International Pop Overthrow Festival's Coming to Town

A dedicated power-pop fan?indeed, an aficionado of many things fey, twee and poppish?once insisted to me that the genre was vital to people who had been "robbed of their childhood." This seemed vaguely comic, since the same person also liked to ridicule anyone fond of self-pitying acts like the Smiths. When pressed on this discrepancy, the big pop fan (at least 300 pounds) sullenly explained that being robbed of a childhood meant, in his case, being repeatedly raped as a young child by his sister's boyfriend.

So, there's some insight into the genre.

The power-pop scene in New York City can be deceptive. For one thing, women will attend local power-pop shows. The guys can also seem vaguely cool and confident, and some even know how to dance. Elsewhere in America, though, power-pop shows look an awful lot like an encounter group for survivors of childhood molestation. You've never seen such a quivering group of 90-pound weaklings and overweight grotesqueries. But perhaps you soon will, as the International Pop Overthrow comes to New York City for the first time.

Like the beloved Poptopia festival, the International Pop Overthrow has been livening up Los Angeles nightlife with a massive series of concerts focusing on power-pop acts for the past couple of years. IPO founder David Bash has turned a human fanzine into a much-anticipated event, with attendees flying in from Australia and Japan. While those are also future sites for going truly international, Bash begins his expansion with IPO New York, taking place Dec. 3-12.

Bash, who has no memory of being molested as a child, is certainly proud of his achievement. He doesn't even mind that the power-pop genre is in such lousy shape these days. His press release claims that IPO "celebrates the music made famous by such pop heroes as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and Badfinger." In truth, much of IPO sounds like the lameness of forgotten also-rans like the Bartlebees, Blow Pops, and Brian Brain.

Bash, of course, would disagree, partly out of honest enthusiasm. When asked to name a single bad power-pop band, this genuinely nice guy replies, "I can't really think of one off the top of my head." Fortunately, the IPO lineup provides several examples. The event includes big nothings like Brian Charles, whose Sadderdaydreaming should make it illegal for any pop act to appropriate the Pet Sounds typeface. The Flashcubes will reunite as proof that power-pop offered plenty of lameness back in the 70s. In the crazed tradition of their namesake, the Fletcher Pratt solidly and singlehandedly set back Detroit's reputation as even a wimp-rock city. And the ladies of It's My Party! will emulate the sound of all the fifth-rate girl groups who weren't allowed to record during the selective 60s.

It's all Bash's fault, too. The festival's acts are hand-selected by the great arbiter. He's not arrogant about this, though. "There's something to be said for a festival that's organized by committee," Bash notes, "but there might still be people who leave out important bands. I'm proud that IPO represents my vision."

In Bash's defense, not every IPO act is a disaster. The Tearaways are amiable tough guys with a keen sense of melody. Mannix injects some likable personality into what's left of alt-country and the George Usher Group recently released an imaginative album, Days of Plenty. The Grip Weeds have also finally hit their stride with Summer of a Thousand Years. Kitty in the Tree expands IPO's parameters with a delirious sense of glam. And the sheer volume of the festival, with nearly 100 acts, suggests that the other unknowns won't be a disaster.

The most visionary power-pop album of the past few years is The Proximity Effect by Nada Surf. Those locals weren't invited. Bash is kind of apologetic about that, though, and is happy to consider that he may have made a mistake. As noted above, he really is a sincerely nice guy.

The IPO audience, however, is typically nonsincere, and that's why the power-pop scene has become so lame over the years. What was once a neglected genre has now become another niche market for social outcasts. Where once there were pop-music fans, there are now misshapen geeks who rival aging beatnik jazz freaks in obsessing over catalog numbers. That misplaced passion is okay for jazz. It's not so okay for pop. A sound that thrived on the dating scene now has a target audience who prefers to stay home and lust after those Gilmore Girls.

Just ask the frontman of a reasonably successful power-pop act from L.A. His impressions of the crowds are enough to make him demand anonymity. "There's definitely the feel of a Star Trek convention out there," he says. "Nobody's getting laid at a power-pop show." But not getting laid can be a positive part of the experience. Consider what might well be the definitive power-pop song. Former Raspberries bassist Scott McCarl recorded "In Love Without a Girl" back in 1996, and the tune perfectly captures the pop esthetic as masochism. Even as the narrator anguishes over how his best friend's girl is out of sight, the music is an upbeat celebration of the sheer glory of being in love with love.

But McCarl's song now stands out as an atypical work. Most modern power-pop settles for all the longing, half of the technical expertise and none of the inspired love for life. Its practitioners can't achieve McCarl's triumph over cruel nature. Instead, they just fall in love with self-pity, passive mimicry and desperate fantasies. They're miserable little Sartres in a field that used to thrive with saintly Kierkegaards. That alienation and intellectual laziness also comes through in the music. That's why today's power-pop prefers to emulate and embrace useless icons like the Bay City Rollers, while refusing to acknowledge and build upon the power-pop greatness of acts like Poison or Def Leppard. There's a simple reason for this. The Bay City Rollers remain sexless objects of adoration; Poison and Def Leppard are cock-rock.

Bash's own take provides further insight: "You have to remember that Def Leppard is perceived as being all big-haired and forceful. They definitely have hooks and a pop element, but the lyrical stance is very different. Pop bands don't write songs about attacking and conquering women, as Def Leppard or Poison might. They're also not into partying like those bands might be. I guess we don't see ourselves as the kind of men who look at women that way."

This is correct. Most power-pop fans prefer to look at women from very powerful telescopes. Bash, however, sees it differently: "We look at women as being beautiful and substantial. You'd have to speak to more people to get a consensus about this, but the personality of a pop fan seems to jibe better with Cheap Trick. When Cheap Trick sing about women, they're not necessarily classifying them as sex objects."

You'd have to ignore classic songs like "Come On, Come On" and "She's Tight" to really buy into that argument, but Bash is almost onto something. What truly makes Cheap Trick a power-pop exception is the use of token nerds. Two of the band's members actually look like they belong at an IPO show. Robin Zander is tolerated for the same reason charismatic frontmen are always tolerated in traditional power-pop: the masochistic experience wouldn't be complete without the hypocrisy of a handsome guy telling virgins how sweet it is to not get laid.

"I don't know if hypocrisy is the right word," Bash responds. "People who write songs don't have to be speaking from their own perspective. Does everything that Bob Dylan writes speak to his own beliefs? Not always, but it speaks to the people who are out there. Someone who's good-looking can still sing about the angst they feel about women. Bruce Springsteen wrote about killing the yellow man, but he was never in Vietnam. People still embraced the song."

Sadly, we're not talking about fantasies of killing Godless communists. We're talking about the fantasy of kissing a girl. This is an appropriate projection when pop music is playing to a bunch of 12-year-olds. It's a little sadder when those 12-year-olds become men in their 30s who are still really into the emotion of longing. There are 12-year-old Creed fans who are getting laid on the hour, and yet these adults are all about the starry-eyed appeal of denial and obsessing. But unlike Britney or the Backstreet Boys, the power-pop scene adds the cruelty of fetishizing rejection. It suggests fulfillment in being a social cripple.

"Perhaps," Bash counters, "pop music is really about offering comfort. Men go out to power-pop shows, and it comforts them to see someone out there who knows how they feel. To me, that's not tragic. And if it is, is it any more tragic than people going to see bands who write about hate or who write about the degradation of women? Is it any more tragic than the people who go see bands who strut around and talk about overpowering women and boasting that they're macho and able to do that?"

We'll consider those issues the next time we're addressing the big rape-rock movement. But if the subject isn't tragedy, then there's plenty of reason to consider cruelty. A guy's looks don't really matter when it comes to meeting women. All any man needs is confidence. Yet the modern power-pop scene continues to thrive on poor saps who enjoy being encouraged in their social awkwardness.

Bash maintains a different take. Listen closely, and you can hear the backing cheers of every power-pop fan who's ever complained that a touring band has run out of XXL t-shirts for sale.

"There are people out there," Bash explains, "who are lonely and can't get laid, but they're still very nice people with strong souls and consciousness. It's true that they don't have any confidence. They aren't physically attractive and don't have the whole package. But the real tragedy is that society has been built around a false belief. I'm talking about the idea that the only guys out there who are worth anything are the ones with the confidence to do..."

Did I mention that Bash is a really nice guy? His voice trails off as he tries to imagine what guys do with gals who respond to confidence. In this moment, you can appreciate how much he understands about today's power-pop audience.

He gives it a try: "...you know, the confidence to do whatever."

More information about the festival, including a full schedule, can be found at [www.internationalpopoverthrow.com.](http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com)