It's a Long Story

THE STORY OF HOW IT WAS

The story of Lettuce Boy goes back to around 1992-ish. Brian Tamm(the bass player) and Josh Schwab(the former guitar player) played together in a bunch of different funk bands like Funge and Purplesaurus Rex which were all pretty much the same band with different names.

One day after school at beautiful Rhinebeck High School in, you guessed it, Rhinebeck, Brian was doing something on a ladder at the school when he saw Chris LaFave and Dan Franks walk by. Dan was wearing a Chili Peppers shirt(or was it Chris? it doesn't seem to matter so we'll just move on) and Brian, impressed with their impeccable music tastes, asked if they wanted to join a band. Since Chris and Dan pretty much had no life, they said, "sure," even though before that Brian and his friends used to pick on Chris, Dan and their friends in the Gym.

Somewhere along the way, the name of the band was changed to Groovehaus, and we practiced in Josh's EXTREMELY hot attic with pretty much whomever we could get to play drums, including such icons as Critter and Tony Bagadonuts. During that time, there was also the summer we practiced in Chris' parents' garage because it was too hot for the attic, even for us. At the end of that Summer(1993 for those of you keeping track), we recorded in the really hot attic. The recording was, um, well, let's just say it left lots of room for improvement.

In the fall of 1993, we added Miles Crawford as our first full-time drummer, which was a red letter date in itself because we were also able to move out of the sweltering attic and into his barn. Shortly after that, we changed our name to Lettuce Boy because a frind of Brian's called him Lettuce Boy because, apparently, Brian is incapable of eating a sandwich with lettuce on it without making a mess.

One day, Chris and Dan went to Flashback and Freedom boutique in Kingston(yes it was a hippie store but they had bomber jackets) to buy green hair dye and the guy behind the counter asked if they were in a band. Feeling cool that they were able to say yes to that question, they said yes and the guy mentioned that he had a friend who was a trombone player. The trombone player was named Mike Eisman and he came to practice, was good, and brought beer with him so we added him.

Sometime in there we added Sandra Delalou-Mesidor on vocals and The Dick who bought lettuceboy.com out of spite one month after this site came up (henceforth known simply as "The Dick") on Sax but I don't remember the details of that, so we'll move on. With this lineup, we were set to play out first show, at the lovely Dutchess County Fairgrounds in June of 1994(or was it May?) Since our name was Lettuce Boy, we played and the people in the crowd threw lettuce at us - luckily nobody was killed, even though if someone had died we SURELY would have become famous. (THIS IS IMPORTANT - If I don't mention someone later in here and you're wondering what happened to them, chances are they left the band)

(take a break, go make yourself a sandwich or something - your eyes are probably getting tired now)

In the summer of 1994 we played at the famous Rhinecliff Hotel, which was the only place people underage could drink around town so people went there in droves, as well as a few other shows to earn money for our first recording(or at least the first recording that was good enough to sell) and after about a month or so, the 4 song cassette "What's Wrong" was done, featuring the chart topping hit "Po Town" featuring Josh's sister, Heather, on vocals. In the fall of 1994, we decided 4 horns just wasn't enough, so we added Jordie Kalman on flute and Johnny Day Durand on sax and played out and actually managed to sell a few copies of our new album. We also found out that Josh would be leaving the band to go to school in Virginia and in January of 1995, we played our last show with Josh at the Cabaloosa in New Paltz with Perfect Thyroid(Jordie left soon before Josh did).

The tryout process began before Josh left and finally, in February, we found Anthony. He was attending SUNY New Paltz at the time(as was Chris) and we hired him when we found out he could play the offbeat. Besides, since Ant didn't have a car, driving him back to New Paltz from Rhinebeck would have been really awkward if we didn't want him. We also made a very important artistic decision. We decided since Josh left, none of the people remaining were that good at writing funk so we went from a funk/ska band to plain ol' ska. We also added a new singer as well, Jenn Hadden, and her and Dan split the vocal duties.

We played with this lineup for pretty much the spring and summer of 1995 and recorded our second album, "Who's Driving Me Home?," since Ant said it pretty much at every practice. We also earned the privelege of being "The Token Local Ska Band to get on Every Ska Show" at the Chance, so we got to play with bands like The Toasters, Lets Go Bowling and some little band from Boston called The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

At the end of the Summer, we also started work on our new album, which ended up taking about 2 years. In the fall, Anthony left to concentrate on school and The Dick left to go to school in Milwaukee, apparently to major in living with your parents when you're 33(not that we're bitter or anything). They were replaced with Mike Henry on sax and Noah Gilbert on guitar. We played with that lineup for about 8 months, lost Jenn along the way(Mike left too - don't remember why) and then decided it just wasn't the same without Ant in the band, so we asked him back and he said yes.

That summer(1996) was also Miles' last in the band. He was going off to college in San Diego and ended up being in Stomp, a few commercials, an SNL sketch and other stuff(so I guess he did okay for himself) so when the semester started, we replaced him with Chris Bradley, who was taking classes at SUNY New Paltz. That lineup(Brian, Chris, Mike, Dan, Ant and Chris Bradley) was the last one we'd use. That spring, we recorded a 7" called Letterbox which was probably our best recording ever and actually got some airplay at local radio stations.

In the Spring of 1997, Brian left the band to play in local punk band Lounge and rather than replace him, we all decided(or more appropriately, nobody felt like doing all the stuff he did so we figured) that it was best to just call it quits. Our last show was at the Chance with Mephiskapheles 2 days after our 7" and our Zippo Lighters had finally arrived. So when we broke up, let's just say there was some extra merch lying around.

Frequently Asked Questions -

So you guys broke up in 1997. It's 2004 now. Why are you getting back together now?
A couple reasons. First of all - We've been talking about getting back together for pretty much most of the 7 years we've been broken up and actually tried it a couple of years ago. That lasted 2 practices until Ant got drunk and said he was going to kill everyone. Maybe he was just pissed Chris L. was in California on vacation and didn't send a postcard...the world will never know. The second and some would say more important reason is that a friend of ours offered us each $10 and a beer to get back together and play a show. 10 bucks and a beer is a LOT more than we got paid at most of the shows we did.

So what did you guys do with yourselves during that 7 years? And please, there are children reading...don't be crude.
Well as we said above, Brian went on to play bass for local Pop Punk band Lounge who got signed by Triple Crown Records, toured a bunch, released some albums and all in all was just as good as any punk band that has ever come out of this scene. He also prints T-Shirts for an awful lot of local bands and in his spare time drives an Ice Cream truck.

Chris LaFave went on to form The Schematics, who took over Lettuce Boy's spot as the token ska band in the scene and held the position with pride for about 6 years. They recorded 1 tape and 2 CDs and appeared on countless comps before going their separate ways in March of 2004. During his spare time, Chris dabbles is witchcraft and some would say they real reason this band is taking off again is because he got bored and cast spells on everyone.

Dan stayed in Poughkeepsie and became a world renowned Yahtzee champion. He even turned up on ESPN16's "Tournament of Yahtzee Championship" before severely damaging his rotator cuff trying to throw the dice behind his back on a dare. He has since given up the dice for one more chance at the brass ring with Lettuce Boy.

Chris Bradley formed June Cleaver and The Steak Knives with his brother the the two went on to record several CDs and was even named Hudson Valley Magazine's best band of 2003. He auditioned to be the voice in those VISA commercials that always end in "priceless" but got beat out at the last second. Never underestimate the amount of politics that get played behind the scenes at voiceover auditions.

Ant went on to be a roadie at the Chance as well as the lead singer of the renowned international supergroup, Manchowder. He's also now a killer tattoo artist and 4 of us(including him) have stuff that he did for us. He also has a passion for Table Tennis and spends his off days organizing huge Table Tennis tournaments with the best and brightest from all corners of the world.

As for Mike - nobody is really sure. When we broke up the first time, he said something cryptic about needing to go back to the motherland or something like that, so we didn't think much of it. When we tried a couple of years ago to get back together, he was there for that though, and he's here now - so more than anything else we're just glad to have him back.

How much of the stuff you just wrote is actually true?
Some of it

That's it? 3 frequestly asked questions?
Afriaid so. Maybe as people come here there will be more, but for now that's it.

So how can I get my hands on the CD?
The easiest way is probably to get to one of our shows. We have them for sale there and we have some sweet package deals if you buy a CD and a shirt or whatnot. If you can't get to one of our shows because you're out of town(or in prison or being held hostage) the best thing you can do is to email Brian for mail order stuff.

So how come you never update this site?
The half cocked almost plausible excuse: The webmaster(chris) got a new job and in that job he actually has to work now, so the time that he has to fuck around with the website isn't as readily available as it used to be.
The real excuse: The webmaster(chris) is freakin lazy and spends wayyyyyy too much time on myspace and never gets to this site.

Can I buy you a beer?
Yes. Yes you can!