· |
H I S T O R Y |
My mother tells me I wore out the Trixie and Dixie 7 inch record
on my tiny late 50's era phonograph.
...but the biggest inspiration for me
was seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan as a 6 year-old. I thought that
was so cool. My sisters, briefly my definers of cool, confirmed
the Beatlic coolness. I was then determined to grow my hair long and have a band. Initially this
consisted of stealing my sisters' wigs and posing with a tennis raquet in front
of the bedroom mirror strumming and wailing.
The Thornets
A few piano lessons and a Christmas snare drum later, a friend and I were fooling
around with papa's old western style guitar when we accidentally stumbled upon the very
same fret/string combinations used by Eric Clapton in Sunshine of Your Love!!! This
was it. I was hooked.
Pure Garbage Duracha
X-teens
The 'teens were the pinacle of my commercial success, garnering national attention and local notariety.
Back in the day, we would sell out the Cat's Cradle for an entire weekend and performed in New York, Washington,
Atlanta, Chicago and other happening joints.
We released several records, including:
4 Who Dared
Sensitive Eels
Platypus Jukebox Nucular (ne Todd Jones & Thing) This site is optimized for Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 4 and greater, although all attempts have been made to allow it to limp along in browsers less rigorously upfunctioned.
© 1999, 2000, 2001 & 2002 Todd E. Jones 
1950's
1960's
My first band, the Thornets, was
purely mythical, except for the lyrics of the Thornet's theme song. Said lyrics,
highly derivative of the Monkees theme song ("Here we are, thorneting down the road..."),
were discovered by said evil sisters who used the discovery as
fodder for their revenge over aforementioned wig theft. Humiliation was doled out
as only a pair of big sisters can dole it.
1970's
I put together a series of Godawful pretentious progressive bands with song titles like
"Catharsis" and "Transcendance" (sic) and tortured my family with relentless reitterative renditions
of badly performed, ill-conceived pompous compositions that had no business wasting note resources
in the musical universe in the first place.
In the mid seventies, I had the opportunity to gain a semblance of cool credibility at my
predominantly black high school when the school's resident funk band asked me to play
keys. Duracha (Swahili for Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill) played the absolute coolest mid 70's
funk music, including Skin Tight, the wonderful Jungle Boogie and many tunes by EWF, James Brown and
Funkadelic. We even played a couple of original tunes of mine, which were only beginning to wean
away from the pompous schlock mentioned above. We played in lots of local clubs, not due entirely
to the fact that my paucity of melanine made us an integrated band, very trendy in those days.
We practiced in the projects and played all around central NC. It was very cool and an
enlightening experience, which ultimately ended when college and the vagaries of my musical equipment's
whereabouts began to drive me nuts. To this day, I believe 70's funk to be one of the coolest
forms of music ever.
1980's
Featuring Kitty Moses on bass and lead vocals,
Ned Robie on drums,
Robert Bittle on guitars and lead vocals
and me on lead vocals and keys.
Information on our combo can sporadically be found at the Trouser Press web site.
The Love and Politics record charted nationally on the success of
"Hostage of my Heart" and the MTV rotation video "Change Gotta Come."
The band was enjoying strong success, which of course went to our heads
so we fought like rabid weasels and split up to form bands which would
never quite reach the same level of commercial success as the 'teens.
The licensing rights of this record were originally owned by Record Bar, who
after many mergers is now owned by Blockbuster entertainment, the video rental
giants. Any chances of getting reissue rights should be considered absolutely remote.
Featuring Olly Roberts on bass and backing vocals,
Ned Robie on drums, Ray Foote on guitars and vocals
and me on vocals and keys. We released an LP, "Kids with Dynamite"
through Saphire Falls records, which featured songs like "Urine Trouble"
and "Too Much of a Good Thing." It was distributed rather crudely and
cannot be found anywhere on planet earth. The title track and Urine Trouble
are played by my latest combo, Nucular.
1990's
Featuring Olly Roberts on bass and backing vocals,
Ned Robie on drums, Robert Bittle on guitars and vocals,
and me on vocals and keys. A pretty perky band, but ultimately
too diverse in its members. Essentially the X-teens sans Kitty.
Featuring Olly Roberts on bass and backing vocals,
Jason Jones on drums and backing vocals,
Ben Palmer on guitars
and me on vocals, keys and li'l guitar. No one understood the name
and we struggled to find a niche somewhere between novelty band
and 80's holdovers.
2000's
a power quartet, led by me which featured tunes I'd written over the years.
Featuring Olly Roberts on bass and backing vocals,
Dan Davis on drums and backing vocals, Emma Davis on vocals
and me on vocals, keys and guitar.
We play around the triangle area to the amusement of a select few.
Our music has been compared to XTC, Elvis Costello and Frank Zappa,
comparisons I must admit are quite flattering, though inaccurate.
All information on this site
is rigorously defended against
the harsh light of reality.