Guacamole Mafia

George Biner is from Inglewood, CA in the Los Angeles area. Ever since he saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show at the age of four, he has been fascinated by the great performers of the ‘60s that he heard on AM radio and especially by the songwriting. He stole his sister’s Tijuana-bought guitar at age 8 and banged around on the family piano in the front room. He got a lot of experience singing to the songs on the radio. As time went on, he embraced the successive waves of folk rock, psychedelic, country rock, hard rock, punk rock, and new wave.

George has always liked being challenged by new instruments: he started playing piano and acoustic guitar at age 8, clarinet at age 10, electric bass at age 14, electric guitar age 18, drums age 45, pedal steel age 56. He is a very effective lead and harmony vocalist.

On the bass guitar at age 16, George’s first band was Blue Wind, a country and blues rock cover band with two drummers. He next played with noted South Bay LA keyboardist Kevin Maloney in a progressive cover band. This band undertook complex songs by Gentle Giant, Yes, PFM and ELP.

For a change of pace, George was then drafted to play bass and sing backup in an original punk rock band the Alcoholics in 1978 – this band, while not achieving much material fame, was right in the middle of the LA punk movement from 1978 to 1981, playing at venues such as Hong Kong Cafe, Madame Wong’s East and Cathay de Grande. The band shared bills with the Alley Cats, the Go Go’s, and the Gears. A 5-song EP was issued in 1980, and a new retrospective Alcoholics album was issued in 2015.

At age 20, George elected not to become a professional musician, and so took a break from music to attend UCLA, and he graduated in 1987 with a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering; he went on to earn a master’s at USC. George has several technical articles on the web.

Getting back in to music, George paid his dues in the L.A. clubs (Whisky, Roxy, Troubador, Madame Wong’s, Club Lingerie) with some original bands. First up was the Absolute, a hard rock trio. Next was KGB, a soul-based experiment where he played keyboards and guitar and sang lead vocals — KGB was featured on KLOS-FM’s “Local Licks” program. George also helped form Magpie, an alt-rock female singer-songwriter band.

Over the years, George has acted as vocalist and musician in many cover bands, lighting up audiences in dive bars all over the LA area: Enigma, Top Shelf, City Boy, Noethx, Rockhounds, Lunatic Fringe, Pure Play (George produced this band’s two CDs), Rio Bravo (toured with in Ohio and New York), Ask Andy (based near Merced, CA), and Once More. He has also been involved in tribute bands covering the Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead and Little Feat.

George did a turn as a sound mixer at the Breakaway restaurant in Mar Vista, working with artists such as Ray Manzarek, the Dickies, Tony Gilkyson and Miles Tackett.

As an active acoustic musician, his playlists are very diverse and cover many genres – from the reflectiveness of James Taylor to intensity of the Who. Bob Dylan, the Stones, Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, and Van Morrison also get a lot of airtime. He has played acoustic gigs on and off with the Status Crowes and the Acoustic Warriors. George’s performance style is passionate and precise and his many years of performing ensure a good time will be had by all.

George also played bluegrass acoustic guitar in the Murphy’s Flaw and Clusterpluck bands. Speaking of bluegrass, George is a multiyear prizewinner at the annual Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest and his guitar rendition of “Beaumont Rag” is featured on the contest’s 2008 compilation CD – he still plays occasional bluegrass gigs.

George started playing pedal steel guitar in 2017 and is championing the instrument through organizing local LA player meetups.

George is an audio engineer and recordist whose many tracks can be heard on his YouTube channel “maphead2”. George uses Audix and MXL microphones, Collings acoustic guitars, Nord keyboards and Fender amplifiers.