International Pop Overthrow Festival

Eight years into its life as a refuge for fans who like their music largely the way they heard it on '60s and '70s radio, the Los Angeles edition of International Pop Overthrow is more about the bands next-door than global reach. About three-quarters of the 170-plus acts in the annual festival, which starts its 17-day run Friday at clubs throughout the Southland, are local. Promoter David Bash has only the franchise's success to credit for that. "I knew we would draw fewer bands from outside L.

The International Pop Overthrow festival has a decidedly less global feel for its seventh edition, which kicks off Friday. Promoter David Bash has success to thank for that. In its early incarnations, IPO attracted as many as a couple of dozen foreign acts, not to mention bands from all corners of the U.S. Credit the event's singular nature -- part festival, part showcase, part summer camp in L.A. for the melody-and-harmony set.

Gigolo AUNTS guitarist Dave Gibbs' steely blues eyes glisten playfully when he is asked about his latest project. "It's a sea chantey," he says, pausing a beat for disbelief to kick in. "It's for the movie 'Peter Pan.' Yes, it's miles away from anything I thought I'd ever do, and I don't even know if it'll make the movie or get cut out. But it's a darn good pirate song. And I'd rather write music than wait tables."

International Pop Overthrow is going home. As some 180 bands prepare to play the sixth annual Los Angeles festival over the next 17 days, promoter David Bash has announced plans to throw one of his pop parties in Liverpool, England, this fall. IPO Liverpool is currently scheduled to showcase 56 bands in seven days beginning Oct. 13 at the birthplace of Merseybeat, the Cavern Club. "I'm having trouble believing it myself," says Bash, 44.

I, pop geek, am not self-conscious. I can Brian Wilson in the shower, Rick Nielsen across the living room, Mick Avory on the steering wheel, and if you catch me I will shrug and smile, only momentarily nonplused, before slipping back into three-chord reverie. I awaken each day with a song running through my head, and it's just as likely to be Crash Into June as it is U2, or from 1968 as from 1998.

International Pop Overthrow is a sprawling but unobtrusive rock festival dedicated to obscure bands that would rather coax ears with catchy tunes and crafty harmonies in the classic Beatles tradition than bash them with the brutal noise of hard rock and punk. This year, more than 150 bands are playing in the second running of a 12-day, 18-show Tour de SoCal race through Los Angeles-area clubs that takes a detour into Orange County today and tonight. Each act gets no more than 30 minutes to play.