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ROCKBOTTOM REMAINDERS There are many videos of the Remainders on YouTube... You can watch the one below (on the Late Late show) and once you're here, check out all the others that pop up! 
 Dave Barry, Roger McGuinn, Steve Martin and Ridley Pearson, 2003 For more photos, click here and for the tour schedule click here. The following is an article on how the band got started. For more info, go to the Rockbottom Remainders official website. It's not updated regularly, but there are tons of fun photos and information about the band. AUTHORS ROCK 'EM AT BOOKSELLERS CONVENTION The Washington Post, May 27, 1992 by David Streitfeld ANAHEIM, California In the most heavily promoted musical debut since the Monkees, several of the country's most popular writers got together Monday night to rock and roll. It was an idea that began as a gag last winter, grew into a lark and rapidly became dead serious. Not that they would admit it. "I'm either going to quit being a columnist, or I'll be a columnist with roadies," lead guitarist Dave Barry said at the party after the performance, which was held in connection with the American Booksellers Association convention. "Maybe I'll make the roadies write the column." "That was the most fun think I've ever done in my life," exulted singer Amy Tan ("The Joy Luck Club," "The Kitchen God's Wife"), who said this was all research because she was planning to write an autobiographical novel about a Chinese American girl who, to her mother's horror, becomes a rock star. "I now know why rock musicians are such jerks," said cartoonist Matt Groening ("Life in Hell") with a certain wistfulness. "People are throwing panties at you. The certainly never do that at my book-signings." In two performances at a local club called Cowboy Boogie, the dozen-plus members of the Rock Bottom Remainders (official slogan: "This band plays music as well as Metallica writes novels") successfully, avoided embarrassing themselves. The group, which rejected monikers such as the Cliff Notes and the Authoritarians in favor of naming itself after the booksellers' term for excess stock sold at reduced prices, impressed even its own members. "I think we blew the doors off the place," said rhythm guitarist Stephen King, noting that in a least one sense, performing wasn't that different from writing: "There's an audience out there, and the key is to kick it in the ass." Several thousand booksellers, weary after three days of schmoozing, paid $10 to attend and had varied impressions. "They're stupendous," said book publicist Lottchen Shivers, "American literature knows no barriers." "I don't think they should give up their day jobs," said Ian Murphy, a buyer for a United Kingdom bookshop chain. Tan, who has recently been spending almost as much time rehearsing as she has writing, was suspicious of any acclaim. "I think all these people are tone-deaf," she said. "They keep thinking I sing well. Maybe they were taken in by the costume." The costume was mostly sequins. The fact that the band - which also included novelists Michael Dorris, Ridley Pearson and Barbara Kingsolver, as well as inspirational writer, ordained minister and not-so-secret swinger Robert Fulghum - got up onstage at all was directly due to San Francisco media escort Kathi Kamen Goldmark. It seems that the writers these days spend as much time on the road as musicians. The key to keeping them happy is having an able escort in each town to drive them around, make sure they get to the autographing on time, attend to complaints and requests, and generally anticipate the author's every need. Goldmark, who is rated among the very best in the escort business, also plays guitar and sings in a country rock group. She made it part of her routine to invite writers to join her band as they passed through; many said yes. The idea to do it here at the ABA convention took root six months ago, caught the fancy of media (the Remainders were featured on "Good Morning America" before they had every played a note together in public), and took on the aura of a good cause as well. The relatively modest proceeds - perhaps $15,000 - will benefit Literacy Volunteers of America, the Right to Rock Network and the Homeless Writers Coalition of Los Angeles. Professional expertise was provided by legendary rocker Al Kooper, who whipped the bank into shape during rehearsals all weekend. It helped, too, that ringers were brought in for drums and sax. The show was filmed from the stage and the audience, leading to talk of future performances, including persistent rumor that they had been asked to play Carnegie Hall. Lou DeMattei, Amy Tan's husband, scotched these speculations, saying: "The world tour begins and ends in Anaheim."  |
        
  
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