The Amazons make Rolling Stone! (Thanks, Vedder)

After all the blood, sweat and tears secreted over the years by the musicians in our combo, a Joe Jackson cover and shambolic version of “Roadrunner” got us national press on Monday in Rolling Stone, Consequence of Sound and Pearl Jam’s site. I believe a couple guest turns by our old high-school theater buddy Eddie Vedder had something to d0 with all the to-do. But hey, while we’ve caught the buzz, I might as well tell the story.

The Amazons were an acoustic guerrilla rock trio we put together in San Francisco in 1997: me; my fellow San Dieguito High School Theater alum Todd Barker on drums; and on bass, Jason Brownell, a friend of mine who went all the way back to fifth grade in Milwaukee before I moved to San Diego.

Listen now: The Amazons play “Brother P-Touch”

We formed the Amazons inspired by Jonathan Richman’s credo that you should never bring more equipment to a gig than you can carry in one trip … And by the DIY spirit that if we couldn’t get a club booking, we’d just play outside and have more fun anyway.

Listen now: The Amazons play “Tales of Brave Procrustes” and “Roll Like Sisyphus”

In honor of a massive reunion of close friends from our golden era of high-school theater, though, we went bigger — and enlisted some fantastic musicians and very old friends. Besides Eddie, the Amazons + friends include San Diego guitar phenom Dave Fleminger; Bay area drum monster Seth Affoumado; and our beloved and talented San Dieguito pals Hannes Kling and Steve Duke (both of whom were in different bands of mine back in San Diego) to play keyboards and guest on bass.

We planned the thing like we were going to storm the beaches of Normandy … I flew in from New Jersey, three of the fellas came down from the Bay area and we practiced like mad. As a warmup, we did a couple hours Friday night at the wonderful Riviera Supper Club & Turquoise Room in La Mesa, Calif. (where Eddie joined us and got a first chance to catch up with the old crew).

Saturday’s gig at the massive new high-school theater was a complete blast. Almost everybody we knew and loved from those intense high-school days were there, and we remembered a couple friends we’d lost. As Todd said, the crowd at San Dieguito Academy was the biggest we’d ever played for (not for lack of trying). And it certainly had the highest ratio of people whose presence blew my mind and made me super-happy.
The rest of the time was private. And it was super. And I will always love these people. Eddie Vedder deserves every good thing that comes his way, and he’s never hesitated to give back. But I think some of his fans might dig our music, too. This song of mine is a favorite of Ed’s; I’ll put it here and hope some errant PJ aficionados enjoy it as much as he does.

Listen to the Amazons play “Gina Says/Infinite Prague”!