46 San Diego Reader February 23, 2017
continued from page 44
the instrument looks perfect, so I tell the guy to let me tune it and I guarantee he’s gonna be happy. He leaves the house, and I get started,
says Garrison. “When my personality comes in contact with that energy in the universe — it manifests itself in music. With an orange tree it makes oranges. I’m trying to renounce music, but it isn’t going well. My duty is to write better music first. You can’t renounce cleaning the floor if the floor is still dirty! Dude, I haven’t figured it out yet, there’s so much I don’t know...” Until he figures
Joe Garrison: “You can just hit a note and ride into outer space.”
but the first thing I do is drop my hammer on the part that covers the keys! Now there’s a big fucking dent on an instrument he’s already bitching about. I ran back to the shop and we swapped that part for the one on the other piano. It didn’t work, though, and they ended up having to bring a third piano out. I can laugh about it now, but it was pretty horrifying.” There isn’t much com-
mercial potential in his brand of music, but Garrison keeps at it. “It all goes back to the question, ‘What is life?’”
it out, there’re more pianos to service and there’s more music to compose. “I’ve tuned for them all,” says Garrison. “Wynton Marsalis, Esperanza Spalding, Ahmad Jamal... When you can make everything perfect, that’s really satisfying. That only
happens when it really matters — when it has to be perfect and stay that way throughout the show. When it’s that good, every note is like a telescope looking into the sky.” You can download a track
from Garrison’s new disc by visiting his website, night-
peoplejazz.com. Night People will perform the album in its
entirety on April 8 at Dizzy’s. — Robert Bush
Roxy reunion. “The Big Stir Powerpop Show was something I first organized last year in San Diego in
conjunction with L.A. band the Armoires, who hold monthly Big Stir shows up in North Hollywood,” says singer/guitarist Scott Samuels of the pop festival coming to the Chico Club on Febru- ary 25. His own band Roxy Monoxide will regroup for the second annual event. “I played last year’s show with my solo set and thought it would be fun to reunite the band this time around.” The Roxy reunion includes
Michael Rennie and Darko Petrovic (who both went on to Rio Peligroso) and Scott Southwood (Hot Gin). “It’s the main core of the original band that was active locally from 2000 to 2009 and performed at several International Pop Overthrow festivals. We’ll be doing several songs off our last album [Another Day Another Episode], as well as a few from an earlier release, the Intuition EP, and a new
power-pop tune I wrote called ‘More Than Fine.’” The bill includes the
Armoires, Suite 100, Steve Rosenbaum’s Mess of Fun, and Super Buffet. “Each of these bands shares a love for
blues influenced, but power pop generally is not. It’s hap- pier sounding.” Samuels’s band Vinyl
Pirates has been playing monthly at the Chico Club for several years, making it a nat-
Pop Overthrow went AWOL for a few years, before Larry at the Chico Club supported the cause in 2014.” Though all four return-
ing Roxys live around San Diego, “This is really a one-off reunion,” says Samuels. “But who knows? Maybe if we were invited, and everyone had the time and desire, we could do something up in L.A., either Big Stir or the L.A. Interna- tional Pop Overthrow.” With or without Roxy
Roxy’s Samuels (right): “There’s a specialized fan base for power pop, so it’s difficult to convince a club owner to take a chance...”
simple, compact rock tunes, usually not much longer than three or four minutes, with really strong melodies, harmonies in the vocals, and strong choruses and hooks. A lot of rock and roll is heavily
ural choice to host. “There’s a specialized fan base for power pop, so it’s difficult to convince a club owner to take a chance on a full night of power pop. That’s why the San Diego version of International
Monoxide, “I think Big Stir San Diego will probably stay an annual event. It runs about six months after the San Diego International Pop Overthrow, so that’s probably plenty of power-pop events
for the local market.” — Jay Allen Sanford
Find Blurt online at
SDReader.com/blurt
CONTRIBUTORS Chad Deal, Dave Good, Dorian Hargrove, Mary Leary, Ken Leighton, Bart Mendoza, Jay Allen Sanford, David Stampone
Rock’N’Roll Revival Copy Cat Killers
Friday February 24Saturday February 25 Brian Jones
Super Karaoke!
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