I know it's only rock'n roll, but . . .

Recently been adding stuff to this page documenting my rock band experience in Chicago:
http://www.myspace.com/avondaleelectric

I wrote a bunch of these tunes and sing/drum lots of them, something I don't do in jazz yet. Three of the guys in this band, myself included, go back to high school . . . we were not a jobbing band, but played out about 5x/year booked by yours truly. Otherwise, we jammed once or twice a week for about ten years in our rented pad. Being an historian, I got us into the studio a few times to document our work . . . one weekend we laid down 35 songs.

There are links on this page to a few jazz band pages and some folk music with my son. An embarrassing amount of documentation on the net, but you guys already know I'm willing to suffer embarrassment. In fact, most of you are, too, which is probably why a great drummer I know says "all my best friends are drummers."

If you don't like a tune, skip to the next as we were pretty eclectic . . . lots more original material not on this page . . .

Rock on, Woof!

Cartoons and cereal... Yeah!

Love your drum sound.

Thanks, D. I think you've heard that one before . . . hard to sing and drum simultaneously, but way fun, as you know . . . gotta know when to breathe . . . that's one of my many wacky songs.

I really liked "The Main Thing" - having that kind of cross between the Beatles and Beach Boys.

BTW, I was raised on "Cartoons & Cereal" too! Go Tony the Tiger & WB (or Disney) animations!

Just finished a bowl of cereal myself. Strange thing happened on MySpace a few days ago which prompted this thread. All the links I made for individual songs stored on AOL webspace were disabled after I tried editing the page. MySpace selectvely targeted AOL links ONLY, as all other links worked. When clicked it went to an error message stating the link was phishing, a term used to describe people trying to steal passwords.

My solution was to create that new player on the page, a free service and very cool. It's got 15 more songs on it and works pretty well using the same stored links. Some of the tunes on that other player, i.e., Waterfall, have more interesting drumming opportunities than the ones on the MySpace player, so I hope you'll peruse that player (it's the green thing).

NEWSFLASH!!! I just got a call from Shania Twain's lawyers. Apparently, she heard my song Useful and wants to buy rights. This song was on the B list when we were playing it . . . I love this country! I told her lawyers she can have anything she wants and that I'd even be willing to be screwed on the deal.

Woof!! Cool and sincere sound, as always!!

Whoa!! Man!! Get me in that deal, too!! I
never thought I would want to get screwed
on a deal butt there's always a first time!

You're too tough for me, Woof...

That really would be a tough gig for
me to do. It would be hard but I
think I would do it.



The prior image was moderated by
the admin.

Yeah, talk about pushing the tempo.......

Ha! I'm impenetrable! Nothing can hurt me! From nothingness to eternity! But I wouldn't mess with you either, Don, a veritable fortress and perfectionist. It's no wonder Bilham trusts you with his heads. Me, I'm just flawed trying to play a tune without making a mistake. If I can only get the band to play my recent jazz smash hit:
Help Me Gawd I'm Being Clawed By A Flawed Broad!

My gawd, look at the voice on that girl . . . holy cannoli.

Hey Woof,

Finally had some time to listen to your music and I really like the whole vibe. . I also really respect the fact that you chose to play original tunes, rather than go the cover route like I did.

My two favorite songs were ,not surprisingly, the same as the ones John and Don mentioned. Cartoons and Cereal - I hear a Bob Weir influence in the sound to me for some reason, probably your voice. And I also liked Main Thing which had a great George harrison feel to it. I loved the leslie effect on your voice, if that was you.

And it is amazing that so many of the band websites that are on the net have been put together by the drummers , as ours are, and that we seem to be the archivists for our own histories. And in many cases, the leaders of our bands.

Looking forward to hearing more of your history, and your present day music as well ! Peace, TED

Ted, thanks for checking it out. That's not my voice on Main Thing, btw. Some harder-edged tunes on the green player. You may want to use that service, too, with those free mp3 players:
http://www.myflashfetish.com/
(very cool service)

I'm working toward documenting present-day stuff soon.

You bring up a fascinating point about drummers. How interesting you've noticed a trend that drummers may be more prone to become historians. Many famous drummers are also considered historians. What is it about drummers? Or what is it about historians who are prone to become drummers? What attributes do we have?

Is there something about a drummer's personality seeking to shore things up , compartmentalize, define? Musically, we can either ruin or make it work , there is no in between. Success is defined most blatantly by the drummer, but I think it takes a bassist to really make a band work. The bass is the base! But without the drummer shoring things up properly, it's killed. We gather it all up and congeal/glue it all together. That's our nature.

And as drummers, by definition we're also marketers. The definition of marketing is filling a need. We act. We get the gigs AND drive the van. We produce the music and get to hang around the real musicians who are basically lazy, mean and stupid (blind and ignorant), but talented.

According to my son, our dog is a history buff. She smells everything that happened in the past.