TopHat

started in '97...continues today. members have included cory mccart, cody detrick, jt kelty, larry derenne, matt johnson, aaron toms, adam harris, curtis clark, andrew kratz, matt "bue" lundgren, tim morrell, josh reynolds, todd poland and FLICK MEATWOOD .originally from wamego, ks, we were a recording band from the get-go. the first night we (cory, jt and i) got together, we recorded a tape under the name "Cockpit" (self-titled). then we went on to the magic rat sessions. from those recordings, we assembled three tapes: "Ring King", "In Between Rounds" and "Where's Donnie J?". then came derenne in '98. jt was dismissed for the short period of time derenne was in. a few recordings came out of it, yet no albums. then we went back to jt for a while...a very short while. around the time jt was indefinitely relieved of his TopHat status, the first computer recordings were made...then came cd technology. tons of recordings were made (no real albums though). enter matt johnson on bass in '99. "Sand Diggaz Vs. the LD" and "Circus Music for the Kids" were recorded. matt johnson was booted. cory and i remained a two-piece for a while...recorded a bit...and decided we needed a bassist. aaron toms was created to play bass for TopHat. in '00, as a (finally) decent-sounding three-piece, we recorded "Joey, the Roo" and "Herman Munster Fan Club". losing interest, toms leaves the band. adam harris fills in for a short period of time. new songs are written. "The Tennis Robot" is recorded featuring harris and tim morrell. then we boot harris. with the help of curtis clark in '01, cory and i recorded "Salute Your Shorts" and "Action-Packed Audio Game". after hearing those two albums, andrew kratz joined playing guitar. we practiced for a while, and then cory moved to lawrence. TopHat was on a major hiatus. kratz and i did a few side projects with curtis to stay musically satisfied. sometime in late '03, i moved to lawrence to concentrate more on TopHat. cory and i started recording a new album, but i got homesick and moved back to the area (to manhattan). after pleading with cory, he moved back to manhattan with me. andrew kratz was still around (minus two fingers) so we slapped him on bass duties. around then we recorded "This Place is Crawling with Real Bears!". in late '04, we booked our first show (with the brighton line) without having a second guitarist. matt "bue" lundgren, who had helped kratz and i out on some recordings for Mathlete, took over the duties of the second guitarist. we played a bunch of shows from '04 to late '05 and then began recording the not-yet-released "Rock for Men". shortly after his bass parts were recorded, kratz moved to lawrence to go to school. josh reynolds was brought in to fill his spot. then bue took a break from guitar and josh took over. cody's roommate, todd poland joined to play bass. as of now, members (other than cory and i) are subject to change at shows based on their availability...i could tell you the end, but its not very exciting.........-cody