Forest of Tongue
Forest of Tongue

The average adult tongue has 2,000 to 4,000 taste buds. Multiply that by several thousand and you’ll realize that there will be a forest of tongue in attendance at Josh Fischel’s Music Tastes Good this weekend.

By sweet coincidence, the Long Beach trio Forest of Tongue will be serving dessert early at MTG: Joel Jasper (vocals, guitar, keys), Zach Mabry (drums, vocals) and J.P. Bendzinski (bass, vocals, keys) will be performing a set with a sound someone recently described as Experimental Indie Candy Gumdrop Rock.

The Bristol, U.K.- based music blog Drunken Werewolf summed up Forest of Tongue’s approach as “..an alternative sound that stays bright and colourful even at its weirdest musing. Think Talking Heads meets The Beach Boys and you’re halfway there. Add the contemporary vocabulary of math rock along with a dash of MGMT’s pop sensibilities, and you’ve pretty much got it.”

The band’s manic, funky energy all but guarantees that there won’t be much shoegazing going on during their set.

Forest of Tongue commence their licks at 12:40 p.m. Saturday, on the Franklin Stage.

Long Beach-based Manuel the Band will also be playing MTG on Saturday, as will local collective Radiolistener: Tribute to Isaiah “Ikey” Owens.

Sixteen chefs will be providing culinary counterpoint to all the great music at MTG this weekend. Among them is Jason Witzl, chef and owner of the Southern Italian-style restaurant Ellie’s in the Alamitos Beach district of Long Beach.

Chef Witzl’s career journey took the Whittier native from a culinary curriculum at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College to L.A. restaurants Campanile, The Tar Pit, and The Water Grill. He then worked at the restaurant Martin Berasatagui in the Basque region of Spain. After returning to the States, Chef Witzl was part of the opening team at Manhattan Beach Post, and after a few years became Executive Chef at Herringbone West Hollywood.

Chef Jason Witzl
Chef Jason Witzl

After helping open Herringbone Santa Monica, Chef Witzl opened Ellie’s (named after his Grandmother Eleanor) in 2017.

“We take simple ingredients and we let them do the talking,” Chef Witzl recently told the Orange County Register, “and we try to make everything as well as we can without really manipulating the products too much,” he said.

Guests at Ellie’s may find themselves dining on one of Witzl’s signature pasta dishes; Chittara Pomodoro (with roasted garlic, tomatoes, shallots, burrata, and oregano) or perhaps Ravioli (lovingly prepared with stracciatella, black truffle, crispy kale and Calabrian honey).

In the MTG Taste Tent this year, Chef Witzl will be presenting an Heirloom Melon Salad with serrano chile, Persian cucumber, marinated shrimp and creme fraiche vinaigrette.

Chef Witzl will take the Taste Tent Demo Stage Sunday evening from 6:15 to 7 p.m.

Five-Star Recommendation for Sunday night at Josh Fischel’s Music Tastes Good: Chef Witzl’s Heirloom Melon Salad, eclectic sounds from the MTG stages, and a perfect autumn sunset at Marina Green Park. That’s just one suggestion among many recipes for greatness that could happen for you at this weekend’s MTG.