Out of the box

Inspired by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and Lindsay Lohan, GrooveBoxReplica is basically what it sounds like—a group of guys who want to break things, be crazy, and inspire their listeners to let loose and rock out to whatever never-ending song they choose to play. At their live shows, they usually perform no more than two songs, as the songs last. And last. And last. But it works.

Ten teenage dudes, ranging from ages 16 to 19, form the band. Gilbert Manuel Valdez plays the korg and percussion. Pedro Valdez is a multi-instrumentalist tech. David Rodriguez gets crazy with vocals and the guitar. Chris Lake is on the alto sax and multi-task percussion. Aaron Lee does “various selected guitar emissions.” Alex Korostinsky is on the drums and congas. Noe Jacinto busts out a bulk of the percussion. Jesse Lee Gaddis tears up the bass. James Russel Boggan is in charge of lighting, and Johnny Bailey covers the guitar, shaman and orchestrated instrumentals.

GrooveBoxReplica has been a band for three years, minus Korostinsky, who, according to Rodriguez, “became a drummer yesterday.” These guys met when their parents stuck them together at Sparks Middle School. Since then, they’ve been playing music that’s a mix of their various energies being tossed together onstage, with instrumentals to back it all up. You could classify them as experimental and psychedelic with a touch of flamenco thrown in, mostly because they’re always experimenting with their sound onstage, and some claim to use hallucinogenic drugs as their main form of musical enlightenment.

Besides rocking out to the current mood of the audience and their own selves, GrooveBoxReplica plans to release a CD called Dysphoria in June. It’s a follow-up of their first CD, Euphoria, which was self-produced. Most of their lyrics are in English, although some are in Spanish.

“We’re doing something everyone in Reno isn’t,” claims Rodriguez, who says out-of-towners prefer their music more than locals.

While the audience members GrooveBox Replica attracts doesn’t seem to understand entirely what’s going on, they appear to enjoy themselves as the band members fool around with their instruments and the stage lighting to make something that doesn’t sound or look like your everyday, run-of-the-mill college band.

The guys are casual, dressed in T-shirts, jeans and mostly Converse shoes. They even look a bit like each other, just with different colored hair, mostly worn in a longer style. “We don’t make any sense,” Korostinsky says, chuckling through sips of his tea drink.

After listening to everyone try to define their motivations for a while, Bailey speaks up and says the band “comes together to lay it all down, each of us bringing in something different to contribute.” He says GrooveBox mainly rocks out for something interesting to do on a Friday night.

Rodriguez, dressed like a teenage version of Jim Morrison, smiles and says, “We pull all of our music out of our asses. We never play the way we practice.” Korostinsky agrees and adds, “And, we all practice naked.”