About Me
ROCK THE STATE
"Carnival of Soul" can trace their roots back to 1986, in Frankfurt, (West)Germany. At that time, they were called "Brainstorm". It started with Cris D. Corridino, Donny Haight, and Dan LaMantia. Barry Dowell (Bass), Chuck Ricks (Guitar/Keys), Martin Carle (Drums/Keys), Jimmy Kirk (Keys), and Scott Lewis (Drums/Keys) were also members of this great band. Stardom was a dream, since they were all members of the service, mostly Air Force. Eventually, they had to go stateside. Cris landed in Missouri, and Dan (Duck) soon followed. Donny ended up in Indiana, but it wasn't long before he was the new member of Missouri's "Last Rites". The original drummer was Jeff Cantey. He was a great friend, and Drummer, but unfortunately departed, but not before they started tracks for the CD now known as "(music from)'A Dream From The Heartland'". He recorded Drums on the songs "Daddy's Little Girl" and "Can You Come Out To Play?", which were EXCELLENT performances. After almost three years of drumming for Last Rites, Jeff, sadly, left the band (and, ironically, went on to honorably serve our country in the U.S.A.F.). That's when Donny rejoined the band. Each member was gradually, and honorably, discharged from the military, and continued the "Rock and Roll Dream". Donny, Cris, Gene Ames (Guitar), Paul Murphy (Bass), Dave Arrowsmith (Sound & Vocals), Dan LaMantia (of course), and then later... Mike Moellman (Bass), and Klent Kahler (Guitar) played for 6 yrs. in the mid-west. They opened for acts like Night Ranger, Girl's School, and Strutter (National KISS tribute band). They were an unstoppable force when they made the decision of re-locating to Florida. It is arguable whether or not is was the right decision to make, but it was made, none-The-Less. The first "unraveling of the seams" came with the departure of Moellman three months before they were slated to leave for the beaches of SW FLA. ENTER: Jeff Jones, from ORGAN GRINDER. (That band was a Punk/Thrash/Rockabilly act with WAY too much energy!!! ) He stepped in to fill Moellman's shoes, and did a phenomenal job. Sadly, he did not make the move with them. (This isn't the last we hear of Jeff...BUT...that is another tragic story that will remain a band secret). They were well established in the mid-west, and truly had a shot at some success, by the way things were going. The move to Florida was very trying on the band's personal lives. It definitely took it's toll on them. They managed to get signed in late 1995, to Reindeer Records, out of Portland, Maine. The Label lost faith in them when they lost two members in early 96'. There was also some dispute about the labeling of the first CD's jacket. The Record Company name was not placed correctly on the label, and they wanted them to fix it, but they were broke, and couldn't afford to re-label THOUSANDS of CD's. They dropped Last Rites after a year. They went drummer-less for a few months and did this acoustic project they fondly called "Heartland" (for obvious reasons). Locally respected rock critic, Dawn Scire, tried to manage them for awhile... but they were unmanageable. Still shell-shocked from their losses. They did go to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and played, but it was not "Last Rites". They almost stayed a few extra days to go play for free at Centennial Park. That decision to stay was "nixed" because of the dwindling funds. So they headed home a day before a terrorist bombing took place in the exact place they were to play the next day. when they arrived home, they fervently looked for a drummer to take the place of founding member, Donny Haight. After 13 auditions, they found Jim Stein, and began work on their 2nd CD, "Persistence, No Excuses (and absolutely no apologies)" which featured much of the band's work prior to Donny and Klent's departure. The only problem was that they received a letter from a Law Firm saying to "cease and desist" use of the name, Last Rites, for copyright reasons. "Last Rites" was retired, and they renamed themselves "Carnival of Soul". This was inspired by the KISS album, "Carnival of Souls", which happens to be one of Cris's favorite KISS albums. Also because of its heavy content, and dark instrumentation. It was a re-birth into a newer age. They added a flute player, Jeff Marlowe, but lost Murphy and Dave. Soon after those departures, A husband-wife management team entered to clean up a very talented mess. They were very strict with the boys, but soon got them (back) into tip-top shape. The two (Steve and Patti) took on a very demanding job. The band started to show some real contention, opening for such acts as Steppenwolf, Blue Oyster Cult, Warrant, Nazareth, and a slew of other aging beauties, as well as performing at the 1998 MTV Spring Break gala. Around that time, Jim "Bones" Argentino, took the reigns of the drummer duties. He is one of the greatest drummers the band ever had...Matt Blake joined them (several times, on and off) on Bass, when the "road" became too much for Murph. Time went on, and they lost Jeff and Matt, but got Kenny Thomas to play Bass. He was the Lead Guitar player for the locally known blues band, "Southland Blues Band". They began their, as of yet, unreleased CD..."Riding the Kharma Train". BUT...after several bad turns in the road of life, the band finally called it quits. Kenny went back to "Southland...", Bones joined a COVER band, and Cris decided to raise his kids full time, and sing for an unappreciative cover band, called "The Smokin' Hotties". The dream was over. Period. Cris began gathering all the unreleased music recorded since LAST RITES relocated to Florida. It was quite the task, but he finally finished it in early 2003. Then the fever hit...again. He went on-line to look for some musicians, and met Rick Trucksess through a classified ad. They realized they shared the same dream. He later re-located to Florida and began to fill in for some HUGE shoes, left vacant from a huge personality. It was tough, but the end result was one of the heaviest sounding incarnations, of CARNIVAL OF SOUL, to date. This also featured an additional guitar player, Gary Tholander. Gary gave the bottom end that the band was looking for, at the time. Matt left in pursuit of a stable computer programming career, but still stays actively involved in the band's endeavors, and has been seen doing sound and lights for other local bands. Jeremy Piquette was acquired from the ashes of a local band. They happened to be great friends with the members of this band, so there were no hard feelings when Jeremy left for the "Carnival". They all went (back) into UNITY GAIN Studios (in Ft. Myers), and completed "Riding The Kharma Train", almost 5 years in the making. They released the CD in August 2005, which proved to be the best CD recorded by Cris and his mates, in a long time!! In the meantime, Cris did a solo CD, "Just Me, My Old Analog 8-trk., A Six-Pack, And The Oncoming Heartattack" (1996-2003). Then there was two independent CD's, "Things Left Unfinished, Words Left Unsaid"(1996-2003), and "The Basement Tapes"(1996-2003), but never released them. They pressed on. 2006 brought new disasters for Cris and the boys. After several struggling months with the burden of juggling a band, a job, a girlfriend, and a baby, Jeremy caved in to the pressure and had to split. Cris got Matt to do the last few shows on the books, but the outcome was not so spectacular. Cris finally backed away from the "live" aspect of a rock band, and focused ALL his abilities into making another great CD. Content with the recording process, Cris found himself deep into the guts of a new disc. He re-connected with Donny Haight, and did some recording with him, as well. In August of 2007, we were blessed with the addition of Karen Tuttle, a Venice area Violinist/Violist. She is a member of the Venice Symphony, and has her own quartet, which is OUTSTANDING!! Welcome Karen, to the CARNIVAL!! We were also extremely blessed to have area Keyboard Phenom, Sean Bryan. He is a former music teacher, and music store owner, Florida born and raised. And last, but not certainly least, we welcome Jessica Dawn Ripple on the Flute, and vocals. She is a graduate of The Unity Gain School, and is a classically trained musician with lots of "soul" to add to the "Carnival..." This new line-up has been writing, recording, and performing around the S.West Florida area, playing with bands like The Bullet Boys, and Gibson Cage. They have 2 CD's about to be born. One 13 song disc, titled "Lost In The Comfort Of Chaos", and the 2nd called "Chapters". Both have 13 songs apiece (as of yet), and are scheduled for release in 2009 and 2010. Stay tuned...In the meantime, listen to the songs currently on our MySpace player, or go to www.GarageBand.com/artist/crisdcorridino for a complete, and comprehensive catalog of music from this tenured band. Peace!
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