As I said, this is pretty self indulgent . . . but since I have the opportunity . . .
I've got two children, Chloe' and Alex and I'm married to Anne. I play piano in the Uptown Savages. Chloe' just got her Masters from San Francisco State, with honors. Alex is married to Andi (Andrea) a wonderful addition to the family (raised smart kids) - he's a musician, plays guitar in the Avalon 4, and is a manager at Interstate Music, and Anne is the coolest and most beautiful woman I know.
Here I am as an "actual" mod playing New Years Eve at the Pfister Hotel in 1968/9. Got the Hammond thing going, through a Leslie 147 of course, and if you look close, a back-line of black, Kustom amps. You can't see it but in true mod fashion I'm wearing my favorite red velvet tight trous and my black suede needle toe boots with 1.5 inch cuban heels. Pretty cool if I do say so myself. And no, I didn't ride a scooter. That was pretty much a UK/European thing. I did drive a 1965 lavender Impala convertible with white bucket seats, rear speaker - SS 327 for the car buffs.
We were playing that night with The Robbs, a national act/Mercury/Atlantic Records out of Milwaukee via L.A.. Their show on ABC, "Where The Action Is" had gotten tanked by the network. It was a cheapo version of "Shindig" and "Hullbaloo." Download their tunes Bittersweet, Rapid Transit, and Race With The Wind off Limewire. Pretty good 60s pop tunes. Touring around the area with them was pretty heady stuff for a 17 year old. Christ, they had their own ex-Greyhound bus.
Then I moved on to play in a "progressive" garage rock band called "White Cross." Named after the pill of course and I can thank the Robbs for that. Very good band.
In 71/2 I co-founded and played in one of the first punk/glam-punk bands in the nation called Death. We received national press, local noteriety and no money. We had James Chance of The Contortions/No-Wave fame on sax.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/interviews/c/chance_james-03/
We were influenced by the Stooges, Velvet Underground, MC5, Detroit Wheels, ?-Mark . . . Iggy took a liking to me at an empty show in a Madison bar (Funhouse had just come out) and sang "I Wanna Be Your Dog" with his head in my lap . . . but that's another story.
I then played in a band called "Fore Arm Smash." This band featured Howie Epstein (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) on guitar and vocals. This was kind of Death's attempt to be "commercial" by playing covers. Unfortunately the covers we selected - 13th Floor Elevators "You're Gonna Miss Me," Shadows of Kinght "Gospel Zone," Love "7 & 7 Is," weren't as commercially accepted as we'd thought they'd be. It was also around this time that we got thrown out of Teddy's or the Barn, (I can't remember what is was called at that time but it's now Shank Hall) for heckling the New York Dolls - what a bunch of hacks.
Then a brain dead period of time leading up to some sit in work with the Exotics and the pleasure of recording a few tunes with them on their CD . . . .
So here I am now playing an instrument that's basically a computer with weighted keys, through an amp that reminds me of Darth Vader's helmet, doing tunes that are about as old as I am, with guys who weren't born when that pic of me was taken, for less money than I made playing music when that pic was taken. Yeah . . . I agree, what a bunch of long-winded crap and who cares.
Bands I'm currently playing in:The Uptown Savages (of course)
Tim Cook and The Riverwesterners
Transistor Royale
