The Bobs - News

Older Updates...

SEASON'S GREETINGS!
Just in time for the holidays, the Bobs' Chanukah tune, 8 DAYS, is available for purchase and download - EXCLUSIVELY online at www.acatunes.com right now. Doctor Demento played a live studio version last year and The Bobs finally recorded it for release this holiday season... enjoy!

Dan Bob Benefit a success!
The September 17 benefit concert for Dan Bob's medical expenses was a grand success. RHAPSODY IN BOB pianist Bob Malone rocked the house, Kickshaw reunited to groove it, and all jammed ferociously on an amazing rendition of "Prisoner of Funk" to close the evening.

THE BOBS ARE BACK IN THE STUDIO.
More twisted springages from the minds of Bobs are in your future! Richard, Matthew, Amy and Dan recorded three new tunes in Seattle last month and plan to record three more in San Francisco in October. Rumor has it at least three of the new tunes are "pants-related." Yep, you read that right..... look for a release next year.

Reunion raves: The Bobs in review
The Bobs' 25th Anniversary shows, recently held at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, CA, brought together Bobs present and past for a retrospective of grand proportions. If you couldn't make it, or want to relive the highlights, check these out!

Photos from the 1/27 show, by Donald Laird
Celebrating 25 Years As the Best of Breed: a review by Stephen Saxon for CASA.org

No holiday season is complete without a NEW BOBS CD....

RHAPSODY IN BOB

Now Available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thebobs

Track listing:

There Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens (Louis Jordan)
Alabama Song (Kurt Weill)
Dinner Bell (They Might Be Giants)
I Was A Teenage Brain Surgeon (Spike Jones)
Free Fallin' (Tom Petty)
White Room (Cream) - the new Bobs version
Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin) with guest pianist Bob Malone (www.bobmalone.com)

THE BOBS' 25th ANNIVERSARY REUNION SHOWS

3/4 of the esteemed folks formerly in The Bobs will join the current Bobs (founders Matthew Bob Stull and Richard Bob Greene, 7-year Bob Amy Bob Engelhardt and Tallest and Newest Bob Dan Bob Schumacher) for two shows at the Birthplace of the Bobs: Berkeley, CA. What else is there to say, except that 7/8 of The Bobs are planning to be there!?!?***

Thursday, January 26 and Friday, January 27 @ 8pm

FREIGHT & SALVAGE
1111 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA
tix 510-548-1761
website: www.thefreight.org

***Maybe the other 12.5% of The Bobs will make it.... maybe not!

"Beluga" Resurfaces
After 15 or more years deep undersea, the song "BELUGA" recently resurfaced in The Bobs' repertoire with surprising repercussions.

The haunting trio, whose backgrounds are comprised of two men chanting the word "Beluga," was written by Gunnar Madsen and Richard Bob Greene, sung by Amy Bob Engelhardt, Matthew Bob Stull and Dan Bob Schumacher.

It premiered in Trenton, NJ at the War Memorial's "On Patriots' Stage" Series on Thursday, April 7, 2005. On April 8, 2005, Eastern newsmedia reported that a very disoriented, white Beluga whale was sighted in Trenton, swimming up the Delaware River. For days it continued upstream, perhaps asking, "Where are The Bobs?" It was later identified as a wayward Canadian.

To hear the cry of The Bobs that lured this would-be immigrant mammal, click here!

Bobs Lineup Update
From our very own Richard Bob:

"It's been pointed out to me that there is some confusion about who is now in the Bobs. (Not surprising - the Bobs have always been advocates of the art form of confusion and chaos.) So here's the (semi) official statement.

The sublimely talented Dan Bob Schumacher is now officially a Bob and will be performing all upcoming shows. We will be appearing as a quartet. We even taught Dan the secret handshake and gave him his harmonic decoder ring. ( We did ask that he stop wearing his six inch tall platform shoes....)

The equally sublimely talented Joe Bob Finetti has taken an extended leave of absence for financial reasons. He often appears with the 50's revival group - the Diamonds.

While we miss doing shows with Joe, Dan brings an exciting new spin to the group. He becomes more integrated into the blend with every gig. It's gratifying to see the group evolve, respecting our own musical tradition, yet gradually allowing the input of each new member to blossom and shape the group. We plan to record a new CD this year." - Richard Bob

The Bobs Get De-e-e-mented
The Bobs recently got De-e-e--mented with national radio cult hero Doctor Demento! Il Doctore visited the band at Key of Me Records in Studio City, California in November where they record an interview and sang a few tunes in exchange for his expert diagnosis.

You can hear a cut from the interview featuring EIGHT DAYS A WEEK on the 2004 holiday edition of The Doctor Demento Show the weekend of 12/11/04, and the whole thing on the weekend of 1/8/05.

The show also airs on XM Radio. (And Amy even got him to sign her cassette of the SILLY 25 OF 1982!) For a list of stations and websites that carry the program, now in its 30th year, check out http://mypage.iu.edu/~jbmorris/FAQ/stations.html. For more information on the show in general, check out www.drdemento.com.

Meet our newest Bob!
Meet Dan Schumacher (pictured at left), seen recently at a Bobs show near you....

Dan Schumacher was born and raised in Cheyenne, Wyoming (the other square state) to a highly unorthodox, very artistic family. When presented with her children's practical career choices, his mother was known to say things like, "That's fine if you want to be an architect, honey, but it would be a shame to waste such a beautiful voice."

After winning the Vocal Jazz Soloist award in the Big-N-Tall weight class (more tall than big) at a University of Northern Colorado Jazz Festival and studying vocal jazz at Northwest College, enablers kept telling him, "You should do this for a living," to which he replied, "Okay!” Dan’s alter ego then studied vocal performance and operatic technique at Indiana University in Bloomington while his inner jazzbo founded the vocal band Monkey Puzzle.

Dan Bob lives in Seattle, where he previously wrote, arranged and performed with funktastic, techno-groove-oriented vocal band Kickshaw. Dan is now exploring the dimensions of his long, tall, schizophrenic personality with the Bobs, where both of him fit well, except in most rental cars.

The Bobs Rock Mars!
The team of engineers & scientists behind the Mars lunar rover has been woken up by an eclectic musical playlist while working on the project -- and this has even included a song selection by The Bobs! Read all about it on space.com!

Best of the Bobs!
New CD alert! THE BEST OF THE BOBS: 20 SONGS, 20 YEARS will be released on Primarily A Cappella Records in late October. The CD will feature a combination of cuts from The Bobs' previously released CDs, live archival tracks and demos that have never been released, and three brand new tunes. All iterations of the group from 1981 to the present will be represented.

The new tracks are Richard Bob's "Weekend in Cincinnati" (with apologies to... Cincinnati), Amy Bob's "Giant Robot Store" (with apologies to... technologies) and Matthew Bob's "Be Bop I Love
You" (with no apologies whatsoever!). See the full track list here!

The worlds of long time Bobs fans are sure to be rocked when they learn that Gunnar Bob Madsen returned to the fold for the new release, singing lead on "Giant Robot Store."

Overheard at recent Bobs recording sessions in San Francisco:
"How do you spell wah-wahn-co? Gua guan coh? Yuah Yuahn xo?"
(Joe)
"Once more, without feeling..." (Amy)
"What's not to like about that?" (Richard)
"Come in here and make weird noises with me." (Amy)
"Greene, party of one..." (Chris Finetti)
"Existence or resistance?" (Joe)
"You know, up until now I hadn't found the right place for those
sounds." (Gunnar)
"I'm not really stalking you." (Matthew)
"Yes, a Chinese restaurant called Eric's." (Amy)
"Come here, Kiki! Aw, that's a nice kitty." (Joe)
"We forgot the Porkopolis." (Richard)
"I don't know what that noise is." (John Blakeley, studio owner)

Richard Bob's Solo CD
Low? Bottom? Me? - Richard's new "solo" CD is out and available – 10 tunes (mostly with instruments) that have that dry “from the bottom up” wit that you’ve come to expect from Richard, a compelling personal dimension, and an amazing remix of the Bobs' recording of "Helter Skelter." Check it out at www.richardbobgreene.com or order from CD Baby.