The sounds of Spring Fling

Arizona Daily Wildcat photo courtesy of Tricky Luz Miguel Montoy (From left), Josh Watts, Aaron Hubbard, and John Clinebell of Tricky Luz. They will be performing Friday night at Spring Fling.

This year is no exception. In the four days that Spring Fling blocks access to Cherry Avenue, more than a dozen bands will take stage to provide the soundtrack to your carnival mayhem.

One such band is Tricky Luz.Composed of three UA students, the mostly acoustic foursome has been playing around Tucson since last semester, having become staples at 7 Black Cats' Tuesday Open Mic Night. The band is composed of Media Arts senior John Clinebell on vocals, Anthropology and Creative Writing junior Josh Watts on guitar, Musical performance sophomore Aaron Hubbard on bass and Miguel Monroy on drums.

"We're a new band, a lot of people don't know who we are," Monroy said.

"And they don't pronounce our name right," Clinebell added. ("Luz" is pronounced sort of like "loose," only with a tinge of accent. It's Spanish for light.)

"We're getting out there," said Clinebell.

Tricky Luz put out a four-song, self-titled CD in October, recorded in the UA Music Department's recording studio.

"Antennae" probably showcases the musicianship of Tricky Luz best; Hubbard's bass line adds just enough low end to Watt's guitar and Clinebell's versatile and emotional voice. The band cites Son Volt, the Dave Matthews Band and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones as shared interests; the same sort of country-rock sound is evident on the disc.

Arizona Daily Wildcat photo courtesy of Tricky Luz Crawdaddy-O will also be playing Spring Fling's Main Stage Friday night.

"So far, it's been real acoustic-driven rock songs," said Watts. "We're playing now with an electric guitarist who's also a classical guitar major. He's amazing, a total stud," he continued.

"He's really going to change us a little bit," Clinebell added.

"For the better," interjected Monroy.

"It adds another layer," continued Watts. "That's where we're interested in going from there - just layers. Keeping it interesting but still easy to listen to without getting out of control."

Clinebell and Watts have a weekly gig up north at the Thunder Canyon Brewery in Foothills Mall, with just guitar and vocals, but they'd like to play out as Tricky Luz more in the coming weeks and months, and eventually put out a full-length CD.

Tricky Luz will be playing Fri., April 2 at 4 p.m. on the Main Stage.

Local reggae/funk band Stuck in a Groove will be playing Thursday at 8 p.m. in a sort of pre-CD release party show. Their first album, Beats in Your Mouth, will be officially released Friday night at the Dance Hall, the new venue at the new Twelve Tribes Reggae Shop on 7th Street and 5th Avenue.

"We play everything from jazz to funk to reggae to rocksteady to Latin rhythms and salsa beats," said Tom Weiner.

Stuck in a Groove will have CDs at their Spring Fling show tomorrow. Check it out in preparation for their Friday night show, because, as Weiner said, "The cool thing about the show we're doing on Friday is that we're having it recorded, so some of the tracks will probably be on our next CD."

Also, tomorrow night will be Electric Buffalo at 4, Good Question at 5, Smoke at 6, The Groovebox at 7, and Interlocking Grip at 9.

Friday's line up is Jupiter Dave at 5 p.m., Whatever at 6 p.m., Nevershine and 7 p.m., Crawdaddy-O at 8 p.m. and LeeAnne Savage at 9 p.m.