The Living Rockumentary

Tony: Why not all of us give a quick overview of our rock career to this point, as Henning started kinda doing? I know I'd love to see the massive lists of bands that Brian and Ken have played in. For me:

----The Arrows (5th grade): me on rhythm guitar and The Belden Brothers- Jeff on lead guitar and Mark on drums. I wrote songs with lyrics but was too scared to sing in front of my mates so we played them as instrumentals, along with a huge helping of Beatles instrumentals. Late in our existence, my school chum Dickie LaBelle joined as another guitarist, bringing with him songs like the theme to "MASH" and "Eye Of The Tiger." Our big hit: "Seaside Hotel" (Westcott).

---Black Star (9th grade): An awful combination of two kids who loved heavy metal (drummer Tony Mazza and singer Jeff Asher) and two of us who preferred 60s rock (me and second guitarist Stuart Allsop). Tony's dad was a professional drummer and had a P.A. and studio in their basement so we had some cool rehearsals but our repertoire was entirely covers and when I grew tired of playing songs I just didn't like by Motley Crue et al and was unsuccessful at convincing my bandmates to learn any Bob Dylan songs outside "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," I quit. Band was most known for having Jeff Asher as a member. He went on to infamy as a cop who was videotaped kicking a black man on the ground in Springfield back in the mid-90s.

--Kiley Jr. High Jazz Band (9th grade): Led by Dr. Farnsworth, who taught me about improvisation. This guy absolutely loved/lived to teach kids music. He was smiling and happy and cracking jokes like a randy uncle all day. Loved that dude. We rocked on 3 Dog Night's "Joy To The World." I had a solo in "On Broadway."

--The Earthlings (10th grade): Stuart Allsop and I formed this band with our friend Ernie Whitehead on drums. Finally, I sang originals in a band but they were all goofy songs. Still hadn't worked up the courage to play more meaningful songs in front of others, though I'd been writing songs for years. More tragedy in this band- both of Ernie's sisters died in a car accident a few years later and Stuart became a Holyoke high school teacher infamous for chaining an unruly student to a desk. Ahh, my friends. Did I mention old Arrows co-member Dickie LaBelle was expelled from our Catholic school? (for kicking our principal Sr. Eileen) The only other kid who was similarly expelled when I was there was Ronnie D'Ambrosia, another friend of mine, who was partly responsible for turning me on to The Beatles in 4th grade.

--Springfield Central High School Stage Band: (11th-12th grade): The apex of Central's jazz band- both years I was in it, we won the Big Apple Music Festival as Jazz band. And we were good. In junior year, Martin Jones played lead alto- this was a kid who could sight-read, learn Coltrane riffs by ear and was motivated enough to take over as conductor when our teacher Mr. Christie was out sick (our substitute teachers must have been impressed). I had solos in Spyro Gyra's "Soho Mojo" and 'Route 66" but Martin was our star player. He went to UMass and gave up music altogether to become a campus activist- he wrote for The Collegian and stirred up many a protest over things like the Rodney King incident. I was proud to see him concentrate on what he thought was important but he could've continued playing, too. He was so naturally talented. In my senior year, we got a bunch of pretty gifted sophomores like bassist Kenny Walpurgis and alto sax player Mark Abbott. I had a lovely solo in "Skylark," among others, but going against jazz convention, I wrote out the solo in Skylark and played it the same way everytime. I was always very hot onstage because we had to wear these wool uniforms, to which I'm slightly allergic, so in order to make sure none touched bare skin, I'd wear a sweatsuit underneath it. Our pianist Jess Townsend (yes, she did have a brother named Peter) was always cold onstage, so we would clasp hands before we started playing to even out temperatures so that my hands wouldn't be too sweaty and slip around the guitar neck, her fingers wouldn't be too cold to properly play piano. All this and a nearly 300 lb. kid named Alvis playing drums. He's now a rapper in Springfield, going by the name Black Magic, last I heard.

--The Awakening (11-12th grade): My first real, good band outside school. We played actual gigs like opening for local MTV Basement Band-winners The Breakdown at Central's Halloween dance and had the dream gig of all-time- playing a dance at Springfield's private all-girl's school MacDuffie- I took my shirt off and did a goofy-slash-lascivious Mick Jagger impersonation, enough to ensure we wouldn't be invited back. Dumbass. Anyway, Kenny Walpurgis from the stage band played bass, Aaron Fay was on drums and songwriters/vocalists Greg Ransom on piano and me on guitar rounded out the lineup. Sometimes Mark Abbott joined us on sax. Our big hit was "Swashbuckler," a catchy gospel-inspired pop song that was a hit at the talent show. I loved having kids I didn't know come up to me in the mall saying "Yo, you that Swashbuckler guy" or singing the chorus hook line to me as I walked down the hall in school. Anyway, Greg and Kenny went on to form an Elton John tribute band in the early 90s and Aaron Fay gave up drums and became a singer and now sings in Orange Crush, an extremely popular 80s retro cover band in Springfield. Our best songs were the aforementioned "Swashbuckler," a blues song I wrote about impending divorce called "Ready When You Are," an anti-war song "McPherson Avenue" and an evergreen ballad called "Serenade." All were collaborations of mine and Greg's.

Ok, I'm getting carried away with the expositions here. I could write a book on my next band, the comedy band, The Generics. Our exploits were outrageous, things like luring a crowd of skater punks (who were our normal audience) to a gig at a church for Christian youth activities. I'm guessing by activities they didn't mean having these unruly heathens use a red magic marker to paint a red nose on a bust of Jesus on the crucifix, placing a sign next to it reading "Rub my nose for luck." Probably also didn't appreciate the band singing a song called "Yo, Mephistopheles Raps" within God's house. Anyway, I don't want my SFTD members to feel like they need to write lengthy summaries of each band's histories, nor do I want to write them myself so I'm scaling back as of now.

-The Generics (1989-1992) w/ Mark Abbott, Todd Rosever, Hawkeye Thompson, E.J. Dawson. Recorded two cassettes of original comedy-rock.
-Get Norm (Summer of '89): Springfield cover band w/ Aaron Fay singing; we played a few gigs and lots of parties.
-Woody's Culture (Summer of 1990): Easthampton cover band with Ken Walpurgis, Marc Jordan and Tim something-or-other. Tim got us a gig at Katina's in Hadley then abruptly quit the band mid-summer to go play soccer at some private school he'd enrolled in.
-Nag Nag Nag (1991-1993): started at Umass w/ Ari Vais, Brian Osley and Paul Pelis. Played Umass, Boston, NYC, recorded a casette named "7 Too Many." We broke up in Richmond, VA.
-Bespectacalia (1993): offshoot of Nag, basically Nag minus Ari, our set had a punk flavor to it.
-Humbert (1994-2000): members included Ari Vais, Chris Monroe, John Gotschalk, Paul Pelis, E.J. Dawson, Frank Padellaro, Henning Ohlenbusch, Brian Marchese- THE band of my life so far. You all know the story.
-Ribboncandy (2001-) I joined Ken Maiuri's band a s a second stage guitarist.
-School For The Dead (2001-) Here we are.
-The Parents (2002) a duo comprised of me and singer Samara Loewenstein. Look for us soon...