music

Chronology - Music in the Late 20th Century

I love chronology. These are the bands in which I partook in my lifetime period.

YEARS BAND COMMENTS PEOPLE WHAT DID I DO? Notable Song(s)
 HIGH SCHOOL YEARS        
1984-85 Joe Froodlonga's Squat-Like People This "band" actually started in 8th grade. Mostly just me, though my friend Corky helped a few times me  everything. mostly casio keyboard, sing and a little winds

Squats Away

Screwed-Up Song

 

1985 Mow the Grath really a one-shot deal. me and Corky jamming on keyboards one weekend in my basement me & Corky  casio keyboard & sing Hamburger Helper
1985 Giant's Tooth again, me and Corky looking for a good band name, one weekend in Vermont - Corky now playing drums. me & Corky  synthesizer & sing Mr Blue Sky
1985-86 Desert Wind

my first full-size cover band. We weren't very good, but we had our moments. Great bunch of people. They kicked me out eventually, shortly before renaming themselves the XYZ Affair. Notable was an original by the bassist Ann Marie, "On Our Way"

 Tom Hamel

Ann Marie Hamel

John Dillon

John Swingler

Rich Contrastano

Lisa Jones

piano, synthesizer & voice On Our Way
1986-7 Free Hand this was the main band of me and Corky really trying to play, mostly our own music, though with a few covers.

Corky Mower - drums

Kim Risley - vocals

keyboards & voice 

The Digestive System

Eleventh Earl of Mar

1986-87 Fourth World  --in various combinations. I used to drive up to Enfield all the time to participate in this, mostly Junior year of high school

 Corky

Todd Parsnow Kim Risley Annette Houle 

keyboards, voice 

Abacab

Two Tickets to Paradise

1986-87 Up in the Air A real cover band, back home in Newington. We played a lot of Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen, a true central Connecticut band. Some great musicians. I was proud to have gotten this band to play Genesis's "Turn it on Again" however my influence in adding "The Voice" and "Swingtown" to our repertoire garners less praise

 Chris Pandee

Mike Cohen

Tony Leone

Chris Marolda

Brian Kelly

Fred Blankenburg

electric piano & synth 

Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

Money

LA Woman

Miami 2017

1988 Joe Falsetto and the Brass Menagerie This band was around my town for a few years, formed when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school.  I joined for one summer when it was reformed after a hiatus. Wow, great band, some fabulous musicians a number of whom are pros all from my hometown. Full horn section, we specialized in Blue Brothers covers, but also threw in tight versions of the works of Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, and the Jaco Pastorius version of  James Brown's "The Chicken"

Tony Leone

Tom Polce

Joe McMahon

Brad Pitman

Brian Kelly 

Brian Montgomery

Will Heron

Josh Guite

electric piano & synth 

The Chicken

Bodhisattva

Spinning Wheel

 COLLEGE YEARS        
1990 OCMR My first college band. Neat bunch of folks, stylistically pretty varied though had  a strong folk sound, attributable to Alisa. Our vibe was dominated by the innocence of Dan's songs & the mystery of Alisa's. The jokier, oddballish nature of my songs & Don's were a nice counterpoint but didn't dominate. Everybody had a voice (literally & figuratively).

 Don Marvel

Dan Kennedy

Alisa Franklin

clarinet,keyboards & voice

Satellite

Paco

Loveseats are for Guitars

Gopher Gassin'

1990 Mr Ability Over the top quirky band, dominated by Jason Mittell & Don Marvel, though eventually I was running rehearsals. Huge band, in a Parliament sort of way. Many people came and went but the core group was solid. For me the most enjoyable college group. It was just fun, and almost everything we did came out neat.  

Don Marvel

Jason Mittell

Dan Kennedy

Thisbe Nissen

Carla Kihlstedt

Matt Hubbard

keyboards, voice and clarinet

I Am the Magic Hand

Schoolhouse Rock Medley

Lucky Sukey

1991-92 Lumberbride Mostly active in 1992, this band wrote, constructed and performed a 90 minute multimedia work, which constituted my senior recital

Don Marvel

Carla Kihlstedt

Greg Myers

Matt Hubbard

Susan Hanson

clarinet, piano & synth

Younger Than You Are

Meni and Sammy

Infomercial

NYC YEARS        
1996 Young Elvis Tribute/Night Train  my first NYC gigs, introducing me to the Orange Bear bar   synth  Heartbreak Hotel
 1997 Trouble Dolls  First regularly gigging NYC band. I played only micromoog (occasionally piano). they kicked me out. All Doll material, no covers, none of my music. I helped develop a couple of songs which were coming together nicely. around the time of my departure Also went to a recording session they did, not sure what came of those recordings.

 Matty Doll

Cheri Doll

Mikey Doll

Dave Schneider

 micromoog

Kirby

Fair Piece

Ice Cream Cow

1997-99 Anomaly  The final straw. My own band! Great guys, taking their best crack at the stuff I brought in. We did a solid rendition of Meat Balm the Web-Footed Groove Hound (a piece I thought was unplayable by a live ensemble when I was in college), plus some nice Steely Dan covers (notably Your Good Teeth II). It started as my keyboard trio with Eddy and Mike Caudle, the drummer from the Elvis Band. When I realized I needed help to fill in the spaces, Matt joined, lending his jazz sensibilities and self-conscious hard rock guitar. But then Mike left the country and was invited never to return. after a 6 month lull we held auditions and found Brian, who gave life to the bridge of Gopher Gassin' in ways previously unimagined. After a couple of years I was married, Eddy was kicked out of the country, Brian was moving to DC...it was time to say, "thank you very much gentlemen."

Eddy Spinosa

Matt Applebaum

Brian Lafleur 

voice, keyboards, clarinet 

The Atlantic Center

Stingray

Telephone Book

 

Telephone Book

Never has a song written in the bud of youth been so ravaged by the progress of technology. How can I play this for the younger generation? "What's a telephone book?"

But indeed, the song is a plea for stability, order amidst chaos. Ultimately the protagonist is lost in a sea of abstruseness, "London hails me, harbor, too, dispatch rails me kinkajou" it's hard for him even to remember the words. Of course, the only constant in our lives is change.

continueTelephone Book

Doctor Who

So I've never watched an entire episode of the British television program that this song's title suggests. It is a song about a college friend of mine.

Read more: Doctor Who

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Subcategories

  • Live Performance

    I have a fair number of recordings of Anomaly performing. My now wife, Maria, used to bring my portable Steroo Sony recording cassette player to all of ours gigs and got some pretty darn good recordings. A few have some chatter from the people around her, but most are highly listenable.