Just four days after Josh Fischel put on his first festival, Music Tastes Good, he passed away on Sept 29th, 2016; he was 47-years-old. He did what felt unreachable in bringing the entire Long Beach community together over an event that, in its inaugural year, required 4 stages & shutting down 8-9 blocks of downtown over 3 days. 1 Year later, Josh’s spirit is abundant in Music Taste Goods second year.
The second year will be a 2-day music, food and art festival taking place on Sept 30th – Oct. 1st at Downtown Long Beach’s beautiful waterfront Marina Green Park with influential alt-rock trailblazers, (and one of Josh’s favorite bands) Ween and Sleater-Kinney headlining Saturday and Sunday, respectively. In addition to music and art, there will be ‘The Taste Tent’ featuring award-winning chefs from Long Beach/New Orleans. This is a festival unique to Long Beach representing the cultural melting pot of music, art and food.
[Related: Interview – Josh Fischel]
Josh was a 6 foot 4 troubadour who could barely play guitar, but he could sing with vocals that roared, triggering both chills and tears. Moving from New York to Long beach, CA in the mid-late ’90’s, Josh started out following Sublime on tour, documenting them as a Filmer which lead to him directing, as of this writing, Sublime’s lone documentary with Stories, Tales, Lies & Exaggerations in 1998. That same year, he formed a band called Bargain Music and until 2005 they released multiple albums and toured, performing everything from reggae-rock to folk & psychedelic rock, bluegrass, to well, it would probably be easier for me to list what they didn’t play.
In 2005 he formed a group called The Fiction that continued to experiment across multiple musical backdrops as Josh loved to conceptualize without boundaries. As the years went on, Josh began hosting Riotstage at various venues in Long Beach in what he described as: “this odd amalgamation of different art styles. From performance art to almost theatrical kind of stuff to rock & roll, all kind of mixed together… We’ve done it at a bunch of different places. Some outdoors, existing theaters and it’s always a big group of people.”
In detailing the inaugural year of the festival, Josh Fischel was building something he wanted to live on that would have a positive impact on the community. In our final interview with Josh, he explains: “I wanted it to be a multi-day festival. I also thought that we have to get people in town use to it. Because what we are doing is not something the city is use to. We have seen some resistance and we hope to prove that we are responsible and that this is a really great thing that, eventually, will just be a part of the fabric of the city.”
The Pier plans to be in attendance for this years festival and we hope you’ll join us in celebrating an event that, along with Josh’s discography of music, will continue to breathe life into his spirit. To pick up your tickets or for more information on Music Taste Good Festival, click HERE! — If you go, they’ll have Josh Fischel pin’s at the festival merch booth!
Watch: Music Taste Good 2017 Line-up Announcement:
Related Links:
Music Taste Good Website
Music Taste Good Facebook
Bargain Music iTunes
Article By: Mike Patti
Photo By: David Norris
Watch: Josh Fischel – “Get Out” (Live Acoustic Sublime Cover)