The San Luis Obispo Police Department has seen a continuous reduction of noise complaints in recent years.
According to SLOPD Neighborhood Outreach Manager Christine Wallace, in 2019 there were 1228 noise complaints filed due to social noise. That number was down from 1439 in 2018.
The noise ordinance was put in place in 1985 and has been amended many times. The current iteration has been in place since 2010. It stipulates that noise may not be heard fifty feet from its origin during the day and may not cross the property line between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
When a noise complaint is received, either a police officer or Student Neighborhood Assistance Program (SNAP) employees will go to verify the complaint. SNAP can not issue citations but they can issue a formal warning in the form of a Disturbance Advisement Card (DAC.) Getting a DAC puts you on a no-warning list for 9 months and will result in an automatic citation if another complaint is made.
The fines are $350 for the first citation, $700 for the second citation and $1,000 for the third and subsequent citations.
Repeated tickets prompted some musicians to find a practice space where they were actually able to play loudly.
“The noise ordinance laws are really not conducive to live bands,” said Welsey Price, bass player for the band Wordsauce and one of the founders of the Sauce Pot studios. “The noise ordinance laws were put in place because of students but they affect musicians because of the zero tolerance policy for noise.”
One way the city has tried to balance the situation is through the party registration system created in collaboration with Cal Poly, Cuesta and the community. Wallace pointed to the 242 approved party registrations in 2019 as a major factor in the reduction of overall complaints.
The party registration allows hosts to register an event at least a week in advance. If a complaint is made about a registered event, the hosts receive a call and are given 20 minutes to quiet down.
Wallace stressed that the party registration system mainly helps hosts to come up with a more well thought out, pulled together event in a way that Wallace said benefits everyone. It was also emphasised that while the service is primarily used by students for parties, any type of event can be registered.
The Bogeys, a SLO local band, played a sweaty house show show Jan 31, 2020, where they unveiled multiple new songs that will be on their upcoming album.
The Bogeys play their new unreleased and untitled song for a sweaty house party.
The band was founded back in 2016. The original members included AJ Absy on vocals and guitar, Josh Hill on drums, Matt Thomson on bass and Sean O’Donnell on lead guitar.
After O’Donnell left town, the band often played as a three piece and went through a few guitarists before they finally landed on Morgan Swanson, who has now been playing lead guitar for the Bogeys for nearly two years.
Morgan Swanson, Cal Poly masters student studying computer science and philosophy, finds time in his busy schedule to shred as lead guitarist of the Bogeys.
They’ve also had a number of bass players over the years. When Thomson moved on from SLO, they tried out a couple bassists before finding Ethan Chavez.
The new guys are often tossed in the deep end without much time to get used to the vibe. Both Swanson and Chavez started playing shows almost immediately. Swanson remembers how he had to test the waters to understand what was there first.
“It’s different when you walk into a culture rather than starting from scratch,” Swanson said. “I had to understand what being the Bogeys was before I felt comfortable adding my own perspective in.”
When Swanson joined, surf was a heavy influence. He said he, “learned a lot about surf music through the Bogeys. I definitely wouldn’t classify Bogeys as surf rock but it is an influence.”
Absy added that much of their sound has been influenced by different genres as well.
Swanson found their sound difficult to describe because he believes sound is “never described by the generators but rather by the listeners. To me genre comes from music, music doesn’t come from genre. I’d be interested in what you think my genre is. To me it’s just music.”
Once he began to understand what the Bogeys had been before him, Swanson felt he was able to “tastefully” add what he thought the music needed in ways he said drastically changed their sound. Much of his influences came from genres like post rock, which he believes makes his perspective unique.
“When building a building in progress, you have to understand the foundation to build on top,” Swanson said. “I was able to take the band in a new direction in collaboration with the rest of the Bogeys to create something truly authentic to me.”
Ethan Chavez came from the hard core punk scene.
“[Chavez] brings his own vibe but also understands the context from which the songs are written,” said Swanson. “Always open to new ideas and he doesn’t have an ego. Very open with his communication. I value that a lot. I can tell his heart is in it.”
“Every artist has something to offer. No artist is like another so each one has its own specific perspective on the art,” Swanson said.
“I find inspiration through interaction with my environment,” said Swanson. “I think that we are shaped by our world. And by exploring the intricacies of the everyday, inspiration can be found in the most unlikely of places.”
Swanson said he allows life to present him with inspiration. “Sometimes it means I won’t be as productive as other artists. But when it does come it’ll be from true inspiration rather than contrived. I’ll be going about my day and see something beautiful and it’ll inspire me musically […] If I find something I appreciate, I try to find a way to implement that into my playing as well.”
AJ Absy, Cal Poly graduate and founder of the Bogeys, was not the only one dripping sweat by the end of the show.
“Once you’re fully honest with yourself that’s when the good stuff comes out and the truth comes out,” Absy said. “I’ve tried to write songs that weren’t truly me and the songs just weren’t quite there.”
Both Swanson and Absy stressed quality over quantity, explaining that they’d rather produce a few great songs rather than as many songs as possible.
“I’ve seen colleagues put out shittier sounding music but I admire that because they’re still putting out content,” Absy said. “Our approach is to polish it really hard first. When we do release a song you bet your ass it’s a high fidelity song. Our new songs require less production and are more authentic with who we are right now.”
Currently, one of Swanson’s favorite songs to play is a new one called Skelly Klater, featured on the album that is set for release in July. It was partially written in a Taco Bell.
“Everyone was looking at me really weird because I was playing drums on my kneecaps but sometimes that’s the price you pay for music,” Swanson said.
Josh Hill has been drumming for the Bogeys since the band’s founding.
“We love to play songs live to get a feel for how they sound in different settings. There’s something different about an audience,” Swanson said. “Having that feedback is an extremely valuable and important part of the songwriting process.”
“The thing about music, when people are listening, it’s important to be ready with something to say. A lot of people focus on getting people to listen but once they’re there they’re not sure what they want to tell them,” Swanson said. “Hopefully people appreciate that it is good. Fine. But that’s not the end goal. It’s just an effect of me doing what I love.”
“I want to reflect the emotions people are feeling and pass that along to someone else. Be that rock,” Absy said. “I feel entitled to do that. I have these talents for a reason. It’s like if you have a super power. It would be selfish not to help other people. The spiritual side of me makes me feel like I’m supposed to do something positive instead of just keeping it to myself.”
The Bogeys will be playing a show on Valentine’s Day with KCPR and another on February 15 with Stage 9.
For more information on the Bogeys, visit their website.
When you Google “golf dads” you get a bunch of pictures of middle-aged men. Google “golfdads” and you get a SLO-grown psychedelic funk rock band.
golfdads, originally formed in 2017 under the name Special Guest, rebranded in 2018 to the current title.
The band features Brad Johnson on vocals and rhythm guitar, Drake Freeman on lead guitar, Casey Sublette on bass, John Brode on drums, Zach Ragozinno on keys and Brian Mendez on saxophone.
What “began as a Red Hot Chili Peppers-esque band has since fused into this psychedelic funk rock with hip hop influence band.” Mendez said, “Expect more as time goes on.”
On January 18, golfdads played a show at Stage 9, a multipurpose venue at dwellinart, 207 Higuera St. San Luis Obispo CA, with Depressed Spector and Skogen.
“It was a great way to start the year and decade. It has us all pumped to keep the content coming out for the fans. It really is about them at the end of the day.”
“We got to showcase some new music that we’ve been working on,” said Mendez. He explained they’re working on an album that they hope to release later this year. Mendez said the band is also excited to release some of their “classics” in a produced form rather than the live sound that their fans are used to.
“There’s a lot of potential when studio recording something and we’re constantly toying with the many possibilities,” Mendez said. “Also, to be able to say you’ve recorded an album is a feat in itself and we’re all working hard to ensure it’s a banger.”
“It’s always nice to be reminded that people actually listen to your stuff,” Mendez said. “When we saw that we were being played in over 50 countries, that was totally unreal.”
“We’re definitely gonna keep it going and ride the wave; working hard to please the fans while maintaining our voice,” Mendez said.
Their goals going forward are not exactly what you’d expect. Of course they want to be financially stable and play big stages like Coachella but Mendez also dreams of building a house of custom golfdads Supreme bricks.
“When was the last time you heard someone’s goal as an artist was to do something odd such as having a jam sesh with a monkey, having a book published on the concept of spilled milk or building a house of Supreme bricks?”
Mendez believes everyone has a bucket list with some odd items on it. “All of it,” he said, “really is just to inspire the people that anything is possible in this world. Even a Supreme brick house.”
golfdads will be playing the CP Surfrider Foundation house show on February 7 with Three More Daddies, Skogen and Sound Waves. They will also be playing another house show on Valentine’s day with Skogen and Jaden Padilla.
For more information on golfdads, visit their website.
When you think of heading out for a concert, you may immediately think of heading out to a big city like Los Angeles or San Francisco, but more and more events are popping up right here in your own backyard. San Luis Obispo has a bustling popular music scene with many venues for up and coming local artists in addition to more well known, touring performers.
Instead of fleeing SLO, music promoters have committed to building events locally. Stoke the World, Nightlife Savings and Life’s A Peach are music festivals launched by SubSessions, a local production company that’s at the forefront of the trend.
It all began with an event called iT, a music collective run by former Cal Poly students. “iT was a group of friends who wanted to create something that inspired true self expression,” said Wes Berger, SubSessions co-founder, creative director, and self-described visionary.
In the span of about ten days, they found a location in the Pozo hills and then promoted the event “by word of mouth, thought-provoking posts on social media and a location drop on the day of,” Berger said.
“More people than we expected, probably 100 people, showed up to the all-night-long ‘renegade,’” Berger said. He describes “renegade” events as outdoor, underground, free or donation-based with minimal promotion.
“The conversations and stories from after that magical weekend in May 2016 inspired us to try and repeat iT.”
In May 2017, the group hosted iT 2 at an abandoned mine shaft in a similar area. “The Mineshaft was a turning point for my own realizations that event production was something I wanted to put much more into,” Berger said.
It was through these events that Berger connected with the other co-founders, A.J. Absy, Austin Hanrath, Chrstian Panong and Kelly Riddler.
“Between the five of us, I felt like we had great chemistry, plus complementary interests and skills,” Berger said.
The first time all the founders got together was about two weeks before the first SubSession event.
“We then decided, in iT fashion, to do a last-minute event at the Mineshaft on October 21, 2017,” said Berger. “That was the original SubSession.”
The initially underground SubSessions has grown to around 60 members who call themselves “the family.” A board of more than 15 directors collaborate to put on new events. There’s a lot of internal management going on behind the scenes, Berger said.
Now the SubSessions group is doing events at established venues every few weeks. On the off weeks, they help with other organizations’ events in addition to attending and collaborating at friends’ events. They also put on two or three of their own outdoor festivals annually. These require them to build and bring everything including the infrastructure, stage and sound.
When asked how many events they put on, Berger’s response was, “As much as our bodies permit.”
“We all have different ideas,” said co-founder AJ Absy, who is also the group’s lead audio technician and production manager. “Everyone has a different skill set: environmental waste management, sculpture, lighting … . We all come to the table to decide ‘what story do we want to tell?’”
Absy’s personal mission is to provide people with an experience that helps them grow and live. “I want someone in a tough time to have our event allow them to get out,” he said. “I want our dream and vision to positively affect the world.”
“I think we’ve brought a lot of the community together,” Berger said. Upon moving to SLO in 2015, he had been blown away by the “unique and interesting things going on and the incredibly talented people that surrounded [him],” he said. “It just seemed like there wasn’t much direction or focus on the larger community that is SLO. Rather than getting held up in competition, we put our energy into collaboration.”
SubSessions will soon be expanding events into different venues in Downtown SLO, Berger said. His goal for SubSessions is to “not only be a centerpiece for SLO music, arts and events but to expand our skills and endeavors all over the world promoting collaboration, sustainability and community through the arts, expressions and events.”
SLOcal sounds 