Dog Beaver

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Dog Beaver was initially formed as a duo (Mick Flaire & Kenny Briggs) on February 5th, 1989 inside the Grateful Dead's empty production office at the Oakland Civic Auditorium (currently the Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium) the night before the Dead were to kick off their Chinese New Year/Mardi Gras run.-------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------Guarding a bare stage, in an empty auditorium, in the middle of the night, the 2 Bill Graham Presents Bluecoats (security staff) were just fooling around with a pair of synthesizers and a 4-track recorder, and made a recording that they jokingly titled, "We Blew Or Own Minds Once".------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------The first track on the recording was facetiously entitled "March of the Giant Cockroaches".----------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------To put it bluntly, it was just 2 guys making a lot of noises, and and putting it down on tape!------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------"The Tape", as it was jokingly referred to, was then circulated amongst co-workers, family and friends, garnering some interesting responses.-------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------To follow up with the charade, Mick and Kenny decided to perpetuate the "joke" and adopted two "performing personas" by taking the discarded birth names of Conway Twitty (Harold Jenkins) and Gene Chandler (Eugene Dixon) thus becoming "the two old blues guys" to be known as Harold "Dog" Jenkins & Eugene "Beaver" Dixon!------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------Within a few months time the duo of Mick (Harold "Dog" Jenkins) Flaire & Kenny (Eugene "Beaver" Dixon) Briggs was augmented by 3 other friends & co-workers from the concert security staff that just happened to be musicians also.------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------Added to the pair was Mike Wittwer on rhythm guitar, Mike Thompson on drums, and Gary Lambert on bass.------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------And that became the first incarnation of Dog Beaver, the band!------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------Dog Beaver's first official gig was at the Bill Graham Presents Holiday Party in December of 1989, in what used to be an old prohibition-era speakeasy located beneath the Warfield Theater in San Francisco.-------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------It was for that first public performance that the sixth member of Dog Beaver, Tom Pinatelli was added on lead guitar, solely on the recommendation of his wife Maggie, who also worked at BGP, in the accounting department.------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------Maggie had mentioned to Mick that her husband Tom, who although he hadn't been in a band for years, was in her Top 5 guitar players ever!------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------Upon hearing that glowing endorsement, Mick invited Tom to come play with Dog Beaver at the Holiday Party, sight unseen, no audition necessary!-------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------The addition of Mr. Pinatelli to the proceedings that night turned out to be most fortuitous for The Beav', as they now had a lead guitarist that could hold his own amongst the best axemen in the area.------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------In keeping with the concept that led to Dog Beaver’s origin, the band has recorded nearly every single jam & performance, from it’s inception to the present.---------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------In order to tell who had played on a given recording, each member of Dog Beaver was given a number, based on their order of entry into the band, a number that each band member would retain for life!------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------Flaire, who had provided the gear that first fateful night, took 1 for himself, co-founder Briggs was issued 2, Wittwer 3, Thompson 4, Lambert 5, and lastly but certainly not least, Pinatelli was given 6.---------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------Since that time Mike Wittwer left this mortal coil in 2001, Mike Thompson and Gary Lambert both retired from actively playing in the band, but none the less have retained their numbers, and were replaced by Tree Leyburn (7) on bass, and John Olson (8) on drums, both no longer actively playing with the group, yet also retaining their respective numbers.---------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------The present incarnation of Dog Beaver has been together since 2004 with the addition of Guapo (9) on drums, bass & guitar, Chip Usas (0) on bass, & Brian Craft (00) on drums & vocals.----------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------No longer content to just "'making noises", Dog Beaver now does long, trippy, extended psychedelic cosmic jams, and occasionally will break into an actual song with words and everything, LOL!-------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------The acronym they use to describe their genre is FIJ (prounounced "fidge"), which stands for Free-form Improvisational Jams.------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------When it comes to The Beav', as they are affectionately known, there is no right or wrong, good or bad.-------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------They are not confined by the concepts of tonality or timing, or ensemble playing for that matter!----------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------It is what it is, by virtue of the fact that there are 6 different, and not necessarily related, things going on at the same time, in the same space!------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------With that having been said Dog Beaver, arguably, are the originators of the concept, and the term "...It is what it is", which has now become a catch phrase for all things that defy description or definition!------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------Take that Tony Bruno, LOL!-------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------Starting in 1994, with the re-opening of The Fillmore in San Francisco after a 5 year re-modeling process (the building was heavily damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake) Dog Beaver has become the unofficial house band of the Fillmore by playing in The Fillmore’s Poster Room Lounge once a month for the last 12 years!------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------By virtue of their extended engagement there, they now hold the dubious distinction of having played The Fillmore more times than any artist in the history of the building!--------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------That’s more times than the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother & the Holding Company, & the Quicksilver Messenger Service combined!--------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------In keeping with their “underground” roots, which is not a calculated move, but a none the less very real situation, Dog Beaver after 18 years together, has no management, no record label, hence no CD, no video clip, no website, no promotional photo, and very little publicity (other than this MySpace page, LOL!) other than word-of-mouth.---------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------So you, by virtue of having just read this bio, are now hip to “The Beav’”!------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------Cheers!Get MySpace Layouts from nUCLEArcENTURy .COM OR create your own using MySpace profile editor !!!
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