In the course of his career, Asa has provided the backbone for a half dozen genuinely important bands and a slew of bands in between, and has been a sideman in more projects than he can count.
Asa Brebner grew up in Boston, the only child of two writers, and learned guitar from listening to R&B, the Rolling Stones, and odd-ball blues records. In 1974 Asa started the Mezz - the band convinced the owner of a Kenmore Square bar called the Rathskeller to let them play. Thus began the "Years of the Rat", the club that became a center for what was later dubbed punk rock. Only two years later, Jonathan Richman convinced Asa to join the reformed Modern Lovers, just in time for their first tour of Europe, and before long, Asa was playing in European concert halls to fans from Sid Vicious to Mick Jagger.
In 1978, Robin Lane showed up in Boston, and Asa helped form Robin Lane and the Chartbusters - they toured the US a couple of times, cracked the top half of the Billboard Charts, and were early faves on MTV. In 1981, Asa launched the Grey Boys, the first band in which he wrote all the songs and sang. At the end of '82, Asa reunited with Robin for one album and tour, and for the next two years, he did several club tours with the Chartbusters, and played Europe, the UK, and Australia with the reunited Modern Lovers. He continued to write his own songs, and rehearse them with pick-up bands when he was back in Boston, and in '86, Asa assembled a hand to start his own group which he called Idle Hands that toured all over and appeared on Warner Brothers Best of the Unsigned Bands compilation in '88.
The ensuing years since have found Asa continuing to write, record and play his songs. He has released six solo albums: Prayer of a Snowball in Hell, Ragged Religion, I Walk the Streets, Best No Money Can Buy, Hot Air, Abbey Lode, and a retrospective compilation, Time in My Way.
These days he can be found at the musician/songwriter hangs of Cambridge and Somerville: Toad, the Lizard Lounge, the Middle East, and the Abbey Lounge among others, where he's backed by former bandmates and an impressive array of musicians. Go see him play with Robin Lane and the Chartbusters, the Family Jewels, Andrea Gillis, Angeline, and as a solo artist in Asa Brebner Band.