sound

There’s no shortage of bands commemorating their glory days as decade anniversaries of albums fly by. Yet few landmark releases feel not only fresh but forward-thinking 20 years after they were recorded. My Morning Jacket stumbled onto this kind of brilliance in October 2004 when it released its fourth studio album “Z.” Across 10 tracks of lush, euphoria-driven rock ‘n’ roll, the band captured a notable tone shift in its sound that melded Southern rock, haunting folk, psychedelic soul laced with jam band energy. It’s a set of songs that still make up a huge chunk of the bands live show. In September the band performed the album in its entirety to a sold-out Hollywood Palladium for its 20th anniversary.

“We still play these songs all the time,” said frontman and principal songwriter Jim James in a recent conversation. “So it’s not like we broke up after we released ‘Z’ and then we got back together 20 years later to play these songs, and it’s such a trip. We’ve been playing them nonstop for 20 years.”

Shortly after the release of its 10th studio album “is,” the band put out a deluxe reissue of “Z” that includes four B-sides and a whole album’s worth of demo versions of songs like “Wordless Chorus,” “Off the Record” and Dodante. Recently James spoke to The Times about the enduring power of “Z” and the joy of going back to the beginning of the album’s origins to give himself and his fans a new appreciation for the groundbreaking sound the band created.

The rerelease of “Z” was prefaced earlier this year with a full-album show at the Palladium. What was it like revisiting the album on stage first before it came out (again) on vinyl and streaming?

This is our fourth album now to hit the 20-year mark. So we’ve got some experience now doing these album shows. And it’s funny because some of the earlier albums we don’t play all the songs from them so we had to go back and relearn a lot of songs. But the songs from “Z” we pretty much play all the songs all the time. So it’s pretty hilarious how it involved no effort. It just involved playing them in that order of the sequence of the album. But we kind of laughed about that. We’re like, man, we don’t really even have to do any research or anything. We were all kind of reflecting just on how grateful we are that we like playing all the songs still. It’s such a great feeling to play songs for 20 years and never really get tired of them. People still want to hear them and there’s still excitement there, and they still feel fresh. It’s really a beautiful thing.

This was your first album using an outside producer. What was that like for you as the songwriter to step in the studio with John Leckie to help you realize your vision with “Z”?

It was so great, because I really needed somebody who could work with me and not let our egos clash too much. John was just really great about coming in and respecting what I wanted to do, but also voicing his opinion and what he liked and what he didn’t like and when he thought we could do better. And it was just really so refreshing and so good for us to have him there. I mean, his track record speaks for itself, he’s somebody who you can trust right off the bat, just because of all the things they’ve done in the past. He’s such a soft-spoken gentleman but he also has this hilarious, brutal honesty about him, which was always really great.

Your lineup had also changed between the previous album “It Still Moves” and “Z” — adding keyboard player Bo Koster and guitarist Carl Broemel who are still in the band today. So was that like stepping in the studio with the “new guys” for the first time?

It was really nerve-racking and really exciting all at once. We had some touring experience under our belt with Bo and Carl, so we kind of knew that it was working out on that level, but we’d never really recorded before, so it was a real test for all of us. And I think we all knew that. So everybody brought their A game to the session and we took it really seriously, but we also had a lot of fun and just really kind of got to know each other. That was good to do that out in the middle of nowhere, out there in the Catskills, up at the studio. It gave us some time to really bond without a lot of the real-world stuff coming in or other people coming in. So I think that was really important, that we did it that way.

Do you remember what song came out of the sessions first?

“It Beats 4 U” was the first one, because that was one we had already played live before we started recording. So I think that was the first song that we started messing with. But I think they all were kind of coming to life around the same time. So by the time we got in there to start unpacking them, I had already written them and kind of made the demos of them and stuff.

It’s great that you included so many demo versions of your songs on this rerelease. What was the process like of locating these, sifting through and sequencing which ones you wanted to put on the album?

Well, I love demos for a lot of my favorite bands — I love it when I get to hear the demos from the albums. So I’m always saving all that stuff; with my own stuff I’m always compiling all the demos, because that’s half the fun to me. Because sometimes you get this just like a beautiful glimpse into the song. Quite often, I end up liking the demo more than I like the actual album, song because you get a whole, whole new view of it. It’s also interesting when you’re sequencing for vinyl, because you don’t have unlimited time so you kind of got to pick and choose, and that kind of forces you to just choose the best. There’s a whole other round of band demos and then there were my demos, so there were a lot of things to choose from. But it kind of helps me to look at it in vinyl format. There’s still something about the vinyl time limit that helps with quality control. Just kind of pick the ones that I feel are most effective and then try and make a fun sequence so that hopefully, if somebody’s into them, it’s kind of like you get a bonus album that you can listen to.

We had four true songs, B-sides, that we really love too, that weren’t demos. So that was really nice to finally get those out, because those had been on different soundtracks. And then one wasn’t even released. So I don’t think that those weren’t even on streaming or anything for years and years. So it’s really cool to have those out kind of everywhere now, because I’ve always liked all those songs and been proud of those songs too. And I think most bands know the feeling of you know when you make a record. Sometimes songs just don’t fit the record, even if you still love the songs.

MMJ during the “Z” era.

(Sam Erickson)

Were you playing any of those live at the point where you released the album the first round, or did you shelve them for later?

We’ve always played “Where to Begin” live — off and on. We’ve also tried “Chills” a couple times, and I think we did “How Could I Know” a couple times. We’ve never played “The Devil’s Peanut Butter,” we kinda forgot that one existed until this whole [album rerelease] process started, and I found that song again. So we’ll probably play that one somewhere out on the next leg.

Was this process something that you enjoy doing, like, in terms of your how to, sort of like, reexamine an album?

I really love it because I just feel so grateful that anybody even gives a s–, you know? I mean, so there’s that part of me that’s just so grateful to even still be in the game, talking about this. But beyond that, it’s really cool for me because it’s like jumping in a time machine and going back and looking at that point in my life and getting perspective on where I am now, and seeing how I’ve grown and asking “where have I changed? Where have I not changed?” I look back and with all of these albums as they come up to this 20-year mark, and I see I’ve always been really mean and hard on myself, on Jim, but I know that Jim was doing the best he could at each time. That’s the one thing I’ve always kind of been able to see, to get myself through, to not be too hard on myself. I know I was giving it everything I had, so whether I would change things about it as I am today or not — we all look back on the past, and maybe there’s things we’d do differently, but it gives me a lot of comfort to know that I was trying as hard as I could, and all the guys in the band were trying as hard as they could. It really makes me feel proud of us for just putting in the time and effort.

Brian O’Connor thinks part of his success is due to California voter approval of Proposition 13, the landmark property tax reduction proposal that catalyzed the taxpayer revolt more than a decade ago.

He is the general manager of the Bel-Air Patrol, which operates Los Angeles’ oldest private residential security patrol service. Since Proposition 13, the company has greatly expanded its territory and number of clients, he said.

Business is good and getting better for a growing number of such companies that deploy armed and unarmed guards to watch over Southern California neighborhoods. In fact, such businesses are growing all over the nation.

Residential guard services are a fast-growing segment of the security guard business, says Robert McCrie, editor of Security Letter, a trade publication. He estimated that residential guard services account for 10% to 15% of the nation’s $6.5-billion annual security guard bill. “The growth has been quite unmistakable since World War II. One reason is that people simply feel afraid,” said McCrie, who is also a professor of security management at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

More Seek Permits

The public’s perception that government services have declined in California since the passage of Proposition 13 adds to the fear, O’Connor said. People feel that their local police departments are stretched too thin, he said. “The police obviously have to prioritize where they concentrate their effort,” he said.

People also want more control of their personal safety, he said. The average homeowner can’t control the police, but he can hire and fire private security firms at will, he said.

Within the city of Los Angeles, about 50 firms have Los Angeles Police Department permits to offer residential patrol service. Many more operate in the county, and “there may be some operating illegally (in Los Angeles),” said Det. Richard Rudell, chief of the permit section of the Los Angeles Police Commission.

Rudell said he has noted a steady increase in the number of firms applying for permits in recent years, although “some have subsequently gone out of business.” Every year, a number don’t renew their permits, he says.

Security guards do not have police powers. For example, guards patrolling a neighborhood may not detain someone believed to be acting suspiciously, said Lt. Fred Nixon, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman.

Like anyone, they may make a citizen’s arrest of a person caught committing a crime. Guard companies claim that their presence deters crime, but independent statistical studies aren’t available to verify that claim.

“The police department believes that a highly visible patrol tends to deter crime,” Nixon said. “That is not a vote for or against private patrols. (The patrol) is only part of the equation.”

Private companies offer different levels of services. The larger security alarm companies provide armed guards to respond to an alarm. Other services simply drive through a neighborhood, or by an individual residence, or stop and inspect the exterior of properties. Still others provide mail and newspaper pickups for clients who are out of town and an escort service for clients fearful of entering an empty house after being away for a period.

Added Problems

Although the concept of security patrols seem simple, it’s not that easy for small operators–who are the vast majority of patrol businesses–to make a patrol service a success, said Robert Rockwell, a Walnut Creek, Calif., security management consultant.

Patrol services have all the challenges of hiring and supervising personnel as other guard companies, he said, with the additional burden of purchasing and maintaining vehicles that are driven constantly, he said. They also have the complication of getting a sufficient client base and calculating patrol routes under a price structure that will produce a profit, he said.

Because of the complications, many of the nation’s largest providers of security guards have shied away from that segment, he said, although many will provide a stationary guard for an apartment building, or gated community. (The largest segment of the security guard business is providing on-site guards for businesses and factories.)

Many larger companies that offer residential patrols are essentially in the business of selling security alarms.

Rockwell is also vice president of California Contract Security Guard Service, a trade group of 125 companies. “Very few of our members are involved,” he said.

Most residential patrols are small, perhaps operating with two or three people, he said. “One guy starts a patrol business where he does the patrols himself. Then he hires somebody else to take (another) shift,” Rockwell said.

Thomas Walthen acquired residential patrols in 30 cities across the country, including one in Los Angeles, when his Van Nuys-based California Plant Protection bought the venerable Pinkerton Security Service in 1987, creating a tie between CPP/Pinkerton and Borg-Warner’s security business as the nation’s largest provider of security guards.

High Accident Rate

(Borg-Warner includes Burns International Security Services, Wells Fargo Guard Services and Baker Industries, the parent of the Bel-Air Patrol). The acquisition put Walthen in a business segment that he abandoned 20 years ago. Unlike many services in the old days, Pinkerton has developed a “substantially sophisticated patrol service,” Walthen said.

Nevertheless, he added, “We’re still in the process of evaluating the operation. It looks like a profitable arm,” he said. But there are some problems. “The ratio of accidents to miles driven seem to be terribly out of line,” he said, and nobody seems to know why.

Although relatively big companies are in the minority among those offering residential patrols, they are among the best known in Southern California. A familiar sight throughout affluent neighborhoods are lawns and gardens sprouting signs for Bel-Air, MacGuard Security Services and Westec Security, a unit of Japan’s SECOM Co. All three sell alarm systems and offer armed response to alarms as well as neighborhood patrols.

“We’re not a security guard company. We sell a concept of security,” said Westec President Michael Kaye, explaining how the company’s alarm systems interact with a staff of almost 800 people. About 200 are guards on patrol. The company views itself as playing an “observe and report” role for the police. However, he said, the company plays a crucial prevention role.

“We’ve found time and time again that if a patrol is in a neighborhood, there is less crime. Burglars are basically lazy and will take the path of least resistance,” he said. Westec cites the experience of three Westside communities where it has tracked crime statistics before and after patrols.

Incidents Drop

One area with 400 homes had several burglaries a month before Westec began patrols seven years ago. Since patrols started, there have been no more than three burglaries a year and only one in 1988. Another neighborhood with 500 homes reported seven to 10 robberies a month before the patrols, the company said, but in the nine years of patrols, there have been less than six a year. Thus far in 1988, there have been three incidents.

A community of 250 homes reported several burglaries a month before the Westec patrols began seven years ago, the company said, but has had no more than two per year since. There haven’t been any incidents reported in 1988, the company said.

“We’re in the public relations and protection business,” said O’Connor, the retired British policeman who runs Bel-Air Patrol. “We’re never in conflict with law enforcement because we aren’t in that business,” he added.

What is it about the musical biopic that has inspired so much Oscar love? Is it the genre’s front-row seat on the turbulent, provocative, culture-shifting lives of artists we’ve worshiped from afar? Is it the transformational, go-for-broke acting showcase it affords, and the painstaking period recreation so essential to the journey back in time? Or is it simply the enduring power of popular music and the icons who’ve created and performed it?

With the release of writer-director Scott Cooper’s biographical drama “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,” starring kudos magnet Jeremy Allen White in an immersive portrayal of The Boss circa 1982, it feels like the perfect time to flash back on some of the most honored pop-music biopics in Oscars history.

‘A Complete Unknown’ (8 nominations)

Monica Barbaro and Timothée Chalamet in “A Complete Unknown.”

(Searchlight Pictures)

This nostalgic snapshot of the early career of legendary folk singer Bob Dylan racked up eight Oscar nominations, including for picture, director (James Mangold), adapted screenplay (Mangold and Jay Cocks), and actors Timothée Chalamet (Dylan), Edward Norton (Pete Seeger) and Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez). Though it exited the awards ceremony empty-handed (it also earned nods for sound and costume design), the film enjoyed solid awards-season grosses, largely positive reviews and further burnished Chalamet’s cred as a versatile and chameleonic leading man.

‘Elvis’ (8 nominations)

Austin Butler in “Elvis.”

(Warner Bros. Pictures)

Tracking the meteoric rise and fall of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, this electric, eclectic, midcentury biopic impressed critics, shook up the box office and made a star out of Presley proxy Austin Butler. (Go ahead, say it: “Thank you, thank you very much!”) Though “Elvis” left the building on Oscar night with zero wins from eight nods — including picture, lead actor, cinematography and film editing — the movie brought the hip-swiveling singer back into the zeitgeist and gave director Baz Luhrmann yet another feather in his movie-musical cap.

‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ (8 nominations)

James Cagney stars as George M. Cohan in the 1942 biographical musical drama “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

(Turner Entertainment)

An oldie but a goodie, this popular — and patriotic — musical drama, starring James Cagney as prolific composer-singer-showman George M. Cohan, was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including for picture, director (Michael Curtiz), lead actor and supporting actor (Walter Huston). Cagney won his only Oscar for the exuberant role. (He also received nominations for 1938’s “Angels With Dirty Faces” and 1955’s “Love Me or Leave Me,” another musical biopic.) “Yankee” took home additional statuettes for sound and, as the category was then called, best scoring of a musical picture.

‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ (7 nominations)

Levon Helm and Sissy Spacek in “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

(Universal Pictures)

Country star Loretta Lynn may have been born a coal miner’s daughter, but Sissy Spacek was born to play her, as evidenced by the Oscar she won for her striking portrayal. The film, which spanned Lynn’s humble Kentucky youth and marriage at 15 through her extraordinary rise to chart-topping fame — and the nervous breakdown that nearly derailed her career — scored seven nominations, including for picture and adapted screenplay (by Thomas Rickman). Spacek, the film’s sole Oscar winner, would go on to earn four more lead actress nominations.

‘Bound for Glory’ (6 nominations)

David Carradine, who played folk singer Woody Guthrie in “Bound for Glory,” strums a guitar at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.

(Keystone / Hulton Archive via Getty Images)

Seminal American folk singer Woody Guthrie, who was a pivotal supporting character in last year’s “A Complete Unknown,” had a biopic all to himself in this lyrical drama directed by the great Hal Ashby. Based on Guthrie’s 1943 autobiography and starring David Carradine as the itinerant, socially conscious musician, the movie was nominated for six Oscars, including picture, adapted screenplay and film editing. It won for Haskell Wexler’s evocative cinematography and Leonard Rosenman’s sweeping score — but remained more of a critical than commercial success.

‘Ray’ (6 nominations)

Jamie Foxx in “Ray.”

(Nicola Goode)

Jamie Foxx took home the Oscar, among many other prizes, for his vibrant embodiment of pioneering singer-songwriter-pianist Ray Charles. The ambitious box-office hit, which followed the influential crossover artist from his childhood in 1930s Georgia (when he went blind) through the late 1970s — and all the successes, detours and struggles in between — garnered six nominations, including best picture and director (Taylor Hackford). Along with the lead actor award, “Ray” won for sound mixing. Foxx also earned a supporting actor nod that same year for his fine dramatic work in Michael Mann’s “Collateral.”

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (5 nominations)

Rami Malek in “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

(Alex Bailey / Twentieth Century Fox)

Audiences and Academy voters were kinder than many critics to this often dazzling, mega-grossing ($910 million worldwide) portrait of groundbreaking Queen frontman and co-founder Freddie Mercury, who died of complications from AIDS in 1991. Although called out for sanitizing the queer, vocally gifted musician’s private — and not-so-private — life, the movie was nominated for five Oscars, including best picture. With wins for film editing, sound editing, sound mixing and, most notably, lead actor (for Rami Malek’s captivating turn as Mercury), the picture amassed the most statuettes in that year’s race.

‘Lady Sings the Blues’ (5 nominations)

Diana Ross in “Lady Sings the Blues.”

(Paramount Pictures)

Diana Ross made an auspicious feature acting debut in this sprawling biopic about the hardships and triumphs of celebrated jazz singer Billie Holiday. An iconic music star herself — she’d recently left the hit-making Supremes to go solo — Ross earned her first (and only) Oscar nod for her galvanizing recreation. The film received four additional nominations, including for original screenplay and costume design, but won none. Ross, who lost that year to Liza Minnelli in “Cabaret,” would go on to star in just a handful of other films. (“Mahogany,” anyone?)

‘Walk the Line’ (5 nominations)

Joaquin Phoenix in “Walk the Line.”

(Suzanne Tenner / 20th Century Fox)

The life of country-folk-rockabilly star Johnny Cash received a polished, emotionally rich big-screen treatment thanks to fine direction by James Mangold (who co-wrote with Gill Dennis) and powerful star turns by Joaquin Phoenix as the complicated Man in Black and Reese Witherspoon as his resilient wife, singer June Carter Cash. The popular, well-reviewed drama collected five Oscar nominations: lead actor and actress, costume design, film editing and sound mixing. Witherspoon captured Oscar gold — along with a raft of other awards — for her memorable performance.

Gustavo Dudamel has begun his tale of two cities.

As Dickens prophetically reminds us, ours is hardly the first age of wisdom and of foolishness, the first epoch of belief and of incredulity. Dudamel’s great challenge is to make his 17th and final season as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic — and his prelude season before taking over the New York Philharmonic (in September he officially became designate music and artistic director) — the best of musical times for both cities.

The opening concerts for the two orchestras were two weeks apart, the Big Apple having come first. The main works on the New York-centric program were by two great 20th century composers, Bartók and Charles Ives, who were treated as outsiders by the city’s musical establishments during their lifetimes.

The performances were impressive. An orchestra that has a reputation for being difficult was responsive. If I read the room right, there was a genuine, if somewhat guarded, sense of optimism from a welcoming crowd.

Following a tradition he started with his first season in L.A., Dudamel opened with a newly commissioned work, Leilehua Lanzilotti’s “of light and stone.” He struck instant sonic gold with this mystical evocation of Hawaii, wondrous in sound, Lanzilotti, a hopeful good start.

Dudamel has a different look these days when he walks out on stage for an L.A. Phil concert after he’s been away for a while. Thursday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall, he again seemed ever so slightly hesitant, as if not knowing what to expect now that his leaving has become manifest. But greeted by a full house’s demonstratively embracing thankful enthusiasm, he beamed, the hesitant posture turning into ownership.

The conductor opened his farewell season with Ellen Reid’s “Earth Between Oceans,” a joint commission bridging his two orchestral families.

(Timothy Norris / Los Angeles Philharmonic)

The new work this year is Ellen Reid’s “Earth Between Oceans,” and it is Dudamel’s first effort at bringing together what he calls his two families.

Reid, who is herself bicoastal between L.A. and New York, narrates, through astonishing orchestral properties and powers, an environmental tale of her two cities. The work is a joint commission with the New York Philharmonic; Dudamel will take it east in the spring.

Earth, air, water and fire are Reid’s subject matters, which she translates into four movements that cover a New York winter, an aerial approach to Manhattan’s noise and quiet, the Altadena and Pacific Palisades conflagrations, ending on a sort of surfboard ride over crashing blue waves. With the help of a wordless Los Angeles Master Chorale, Reid tells the story through ever-surprising instrumental evocation.

Nothing, however, sounds like you might expect in Reid’s massive orchestral soundscape capable of holding a listener in tight grip for 30 minutes. Is that percussive pounding in earth the ground moving under our feet and the cello solo snowy Central Park? I don’t know how she does it, but I immediately bought into weird sounds from the chorus indicating something words can’t express about what those New York skyscrapers are up to. The effect of what sounded like ticking clocks going astray felt like an inviting dip in the lake.

Dudamel ended the concert with Richard Strauss’ “Alpine Symphony,” 125 orchestral musicians schlepping up the mountain, finding spiritual ecstasy at the summit and getting drenched on the way down, a self-satisfied drinking in of nature with every step. It is an astonishing, so to speak, over-the-top score, which you either love or abhor for its instrumental vulgarity.

Love was in order Thursday. Dudamel first performed “Alpine Symphony” at Disney in 2008, a year before beginning as music director. He jogged up the mountain and back, full of beans, showing off but also sharing his enthusiasm and demonstrating a skill that gave confidence that this 20-something conductor had the chops.

Dudamel’s performance of Strauss’ “Alpine Symphony” demonstrated the L.A. Phil’s distinctive immediacy compared with his more formal European interpretations.

(Timothy Norris / Los Angeles Philharmonic)

Last summer, I heard Dudamel conduct the “Alpine” with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival. The playing was sumptuous but formal and distant. These were the Alps as seen from a comfortable gondola taking in the view, and what a view, indeed.

The L.A. Phil sound, on the other hand, reveled in being-there, huffing-and-puffing immediacy. A rainstorm was a rainstorm: wet. The pastures replete with cowbells weren’t so much scenic as earthy, the real thing.

The orchestra sounded rapt and ready for ecstasy Thursday. There are two new first-chair players. A member of the orchestra’s second violin section, Melody Ye Yuan, has become her section’s principal. Ryan Roberts is the new principal oboe, and he had a luminous solo in the “Alpine.”

It was only after Roberts, who grew up in Santa Monica, won the L.A. Phil blind audition for principal oboe that Dudamel discovered he had just hired away a rising star in what is about to become his New York Philharmonic. But it’s all in the big new family.

BRAZILIAN jiu-jitsu Amanda Mazza snapped her OWN arm while attempting a submission.

The American grappler faced Emily Hansen at CFFC BJJ 15 in Philadelphia.

3

3

Mazza took Hansen’s back in the search for a rear-naked choke.

But as Mazza tightened her grip, she accidentally snapped her own arm, declaring Hansen the winner.

Fans were in shock by the astonishing incident as one said: “Wow. Never seen that.”

Another added: “Did not know that could happen.”

One commented: “New fear unlocked.”

Another said: “Talk about a plot twist.”

Mazza spoke out on Instagram after the freak injury to thank fans.

She posted: “Thank you everyone for the love & sweet messages. I’m still smiling & will be back & better.

CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS

“That mat return though. Damn I felt good out there. So good I didn’t even feel my arm crack on her chin.”

Mazza posted a selfie from her hospital bed and posted a lengthy statement on social media.

She said: “Sometimes this sport gives you victories you can’t measure on the scoreboard.

“I controlled the match and pushed myself to get the finish, but in the battle my forearm broke with torque of the choke against her chin.

“It’s not the outcome I imagined. To say I’m heartbroken is an understatement.. but I’m so grateful ALL the love & support and sweet messages you guys.

“They’re truly lifting me higher. The fire this setback has lit inside me is unmatched.

“The journey definitely doesn’t stop here, this is just the beginning of a stronger, hungrier version of me. The comeback will be beautiful.”

3

On the same day Corona Centennial was playing Mater Dei in football, the sounds of baseballs coming off aluminum bats could be heard from the Centennial batting cage. Only in sunny Southern California does baseball keep going month after month. On this occasion, the Huskies are trying to keep up in the talent-laden Big VIII League that includes powerhouses Corona and Norco.

Centennial, which finished in third place last season, has three sophomores who started and performed well as freshmen: Infielder Ethan Miller (.298 batting average), infelder Ethan Lebreton (.304) and outfielder Jesse Mendoza (.314).

It was an Ethan-to-Ethan double play combination at shortstop and second base for much of the year. All that experience hitting against the likes of Seth Hernandez and facing a Corona team that had three first-round draft picks should pay off in the spring.

One baseball player absent was the starting center fielder, Jaden Walk-Green, who was busy on the football field getting two interceptions and kicking two field goals in a 43-36 upset of Mater Dei.

“I’m everything. I’m the utility player,” Walk-Green said.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

“Sound of Freedom” distributor Angel Studios made its stock market debut Thursday as the company looks to expand its streaming service and eventually penetrate international markets.

The Provo, Utah-based firm is trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ANGX. Shares of the company rose 8% to $13.

Angel Studios’ launch on the public market is the latest step in the company’s unconventional journey into the entertainment business.

Founded by brothers Neal, Daniel, Jeffrey and Jordan Harmon, the company began as VidAngel, a service that allowed viewers to sanitize Hollywood movies by erasing sex, violence and swear words. But in 2016, VidAngel was sued for copyright infringement by Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros., who said the company’s business model — which involved purchasing thousands of DVDs and Blu-ray discs and allowing users to stream them online — was essentially piracy.

VidAngel eventually settled the case, and the Harmon brothers sold off the filtering business. The company rebranded as Angel Studios and kept its content production and crowdfunding operation.

Today, the firm operates a streaming service and releases movies theatrically, including 2023’s massively popular “Sound of Freedom,” which grossed $250 million worldwide, and the animated film “The King of Kings,” which came out in May and tells the story of Jesus. The studio focuses on what it calls “values-based storytelling,” and its slate is determined through the vote of its 1.5 million Angel Guild members, who also get free movie tickets and other perks.

“It’s really a combination of the values of a broader audience,” said Jordan Harmon, president. “If you look at movies like ‘The Sound of Music,’ or ‘Casablanca’ or ‘12 Angry Men,’ all those were broad, incredible stories that touched the lives of tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people. Those are the type of stories that we think fall right into this values-driven, light-amplifying mission.”

Though considered small for Hollywood, Angel Studios moved to become a publicly traded company because its nearly 70,000 investors required it to, said company Chief Executive Neal Harmon. The company merged with a special purpose acquisition company (or SPAC) called Southport Acquisition Corp. to go public. A SPAC is essentially a shell company that exists solely to buy a private company and take it public without the scrutiny of a traditional IPO.

“We’re turning the way that this industry works on its head,” he said. “And because we are not doing the traditional Hollywood gatekeeper thing, we also needed to access capital in an untraditional way.”

The path is far from the potato farm in Idaho where the brothers grew up, and where the nearest neighbor was a quarter-mile away. Working together on the farm — and sharing a bedroom for years — helped foster the communication and bond between the brothers, said Jeff Harmon, chief content officer.

“If you look in Hollywood, the best partnerships have all been brothers,” he said, ticking off several successful movie business sibling partnerships including the Disneys, Warners and Nolans. “When they actually work together really well, it becomes unstoppable.”

Rome Ramirez wasn’t built in a day.

He was once a guitar-strumming, teenage Sublime fan in a Mexican American household in Fremont, Calif. At 18, he moved to Los Angeles to follow his dream of making music. He swept floors, lived in his van and eventually did the impossible: He became the singer of his favorite band.

In 2009, 13 years after the death of Sublime’s founding singer-songwriter Bradley Nowell, Rome befriended Sublime’s remaining members, Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson, and became the frontman of Sublime with Rome — playing to an established fan base in amphitheaters around the world. Behind the scenes, Rome developed a robust songwriting career of his own, cutting his teeth in the studio-session culture in L.A. and racking up credits on Enrique Iglesias and Selena Gomez songs.

Yet eventually, the band started to feel more like a job than a calling. After several lineup changes, Sublime with Rome embarked on its farewell tour in 2024. “For the majority of being in Sublime, our recording schedule was so busy,” he says. “I knew that in order to do a solo career, it takes everything from you if you want to do it right, so that was not on the mind.”

Despite being a lifelong California boy, Rome moved his family to Nashville during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are perks to living in America’s songwriting capital — like a slower pace of life and the ability to do “more errands per day than in L.A.,” he says with a laugh. But now, he says that he and his children are some of the only Latinos in their neighborhood.

“There [are] a lot of people who leave California,” says Rome. “They trash-talk California, but it’s just such a huge part of my identity and culture — growing up as a Mexican American in California, that Chicano culture. I will always love Los Angeles.”

After 15 years in Sublime with Rome, the 37-year-old has forged a new path as a solo artist. His sound is a West Coast cocktail of beachy reggae and hip hop-inspired grooves, specially made for summertime — like his new single “Slow & Easy,” featuring the Dirty Heads, his friends from back when he slept in his van.

It’s the first offering from his debut EP, “Gemini” — “It’s about the duality of my music, I can’t be put into a box,” he says — which is set for a Sept. 19 release. He’s also announced a slate of tour dates in the U.S., starting Sept. 17 in Destin, Fla.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Your solo career was kick-started by stepping down as the lead singer of Sublime with Rome. Was having a solo career something you had in your head for a while?
Through the course of touring with Sublime, I was really heavily involved in songwriting. I was doing all kinds of records for people I really looked up to — like Selena Gomez and Jason Derulo and Enrique Iglesias. Huge names. As a kid who grew up writing songs in his mom’s basement, this was just like a dream come true.

It wasn’t until the pandemic happened where for the first time Sublime with Rome wasn’t touring, we were at home and I started live-streaming. People were showing up in these rooms — like 500 to a thousand people. I was one of the first people in my music community who was already outfitted with cameras, ready to go in the studio. I would start with a Sublime album and go through every song on the stream. And then the next album, then the Sublime with Rome album, then I would do covers. After about like six months, I ran out of songs and people were just asking like, “Dude, do you have any music? Like, are you working on anything?” And honestly, I hadn’t worked on music for myself in so long.

I think part of that was not wanting to dig deep into traumas, [like] growing up in a household with drugs. But during the pandemic, I had time to start writing music again for fun — playing with sounds that I loved and grew up on, and starting to pull the scabs off of [wounds] that I tucked [away] in the past. After a while I had a handful of songs, and I just knew I [couldn’t] put them in the Sublime with Rome set. This thing I love to do started to feel like a job, and that is a no-go. So I asked myself, “Am I going to do Sublime with Rome for money, or am I going to really follow something that I believe in?”

We started having conversations about what the future of the band was looking like prior to our summer tour in 2023. I’m really glad that everything happened the way it did. We had a roll out for everything. I needed to trust my gut and follow through with my belief in this music and what I’m building.

“Lay Me Down” with Dirty Heads is one of your biggest songs, with nearly 120 million Spotify plays, but it came out in 2010 — much earlier than your current venture in your solo career. What’s the story behind this song?
I’m from the Bay Area, but I moved down to Los Angeles when I was 18 to go make something of myself. I was hanging around this recording studio that the Dirty Heads were just getting started at.

I was just interning, sweeping floors, [eating] cheeseburgers, that kind of thing. Everyone knew that I could write a song, and eventually, after hanging out there for so long, me and the Dirty Heads worked up a friendship. They said, “Let’s get together and write a song one day.”

So we barbecued some hot dogs and just hung out in one of the guys’ backyard with a couple of guitars on a picnic bench … and we wrote “Lay Me Down.” The song sat around for a year, but we really liked it.

They were going on tour in the van and I wasn’t doing anything — I was homeless at the time, Sublime wasn’t even a thought. They offered me to go on the road with them, so I did and played that one song with them. From there, our manager took the demo to KROQ. The song started getting played on the radio and the shows got fuller. It was such an amazing experience. It was just just by the grace of God, it like all worked out and our lives changed from that point. We cashed our first checks and bought our first cars together from that.

You collaborated with the Dirty Heads again on your recent single “Slow and Easy.” It’s your first single since you’ve gone solo. What was that process like?
It’s come full circle with my best friends again. I knew this song was special. I went into the studio with the aim of — “I want to make a summer song that feels like a Van Morrison record, but [an] Uncle Kracker [vibe]. Real simple.”

I went in with my boy, Nick Bailey, who I write a lot of music with, and we nailed that song in two hours. After I got the demo I was like, “Man, it’s so close. What if I put the Dirty Heads on it? [With] a little rap and a little melody, it would just be so different.”

They loved it. They sent me their vocals the next week and I was like, “OK, I feel like this is a good song.” Eventually some awesome promoters at radio stations heard it and they wanted to take a chance on the record.

The summer vibes are strong on “Lay Me Down” and “Slow and Easy.” What artists introduced you to this sound that’s present in everything you do?
I grew up on Motown and Bob Marley. That’s what I circled back to after I left Sublime.

As I was working on music during the pandemic, I was like, “What do I want to hear? What’s the shit that I like?” And it’s like Stevie Wonder, it’s the Supremes, it’s the Four Tops, it’s Fiona Apple, it’s Leon Bridges, it’s Van Morrison. I really like feel-good music that sonically reminds me of an older time.

I have kids now, so I’m very conscious about the message I put into the world. I’ll try to write a song that the world could benefit from hearing, but not make it a preachy song.

How would you describe the sound of Rome?
The underlying factor is soul music. When you hear soul music, you think of Teddy Pendergrass and things like that. I love soul music. [Take] Bradley’s voice in Sublime, you cannot tell me that that man wasn’t a soul singer.

That’s the music that I really gravitate to, music that just feels really honest. Reggae music [lives] in me. Jack Johnson is another huge influence. My sound is reggae and soul and pop music, for lack of better words, because I write simple-ass songs.

How do you feel like your Mexican heritage makes its way into your music? Or in how you move and how you present yourself?
Growing up Mexican shaped my whole framework for how I live my life. I don’t speak Spanish, but I grew up in two households that were fully fluent in Spanish. All my friends growing up were Mexican. [I remember] seeing Carlos Santana playing with Rob Thomas on [television] and my dad was like, “He’s mexicano right there.” Man, that was pretty sick.

Growing up in a really thick Mexican culture [meant] both my parents worked their ass off, but at the same time, family always came first. These are the kind of morals that are really instilled in Mexican culture, that I’m so proud that I have. As a family man now, those things are so prominent in my life. We take a lot of pride in what we do, we work our asses off … then when it’s time to play, we play.

What makes a good summer song?
Something that you don’t have to try too hard to listen to. There are some songs where you’re like, “All right, I need to get in the car and drive and listen to this thing, ride it out the gate.” When I envision a summer song, it’s very simple and easy to play.

People online are debating what the song of the summer is in 2025. What has been your song of the summer?
In terms of listening and all the damn content I’ve been making, it’s “Slow and Easy!” But aside from one of my own songs, probably “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters” because that’s what my kids are spinning. The music is shockingly good. It’s like Max Martin s—.

You’re on quite a big U.S. tour. How is it going?
It’s so sick. We just rolled out a couple dates in Florida just to test the waters and those shows are selling really good, so promoters have been adding more and more.

I’ve been to so many of these places [with Sublime], of course, but the energy’s different. I’m playing smaller spots, [connecting] with people before and after the shows. You can’t really do that in amphitheaters. I’m experiencing everything in reverse. I was homeless when I met Sublime and then I was on the tour bus. Now, it’s like we’re climbing up the ranks again.

I have such a long lineage of songs I’ve been working on and the fan base — shout out to the Romies — who’ve followed me over the years. Putting together the set list has been a celebration of the different eras of my life. I’m just having a lot of fun doing this.