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There’s nothing worse for me than down-time. I had some time off in 1994, and had a bad situation going on at home...so I needed a diversion. I did some auditions, and took some odd, one-off gigs. I even acted as music director for a spring musical my church put on one year. In the process, I met a very talented bassist, named John Carfi. John & I basically grew up in the same home town, liked a lot of the same odd music, and both finally wound up in LA. For awhile there, we even seemed to develop the same image. However, until this time, we had never known, or even heard of each other. But, being kindred spirits, we quickly grew very close.

Me & John, offstage in LA, checking out someone's "Earth-day" suit...

As the spring musical was winding up, I got a call-back from Live Nude Girls. I flirted with this band once before, but this time they were serious. LNG was legendary around LA, and gigged constantly. People had heard of this band all around the west coast. They were written up in every trade paper there was, even the LA Times. They had an alternative sound, hailing back to when "alternative" still meant Peter Gabriel and Depeche Mode. At the heart of this brainchild, was Robert Lusson.

Me, Juan, Robert, Carol, and John

When I first started with these guys, I genuinely liked Robert. He seemed like a kind, honest family man. Robert and co-lead singer Carol Archambeault had worked hard to get this band known. They had gotten airplay on radio and TV, and Arsenio Hall even plugged their topical "Free James Brown" song ad-nauseum. And, they always seemed to have some negotiation going on with a record label. They gave me a week to learn 10 songs, for an upcoming gig at LA’s famed Club Lingerie. The place was packed! I had finally gone to heaven.

Well, the bass player turned out to be an angry man, and a country fan at that. At my urging, we brought in John Carfi for an audition. Robert offered John the gig on the spot. I had my friend back, and we all had high hopes. Rounded out by drummer Juan Maldonado, an MI grad, we began an intense rehearsal regiment, and even hung out together during our time off. With a newfound strength, I finally kicked out my abusive girlfriend, and the band helped me move into a new house. We kept on writing songs, which always had lots of keyboards. We headlined the clubs on the strip, and put out a three song demo.

Robert was a media mastermind. Just the name of the band would provoke a reaction - and you would never forget it. He would write diverse, politically themed songs, about AIDS ("T-4"), or spousal abuse ("Blue"). He would find out who was discussing HIV, or O.J. Simpson, or whatever it was, and get these songs played on the air. I went down to at least two TV stations with a stack of these tapes. The guy wanted to make it so bad, you could taste it. The band was tight, and doing well. But with each success, things gradually became more weird.

We all started coming to practice upset. Robert was impulsive, and constantly irritable. And was ready to fire anybody at the drop of a hat. (In the previous incarnation of the band, Robert had fired everybody in his loyal seven piece band, after a bad gig.)

As things evolved, Robert started playing more guitar, which allowed Carol more room to sing - and she really shined. The group built momentum, and Carol started to get more attention. The group as a whole, rather than Robert, was getting great praise. And things started to change. From that point forward, all creativity ceased. Anything from a drum fill, to reverb on the bass, was quickly squelched. Which was a damn shame - because Carol was one of the best singers I’d ever worked with. John was a fretless extravaganza, and Juan could play insane beats, to a metronome, just to make you laugh! In all fairness, Robert was an amazingly gifted writer - but his musical skills needed some work. However, together, we were a powerhouse that you could not knock down.

Robert maintained that he was the sole writer of all the songs, but wanted us to chip in equally to record them. Making it perfectly clear that we would receive nothing in return, except what little money we made from gigs. He then spent hours trying to turn John & I against each other, until nobody could figure out what exactly was going on. At this point, all loyalties were split.

Time for a new look

As things looked like they had reached the end, I had gotten a call from my good friend, Damir Simic-Shime. It was like a breath of fresh air! He was in the process of forming a new group with Richard Black, and it seemed like time for a change. I then had one final meeting with the band, and Robert told me flat out that if I wouldn’t give him a thousand dollars to invest in "his vision", that I would have to leave. Two hours later, John quit too. I couldn’t help but admire his character.

Me & Alan

Three weeks later, John called me about some Earth Day shows he was doing, with a German pop star named Miko. It had all kinds of corporate sponsors, including the rock radio stations in town. John heard about the gig through Alan Mayer, who we worked with in the aforementioned musical. Alan played with Devo during their heyday, and had kept in touch with John. Miko had some records out in Europe, and apparently made quite a name for herself over there. But, I didn’t care. Robert had left me adamant about ever playing again, and this was a healing process. I wanted to play with my friends. And besides, I always loved Earth Day.

In San Diego, with Miko

We played two outdoor festivals, one in Los Angeles, and a much larger one in San Diego. The attendance in Los Angeles was reportedly 3,000; in San Diego, almost 80,000.

In time, Robert Lusson finally reformed his band, as Sidnee. John Carfi chose to rejoin the fold, and they toured behind a "new" record, which was basically a compilation of remixed recordings from all the band’s incarnations. It included two of the tracks that John & I worked so hard on.

While the CD wasn’t bad, the re-mixes were just plain awful. But, it was getting carried in almost every record chain in LA. It was a great day, walking into my local record store, and finding these CD's, in the "New Music" section, amdist new releases like Eric Clapton's. I had no idea.

After a few promising shows and write-ups, the band finally broke up one night after a disastrous gig. Robert broke down, and confessed to some lies, scams, and deeds that were so horrible, I can’t even print them here. It was the end of an era.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of this epic, is that it was an amazing bonding experience. Over time, I got to meet (and in some instances, jam with) a lot of LNG alumni. I still keep in touch with some of them. There were some amazing players that worked with this band - and we all have this very unusual bond, that instantly makes us friends. Some of us even had an interesting techno band for awhile, Industrial Strength Pain Killers. (Now those would be some fun tapes to release one day!)

Rana Ross (left), with her latest outfit, Sinboy

John & Allen are now playing coffeehouses in LA, as "This Thing", an avant-garde, spoken word act, fronted by John’s wife Lisa. Carol disappeared, and Juan was so disheartened by the breakup, he quit the business entirely. Robert finally moved to Oregon, but swore to return one day. If you look hard, you can find copies of that CD floating around the cut-out bins in Southern California. Every time I see some, I buy them up - as fans will occasionally stumble across this page, and ask about getting copies. Who knows, maybe one day they will be a collector's item.