Jason and Pharis Romero - "Tell 'em You Were Gold". Another super record (CD in my case) from this fantastic duo.
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@bdp24 - What band were you in back then? I might have seen you at some point! Also, that 8-CD Little Feat set is 4 complete concerts.... |
@larsman: The gig with The Groovies was when I was in The Donuts, a 5-piece band with 3 guitarists. The main songwriter and lead singer was Chris Hauptman, whose voice is somewhat similar to that of Elvis Costello. He is a very good Pop/Rock songwriter (think Squeeze and Marshall Crenshaw), great chord progressions and melodies, lots of hooks. In San Francisco we played Mabuhay Gardens a few times, and the Keystone in San Francisco & Berkeley. The Groovies loved us, singer Chris Wilson exclaiming "Rock ’n’ Roll"! when our take on Buddy Holly’s "Love’s Made A fool Of You" ended. That song was our only cover; I played the band the version by The Bobby Fuller Four, suggesting it would be perfect for us. The name started out as a joke. The Donuts were originally a very Pop sounding group with a girl lead singer (Lisa Bosch, now performing around SoCal as a Stevie Nicks tribute singer. She was the donut hole ;-), and had one song with her ("Johnny Johnny") included on the 415 Records sampler album. We moved to L.A. in search of fame and fortune, and started playing around town. We debuted at The Troubadour (just like Elton John ;-), then played Madam Wongs, The Hong Kong Cafe, Blackies, The Starwood, etc. I eventually noticed Lisa sang---not flat, which is not uncommon---but sharp. Very rare (and not good). I suggested we replace her, which is where Chris Hauptman came into the picture. We did some demos in ’81 with Tchad Blake (Los Lobos, Costello, T Bone Burnett, Richard Thompson, Tom Waits, etc. The big time ;-), he bringing a Nagra portable to our rehearsal room (we also did some overdubs in the room where The Stones recorded "Satisfaction". The room was huge!). He told us he played the tapes of all his recent projects when he was recording The Plimsouls s/t album that came out on Planet Records, and that the only music Peter Case liked was ours. Too bad Peter wasn’t a record label A & R man ;-). With no record deal secured, Hauptman moved to NYC, guitarist Paul Skelton to Austin (he played on the first Wayne Hancock album), reuniting with our old friend from San Jose, Cornell Hurd (his songs have been recorded by a number of people, including Junior Brown), working in his band until he too succumbed to Lung Cancer (yet another 2-pack-a-day man). The last time I saw Paul on stage was at Threadgills, a clear plastic tube running from an air canister off stage into his nostrils. Grim. I remained in L.A., playing in all kinds of musical situations. Pop, Singer/Songwriter, Rockabilly, C&W, Blues, Instrumental, Surf, Lounge, even a coupla movie soundtracks. I’ve done some live playing and recording since my move to the Portland area, but the road has about come to an end. A couple of the guys I worked with in L.A. have died (Emitt Rhodes, John Wicks of The Records), as has Evan Johns (3 albums on Rykodisc, but I did his Moontan album on an indi. He was a maniac!). Others have retired. Rock ’n’ Roll is a young man’s game, and those who don’t realize that end up making fools of themselves. Except Dylan, of course ;-) .
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