21st Annual International Pop Overthrow (IPO) coming to Los Angeles, July 27 through August 5

International Pop Overthrow - better known as IPO - is back! The annual celebration of melodic rock, power pop and all round good music returns to the Southland this Friday, July 27, and continues through Aug. 5, 2018.

I've been out of town the better part of July, so I caught up with IPO founder and CEO David Bash via email and had him reflect on this year's highly-anticipated event, as well as the history of IPO...

Robert: Talk a little bit about what makes the 21st Annual IPO special? I saw, for instance, you have Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (a founding member of Jellyfish and the long-time keyboardist and backing vocalist for Beck) performing at a date in early August.

Chris Price / Photo: Kyle Safieh

David: Well yes, that's certainly one thing which makes it special, having Roger back for the first time since 2006!  He rarely plays, so I'm especially honored to have him.  Actually, the whole bill on August 3 is pretty amazing (that event at Molly Malone's also features Chris Price, Rob Bonfiglio, David Myhr and others)!  Of course, I think all the shows are great, and no, I'm not biased...It's also special because, at 21 years, we're finally legal.

Robert: How has the Power Pop/melodic rock scene changed over the years since your first IPO event?

David: It's certainly grown quite a bit since 1998, when we started IPO, as with the proliferation of ways to record at home, virtually anyone who wants to record an album has the ability to do so.  Of course, that means more music that's underpar, but also more music that's good...and I certainly accept that trade-off because my wife Rina and I are very diligent about separating the wheat from the chaff, doing copius research online to find the best pop artists we can, and invite them to play the festival.

Diamond Hands

Robert: Are there any certain artists that you have performing that are unique; maybe talk about the range of artists performing across the 10-day event this summer.

David: I don't know about unique, but I will say that the parameters of the festival have widened quite a bit since we began doing IPO.  While early on it was primarily a "power pop" festival, we now feature much more than that.  We have a nice cross-section of indie-rock, modern rock, psychedelic pop, folk-pop, singer/songwriters, etc...there's definitely something for everyone at IPO Los Angeles!  On the schedule page of our website, we have links to all the artists playing the festival, so feel free to check them out at https://internationalpopoverthrow.com/schedules/ipo-2018-schedules/los-angeles-2018/X

Robert: Thank you David!

Roger Joseph Manning Jr.

You can check out the IPO schedule at: https://internationalpopoverthrow.com/schedules/ipo-2018-schedules/los-angeles-2018/ 


Robert Kinsler