GGD Artist Feature: Dead Larry
Galactic Get Down just announced its full lineup, and it’s pretty out of this world. UV Hippo, Trufeelz, May Simpson, Sistertree and Splimit were added to the lineup Monday. The space-themed festival will take place August 2-4 at Outback Ranch in Houston, Minnesota. This is a brand new location located in the beautiful, rolling hills of southeastern Minnesota and it’s said to be “BOMB” by organizer Jess Anderson. It may get hot during the day, with little shade, but when the sun goes down and the stars come up, festival goers will see the bands in a whole new, intergalactic light.
The Iowa based progressive rock band, Dead Larry, is not only headlining GGD, but members also play a huge part in organizing the festival. Joe Scarpellino is the co-founder of Dead Larry as well as one of the founders of GGD.
“The most important thing to us as a festival is to be dynamic, and to have a wonderful assortment of musical genres coming from many places in the country,” said Scarpellino. “However, we do love to shine a bright light on all of our favorite acts from the Midwest.”
Along with Scarpellino and Anderson, John Mehren and Crystal Mehren played a part in the organization of GGD.
“We have more bands than ever before in 2018, more live artists, larger installations, ore food and craft vendors and more volunteers,” said Scarpellino. “The goals of 2018 are the same as they’ve ever been: to provide a fun and safe environment for our friends, family, and fans of all ages to listen to great music, see amazing art, make new friends, and of course, geek out about outer space!”
Dead Larry puts on a fun, weird, funky show every time they get on stage. The group will debut new music at GGD during their Saturday Night set.
“This will be our 6th release, and we can’t wait to share it with all of the lovely folks at the festival,” said Scarpellino. “If you happen to catch a show before the festival — keep an ear out for the new ones! We’ve been slowly putting them in rotation on the road.”
So … where did the name Dead Larry come from?
Let’s take a journey back through time, to the early 2000’s. Scarpellino and Mark McGuiness, Dead Larry’s other co-founder, vocalist, keys and guitarist, were just two teenagers with a sense of adventure. Living in the flat lands of Iowa City, the two didn’t have much to do except drink cherry coke, share chicken strips and mess around the neighborhood. So they started jammin’ together and eventually, Dead Larry was born.
The name came about one June afternoon when Scarpellino accompanied McGuiness to his grandparents house an hour outside the city. McGuiness’s grandparents lived in a house that was part of an old mansion that was converted into a duplex. Their neighbor, Larry, had been dead for quite some time, and all of his possessions were frozen by the bank because there were no rightful heirs to clean out the house and collect Larry’s belongings.
“In the middle of the night, we proceeded through the tunnel in the attic, opened the attic door, and climbed the stairs down to explore Larry’s tomblike home. It was creepy, and very exciting. I felt like we were pirates searching for treasure – or even Indiana Jones sneaking through ancient catacombs.”
The pair wanted to take a few momentos, McGuiness took some of Larry’s clothes (which he wore on stage performing for shows for years) and Scarpellino took some records. But they wanted Larry to be remembered by more than just them.
“We decided to name this new band we formed “Dead Larry”, after the man who inspired the adventure that inspired the music.” Scarpellino said. “We also wanted to honor him in our own way. Larry was the last of his line, and we thought if we didn’t remember him, no one would.”
To join Dead Larry and their “funky friends” at the Galactic Get Down, grab your tickets here.
Photos courtesy of Vicasious Visions.
