If the members of Groovity had listened to their friends, the name of their band would be “Shit Honey.” In 2012, the members—already buddies—started playing music just for kicks, not expecting it to get serious. When it seemed like they might have something worthy of bringing to venues, they launched an impressive campaign for name suggestions.
“We had two unsuccessful name-the-band house parties. After we read all the responses, we still weren’t happy. We very quickly came up with a name a month after that,” says drummer Mike Grall.
The name they chose, Groovity, came from an in-band discussion of how they could alter the word “groove.” It was fitting because the band’s number-one objective was to get people dancing.
Unlike many dance bands who cover funk and soul classics, the members of Groovity wanted to take all the classic rock songs that people of their generation grew up with and loved, and increase the danceability factors.
“People’s sensibilities about what is worthy of dancing has improved greatly since we were kids. People are more sophisticated,” says bassist Ken Mowrey.
They’ve created some interesting mashups to funk-ify classic rock songs, like mixing a Stephen Stills song with some Aretha Franklin, or mashing up Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good” with Michael Jackson’s “Bad.” (“Not only does it sound frickin’ awesome, but the lyrical content also plays off each other,” says singer Veda Ozelle.)
INFO: 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25. Crow’s Nest, 2218 East Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz. $6. 476-4560.
