April 22, 2008, 11:29 pm : Earth Day, just another freakin’ holiday

Filed Under: Memorabilia
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Anybody but me puke when you saw all the ads last Sunday for “Earth Day” related products? When did it become another go out and buy shit holiday?

OK, mostly I’m a little bit cranky about it. On April 22, 1970, I was lead singer for a Boulder Colorado band called Mary Jane Bann’d. We did a 90 minute (or thereabouts) show for about 85 gazillion people on the very FIRST Earth day. I didn’t see ONE FREAKIN’ COMMERCIAL, or one single add that was printed in puke green. Last Sunday, there must have been a thousand of them.

What the hell’s next? Gun sales on Martin Luther King day?

Quack!

March 25, 2008, 6:43 am : Good News About Getting Back to Work!

Filed Under: News
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Looks like Boomersaurus may be getting back to work soon. We’ve decided to start auditioning singers to take over what my throat used to be able to do. It should be fun. I’ll be able to focus on some guitar and keyboard work. Maybe play around with a banjo and electric sitar, who knows?

Keep an eye out, more news soon!

Quack!

February 1, 2008, 1:04 pm : Where the Hell Have You Been?

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Ok, so it’s a question I’m starting to hear a lot!

Short and sweet, I had a couple of severe allergic reactions that caused some issues with the old voice. We’re working on them with a gazillion stethescope guys to get it all sorted out. More news later.

Quack!

August 9, 2007, 8:16 pm : Busy Quacker

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As Boomer said in his blog, it’s getting a bit busy for Ducky. Now that the band is a quartet, rather than a quintet, I’m playing a lot more guitar, and switching around instruments a lot more. The upside is that it makes us a much tighter band.

Got a big rush a week or so ago, just a couple of nights before our last weekend gig at Group Therapy in Longmont on the 27th and 28th of July. I watched Jonathan Demme’s fantastic concert film “Heart of Gold” with Neil Young… on the “special features” disc, his guitar tech (who also plays in the band… VERY VERY WELL I might add) talked about some of the great instruments Neil uses. As I was watching him talk about the Martin that used to belong to Hank Williams, I looked longingly at “Lolly” my ‘53 Gibson J-45, hanging on the wall, naked and stringless. I dug out a set of Martin Special Lights and gave Lolly the first set of strings she’s had in over ten years… then I played… and played for hours.

Wow!

Come see us on Friday at the Boulder County Fair… 6:30 - 8:00 PM on the Free Stage… here’s a map.

Quack!

April 14, 2007, 12:13 pm : Cool Stuff to Remember - Stories from the Road and Stage

Filed Under: Memorabilia
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I’m going to start putting up a new series of posts… memorabilia from what seems like a bazillion shows, road trips, and other stuff. It seems very fitting that I start with a the upcoming link. In 1965-66, I played with a Longmont Colorado band called the Corrupters. Mostly weekends at the teen center and some miscellaneous gigs. Longmont had the place called the St. Vrain Memorial building where they Friday night dances. The stage was HUGE for the area, the dance floor was a basketball court. An absolute DREAM venue for a 15-16 year old kid with a guitar and a good old VOX amp. It seemed like one of those bands where we had twelve guitar players (though I think in reality it was maybe three at one time) so I switched to playing keyboards… a Doric combo organ (a cheap Farfisa competitor) and a Hohner Cembalet CF (man, do I wish I still had THAT thing…) my 62 Fender Jazzmaster kind of got put on the shelf and a played an old red something or other that eventually ended up being dragged over Trail Ridge Road in sacrifice to the guitar gods. In late 1966, a couple of us, Pete Fenner on guitar, Jim Hill on drums, and myself looked at the world around us and wanted a different direction. There was an incredible war on… that not only was being fought in Vietnam, but carried in tear-gas and night sticks to the streets of America. Playing top-40 rock and roll seemed trite, a waste of time and energy… Dave Kauffroath (now Guitarosaurus Dave) wasn’t political, but he loved to play guitar… and played it pretty darned well. He couldn’t envision the Corrupters without Pete, Jim and I, so he came along…

In reality, we were the “new” Corrupters, the rest of the band kind of came apart and we actually played a show or two in the new format under the old name. Again we looked at our surroundings, our proximity to the University of Colorado at Boulder, and became “Merry Jane” sort of a “code” I suppose… I think that lasted for two shows and one arrest for indecent language… we decided screw the code and change the name to “Mary Jane Bann’d” (as in banned or illegal). In my wisdom, I hung on to that name all the way until today, but that is a different story…

In Boulder, we had the good fortune to run across a kid about the same age, with an incredible photographic eye. I remember meeting him in the Red Barn restaurant on Canyon Bouldevard (about where Liquor Mart is today). I sat down at his table and lit up a Kent. “My dad smoked Kents,” he said. “And he’s dead.”

The kid was Stephen (Steve) Miles… who in the past forty years has photographed Janis Joplin, Mick Jagger, Crosby Stills and Nash, Allen Ginsberg, Duane Allman, Ginger Baker, Neil Young, and on… and on… and this kid was OUR OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER!!! How cool is that?
So to start this memorabilia series I just have to put up this link to some of Steve’s work.

Quack!

March 14, 2007, 10:49 am : Colorado Boomers Survey

Filed Under: News
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Boomers: take 10 minutes for a worthy cause. If you are between 55 and 65, and live in Colorado, there is a survey at www.coloradoboomers.org that can really help a couple of worthwhile organizations. I took it. It’s easy and takes no time at all. The survey will only be available until March 23.

March 14, 2007, 10:04 am : Rock Trivia Challenge

Filed Under: News, Rambling Rants
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Hey Boomer!

I’ve been following your Boomer Rock Trivia since it started. You’ve got some great questions there… but WHERE ARE THE PRIZES??? What’s the use of playing if you can’t win anything?

You get a lot of answers coming in, but I’ll bet a lot MORE people would play if you gave away a million bucks or something.

C’mon you OLD DINOSAUR, show us your cojones.

Quack!

March 9, 2007, 10:53 am : Update on Yesterday’s Rant

Filed Under: Rambling Rants
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Maybe Simon Crowell, or Idol, should be eligible for the Cranial Crap award after all… just for the heck of it, I googled Simon Crowell crap and came up with almost 13,000 pages in which Simon Crowell and CRAP were in proximity… must me some kind of indicator… huh?

Quack

March 8, 2007, 10:37 pm : What Dya Mean FAMILY Television

Filed Under: Rambling Rants
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Anybody been following the latest sleaze on the ‘Idol’ program? Came to mind after working on the Cranial Crap award over at ThreeChordsToFreedom that FOX would be a good runner up. OK maybe not completely a runner up for the Cranial Crap award, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything on FOX that’s close to Cranial… ok, well maybe NASCAR.

Read a quote the other day talking about some of the stuff going on with the web photos and other stuff. How one contestant got booted and other is still on when they’re both basically accused of the same thing. In the quote, one of the PR geniuses over at FOX was talking about how they have to protect American Idol’s FAMILY reputation.

Huh? FAMILY? OK, nothing Cranial going on over at FOX, but surely a lot of CRAP. How can anybody in their right mind connect that twisted freak Simon Crowell with anything FAMILY. Any family of his has to skink around under slimy rocks.

Oh, well… rant of the day is done.

Quack!

February 27, 2007, 12:37 pm : Stuff Comin’ in from the 7th Cav…

Filed Under: Music Stuff
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We’re getting geared up and psyched for our Ohio road trip to play the 7th Cavalry reunion in June. There’s been kind of an informal poll going around the unit’s mail loop asking what specific song reminded them most of their time in Vietnam. The undisputed leader is “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” by the Animals.

Some others at the top of the list:

War - Edwin Starr
Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Run Through the Jungle - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Eve of Destruction - Barry McGuire
White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
Leavin’ on a Jet Plane - Peter, Paul, and Mary (John Denver)
Suite to Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby, Stills and Nash

I’m still going through the list there’s a ton of great material… more later

Quack!