the worst band i've ever almost been in

there was this guy (whom i later discovered was the recently-separated father of one of my dtr's friends) who wanted to be the opening act for hard night's day, the beatle tribute band. to this end, he wanted to make a band that would learn all the songs by this scottish band called the kaisers that sounded like cod merseybeat even tho they were contemporary (like, late '90s). i actually went to the extent of going to the dude's house with a garage rawk-loving cat i'd jammed with once, and taking home the stupid cd's to woodshed the material. "when we perform," dude said, "we'll have a british flag onstage so ppl can see where our roots and influences lie." apparently a local blues muso of some repute, whose stage i usedta get thrown off fairly regularly back in sittin'-in daze, was gonna do it but realized he had more self-respect than that. so did i.

i am reminded of how much i truly loathe 'meercuns who affect brit accents and vibrato/distortion/grit-free gtr players that sound like they coulda been in gerry & the pacemakers of faeries across the mersey fame/shame. carducci had it right: the brit invasion didn't "re-introduce" 'meercun kids to anything. practically every muso i've talked to in connexxion with teen a go go who was active musically by '63 was already well versed in chuck 'n' bo, jimmy reed, freddy king, etc., and not just the ones from texas, either. same applies to the pac nw bands (wailers-sonics-kingsmen-raiders et al.), as carducci points out. and zappa and vliet out in the cali desert. and...point being, what the brits added to the equation was simply the idea that you could become a _celebrity_ by raising such a racket. but was that really progress?