@dabel: Speaking of Emitt, if you go onto YouTube and do a search for his live performance at the Poptopia Festival in 1997 (I believe it was)---Emitt’s first time on stage in a quarter century--you can hear me leading the band on drums on three of his songs from that night’s show. I’m barely visible in the shadows at the back of the shallow stage, but you can hear me just fine.
News of Emitt’s upcoming appearance brought people from all over the country and even the world, as he had become a reclusive legend after retreating to his Hawthorne California recording studio in the mid-70’s, having been badly burned by the music business in the early-70’s. They say it’s poor form to speak ill of the dead, but Emitt was a pita to work with. The band that had been assembled to provide him with musical accompaniment for the show held a couple of rehearsals in the days right before the show, none of which Emitt showed for. Unprofessional. Finally on the afternoon of the show he appeared, only then realizing he needed to do some preparation, not having been on stage in twenty five years. You can see his insecurity in the live footage. The band sounds much better than he.
Other members of the band that night were Jamie Hoover (well-known North Carolina musician who has worked with Don Dixon and Marti Jones---favorite music makers of mine, Bill Lloyd, The Smithereens, Graham Parker and many others, and leads the excellent Power Pop group The Spongetones) on lead guitar and harmony vocals, Brian Kassan (original bassist of Brian Wilson’s collaborative band The Wondermints, leader of the wonderful Pop group Chewy Marble, whose second album Bowl Of Surreal I can be heard on. Playing bass on the album is a fantastic musician---Derrick Anderson, more recently The Bangles’ road bassist) on electric piano, Power Pop singer-songwriter Walter Clevenger (now residing in Austin) on electric rhythm guitar, Bryan Shumate (co-member of Let’s Get Mikey with Jamie Hoover) on acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies, and band leader that night Ray Paul on electric bass (if you consider a Rickenbacker a "real" bass ;-) and vocals. Pretty damned good band.
Emitt’s debut album is a stone classic, a Power Pop masterpiece. At only twenty years of age he wrote all the music and lyrics, sang every vocal part, and played every instrument. McCartney did the same on his contemporaneous debut, but Emitt’s is by far the better album.
