My earliest musical adventures were in high school and college where I participated in almost every group there was to participate in. Moving from saxophone to drumline gave me experience reading music and then an intense relationship with rhythm. When I picked up the bass guitar, I wanted to learn it from scratch, totally on my own. I had the necessary background to understand music, and I decided to develop my own style on the bass, not let any teacher force his upon me.
I do not write songs. I only write parts to songs. I’ve written my own bass lines and harmony vocals and the occasional percussion part. If I ever write a song, you will hear about it here. It takes a really long time for me to listen to the vocals in songs, even songs I like, so it’ll probably be an even longer time before I write lyrics of my own.
Appearance History (most recent first):
Das Happening – After Better Friends Than Lovers split but before Drew moved back to Woonsocket, he convinced me to play bass in his next project. Other tracks were recorded, but I left the group and I don’t think they ever finished producing them. Some may call this indie, but I think of it as grunge revival.
from the demo:
The Price of Admission is Defeat and To Know by Heart Attack
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Snakes & Ladders – I was playing bass for this Worcester-based pop-rock group after a long line of other bassists spanning many years. We recorded an album and some demos while I was in the band, and the album was officially released in fall of 2005. I played bass and sang back-ups (only on the recordings).
from Authenticity: Telltale Heart and You’re So Cool
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Michael Thibodeau – Worcester folkie extraordinaire, asked me to join him in the studio for a couple folk-country-rock tracks on bass and then tricked me into singing backing vocals on one of them as well. I also performed with him live at least once or twice.
from Raise High the Roofbeam Dear Carpenter:
Down The Line and Raise High the Roofbeam
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The Brands – occasional gig. I played bass and sang back-up for one of Mark’s post Overtones projects. I’m not on the album he recorded but, I did perform with Mark (and others) several times. This project has now evolved into the “Accident” thing on his website, but I am not musically involved.
Better Friends Than Lovers – an excellent indie-rock group, half of which lived with Mark and I in Woonsocket, RI for a while. I made a guest appearance playing fretless bass on their self-titled album. [The track, I Think, Therefore I Quit, is available below. At around the 2-minute mark, there are two Bass parts. I am playing the fretless; I have parts all the way to the end of the song.] I also played the same parts with them in a live setting once or twice. I’m providing Racecar because I Think, Therefore I Quit segues into it and it’s a damn cool song.
from Better Friends Than Lovers: I Think, Therefore I Quit -> Racecar
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Mrs Remote Control – a pop-punk group who played shows for immense masses of fans, almost all exclusively from Smith College in Northampton, MA. Highlights include a show with Calvin Johnson and Mirah, after which members of the band interviewed both of them on the Smith College radio station, alluded to the fact that they were probably sleeping together, and made fun of them for getting a weaker crowd response than we did. We also managed to record an album. Jerry, from Just For Sundae was the recording engineer and producer for the album. I played bass.
from The First Time: Compliment and Roadie
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The Overtones – Mark and I, the last two remaining members of Just For Sundae, continued playing together right through the Lackadaisic days and after them. We gathered some other musicians around us (including a drummer we stole from Lackadaisic) prepared to record an album. We lost almost half the band by the time we got to the studio, but managed to record Well I’ve Been Thinking and release it. There were a couple of long breaks …. but The Overtones endured for over two years. Personality problems caused us to “go on [permanent] break.” We had recorded a second album, but only released a teaser/demo for it. I played bass, occasional percussion and sang back-up vocals live and in studio. We were voted Best Rock Act in the 2002 Wormtown Sound Awards.
from Well I’ve Been Thinking: C’est la Vie
from Rock Poster single: Nevermind The Honesty
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Lackadaisic – I joined this group to replace a bassist the band wasn’t happy with. It was a pretty fun group to play with and we played out quite a bit because Sarah, the songwriter, was very motivated to get gigs and sell albums. I almost stuck around long enough to get on the next album with them, but it didn’t work out. I believe we recorded some scratch tracks for the studio engineers to familiarize themselves with the material, but I doubt any of them still exist.
Just For Sundae – me and three friends formed this group shortly after high school. We were a folky pop-rock group from beginning to end, with more emphasis on the rock towards the beginning, the pop in the middle and the folky towards the end. I played bass and sang back-up vocals. Two four-song demos were recorded and a CD with those demos and some live tracks was also released. I’ve put two tracks in the player below. I’m not sure if Nine Feet’s first half was serious or ironic, I didn’t write the songs, just my bass parts.
Live at Leicester HS – November 1997: Everything Happens
from Nine Feet: Nine Feet Above the Ground
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woot