Wednesdays may stereotypically be considered a slower night for most clubs \u2014 but not anywhere that rockabilly stalwart Rip Carson is performing. Known for a riveting and occasionally manic performance style, Carson, alongside his band the Carcin-O-Genics, has been a Wednesday night mainstay at The Harp for more than a year in Ocean Beach. The popularity of his weekly, no-cover, three-sets-a-night show speaks to his musical staying power. For Carson, the appeal of rockabilly, more than five decades after its heyday, is obvious. “I guess it\u2019s stuck around so long because it\u2019s fun music,” Carson said. “You can understand the words, it has energy and it\u2019s fun to dance to.” While swing dancing is the norm at rockabilly shows, Carson noted that in Ocean Beach things are just a little different. “Dancing is always encouraged,” Carson said. “But it is OB, after all, so the dancing isn\u2019t always swing dancing or jiving. Sometimes it\u2019s people spinning around aimlessly on the dance floor.” The Harp was Carson\u2019s first steady gig with the Carcin-O-Genics. “We started this project about a year ago,” Carson said. He pointed out that there are differences in his music when he performs in Ocean Beach. “We do a lot of the original stuff from my previous albums, but what makes this project different from my straight Rip Carson stuff is that we throw in covers to appeal to a broader audience,” Carson said. Carson\u2019s choice of covers often causes clubgoers to do a double-take. “People like to hear stuff they know, and we give it to \u2019em,” Carson said. “But I rearrange everything.” Carson points out that nightclubs have different types of crowds. “If I play a hardcore rockabilly show in Los Angeles, I give \u2019em all the originals,” Carson said. “But for regular beach folks, you gotta give them a handful of stuff they know or they become lethargic.” He said his audience won\u2019t hear obvious songs like “Rock Around the Clock” or “Hound Dog.” Instead, he has fun transforming songs that are “so not rockabilly” into genre classics. “For example, we do \u2018Toxic\u2019 by Britney Spears, \u2018A Little Respect\u2019 by Erasure and I turned \u2018Portions for Foxes\u2019 by indie rock band Rilo Kiley into a Motown-sounding song,” Carson said. “They may get a song they know like \u2018Rape Me\u2019 from Nirvana, but they\u2018re gonna get it with Merle Travis-style pickin\u2019 and hiccups.” Carson has also become a studio favorite for session work. “I started doing studio work with legendary producer Mark Neill at Soil of The South studios in La Mesa,” Carson said. “I got to play on a lot of cool stuff there. I\u2019m currently doing studio work up in the Valley, where they seem to utilize the fact that I can play any instrument pretty much. So they just hire me and I layer stuff. It beats having to hire five guys.” Carson has appeared on albums by The Paladins, Deke Dickerson and British soul singer James Hunter and others. Currently, Carson is working on a pop project and is recording his fifth album. While new sounds will always draw his attention, he considers rockabilly his core sound. “When I was about 16, I just got really heavy into it,” Carson said. “When I found out there was an actual scene for rockabilly and \u201950s rock \u2019n\u2019 roll, I got on board.” Carson notes his other musical endeavors are going well, including an indie pop band and occasional forays into the world of \u201960\u2019s garage rock. But Carson said rockabilly will remain his bread and butter. “I must say, the genre has been good to me over the years,” Carson said. “I make a living just doing this, and that\u2019s nice.” Rip Carson and the Carcin-O-Genics perform on Wednesdays at The Harp, 4935 Newport Ave. at 9 p.m. The show is for 21 and up, and there is no cover. For more information, visit www.myspace.com\/ripcarsonbooking.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesdays may stereotypically be considered a slower night for most clubs \u2014 but not anywhere that rockabilly stalwart Rip Carson is performing. Known for a riveting and occasionally manic performance style, Carson, alongside his band the Carcin-O-Genics, has been a Wednesday night mainstay at The Harp for more than a year in Ocean Beach. The […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":284278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Rockabilly takes center stage at OB\u2019s The Harp","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11561,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-peninsula-beacon","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}