Doug
Birthplace:
Planet Mars

Favorite Album(s):
The Knack - Anything by them
The Village People - Anything by them, too

Favorite Concert(s):
Michael Jackson - RFK

Influences:
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Also Played With:
Himself mostly

Gear:
Takamine 6 String - which often turns into a 5 string

First Gig:
At the YMCA gym

Worst Gig:
American Idol audition

Best Gig:
Opening for the Backdoors at the The Bayou

Tim
Birthplace:
Baltimore, MD

Favorite Album(s):
Grateful Dead – American Beauty
Beatles – Abbey Road
The Who – Who’s Next
Frank Zappa – Joe’s Garage, Shut Up and Play Your Guitar
Fabulous Thunderbirds – Girls Go Wild
Danny Gatton – Redneck Jazz Explosion Live at the Cellar Door 12/31/78

Favorite Concert(s):
Frank Zappa 3 nights at the Warner Theater in DC (2/8/88-2/10/88). Oh the guitar!
Grateful Dead 2 nights at Merriweather Post Pavilion in MD (6/30/85, 7/1/85). I was in the front row with my elbows on the stage both nights.
Grateful Dead at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA (4/6/82).

Influences:
Eric Clapton, Pete Townsend, Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Jerry Garcia, Albert Lee, Jimmy Thackery, Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton, Robben Ford, Jimmie Vaughan, Brent Mason, Jimmy Herring

Also Played With:
Paragon
Mini El'
The Swilltones
Frankentractor
Cow Punk Rodeo
Richard Taylor and the Ravers
Snake Oil
Medicine Rattlers
New Potato Caboose

Gear:
Guitars
My goldtop PRS and my telecasters are seeing the most action lately but here is the list:
'77 Fender Telecaster
'63 Fender Telecaster Custom Reissue
Red "Parts" Stratocaster
Sunburst "Parts" Stratocaster
'76 Gibson Les Paul
PRS CE24
PRS Custom 24 Goldtop
Gretsch Brian Setzer 6120
'59 Danelectro Standard
ShoBud Double Neck Pedal Steel
Takamine FP360SC Acoustic
'70 Martin D28

Effects
I LOVE PEDALS!
I am always switching stuff in an out but here is what is currently on my pedalboard:
Boss LS-2 Line Selector
Boss TU-2 Tuner
Keely Compressor
Boss OC-2 Octave
Maxon AF-9 Auto Filter
Fulltone Fulldrive II
Boss GE-7 EQ
Boss CE-2 Chorus
Ibanez AD-9 Delay

Here are some of the other effects I use:
Ibanez TS808
Ibanez TS10
Ibanez SD-9 Sonic Distortion
Ibanez AW-5 Autowah
Boss CH-1 Chorus
Boss DC-2 Dimension C Chorus
Boss DD-2 Digital Delay
Boss DM-2 Analog Delay
Boss CS-2 Compressor
Boss EH-1 Enhancer
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
Boss PH-2 Phase Shifter
ProCo Rat II
Voodoo Lab Tremolo
MXR Phase 90
MXR Dynacomp
DOD FX10 Bi-FET Preamp
Maxon OD820 Overdrive Pro
Crybaby Wah
Tube Works Real Tube Overdrive
Home made "mini-booster"
Home made "buffer"
Line6 POD 2


Amps
Lately I have been favoring my '68 Bandmaster Reverb head with a 1-12 speaker cabinet but sometimes it's a matter of whichever amp is "working" is the one I bring to a gig. Here are the other amps I own and love:
'66 Fender Vibrolux Reverb
'63 Fender Bassman Head
'68 Fender Bassman Head
Early 80's Fender Concert
Fender Blues Deluxe
Matchless DC-30
Home made tweed Fender Pro 5E5-A clone
Sonic 2-12 Speaker Cabinet with Eminence V30 speakers


First Gig:
Playing bass in the backup band for Mini El', a child Elvis impersonator. Mini El' was like 9 years old and I was about 14 and I played bass. My buddy Sean Harmon played guitar in the band and we did stuff like "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Don't Be Cruel". We practiced for a few weeks in the living room of the kid's house, which was a mobile home parked in front of a big farm house that Mini ‘El’s family lived in before the farm house caught on fire. Mini El's family lived on this farm and his father's business involved animals that were used in those freak shows they have in carnivals. They had pigs, cows, dogs and all kinds of animals with an extra "this" or a missing "that" and strange snakes and things all at the farm where I used to go to practice every week. Our first and only gig was playing at a carnival on a stage in front of a motorcycle daredevil show. I think the motorcycle daredevil guy and Mini El's father were brothers. The kid wore a Vegas era Elvis outfit with sequence and scarves and he had chrome glasses and big rings on his fingers. It was a total novelty act but I liked the early Elvis rockabilly music so it was fun.

Worst Gig:
Playing a frat house gig with the Caboose where the crowd didn't want us to stop playing at the end of the night. The playing part of the gig actually went pretty well and we played longer than we were supposed to but there was no reasoning with this crowd. They wanted MORE. The guy that hired us told us to stop and was trying to defend us and explain the situation to the crowd but it didn't seem to matter. A few beer bottles and cans sailed our way as we packed up and some big frat guys pushed some of us around as we were loading out in the pouring rain. As I was making my last trip hauling stuff out to the van I remember seeing that the guy that hired us had switched sides and joined the lynch mod. We barely made it out of there alive.

Best Gig:
As far as Radio Mosaic goes it's really hard to pick one "best" gig. When I first joined Radio Mosaic in '98 we were playing 3 sets every Thursday night at Fat Tuesday's in Fairfax, VA. Everybody has good nights and bad nights but playing a regular gig like that really keeps your chops up. There are a couple of Thursday nights where I remember the crowd was great and I thought we were really "on".

John
Birthplace:
Cheverly, MD

Favorite Album(s):
Jellyfish - Spilt Milk
Bob Marley - Legend
Led Zep - Led Zeppelin IV
Peter Gabriel - So
U2 - Joshua Tree
Beatles - Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road
Steely Dan - AJA
Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage
Prince - Purple Rain
Sheryl Crow - Tues. Night Music Club

Favorite Concert(s):
Peter Gabriel at Cap Center
Stomp at Warner Theatre
HFSstival - Counting Crows, etc.
Paul McCartney - RFK

Influences:
Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, John Bonham, Vinnie Coliauta, Max Roach, Lenny White, Billy Cobham

Also Played With:
The Video Buddies
The Nun Killers
Disturbingly Human
Very Nice Plants
Point of Departure
Urban Trout
New Potato Caboose
Two Skirts
Rapture
Los Homeboys
The True
The John Trupp Band (duh)
Derryberry and Alagia

{And you thought Radio Mosaic was bad - :-) }

Gear:
Ludwig Drums
Zildjain/Paiste Cymbals
Promark Oak 5B sticks
Speedking Pedal
Cucumber in Tin Foil

First Gig:
The first paying gig I ever played was at a party my folks were having at there house. Everybody thought it would be a hoot to put little six year old Johnny on the drums; damn grown-ups. I remember a lot of laughter as I tried hard to play with the other guys in the band, all seasoned pros. It was so smoky I couldn't even see the cymbals. Aahhhh, the 70's.

Worst Gig:
The most embarrassing gig I've ever done was a show I played with the Video Buddies at the Marble Bar. I was about 13 and was not playing in this club legally. The Video Buddies was a comedy outfit and the "band" would play under many different names in a night like, Johnny Caucasian and the Illegal Aliens, or Bob Bauman and the Young Republicans.

Playing under the name of the Young Republicans, we were opening for a group called the Cranes, a small group of very large men. I used the Crane drummers kit and could not reach the cymbals and the bass drum pedal at the same time while seated. This required me to jump out of the drum throne (I love that name) while trying to hit the bass drum and cymbal at the same time at the end of a fill. What a pain.

OK, that was bad enough. But then John, the leader of the Video Buddies, had the band come out, with smocks on, I believe, to the front of the stage to be fed warm milk by an elderly woman pulled from the crowd. Oh, that sucked ass big time. And worst of all, I didn't get paid, or laid.

Best Gig:
I've played a whole lot of really fun shows with Radio Mo, NPC and others over the years, but this one was probably the most fun I've ever had with a band. This friend of mine had a party and opened his house up to my band, Urban Trout, for two whole weeks. Tons of folks were there day and night. We set up, played and partied all day and all night long. Then went to sleep and did it again and again for two weeks straight. Creating, inventing, jamming for as long as we wanted. Total musical bliss.