VENTURA COUNTY WEEKEND : ROCKTALK : A ‘Sublime’ Blending of Punk, Reggae, Ska : Not-so-subtle band brings its off-the-wall brand of music to Ventura Theatre with Mr. Mirainga and The Rubberband.

Combining punk, reggae and ska, Sublime should have the follicly challenged ska, skate and surf kids mixing it up in the mosh pit tonight at the Ventura Theatre.

Sublime, fully as subtle as winter surf at The Wedge in Newport Beach, has been at it since 1988, releasing a pair of albums on its own label, Skunk Records. The first one, “40 Oz. To Freedom” from 1992, has sold more than 30,000 copies so far. It contains a ska version of the theme from “Rawhide,” a TV Western older than most of the band’s fans. The most recent album, “Robbin’ The Hood,” was released last year.

Sublime, which enjoys a fanatical following in the South Coast, Long Beach and Orange County, has been expanding its horizons of late with appearances on a couple of other projects. The band covers Peter Tosh’s “Legalize It” on the “Hempilation” compilation, plus it covers “Smoke Two Joints” on the “Mallrats” soundtrack.

Also on the bill for the 8 p.m. show are Mr. Mirainga and The Rubberband. Unfortunately, label mates and serious goofballs The Ziggens won’t be playing as originally scheduled.

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That mellow Ojai folkie, Alan Thornhill, sort of a local version of James Taylor minus the serious bank account, will perform at the newly opened Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center on Saturday night. The venue, at 3050 Los Angeles Ave., was built in 1924 as the Simi Valley Community Methodist Episcopal Church.

Thornhill will be the guy with the new guitar: While on vacation in Colorado last summer, Thornhill won the 1995 Telluride Music Festival Finger Style Guitar Competition.

As the name implies, Thornhill used his fingers rather than a guitar pick. Limited to two songs, Thornhill played an original, then a rendition of “Over The Rainbow,” and won the guitar of his dreams, a Taylor Grand Concert Guitar. For more information on the 8 p.m. show, call 581-9940.

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The Upbeat, the Party People’s choice out of Carpinteria, has finally released its long-awaited CD. Let’s see--10 guys, 10 years, one CD: Better mark that calendar sometime around 2005 for the sequel.

What makes the ska band memorable is the happening horn section, two-fifths of the group: Mike Honeyman on trumpet, Gabe Chester and Grant Cox on sax and Rodney Teague on trombone.

The Upbeat usually only plays a few times a month, if that, because of the scheduling problems related to 10 guys with lives and jobs.

Since Carp rocks about as much as Ojai, the band routinely packs all the usual joints up that coast. Their CD-release party will be Saturday night at 9 p.m. at The Underground in Santa Barbara. It’ll be more fun, with infinitely more dancing, than the Alanis Morissette show Tuesday night at the Arlington Theatre.

The band should be a big draw in Ventura, which so far, it’s not. This remains an ongoing mystery because the Upbeat could turn a riot into a dance. The band will venture south again next month when The Bar, formerly The Midnight Hour, reopens in Ventura.