Thursday, January 02, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Music: The scenestress

KOMP's Laurie Steele carries 'Home Grown' past the five-year mark

By Andrew Kiraly

The interview is wrapping up. Over the past hour or so, KOMP jock Laurie Steele has waxed heartily philosophical about the local music scene, and the final question remains: Um, what exactly is her title? The question sparks a round of cheekily self-important jokes.

"How about 'creative force'?" she says. "Or 'supreme being'? Something with 'omnipotent' in it would be nice, too. Yeah, 'omnipotent supreme being' sounds good."

Har har. But there's a grain of truth to the jokes. Steele--whose business card tags her as an "Air Personality"--is, indeed, the thrust behind KOMP 92.3-FM's long-running local music show "Homegrown." Sure, the weekly show is only two hours long, but Steele's superhero-like commitment to the program spans far beyond those limits. The local music scene's largely unsung heroine, who celebrates five years on the show this week, spends at least as much time off the air as on involved in the scene, whether that means hopping on stage to introduce local bands (as she did at the recent Ill Figures CD release party), slogging through the local releases that pour into the station each week, or just checking out the latest local buzz band on a Saturday night.

A veritable saint? Hardly. Steele is quick to bitch-slap any notion that she's doing it all out of some self-sacrificing, for-the-greater-good impulse. The truth is there's some quality local music out there that deserves some spins--and Steele says it without a hint of that patronizing "support the scene" rhetoric.

"I think most of the bands that appear on 'Home Grown' are every bit as good and solid as the stuff they're playing during the day," says Steele. "And that's my personal goal for the show. I want to keep the quality level so high that someone who just happens to tune in won't know it's a local show."

It's an approach that's worked--much to the delight of listeners, local bands and station honchos. Steele's best buzz comes whenever the phone rings after she plays a song and a listener asks, "Who was that?"

"She does a phenomenal job," says KOMP program director John Griffin. "The show's success is because of Laurie being so in tune with the scene and putting so much effort into creating such a good show. It's an important show, and not just because it gives local bands airplay on a top 30 station." It's also important, Griffin says, because it gives listeners a sense of place, a taste of hometown talent in a town where genericism seems to rules the airwaves.

First impressions reveal Steele to be an ironic choice for the slot; the unassuming New York native doesn't traffick in the bombast or schtick that marks many a radio personality. But it's just Steele's even-keeled temperament that gives the spotlight to the songs she plays--which have lately included selections by up-and-comers such as Race to Red, Magna-Fi, Bent Valve and Guilty By Association.

On her fifth anniversary show, which airs this Sunday, Steele kicks off a new segment, "Heritage Homegrown," that's a testament to both the show's longevity and that of the music scene, featuring old tracks from bygone bands. But what's the point in playing old Vegas bands that have long since broken up?

"The music doesn't die when the bands break up," Steele says. "Did Led Zeppelin become irrelevant because they broke up? Of course not. It's no different with local bands. There were a lot of local bands from yesteryear that put out some great stuff that deserves to be heard." Listeners can look forward to gone-but-not forgotten acts such as Inside Scarlet, as well as older tracks by still-living locals like Mama Zeus and Copperpot (now Cherry Hill). No doubt Steele will be ready at the phone. And not all the callers will be listeners--many of them are in bands themselves.

"[Local songwriter] Michael Soli told me that he got an e-mail from a guy who heard one of his songs on 'Home Grown' while he was driving through Utah, and he just had to have the CD," Steele says. "Sometimes I hate not having weekends free, sometimes I want my anonymity back, but when I hear stuff like that from local musicians, it makes it all worthwhile."