phantom Limb, Josh Freese, and others, including show participants Lazotte, Avi Buffalo, and Free Moral Agents.
Before joining The Compound, Arvizu honed his skills at Capitol Records and elsewhere, recording, engineering, and mixing albums by such luminaries as Paul McCartney, Elliot Smith, Sublime, and Big Drill Car. In his decade at The Compound he has recorded the likes of Free Moral Agents, Crystal Antlers, Cold War Kids, Mavis Staples, The Mars Volta, Chris Schlarb, Greater California, and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, who has gone as far as saying that The Compound is his favorite recording studio in the entire state.
“I started recording with Anthony 20 years ago,” says Ikey Owens, founder of Free Moral Agents and keyboardist for The Mars Volta. “[The Compound] is one of the most versatile studios I go to. Over my career I’ve had the pleasure of working in a lot of world-class studios with a lot of world-class engineers. But The Compound is home!”
“Recording at The Compound is always a great experience,” says Free Moral Agents bass player Dennis Owens. “Anthony is a knowledge engineer. You’re able to get really good sounds out of that studio. It’s got a great room and a great mixing board. […] There’s a big music scene here. [The Compound] allows up-and-coming bands to make a recoding in a professional environment. […] It’s good to have a facility like that locally. It brings prestige to the city.”
According to Foster, a side-benefit of having The Compound in Long Beach is that it provides aspiring recording engineers with a local place to intern and learn their future craft. “There’s an nurturing, educational aspect to The Compound,” Foster says. “It introduces some fresh faces to the professional music scene.”
Foster also points to Arvizu’s support of the music community beyond the walls of The Compound, noting that The Compound was a co-sponsor of 2010’s Busker Fest, providing a recording package that allowed winner Korey Dane to record the bulk of his album Loomer.
“It’s tough, with the advent of things like Garage Band and Pro Tools, for a pro studio to thrive,” Foster says. “I think that technology plus a bad economy means there are less people who are spending the money. [The Compound people] are kind of looking at it like, ‘We don’t know if we can continue to do this.’ But hopefully the show and benefit album will help raise awareness.”
Saturday’s show at Fingerprints (420 E. 4th St., LB 90802) begins promptly at 7 p.m. Admission is free, but those wishing to attend should RSVP by calling the store at (562) 433-4996.