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Black Cat Bar to host annual International Pop Overthrow August 21 and 22
Underground and unsigned acts join Grammy nominee at City Heights venue
Sign for Black Cat Bar, which is once again hosting San Diego's edition of the International Pop Overthrow
Pop music becomes popular on the strength of an emotional resonance that it evokes with a large group of listeners. Through its use of catchy melodies, simple verse-chorus structures, and universal themes with anthemic lyrical cadence, the best pop music is relatable to everyone — from young adults seeking the latest downloads to senior citizens replaying the revolutions per minute that provided the soundtrack to their lives. Music snobs may look down their noses at what they consider a lowest common denominator, paint-by-number genre. But that doesn’t stop everyone from Paul McCartney to Chappell Roan from selling billions of songs to devoted, appreciative fans. Like it says on the famous vintage album cover, 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong.
Vox populi, vox dei
The debut International Pop Overthrow was staged in Los Angeles circa 1998, and featured over a hundred melodic rock and power-pop acts performing at various locales around the city. The event expanded to various U.S. and international cities, reaching San Diego in the early 2000s. It's been staged around a dozen times so far, at area venues like O’Connell’s Pub, Eleven, the Chico Club, and finally at its post-pandemic home since 2022, the Black Cat Bar in City Heights. Housed inside a historic 1920s bank building, the neighborhood bar was opened in 2011 by former Turf Club bartender Matt Parker, whose design of the interior was inspired by Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, with a dark cathedral ambience that includes an orange neon black cat glowing in the front window and a grand gothic chandelier hanging over the pool tables.
The venue will host this year’s edition of International Pop Overthrow on August 21 and 22, with around a dozen bands performing over two nights. Most of them hail from San Diego; all will be playing short sets of melodic, hook-filled music. The bill on Friday, August 21 features Grammy nominated family rocker Ralph Covert, formerly of the Chicago indie-rock band The Bad Examples, but now probably best known for his kindie-rock project Ralph’s World. Covert started writing children's music after teaching youth music classes; his album Green Gorilla, Monster & Me earned a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Album for Children. Since Covid, he has now livestreamed over 1000 shows on Facebook Live and Twitch. For this performance, he will be playing acoustic versions of songs from across his catalog.
Ralph Covert
Mess of Fun is the occasional side project of Steve Rosenbaum, a singer-songwriter from suburban Toledo, Ohio who was one of the early performers at the now-famous Bookies Club 870, a seminal punk and new wave club. After relocating to Los Angeles, he played in Flip City and became a fixture at Madame Wong’s West and other '80s L.A. clubs. From there, he and Grammy-nominated producer and bass player Bruce Witkin (Hollywood Vampires) formed The Lonely Bulls, a Beatle-esque vocal-centric acoustic project that featured Everly Brothers-type harmonies. “We were drawing big crowds, but nothing really went anywhere,” Rosenbaum told the Reader. “We just reached a point where we said, ‘What are we doing?'” As Mess of Fun, he has played several previous editions of the Pop Overthrow fest in San Diego, the city he now calls home.
Scott Samuels has been playing at International Pop Overthrows for around 20 years with various different bands. He arrived in San Diego in 1988, and joined long-established group The Snails (soon to be known as The Rhythm Slaves). He’s also a vet of area acts such as Pharmacy, A.M. Forever, Roxy Monoxide, and Roxy Dioxide, and he co-produced the first San Diego Big Stir pop music festival in January 2015. "I wanted to put together a power-pop show putting together several acts from San Diego that played the San Diego International Pop Overthrow in 2014,” he says. "Sort of a one-night, mini version of that festival. So I invited my friends Steve Rosenbaum and Pete Bayard [Super Buffet] to participate. I approached Larry Fox, owner of the Chico Club and a great supporter of the power pop scene in San Diego, and he agreed to have his bar host the event. And then Steve Thorn of the San Diego Troubadour, another power pop enthusiast, offered to emcee." The following year's Big Stir festival at the Chico Club featured a Roxy Monoxide reunion. For this Black Cat bar set, he’ll be accompanied by most of the members from his Neil Diamond tribute act Solitary Diamonds.
Scott Samuels
Indie pop singer-songwriter Tamar Berk grew up playing piano and started writing songs on guitar as a teenager. While living in Chicago, she played in regional bands like her first, power-pop group Starball, known for tracks like 2001's “New Year's Day." She went on to play in an electro-punk duo with her husband that they named the Countdown, a Small Faces cover band called Deep Joy, and, briefly, a group with Kim Thompson called Sweet Heat. After relocating to Portland, she played keys with the Pynnacles, and her group Paradise released three albums, including a rock opera. After moving to San Diego, her album The Restless Dreams of Youth was released in summer 2021. Her fifth solo album OCD dropped in September 2025, preceded by a single and video for the track “Stay Close By.”
Also appearing on Friday, Hector Penalosa is probably best known as the co-founder of influential local punk icons The Zeros (recently partially reformed as Zeros ’77), but he also has a history with pop music, thanks to projects such as his Beatles tribute band Baja Bugs. North County’s Super Buffet is fronted by bass player/singer Pete Bayard (formerly of Inigo and Rookie Card) and features a rotating cast of backing musicians. Self described as “Jonathan Richman getting into a pillow fight with King Kahn and BBQ show while 96 Tears plays in the background,” they self-released their debut full-length, Self Styled, in 2021.
Super Buffet
Saturday’s bill includes Suite 100, which appeared on several of the International Pop Overthrow album compilations — including volumes 10, 11, 19, 20, and 22 — with two of their selections only found on the IPO collections. Hailing from North County San Diego and southwest Riverside, their self-produced debut album In the Night Kitchen was released in 2005, earning praise for blending catchy, sing-along melodies with intricate, lavish instrumentation. The band recently dropped their sophomore full-length, The Only Cure For Gravity.
The Colour Monday specializes in indie dream pop and ethereal indie rock, with shimmering guitars, driving rhythms, and atmospheric soundscapes inspired by likeminded acts such as Foals, Beach House, and Tame Impala. The most recent edition of their monthly acoustic series The Acoustic Colour Monday features a softer, keyboard-driven reimagining of their original song “Population Control,” and they’ve been previewing new material with recent live renditions of upcoming tracks like “For Now, Nothing.”
The Colour Monday
True Stories is fronted by Bart Mendoza (The Shambles, Manual Scan), who recently landed two True Stories songs in the soundtrack to the new comedy-horror film Water Park Shark (by the same creators behind Sharknado), “I Can't Don’t Want To Faster” and “Brilliant.” The Rightovers began as a solo project for Chris Holmes (later known as Chris Tomorrow), of Conceptus and Lil' Pizzas, while he was attending grad school in Hawaii. They’ve released several new singles this year, including “Drive,” “Paragliding,” “California Girls II,” and a cover of the Tears For Fears song “Pale Shelter.”
Three of the acts slated to appear are from the Los Angeles/Orange County area, including power jangle-rock trio The Glimmer Stars, Michael Culhane (whose rock band Circle Sky was hand-picked by David Bowie to open for Tin Machine), and Courtney McKenna, an L.A. based marketer and musician who uses yoga on her mission to help society shift into a healthier and happier collective.
“The purpose of International Pop Overthrow is twofold,” says founder David Bash. “One aim is to give every worthy band who’d like to play their music in a festival atmosphere the chance to do so, and the other is to bring pop music the attention it so richly deserves. We have made great strides to that end, garnering press in several noteworthy papers and blogs in each city in which we hold the festival, and creating a very positive buzz about pop music within the independent music community.”
“In addition, every artist who plays the festival feels as if they’re part of something fulfilling, being on bills with like-minded artists with whom they can bond, and playing in front of an audience who will ‘get’ their music.”
Here's something you might be interested in.
Black Cat Bar to host annual International Pop Overthrow August 21 and 22
Underground and unsigned acts join Grammy nominee at City Heights venue
Black Cat Bar to host annual International Pop Overthrow August 21 and 22
Underground and unsigned acts join Grammy nominee at City Heights venue
Sign for Black Cat Bar, which is once again hosting San Diego's edition of the International Pop Overthrow
Pop music becomes popular on the strength of an emotional resonance that it evokes with a large group of listeners. Through its use of catchy melodies, simple verse-chorus structures, and universal themes with anthemic lyrical cadence, the best pop music is relatable to everyone — from young adults seeking the latest downloads to senior citizens replaying the revolutions per minute that provided the soundtrack to their lives. Music snobs may look down their noses at what they consider a lowest common denominator, paint-by-number genre. But that doesn’t stop everyone from Paul McCartney to Chappell Roan from selling billions of songs to devoted, appreciative fans. Like it says on the famous vintage album cover, 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong.
Vox populi, vox dei
The debut International Pop Overthrow was staged in Los Angeles circa 1998, and featured over a hundred melodic rock and power-pop acts performing at various locales around the city. The event expanded to various U.S. and international cities, reaching San Diego in the early 2000s. It's been staged around a dozen times so far, at area venues like O’Connell’s Pub, Eleven, the Chico Club, and finally at its post-pandemic home since 2022, the Black Cat Bar in City Heights. Housed inside a historic 1920s bank building, the neighborhood bar was opened in 2011 by former Turf Club bartender Matt Parker, whose design of the interior was inspired by Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, with a dark cathedral ambience that includes an orange neon black cat glowing in the front window and a grand gothic chandelier hanging over the pool tables.
The venue will host this year’s edition of International Pop Overthrow on August 21 and 22, with around a dozen bands performing over two nights. Most of them hail from San Diego; all will be playing short sets of melodic, hook-filled music. The bill on Friday, August 21 features Grammy nominated family rocker Ralph Covert, formerly of the Chicago indie-rock band The Bad Examples, but now probably best known for his kindie-rock project Ralph’s World. Covert started writing children's music after teaching youth music classes; his album Green Gorilla, Monster & Me earned a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Album for Children. Since Covid, he has now livestreamed over 1000 shows on Facebook Live and Twitch. For this performance, he will be playing acoustic versions of songs from across his catalog.
Ralph Covert
Mess of Fun is the occasional side project of Steve Rosenbaum, a singer-songwriter from suburban Toledo, Ohio who was one of the early performers at the now-famous Bookies Club 870, a seminal punk and new wave club. After relocating to Los Angeles, he played in Flip City and became a fixture at Madame Wong’s West and other '80s L.A. clubs. From there, he and Grammy-nominated producer and bass player Bruce Witkin (Hollywood Vampires) formed The Lonely Bulls, a Beatle-esque vocal-centric acoustic project that featured Everly Brothers-type harmonies. “We were drawing big crowds, but nothing really went anywhere,” Rosenbaum told the Reader. “We just reached a point where we said, ‘What are we doing?'” As Mess of Fun, he has played several previous editions of the Pop Overthrow fest in San Diego, the city he now calls home.
Scott Samuels has been playing at International Pop Overthrows for around 20 years with various different bands. He arrived in San Diego in 1988, and joined long-established group The Snails (soon to be known as The Rhythm Slaves). He’s also a vet of area acts such as Pharmacy, A.M. Forever, Roxy Monoxide, and Roxy Dioxide, and he co-produced the first San Diego Big Stir pop music festival in January 2015. "I wanted to put together a power-pop show putting together several acts from San Diego that played the San Diego International Pop Overthrow in 2014,” he says. "Sort of a one-night, mini version of that festival. So I invited my friends Steve Rosenbaum and Pete Bayard [Super Buffet] to participate. I approached Larry Fox, owner of the Chico Club and a great supporter of the power pop scene in San Diego, and he agreed to have his bar host the event. And then Steve Thorn of the San Diego Troubadour, another power pop enthusiast, offered to emcee." The following year's Big Stir festival at the Chico Club featured a Roxy Monoxide reunion. For this Black Cat bar set, he’ll be accompanied by most of the members from his Neil Diamond tribute act Solitary Diamonds.
Scott Samuels
Indie pop singer-songwriter Tamar Berk grew up playing piano and started writing songs on guitar as a teenager. While living in Chicago, she played in regional bands like her first, power-pop group Starball, known for tracks like 2001's “New Year's Day." She went on to play in an electro-punk duo with her husband that they named the Countdown, a Small Faces cover band called Deep Joy, and, briefly, a group with Kim Thompson called Sweet Heat. After relocating to Portland, she played keys with the Pynnacles, and her group Paradise released three albums, including a rock opera. After moving to San Diego, her album The Restless Dreams of Youth was released in summer 2021. Her fifth solo album OCD dropped in September 2025, preceded by a single and video for the track “Stay Close By.”
Also appearing on Friday, Hector Penalosa is probably best known as the co-founder of influential local punk icons The Zeros (recently partially reformed as Zeros ’77), but he also has a history with pop music, thanks to projects such as his Beatles tribute band Baja Bugs. North County’s Super Buffet is fronted by bass player/singer Pete Bayard (formerly of Inigo and Rookie Card) and features a rotating cast of backing musicians. Self described as “Jonathan Richman getting into a pillow fight with King Kahn and BBQ show while 96 Tears plays in the background,” they self-released their debut full-length, Self Styled, in 2021.
Super Buffet
Saturday’s bill includes Suite 100, which appeared on several of the International Pop Overthrow album compilations — including volumes 10, 11, 19, 20, and 22 — with two of their selections only found on the IPO collections. Hailing from North County San Diego and southwest Riverside, their self-produced debut album In the Night Kitchen was released in 2005, earning praise for blending catchy, sing-along melodies with intricate, lavish instrumentation. The band recently dropped their sophomore full-length, The Only Cure For Gravity.
The Colour Monday specializes in indie dream pop and ethereal indie rock, with shimmering guitars, driving rhythms, and atmospheric soundscapes inspired by likeminded acts such as Foals, Beach House, and Tame Impala. The most recent edition of their monthly acoustic series The Acoustic Colour Monday features a softer, keyboard-driven reimagining of their original song “Population Control,” and they’ve been previewing new material with recent live renditions of upcoming tracks like “For Now, Nothing.”
The Colour Monday
True Stories is fronted by Bart Mendoza (The Shambles, Manual Scan), who recently landed two True Stories songs in the soundtrack to the new comedy-horror film Water Park Shark (by the same creators behind Sharknado), “I Can't Don’t Want To Faster” and “Brilliant.” The Rightovers began as a solo project for Chris Holmes (later known as Chris Tomorrow), of Conceptus and Lil' Pizzas, while he was attending grad school in Hawaii. They’ve released several new singles this year, including “Drive,” “Paragliding,” “California Girls II,” and a cover of the Tears For Fears song “Pale Shelter.”
Three of the acts slated to appear are from the Los Angeles/Orange County area, including power jangle-rock trio The Glimmer Stars, Michael Culhane (whose rock band Circle Sky was hand-picked by David Bowie to open for Tin Machine), and Courtney McKenna, an L.A. based marketer and musician who uses yoga on her mission to help society shift into a healthier and happier collective.
“The purpose of International Pop Overthrow is twofold,” says founder David Bash. “One aim is to give every worthy band who’d like to play their music in a festival atmosphere the chance to do so, and the other is to bring pop music the attention it so richly deserves. We have made great strides to that end, garnering press in several noteworthy papers and blogs in each city in which we hold the festival, and creating a very positive buzz about pop music within the independent music community.”
“In addition, every artist who plays the festival feels as if they’re part of something fulfilling, being on bills with like-minded artists with whom they can bond, and playing in front of an audience who will ‘get’ their music.”
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