The Lint Rollers Roll Into Carrollwood Friday

The Lint Rollers are rolling into the Carrollwood Cultural Center Friday, Aug. 23.

The band, which plays "music that won't stick to your clothes," includes George Valaes (bass), Mike Cusumano (drums), Dennis "Torpedo" Toerpe (Hammond B3 organ), Joey Donovan (guitar) and a host of revolving musicians dubbed The Rolling Lint Revue.

Friday's concert begins 8 p.m. Friday. Admission is $16, $14 for seniors.

Check out Patch's chat with Donovan below.

Patch: You guys call yourselves a nouveau garage band for indiscriminate adults. Tell me about that.

Donovan: I don't think of "garage" as a particular style or genre, but rather an attitude of contentment with our "place" in the music scene. In my mind a garage band is a band that has no pretense about "hitting the big time" and plays for the joy of playing regardless of the style of music, regardless of who wrote it. "Nouveau" seemed like a fitting adjective because it's French and gives us an unearned air of sophistication.

Patch: It says on your site that you don’t take yourselves too seriously. Why is that important to you guys?

Donovan: If I said that it was important to us not to take ourselves too seriously, it would imply that we are taking ourselves too seriously, wouldn't it? 

Patch: Do you play covers or originals, or both?

Donovan: Everything we play was originally played by someone else. So, it could be argued that we play all originals… we just didn't write them! We've noodled around with some of our own musical thoughts, but nothing we've written down or added lyrics to. Perhaps it's time we do that. But then again, people might take us seriously…. hmmm- a dilemma.

Patch: Have you ever played the Carrollwood Cultural Center? 

Donovan: We've never played CCC before. Friday will be the first time. We're looking forward to playing a venue with working air conditioning and a box office.

Patch: Why do you call yourselves The Lint Rollers? How did that name come about?

Donovan: In the great search for band names, it seemed all the macho names were already spoken for, i.e.: Slayer; Metallica; Megadeth; the Osmonds… the Lint Rollers was the only pretentious, macho name on our list that hadn't been used. And as luck would have it, thelintrollers.com was available! 

Patch: Is the band a part-time endeavor? If so, what do you guys do during the day?

Donovan: The band is definitely part-time. George travels as a consulting engineer specialist for Square D. Mike is an optometrist.

Dennis is a Hammond organ restoration guru. The company he works for rebuilds, sells, rents Hammond organs to the likes of Eric Clapton, Paul Schaeffer and Chuck Leavell (the Rolling Stones). I have been in the pro-audio business (sound system design, event production) with my own company, Donovan Audio Designs (DAD) since 1987.

Patch: What do you think of the Tampa music scene?

Donovan: Compared to the scene in the late sixties through the early eighties, it seems abysmal. Musicians were once able to make a living as musicians. That said, there are some wonderful musicians playing some incredible music in the area. But nowadays they're mostly doing so in between their day jobs.

Patch: Do you have any CD releases? If so, where can people buy them?

Donovan: We don't have any CD releases. I'm hoping to do a little recording and get something out there…. but then again, with these time-consuming day jobs, who has time? Besides… people might take us too seriously. 

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 For more information, visit www.thelintrollers.com on the Web.