DOWN BEAT - DECEMBER 1988

LOS ANGELES—Eight amateur bands from around the country got at least 10 minutes of fame in the bright spotlights and cavernous sold-out space of the Universal Amphitheater. They were treated with all the major venue accoutrements - lights, sound - plus the added attraction of numerous record label A&R people stalking the halls. And it all began with an entry blank from their local music dealer.

The second annual Sound Check - an olympian battle of the bands sponsored by Yamaha - was greatly expanded from last year’s pilot program, which was open to California bands. This year, from 5,000 entry tapes, eight bands were selected: Last Generation, Champaign, IL; Boys Next Door, Richfield, VA; Stranger, Tampa, FL; Oho, Baltimore, MD; Gino and the Hawks, Newark, CA; Zak, Rosendale, NY; The Roommates, Houston, TX, and the Sound Check winner, Giraffe, of San Jose, CA. Named outstanding musicians were: Drummer J. Scott Smith and keyboardist Michael Abowd of Giraffe, vocalist Gene Hauck, Gino and the Hawks, guitarist Ronnie Garvin, and bassist Tom Cardenas, both of Stranger.

Sound Check, as executive producer Doug Buttleman, designer of Yamaha’s artist relations program, relates, was the result of “both a directive and an intention from the Japanese side to put together a worldwide event that would provide opportunity and encouragement to musicians. Sound Check, in its present form, is a combinations of a lot of prior conversations with Quincy Jones, Phil Ramone, and others who had the same intentions but never vehicles in which to give back to the industry.”

Phil Ramone, who served on the final heat judges panel along with David Foster, Walter Becker, Michael Ostin, Quincy Jones, Larry Carlton, and others, appreciates the fact that the hosting corporation is “not pushing the Yamaha name in your face at all.” Buttleman doesn’t discount Yamaha’s effort in assembling the annual competition. “I think it’s a wonderful effort, because it’s not one that results in a lot of short-term benefit. Their whole intention is that, in five years, by creation of this opportunity if we can continue that participation in music, chances are they’ll buy another record or they may buy a musical product. Musical participation is the number one rule here.”

This year, the San Jose-based band Giraffe grabbed the top honors, winning $25,000 in cash or equipment and consultations with people from various stages of the music industry. (They then went on to Budokan for the “Band Explosion ‘88.”) Giraffe’s win was a refreshing choice in that their neo-progressive rock style is hardly the stuff of the late ‘80s pop charts.

Leader Kevin Gilbert was a bit startled at the outcome himself. He comments, “It’s usually the mainstream act that will win, because they’re banking on whatever they’re choosing to be successful. I was looking forward to it as a showcase for the record companies, but I didn’t think we could win. I’m banking on the progressive thing - atmospheric music with a lot of thought behind the lyrics - being popular again in the next four or five years.”

The Sound Check prize will no doubt advance Giraffe’s stake in the record deal game, an area that Gilbert has come close to as a solo artist. “Everytime I’d get close to something with a record label, they’d hear my plea for artistic control and drop me,” he maintains. “With this year’s project, I decided to give it a name other than my own so that it would appear as a band to them and they’d be more willing to let it be as it is. It’s harder to change a band than it is a solo.”

Sound Check entry blanks were made available through Yamaha dealers throughout the country. Rick Allen, of Guitar Showcase in San Jose, is two for two as a hosting retailer. Besides being the host for Giraffe, Guitar Showcase also hosted Playmation, a band which nabbed most of the individual player awards in last year’s Sound Check. “The role of the retailer was as the front-line exposure,” Allen explains. “It was a good initial response. Since we were in the test market the previous year, I knew in advance about the competition. Word spread, so people were already primed for it before the initial announcement broke.”

As it turns out, Giraffe was one of the more technologically versatile bands, making intricate use of digital gear. Michael Abowd is actually the keyboard specialist of Guitar Showcase. “It sounds like it’s all fixed,” Allen laughs, “but it’s not. He’s kind of a figurehead around here, very knowledgeable about IBMs and Macs and how they relate to MIDI and all the keyboards.” Allen says that the store, one of the largest in California, emphasizes education along with supplying equipment through its Showcase Music Institute (SMI), with 25 teachers.

“Being in the heart of Silicon Valley - most of the people are pretty techy-oriented anyway. A lot of people already have a complete computer system and they’re just adding a keyboard. They’re not like keyboardists trying to add on computers. We have what we call MIDI Mondays, where we have a presentation of any MIDI product.”

Record producer Phil Ramone, who had had contact with Yamaha as a technical consultant before being drawn into the project, has been supportive from the outset. Still, he’d like to see a wider variety of styles represented - r&b, for instance - and the structure expanded: “Somehow it would be delicious to produce a show that would tour the country and grow in dimension.”

Ramone, produce of Billy Joel, Barbra Streisand, and Paul McCartney, hasn’t worked with any breaking acts lately but maintains an abiding belief in rising talent - the basis on which Sound Check operates. “I’d love to produce a new band. For my taste, it’s the era of the new band and not necessarily the singer-songwriter anymore. I think it’s a new cycle that’s about to start.”

Proceeds from sound Check - the finalist heat and the Cheap Trick concert that followed - went to the T.J. Martell Foundation for Leukemia, Cancer, and AIDS Research; a foundation which was founded in memory of CBS executive Tony Martell’s son.