Oxnard: the West Coast’s not-so-hidden music gem

Less than two hours from Los Angeles, Oxnard, California pulses with a musical heritage as storied as its seaside location. You’ll just as easily find hip-hop, música norteña, indie pop, and soul bounding across the city as its punk and hardcore mainstays. Its eclectic mix of sounds is rooted in its diverse cultural makeup and long history as both a get away from the fast pace of Hollywood, and a hub for emerging sounds. That type of sonic range is precisely why artists like Anderson .Paak pay homage to the city; with his 2018 and 2019 albums bearing the names Oxnard and Ventura. Multi-instrumentalist and activist Cola Boyy, who passed away earlier this year, proudly took viewers on a tour of the city in the video for his 2018 single, “Penny Girl”.

In the early 1980s, bands like Ill Repute, Dr. Know, and Agression stood at the forefront of Nardcore, a punk subgenre that emerged from the suburban landscape of Ventura County. Coined by combining “Oxnard” and “hardcore”‘ it cemented the city’s reputation as a punk rock powerhouse. “I grew up in the Santa Barbara County area… My first vinyl record I ever bought along with a couple others was NARDCORE in 1984,” said Ezra Brooks, drummer for Nardcore band IDecline, referring to a compilation album featuring acts like Ill Repute, Scared Straight, and The Rotters. “By that time, I was already listening to a lot of the punk rock music that came out of Oxnard, and that made a huge impact on my life. It’s just evolved into something that’s multi-layered, everlasting, internationally known and widely accepted. The Oxnard punk rock scene really put the town on the map.” The 1990s saw producers like Madlib, M.E.D., and Lootpack define a neo soul-infused brand of hop hop—a call out to Oxnard’s more laid back approach— while indie artists like Astreyas and soul outfits like Los So-Lows have been making waves since the mid-2000s.

“Various scenes coexist within Oxnard for a few reasons. I think a lot of people are more open-minded to different genres of music and are exposed to various cultures within the community,” Brooks added. “Social media has contributed a way to promote local shows and hear music. Also, a lot more of the youth are interested in learning instruments and being heard.”

Just a few miles from its picturesque beaches, historic venues litter the city’s famous boardwalk and streets; their musical pasts just as tangible as its present. Artists like Iggy Pop, Kenny Rogers, and country icon Willie Nelson have all graced the halls of the legendary Teatro, a former cinema turned recording studio, whose retro facade served as the cover for Nelson’s 1998 album of the same name. “It wasn’t like a major studio or anything like that, but a lot of pretty big stars went through there,” says Edward Hashimoto, co-owner of Fidelity Record Pressing. Growing up in Oxnard and now living in nearby Ventura, Hashimoto has an understanding of how important the city’s history is. “I believe Neil Young recorded there. Bob Dylan actually came up from Malibu and recorded there. He didn’t use any of those recordings on his next album, but I know he did get some inspiration.”

Alongside other historic venues like the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, which hosted some of the biggest shows in the earliest days of the Nardcore scene, modern live music mainstays like The Thirsty Ox, 1901 Speakeasy, and Mrs. Olson’s, where today’s Nardcore fans flock to see bands like Final Conflict, Pink Mist and Omega Point, are some of the best venues for live music in the city.

The center of Oxnard’s music culture lies in its free outdoor festivals and concerts series’, an integral part of the city’s artistic fabric. Summer concerts like bring live bands to the stage every Thursday, while the Heritage Square Summer Concert Series in Downtown Oxnard features everything from classic rock to R&B every Friday night. On Saturdays, fans can hear jazz, blues and swing at Peninsula Park’s Concerts by the Sea. Annual festivals like the Oxnard Jazz Festival at Oxnard Beach Park and the Oxnard Salsa Festival at Oxnard’s Plaza Park are summer mainstays that draw thousands each year.

“The festival scene in Oxnard is nothing short of spectacular, and it plays a vital role in bringing our community together,” said Juliana Finberg, Marketing and Business Development Manager at CenterCal Properties, who host The Collection at RiverPark’s Rock the Collection every summer. “These events do much more than entertain—they fortify community connections and offer a vibrant platform for local culture to flourish.”

It’s a city that nurtures not only music lovers, but the musicians themselves. Founded in 1972, drum manufacturer DW Drums has made Oxnard a mecca for percussionists since 2000, and with an artist roster of some of the world’s best drummers from Mick Fleetwood, Sheila E., Dave Grohl, Josh Freese and Glen Sobel, it’s not uncommon to spot a celebrity drummer onsite. “I love that they’re 20 minutes from where I live. They’re made right here in Oxnard. You’ve got to love that,” said Sobel, who offered a live demo at the brand’s headquarters during an exclusive version of their weekly tours highlighting the brand’s history and drum-making process. “I didn’t even realize they did tours like this until this came up.” DW Drums offers tours every Thursday at 2pm by appointment.

For Fidelity Record Pressing, whose opening in early 2024 made it the first new vinyl pressing plant to open in California in the last 40 years, their home base is deeply intertwined with the city’s history. “Our record plant is actually the original site of the sugar beets factory, which is what Oxnard was kind of founded around,” Hashimoto explained, adding that its location is also just a few doors down from the historic Teatro. “The site at least dates back to the 1880s when they first started using it. We didn’t even realize until we had already bought the building.”

With its own 55-year history, Larrivée Guitars has been a force not just in Oxnard, but globally. Founded in Toronto, Canada in the 1970s, the iconic electric and acoustic guitar manufacturer opened their Oxnard plant in 2001. Since then, they’ve grown along with the city’s music culture. “We’ve just watched it grow over the years and even the pandemic couldn’t really stop it,” said Matthew Larrivee, adding that many of the brand’s employees are artists and musicians themselves. “I have 25 employees and probably seven or eight that are in local bands and participate in the music scene, so we end up supporting them.”

Oxnard has a strong culture of paying homage to the legendary artists who have contributed to its collective history over the years, but Larrivvee says there’s still plenty of room for the scene to continue to flourish in new ways.

“There’s a tendency to think that a lot of the creativity here is being done by older people these days, but there’s a lot of demand for creativity coming out of this younger generation,” he said. “It’s coming out in music, it’s coming out in graffiti, it’s coming out in all kinds of different artistic ways. There’s a search for meaning among the youth we’re seeing that is very vibrantly in Oxnard.”