Isla Vista’s local music scene is a living example of the saying, “The only constant is change.” There has been a lot of change in my 20-year tenure there, but at the same time, some things remain the way they were when I first arrived.

A disclaimer type of statement needs to be made here: The bands that I gravitated toward were more of the punk rock or speed metal and even power pop variety. I wasn’t into the jam band scene — Happy Trails, a Grateful Dead cover band, to name one — or the reggae scene. My personal taste leaned toward the buzz of distorted guitars, the fast drumming, and sarcastic, cynical lyrics, because that’s what I grew up on.

The musical history of Isla Vista was well presented in the recent documentary Scene & Heard: A Musical History of Isla Vista, which was a very well put together piece of work. In this film one gets a glimpse of the obvious: Garage bands are mainstays of just about every college town and Isla Vista was no exception. When I first arrived in Isla Vista, the weekend party scene really stood out. As a result of going to many of these parties, the music scene became a big piece of my time in this seaside community I still call home.

The first bands I can remember upon my early days were Heedless Youth, Threatened Hope, Mystic Sultans of Ben Wah, and Alice Fell. Heck, I even saw Toad the Wet Sprocket play in a living room on the 6800 block of Trigo Road one night. (They did a cover of a Police tune.) Keep in mind, these were the heydays of the “college rock” scene and KCSB was the rallying cry behind the music you don’t ordinarily hear on commercial radio.

As time progressed other bands would come out of the woodwork such as Boiling Idiots, Really Nervous, As Nero Played, and Litterbox to name a few. The year was 1989 and the time had come to determine who the worst band in Isla Vista was. Soon, Battle of the Bad was born and bands were formed overnight just to take a shot at being the worst. During bands' sets, the crowd would lob eggs, tortillas, empty beer cans, and insults, but the bands took it in stride under the warm Isla Vista sun at Anisq’Oyo’ Park. Being the worst was the crowning jewel of this event and after all, it was all in the name of fun. This event was repeated again in 1990.

Around 1989 the Sub Pop era would come to be and every indie rocker in the know would try to sound like they were from Seattle. Isla Vista, however, kept her rock roots and imagination strong. On the imaginative side, Black Clothes and Pointy Shoes kept the fun in the mix while Latch Key Kids, Lost Kittenz, and Section 8 kept the rock in the roll. Other bands to come from that period were Dahmer’s Icebox, Redrum, Soup Kitchen, and Dirt.

By the way, Section 8, with David Hanacek as lead singer, would eventually become Lagwagon and would become a household name beyond Isla Vista. Another band that would follow a similar route was Overdrive, who would later reform and become Ugly Kid Joe. Their number one hit, “Everything About You” was filmed on the Isla Vista bluffs.

Around 1991, a strange thing would happen: Isla Vista bands such as Toad the Wet Sprocket, Lagwagon, Ugly Kid Joe would start to receive notice and everybody wanted a piece of the musical pie with the lure of recording contracts and touring, thus the Isla Vista Musician’s Coalition was formed. What this movement intended to do wasn’t really clear, but there were a few shows put on at Anisq’Oyo’ Park and bands like Leadhead were there to play.

Around 1995, newer bands, some with completely new Isla Vista residents or old members from old bands, would start to emerge and this led to a “punk rock revival” of sorts. It was what I refer to as the “Blink/NOFX” era because many bands were attempting to tap into the sound these popular bands had. Of course, Isla Vista doesn’t follow the norm so bands like The Undefeated, The Disappointments, Agent 94, My Ass, and Fat, Drunk and Stupid started hitting hit the Del Playa scene.

The one thing that has to be made clear is that the main reason for the Del Playa party scene being the venue for bands is because there was never really a “true” venue for these bands to play. In the early days there was The Red Barn on the 6700 block of Estero Road and that place put on some pretty good shows. (Green Day, known as Sweet Children at the time, Citizen Fish and Operation Ivy played there.) Borsodis had bands every now and then and there was Pat’s Grass Shack in Goleta, but it was a hit or miss with those places.

Then the Anaconda was open for a while (1992 through 1994), but this venue catered more to out of town big-name, big draw bands such as The Dickies, BYO, Ice-T and Body Count, The Ramones, Public Enemy, Flipper, Pennywise, The Melvins, and many others.

This lack of standard venue for local bands also led to the formation of another scene: The living room shows. Not to be confused with Goleta’s The Living Room, founded by Larry Mills as an all ages venue for bands after the Union Hall on Hollister stopped having shows, the first of these shows I can remember was at in an apartment on the 6500 block of Sabado Tarde Road, behind the where International Market stands today. These would also be the onset of the upcoming emo movement. There was a collection at the door for the bands, the shows would be mellow and they were straightedge, meaning no drugs or alcohol allowed. It was from this scene and some of its founders that current Isla Vista venue Biko House would come to be. It continues to host shows on the 6600 block of Sueno, right up the street from my apartment.

As time went, on bands started to fade out of the Isla Vista party scene and this was primarily due to the transient nature of most of Isla Vista’s residents.

So has Isla Vista’s music scene changed? Yes. The hot thing at parties lately is deejays playing techno or hip hop sets, but not many bands. Every now and then I’ll hear the distorted buzz of a guitar, the rim shot of a snare drum, or the plunk of a bass guitar, but those sounds are not as common as in the days before.

My personal take on this is that playing a musical instrument in a band, live, takes a talent that is falling by the wayside. Not to say that being a techno or hip hop deejay doesn’t require skill, but there is no need for tuning instruments, learning to play proficiently, and keeping time with those in your band.

So the question is as follows: Is the band scene in Isla Vista dead? I doubt it. But it definitely had its time and in that time it underwent many changes. And as stated earlier, the only constant is change and we got plenty of that.

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