Project SMonkey

2004-02-18T16:08:00.000-08:00

Hot damn, karaoke jam! This past Monday was, quite possibly, the highlight of my entire musical career! Super Karaoke Fun Time Band was asked to play WFMU DJ Tom Sharpling's birthday party. His wife, and also FMU DJ, Terre, booked us about a month ago. I knew this would be something, but none of us were prepared for just how amazing the evening would be.

In addition to being an FMU DJ, Tommy is also the story editor on the Monk TV series. He's also one of the funniest guys I know. And as such, he has lotsa pals in high places. The fun started over a week ago, when I got an email from Officer Tom, a NJ police officer, who asked if we would be able to work up Body Count's Cop Killer for him to sing at the pardookie. Always respectful of law enforcement officers, we gladly obliged. He actually came to a rehearsal, sos we could do it up right. Unfortunately, the rehearsal was a good 8 days before the event and the tune had begun to seep out of our collective minds by the time the party rolled around. However, we're professionals and we made it work. Very nice!

So we opened the show with our version of MC5's Kick Out the Jams, as we often do. Then, first singer up was Ira from Yo La Tengo who did Tom Petty's American Girl. Really kicked things off right! We ended up playing 2 1/2 hours. Everybody was in a karaoke state of mind. Georgia from Yo La did a truly beautiful version of Stop Your Sobbing. Andy Breckman, Monk creator, as well as original cast SNL writer and original David Letterman writer, (among other things) did Day Tripper. The lovely and talented Laura Cantrell did a rousing version of Slack Motherfucker. Horatio Sanz from SNL did a killer Running With the Devil and led the all star finale of Highway To Hell. I'm sure there are other talented folk we jammed with and I'm discovering their resumes every day.

But the highlight of the night had to be the birthday boy himself who did the Ziggy Stardust/Suffragette combo and Wings' Jet.

Woof! Still recovering from the evening! We blew the roof off the sucker! Quite a treat on any number of levels! I hadn't been on the Maxwell's stage since the early 90's. Who sez you can't go home again?

And a parking spot was waiting right in front of my apartment when I arrived home at 2 AM! Truly, the rawk gods were smiling on me.

I am Otis Ball. This is Project SMonkey. SMonkey ho!

2004-02-15T16:18:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been quite the week! Wednesday we played our weekly show in Hobroken and it was a cave! Weather was decent, I did my promotion, the club did theirs, but we did, quite possibly, our worst attendance to date there. The owner and I decided it was best to end our relationship at his club. Dunno why, but we just couldn't draw at that place. If I had to guess, it would be the current state of Hobroken, which is a blog for someone else to write. That's not why I'm here.

So, we're out our residency, but we're also saved a weekly headache, so it evens out. Waddoo we care? We got a radio show to do! Woooo!

And that's where the fun really starts. We pulled into FMU an hour before our set and were up and running about 15 minutes later. UNFORTUNATELY, the engineer got stuck in Valentine's Day traffic and showed up about 6:15. With no time to prep what was to be an historic broadcast. As you would imagine, setting up for a phone in karaoke show leaves plenty of opportunities for glitches. He had the band miked quickly, but then spent about an hour trying to figure out how to get the phone line in the band monitors, on the radio with the band and back out the phone so the singers could hear us and sing along. It was about 7:30 when we did our first song and that was with me singing to buy them some time. We had about 25 minutes left in the show to get 8 more songs in. UNFORTUNATELY, we lost our first caller to dinner reservations. Michael was a trooper and hung on the phone for 10 or 15 minutes while the engineer ran crazy line checks trying to get everything up. Eventually, he had to split for Valentine's Day dinner. He wanted to sing Blondie's Dreaming to his wife, as it was her favorite song. So I now have Michael's denied evening on my shoulders. I hope dinner went better than the hors dourves.

Next up was a friend who is a classically trained opera singer. UNFORTUNATELY, she was to be the guinea pig. The band was coming through overloaded through her phone and she couldn't make heads nor tails of where we were in the song. Which no doubt made her very nervous. Made me a wreck! But she was a trooper and hung in there.

A song or two in, a few knob twiddles later and we finally had things pretty much in sync. And the DJ of the next shift was kind enough to float us some spill over time. We crashed through the rest of the songs and finished about 15 minutes after the hour. My fave was Bex doing Madonna. You can listen to the show at WFMU. Hit the archives for Feb 14. And our fake manager, Stronger Than Dirt Pete Moss, had a particularly stunning moment. Listen for it. We start playing about 90 minutes into the show.

Tomorrow night is the big private party. Look for me later in the week with stories from that one.

2004-02-15T16:15:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been quite the week! Wednesday we played our weekly show in Hobroken and it was a cave! Weather was decent, I did my promotion, the club did theirs, but we did, quite possibly, our worst attendance to date there. The owner and I decided it was best to end our relationship at his club. Dunno why, but we just couldn't draw at that place. If I had to guess, it would be the current state of Hobroken, which is a blog for someone else to write. That's not why I'm here.

So, we're out our residency, but we're also saved a weekly headache, so it evens out. Waddoo we care? We got a radio show to do! Woooo!

And that's where the fun really starts. We pulled into FMU an hour before our set and were up and running about 15 minutes later. UNFORTUNATELY, the engineer got stuck in Valentine's Day traffic and showed up about 6:15. With no time to prep what was to be an historic broadcast. As you would imagine, setting up for a phone in karaoke show leaves plenty of opportunities for glitches. He had the band miked quickly, but then spent about an hour trying to figure out how to get the phone line in the band monitors, on the radio with the band and back out the phone so the singers could hear us and sing along. It was about 7:30 when we did our first song and that was with me singing to buy them some time. We had about 25 minutes left in the show to get 8 more songs in. UNFORTUNATELY, we lost our first caller to dinner reservations. Michael was a trooper and hung on the phone for 10 or 15 minutes while the engineer ran crazy line checks trying to get everything up. Eventually, he had to split for Valentine's Day dinner. He wanted to sing Blondie's Dreaming to his wife, as it was her favorite song. So I now have Michael's denied evening on my shoulders. I hope dinner went better than the hors dourves.

Next up was a friend who is a classically trained opera singer. UNFORTUNATELY, she was to be the guinea pig. The band was coming through overloaded through her phone and she couldn't make heads nor tails of where we were in the song. Which no doubt made her very nervous. Made me a wreck! But she was a trooper and hung in there.

A song or two in, a few knob twiddles later and we finally had things pretty much in sync. And the DJ of the next shift was kind enough to float us some spill over time. We crashed through the rest of the songs and finished about 15 minutes after the hour. My fave was Bex doing Madonna. You can listen to the show at
WFMU
Tomorrow night is the big private party. Look for me later in the week with stories from that one.

2004-02-10T15:50:00.000-08:00

Man, talk about rockin' a hard place! Band politics is giving me angina! We're behind on pay at our weekly gig, which bugs me, but to a much lesser degree than the band. Our crowds have been respectable for such a young band, but hardly overwhelming. Having said that, I really appreciate the residency. Nuthin's gonna make us better than playing weekly shows, pay notwithstanding. It's not like the pay is all that much to begin with. I'd rather be playing a gig for free than rehearsing for free. At least at this point in our career. No one's talking about quitting the band, which is a relief, but our residency may be in jeopardy.

On the plus side, we have two big gigs comig up in the next week. This Saturday we're doing our Valentine's Day karaoke show on WFMU. Hit the link for more info. Still a few slots left, if you wanna surprise your baby with a Valentine's Day melody of love. You can listen on your computer live or hit the archives to listen at your leisure. And on Monday, we're playing a private party that promises to be our most exciting gig to date. More on that show after the fact. Should be some spectacular mp3s on the way. Sign up for the Otis Ball MP3 Club by sending an email to otisball@aol.com. You won't regret it.

Tomorrow night is our last regular Wednesday for a couple weeks. Or more. No telling. Kevin, our drummer, is taking his vacation and heading down South to Memphis and other points of rock and roll interest. I envy him that. Taint been down to Memphis in far too long and I miss it. One of my favorite places in the world, even after the disgusting renovations of the last decade or two. If you find yourself in Memphis, feel free to email me for points of interest.

derf Awright. Clearly the interesting stories are in the immediate future, not tonight. Check back after the weekend.

2004-01-28T15:35:00.000-08:00

2004-01-28T15:19:00.000-08:00

Hey hey, kids! Super Karaoke Fun Time Band has been snowed out for tonight. Yup, we canceled the show cuz of snow. But we'll be back next week. As will our new favorite karaoke singer, Dr. Dot. It's all happening now! Better come check her out, before she stops coming cuz our PA sucks. First good reason we've had to upgrade our sound system.

Last few weeks have been work! Here in Northern Jersey, Wednesdays have been lousy weather evenings. And while the turnout has been light, we've been doing OK with singers. Our days as a cover band seem to be slipping away, thankfully. And we're doing a Valentine's Day show on WFMU, so check back next week for details on how you can sing on the radio to your sweetie with a smokin' back-up band!

We've been working rehearsals into our schedule, as well as trying some new numbers cold during our first set to bulk up the song catalog. We're nearing 100 songs. We wanna double that over the next couple months. Nuthin against our current gig, but we're looking to add another weekly show and crack the private party market. We may have our first shot at that next month. More on that when it is confirmed.

Ya know, taint easy being a karaoke band. Lotsa issues we didn't even think of. Such as, trying to keep arrangements for 100 songs in your head. We tend to have about 40 songs that get called on a regular basis. Which means there are about 60 songs we don't play very often. So when we do play one, it's a crap shoot how well we'll nail it. I'm usually pleasantly surprised, but last week, Sammy blew up when we screwed the end of Sultans of Swing. Luckily, we were all a little buzzed, so it was easy to laugh it off. It happens so rarely that no one took it seriously. Kinda like when they crack up on
SNL.. All in good fun.

And while I'm doing link tags, lemme thank The Suburban Limbo and Tin Huey for the recent plugs! It's nice to have pals.

Welp, hope to see all the local SMonkey fans next Wednesday at The Cage in wonderful Hobroken. We're rehearsing Friday, so we'll have new songs. And my car is parked, I am home and warm. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

2004-01-06T14:39:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, all. Super Karaoke Fun Time Band regrouped this past Friday after a long break for the holidays. And we returned for yet another experiment. The owner of the club wanted us to start playing weekends in this year of 2004. I didn't think it was a very good idea. We're still building our audience and getting our act together. The band is excellent, but pulling off a live karaoke show is something else. Every week we discover new perils and pitfalls. This last show was no exception.

We arrived at the club at 8:30 for our show. That gave us an hour to set up and get a feel for the crowd. It was immediately clear that this crowd had no desire to be felt. Matter of fact, the bouncer at the door had no idea a band was playing and tried to explain that I must be at the wrong club. I assured him this must be the place.

A couple of stained, padded bras had been added to the lighting rig since last we'd played there. White and bulky. Nothing very sexy about that. But I figured they were probly put there by the owner anyway. However, we had far bigger issues to worry about. First and foremost, the weekend crowd was clearly not interested in karaoke. Bill, the DJ, gave me the rundown on what to expect from the crowd and we worked out our evenings schedule. 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off for the next four hours. The band preferred our longer sets, but I liked the shorter sets. 5 or 6 songs, then time off to figure out a game plan for the next set.

And working out game plans turned out to be the challenge for the night, as it was immediately clear that we would basically be a cover band for the evening. Over our three sets (more about the missing set in a bit), we only had three different karaoke takers and two of em were FOBs. (Friends of the Band) We did make a new friend, Mike, who stumbled through Sweet Home Alabama and decided we were the shit. He bought us drinks and talked Southern Boogie with us most of the night. He also talked us into going off list and trying Freebird for the first time. As always, Sammy knew it cold and the rest of us were able to follow along competently.

In the middle of our third set, we were told the police had stopped by to ask us to turn down. Fair enough, except the DJ was playing CDs louder than we were playing. The first clue sumthin was up. Then, 20 minutes in to the third set, we were told to take our break early. Caught me by surprise, but OK. After 30 minutes, we expected to return for our final set, but Bill didn't announce our return. I asked him what was up and he said the owner wanted to wait for the crowd to build. Didn't make any sense to me. One would think that having a live band playing would be more likely to bring in folks from the street. But what do I care? I don't own the place.

Well, after our 30 minute break turned into 75 minutes, we got the picture and packed it up. Talking with the owner the next day, he told me our songs were more geared to an older crowd and maybe we should put the weekend shows on hold. Fine with me. Though I don't think a karaoke set of Puddle of Mudd, Audio Slave, Pigs In a Blanket or Big Toe Suckers woulda gone over any better. And to add insult to injury, the DJ ended up playing at least 4 or 5 songs that we had in our karaoke list.

So, to sum up, in the future, everyone should just listen to me when I open my big mouth.

And I never did find a parking spot when I finally got home at 3 AM. Matter of fact, I'm still driving around.

2003-12-18T11:09:00.000-08:00

Rock and roll is work! Last night's show was somewhere in between the bad of the first week and the good of the second. Not a very big crowd and not too many singers. We probably did half the night as a cover band. A liquor company considering sponsoring us showed up and they were game for a few songs. And, as always, Betty was there to do a couple numbers.

But one of the regulars made the night tortuous at times. He has a problem with boundaries. We musta spent a good 10 or 15 minutes arguing with him during the sets. You see, he likes to call songs we don't know and tell us we know them. And on the occasions when we actually do give one a shot, he doesn't know the words and walks off halfway through the tune. Not cool. Not cool at all. At one point, I had to literally slap him upside his head to get him to leave the stage!

And so we've realized it's time to draw up some karaoke rules. This is really bumming us out, though I guess it was inevitable and better sooner than later, etc. meh But it does look like we'll be adding a second night every week after the holidays. Ray, the club owner, believes in us and wants us to be the house band. For all the problems this brings (and I still think it might be a little early), it's nice to have that kind of support. Doesn't happen often in this business.

So we're off for the next couple weeks, give or take. Discussions are in the works for a New Year's Eve show and we really need to find time for some rehearsing. We've gotta learn a big bag o' new tunes, particularly some female vocals. Looks like plenty of homework during the downtime.

2003-12-17T14:33:00.001-08:00

Well, third night, people! After a wildly succesful second show, we've been asked to add Friday nights to our weekly schedule at the club. I believe it's too early. And there's no guarantee tonight will go all that well. Rains coming down and it's expected all evening, ending in a slush storm right about the time we're packing up.

But we're relaxing somewhat. Gonna try for a third set of all new stuff tonight. Songs we've never played before. Working without a net. Not a new concept to me. It's become immediately apparent that we need to add songs regularly. After tonight, we should have about a hundred. Pretty good for five shows.

Tonight will be our biggest playlist yet and, without a doubt, our longest show to date. Last week, we promised a singer that if she came back this week, we would do her request for Sweet Child O' Mine. We're ready to hold up our end of the bargain. Let's see if she shows.

OK. Dinner, then heading out. More later.

2003-12-17T14:33:00.000-08:00

Well, third night, people! After a wildly succesful second show, we've been asked to add Friday nights to our weekly schedule at the club. I believe it's too early. And there's no guarantee tonight will go all that well. Rains coming down and it's expected all evening, ending in a slush storm right about the time we're packing up.

But we're relaxing somewhat. Gonna try for a third set of all new stuff tonight. Songs we've never played before. Working without a net. Not a new concept to me. It's become immediately apparent that we need to add songs regularly. After tonight, we should have about a hundred. Pretty good for five shows.

Tonight will be our biggest playlist yet and, without a doubt, our longest show to date. Last week, we promised a singer that if they came back this week, we would do her request for Sweet Child O' Mine. We're ready to hold up our end of the bargain. Let's see if she shows.

OK. Dinner, then heading out. More later.

2003-12-12T14:32:00.000-08:00

Well, this was the week that was. Super Karaoke Fun Time Band had a successful second night at The Cage. Last week's debut didn't go so well. Right off the bat, my brilliant idea to run the vocal mics through the DJ sound system was a failure. The speaker placement guaranteed either inaudible vocals or constant feedback. And neither of those options is gonna cut it for a karaoke band.

Of course, even a functioning PA wouldn't have helped the evening. The most important ingredient for a successful karaoke band is, of course, singers. Last week, we walked in to an "audience" of five regulars who weren't particularly in the mood to belt out an uplifting rendition of Ziggy Stardust. No, our choices were be a cover band or front for Jon, the house crooner, all night. It ended up a mix of both. But I'll tell you this. The last thing you wanna hear from the first singer up at your first karaoke show is, "Follow me!" Needless to say, we didn't. We were a pretty cranky karaoke band for the rest of the evening. Which didn't last very long.

After an hour of convincing people we really didn't know how to play the songs they were positive we could fake, we huddled around a small table and wept in the ashtrays. Then we took off like Hulk Hogan at a Randy Savage rap concert.

I was expecting more of the same this week, but I was in for a surprise. As were we all. The fun started a week ago, when Arthur, the bass player, told me he had a previously booked engagement this Wed. So we were without a bass player. I knew this kinda stuff was gonna come up, but I didn't expect it the second week. Sammy suggested Dan, our drummer's Kevin's brother. Got it?

Dan had sat in with us at a couple rehearsals when we came up short. We begged him to take the gig, but he lives 45 minutes away and he's already in another band. With his brother Kevin. Our drummer. I don't know how these guys do it. Kevin is in two other bands. Each band has a minimum of two Hyland family members. I'm embarrassed to say I haven't seen either band, but if the rest of the family is as good as these two, they're worth going out of your way to see. But Dan loves the band and offered to sit in whenever we needed him. And Boy Howdy did we!

I was first at the club this past Wednesday. Kevin was right behind me. The routine is that I go to Kevin's to pick up gear. We rehearse in Kevin's loft apartment, where he lives with his girlfriend Betty, their friend and bandmate, Gary and a cat named Uh Oh. These kids are living the rock and roll dream. House full of amps, guitars, PA equipment, keyboards and drums. Lots and lots of drums. Everybody's in a few bands and they all rehearse there. I admire their energy.

So I unloaded my car and headed out to buy a small booklight for the ingenious lyrics post I made. I'd describe it, but I think I'm gonna copyright it and make money off future karaoke bands. But it is brilliant.

When I returned, Kevin had arrived and was unloading. I discovered I had to run out for duct tape. I returned to find no Sammy and no Dan. Both were arriving on their own and both were 30 minutes late. Which was fine, cuz now I had to run out for extension cords. At 8:40. For a 9:00 show. But, hey! I'm in Hoboken! Where dreams come true!

Got back with the powerlines to find Dan and Sammy waiting. So we threw up the gear, ran line checks and we were off like Uh Oh in a bag of black cats in heat. Well, bing bang BOOM, we make our first friend, JJ. He was ready to sing and he didn't particularly care what he sang. "How bout some Tom Petty?" I suggested. And so we opened with American Girl. Our buddy JJ didn't miss a beat. "Braaaa brrraaa bllmmmm mmummmummmuu guh!" OK. Got it. But that didn't really bug me. It was kinda amusing. No, I was busy wondering if we'd die by electrocution or engulfed in flames when JJ's beer finally left the mug and landed on the wrong box. But it never happened! JJ was with us most of the night, running back and forth between his pals, the bar and his good friends, Super Karaoke Fun Time Band.

Then, much to our shock, a couple came in who had heard about the karaoke band and wanted to give it a shot. They each did a few songs. Then JJ came back and he brought one of his buddies. Then Betty, Kevin's girlfriend, came up to do a few songs. And a couple more people came up for a number. Some guy even drummed, while Kevin came up front for a loud version of TV Eye.

At one point, we ended a song, only to discover a screaming match going on at the bar. Turns out, some jabroni was drinking on a tab, then refused to pay up. I called Rumble and we launched into the Link Wray classic. Felt like the Letterman Band.

Before we knew it, we had two solid karaoke sets under our belts! And as soon as we finished, the bar emptied. Hey hey, suddenly we got some hand! And I found a parking spot on my block!

I'm Otis Ball. This is Project SMonkey.

2003-12-09T10:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a Xmas treat from Friday's show.

2003-12-07T14:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I survived week 1, though just barely. In addition to the dogs, I was running back and forth to Hobroken, setting up, or rather, trying to set up the video system at the club and figure out the logistics for playing our karaoke show. Wasn't a grand success, but it wasn't a failure and that's good enough for now. The Cage hadn't even been open a week, so I wasn't the only one ill prepared for a debut.

But I did manage to get three TVs going and we muddled through a long karaoke set before calling it a night. I can't remember the last time I've been so busy, but whenever it was, I was much younger and certainly had more energy than I do now. The cherry on the week was the bug I've been battling for 10 days, which seems to finally be bidding my immune system adieu. And the up side is that it really couldn't possibly get any worse. All downhill from here.

Friday night was the highlight for me. A couple weeks ago, my old friend and occasional bandmate, Chris Butler, invited me to play at a show he was putting together. I thought this might be a good way to promote the karaoke band, so I said I'd do it. Roped Sammy into coming with me. I don't care much for playing the quieter, stripped down shows. Don't think it's a very good showcase for my talents. But it's always a pleasure to hang out with Butler and I knew I'd run into some old friends that I never get to see, being a hermit and all. Here's the release Chris sent out for the show:

============================================================================
hi y’all...

here’s some updated info re: the 5th December show at The Goldhawk. nb - R. Stevie Moore had to bow out due to personal reasons, but he is still welcome to join us, if his situation permits.

Show title is now:

“A CASE OF THE QUIRKS”- an evening of songwriters who march to the beat of a different drum machine

starring (in no particular order):

...and apologies ahead of time if these characterizations of ‘what they do’ are way off-base...I’ve only had one cup of coffee and I’m not thinking clearly.

Half Cleveland - Harvey Gold, Chris Butler & Bob Ethington from Akron’s Tin Huey. performing TH tunes, CB tunes and covers of rare distinction. special guests (if they can make it!): Jim Higgins & Paul Moschella (from The Cranks), James MacMillan - bass, Bill Corney - bass (tentative)...and who knows?

Otis Ball - brilliant, left-field, powerpop songwriter, with an un-stump-able repertoire of cover songs (not actually knowing the song has never been an impediment!). Wreckless Eric meets Ray Davies at Iggy’s house, and they listen to Buzzcocks.

Bianca Bob Miller - old pal and full-time film maker & composer who write sharp, uncategorizable takes on NYC life. The Andrew Sisters meet Carmen Miranda at Pete Townshend’s house, and they watch Max Fleischer & Chuck Jones cartoons.

Nick Berry - another old pal & fellow coffee abuser. fronts Dots Will Echo, writes and sings like a dream...only the dream is equal parts starry-eyed wonder and too-much-pepperoni-pizza the night before. Roxy Music meets Terry Riley at Paul McCartney’s house, and they take turns reading the funny parts from the Book of Revelations.

Venue:

The Goldhawk Social Club
(on the corner of 10th and Park)
Hoboken, NJ
201-420-7989

8PM SHARP - we will be doing a two-songs-at-a-time 'round robin' show, so come early to catch everyone's complete performances.

regards...

cbutler
============================================================================

What we didn't know was that a blizzard would be hitting the area that afternoon. But, hey, the show must go on. And so it did. Sammy managed to make it in from Manhattan, we went over a few songs, loaded up The BallMobile and raced to The Goldhawk at the mind numbing speed of 15 mph. Happily, we were just about the only morons on the road, so the drive in went as well as could be expected under the circumstances.

Arrived to find Harvey Gold and Bob Ethington from Tin Huey/Half Cleveland, a couple of hardcore Huey fans and the bar staff. No surprise. The snow was falling and all reports predicted it wouldn't be stopping for a day and a half. The rock gods were smiling down, as I found a parking spot only 6 blocks from the club. If you've ever tried to park in Hobroken on a Friday night, you know how miraculous that is. So now, all I had to worry about was my car being buried or towed and finding a spot when I got back home. I couldn't stop staring out the window at the sheets of snow blanketing the street in front of The Goldhawk.

Eventually, Butler rolled in, back from his umpteenth trip picking up gear for the show. We were in serious danger of being crowded off the stage from all the equipment the Ohio boys had set up. But I quickly realized that might not be a bad thing, cuz at least the room would be full, though not likely with bodies. Next in was Bianca. I've known Bianca for 15 years now. She produced a long form video to promote my first album and I still enjoy watching it. She put up some backdrops, grabbed a video camera and let me riff for two days. She managed to turn the raw footage into a coherent, entertaining look inside the mind of One O Ball. I'm still hoping she finds the raw footage from that weekend. Nutty stuff ended up on the cutting room floor.

Nick Berry canceled that afternoon, so we were down to three acts. Happily, a respectable crowd had wandered in by show time. Sammy and I opened the show. We started with my favorite Otis Ball number, Birthday, then it was a Dark Horses song of Sammy's, Over the Line. Chris shouted out for the title cut from my first album, Love You Til I Don't. So I made him come up and play drums on it. Ironically, the last time I performed the song was a year and a half ago on the very same stage with Chris and Rich Grula, the finest incarnation of The Chains.

Next up was Bianca with her stories of Catholic upbringing and hatred of underwear. The Ohio boys followed with a mini set that was just wonderful! We all went around one more time and Chris and the Huey's ended the night. The finest moment of the evening for me was their last song. Chris brought up bass player extraordinaire, James MacMillan, to join in on a stellar version of one of Chris' big hits, Christmas Wrapping! This was quite a pleasant surprise for me. Chris was the mastermind behind The Waitresses, but I don't believe I've ever seen him perform any Waitresses' songs. It was well worth the wait! I have rarely heard such a joyous ruckus from four musicians. And they are all quite talented.

I had originally accepted the gig out of a sense of responsibility. I couldn't justify turning down an opportunity to promote Super Karaoke Fun Time Band, despite my reluctance to doing non-band shows. But after all was said and done, I left that night with a memory that will be filed in the Very Special Evening drawer. And I found a parking spot on my block!

2003-11-29T16:03:00.000-08:00

I have a band. This dates back to May or so. We're a karaoke band. Super Karaoke Fun Time Band. We play covers and people buying drinks sing em. If you've ever fronted a band, you know the rush. If you haven't, well, you should come down some Wednesday night. It's better than tapes. Much better.

Back in April, I was offered a couple nights a week at a club to do with what I please. The remarkable thing about this is that I had spent the last two years driving around the Northeast and Midwest looking for just such an offer and it fell in my lap. At a tax meeting. My accountant owned a club and offered to give me his slow nights. I needed a band.

Took a while to find the right guys. We lost our drummer an hour before the first rehearsal and our bass player disappeared a few months in. But this was all fine, because one week before we were supposed to start, the building the club was in fell down. Not fast. Really, really slow. Took six months, but it fell down. Which was OK, cuz we weren't ready.

Replacing the bass player was a real jump start. I had Sammy on lead guitar. Hot shot and I worked with him for a couple years in the late 90's. He just wants to play his guitar. And he knows how to play. He is the Sultan of Swing. Sammy has his own band, The Dark Horses. Kevin is our drummer. He's in two other bands. They all involve family members. We rehearse in his loft. Arthur is the recent addition on bass. Guy I know from the hood. We needed a bass player, he wanted in, done and done. Just like that. At damn near the very last second I had left to come up with a bass player. Total synchronicity. This is the band. And by "the band," I mean "THE BAND!" I'm the weakest musician in the bunch, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I bring other things to the table.

Our first show was just a few weeks ago. And it was a live radio broadcast. Sink or swim. We did a rowdy water ballet. Documentation available here. Fun side streets thus and thus.

It took a while to figure out how to do this. First time I was aware of the concept was in 1991. My pals Workdogs did it a few times for kicks in a few clubs. They ran through tons of great ideas a few times. They did a live rock game show, they did shows with different sidemen at EVERY SHOW! You see, they are a duo. Drum and bass, but not like that. Old school. Very. Brilliant, genius! I always thought the idea of a live karaoke band would fly.

I did Cheap Trick's I Want You To Want Me with them. Didn't need the lyrics. Christ, I probly sung it more than a couple times over the years.

That's something you should know about me and my band. We're fearless. We'll try anything that is within our interest and capabilities.

We're very interested and extremely capable

On Wednesday, we begin a weekly gig. Plus, I will be running Sonic KarniVision every Tuesday night. I'm a professional entertainer. The dream has become reality. Project SMonkey. And so it begins.