The Worst Gig Drops!

Too infrequently do I use the pages of this blog to trumpet the praises of somebody else’s work.  I can imagine that you, dear reader, often think to yourself, “This Foz.  Is he so obsessed with his own self and his own band that he doesn’t have time to comment on other fine work going on in comedy and music?”

Yes.

But today we depart from your fascination with me to drop the news of a fabulous new book from music journalist and Fozfriend, Jon Niccum.  You know Jon Niccum from ThisPost.

Jon is a fine and hilarious writer, producer of movies WITHAN IMDB PAGE, film critic, film prof, character actor, guitar player, member of FtH affiliate band Bobby and the Chuxx (he is, in fact, Bobby), co-writer of quite a few FtH songs (including Somebody Write Some Music and Whiskey What Done It), screenwriter, and Storied Newsman.  He is also the only person, thus far, to bloody my nose with a hand puppet dog named Hector. 

Now he proposes to injure me again with a gut-busting hilarious new book about the Rock ‘n Roll Life!  The Worst Gig is the product of Jon’s brilliant interview ice-breaker question to dozens of Rock Stars, “Tell me about your worst gig.”  Actually, I don’t know if it was an ice-breaker question, or just a question he always asked.  For history’s sake, let’s say it was a brilliant ice-breaker. 

The Worst Gig is a book you want.  So buy it.  Buy it from THIS GUY.  Buy it, or you are a dick.

FtH plays tomorrow night at Cole’s at 8:45.  Come on by.  Don’t be a dick.

Larry

Hey, Babies!

As you all remember, back in 1994 Bobby and the Chuxx completed but did not release an ambitious project called Otis Hauls it In, an album that started with the subtitle A Decade of the Chuxx, but was still unfinished five years later.  Naturally, we dropped the subtitle.

It wasn't a bad album, really.  None of us liked the recording too much, but there were good good songs.  Filth Inhabiting flies of Guam is still the best song title Foz ever thought of.  Sauda Norway, 1927 is still one of the strangest songs ever written by anyone:  Olde Ole Johnson / Could Hear Tom a' coming (That's Olde Tom Catsup) / Just as the glacier foretold / Tempers raged hotter than hot / in that land so bitterly cold!  Also, My Baby Wears White Shoes came out as one of the really great Chuxxsongs ever done, mostly thanks to the Avuncular baritone of Jon Niccum as Bobby Wendalo.  Listen to it.  You'll like it!

But what we need to talk about today is the last cut from that album, Larry.  Larry is an OK song about a guy named Larry who does a bunch of stuff.  A lot of that stuff is funny.  I don't have a recording of it to share.  But tonight, at Cole's, Your Pals in FtH will introduce YOU to a guy named Larry who does a lot of stuff, and a lot of it is funny.  That's Cole's famous doorman, Larry Drennen (Pictured above), sitting in with FtH as our bassist.  Larry is a fantastic player, and I know you will enjoy hearing his set with us.

So come out to Cole's Magnificent Comedy Open Mic tonight, at Cole's, at 9:00, and see Larry play with FtH.  Watch the band!  Watch the comics!  Laugh at the doorman, and get thrown out on your butt!

It's Wednesday!  Be there.

Thank you, Larry.  Can't wait for the show!

Fear No Funny

Rebate, bait your hook, hook the fish, fish the lake.
Read a map, map the trail, spare me all the details.

You get the point. Olde Foz’s old friend ϑ (Steve Revare) wrote this fascinating couplet some years ago, and included it Bobby and the Chuxx’s Ramblin Man Revisited (Lunchmeat of the Gods, 1983), the sequel to the classic Ramblin Man Song (Bobby’s Back, 1983). That Steve’s old man talking rap is not included in most accounts of the early years of the Hip Hop movement is simply an indication of the short sightedness of the drug-addled world of music journalism. Taken together, Ramblin Man Song and Ramblin Man Revisited are two of the finest works in the Chuxxian Canon.

Don’t be surprised if you see FtH take on one or the other of Steve’s great nonsense talk songs. Nonsense is one of the finest forms of comedy, and Your Pals in FtH fear no funny.

Tomorrow the band will come together again at Cole’s to begin arranging the next recording. It’s June, and as I said the other day, that means the Christmas songs need work.

In the meantime, keep buying up those songs off the Gin-Soaked Yankee page. This is the best way to enjoy Foz the Hook, and have the great pride that comes with giving us some money.

Watch out for the Cross Post!

Listen Fozophiles, Your Old Buddy Foz is back from Kansas City, where he teamed up with his Old Chums in Bobby and the Chuxx for a weekend recording session. All went swimmingly, so I will simply let you read all about it over at ChuxxBlog.

In the meantime, here is a new sexy photo of your Huge Crush, Foz and his wingmen, Patrick and Leon from the never ending collection of awesome publicity pics by Erin Nekervis.

See you tomorrow night at Cole's, ladies.

Do it in the Nude*

Historians and music anthropologists agree that the greatest single session in the history of recording was the 1985 date in Leawood, Kansas that resulted in Bobby and the Chuxx recording Trouble at the Circus, Theme of the Guys From France, and Manhood is a Soup for the Back of a Man's Head album. The new FtH set opener, Keep Your Nose Clean, is also from that magnificent collection.

In honor of that occasion Foz the Hook has prepared Theme of the Guys From France for live performance, and will debut it tonight at Cole's Comedy Open Mic. This is the first time, so far as can be ascertained with available technology, that Theme of the Guys From France has been performed in Chicago, or outside of Leawood, Kansas. The show starts at 9:00, so if you like blogging or going to blogs, join us at Cole's just in time.


*Nine out of ten archeologists agree that this phrase is the only remaining evidence of the song Remember My Gas from the Chuxx debut album, Live at the Graveyard. Nine out of ten ethicists agree that this is a good thing for humankind.

Keep Your Nose Clean!

Foz the Hook returns to the stage at Cole’s tonight at 9:00.

Take heart! It’s not too late to show up, and stake out a good place. Cole’s is at 2338 N. Milwaukee in Logan Square.

Yesterday the band stunned the band leader again by learning a new song that they had never heard of ten minutes before. Keep Your Nose Clean was a smash hit back in ‘85 when it led off the Bobby and the Chuxx album, Back of a Man’s Head. It tells the story of “Gil Glade, gun for hire,” a tough-guy cop who talks big, but never actually arrests anybody. It also tells the story in 5/4 time, which is just funnier than other time signatures. So even if the audience doesn’t pick-up on thos. e.’s hilarious lyrics, they can still split their sides counting to 5 with the band.

There are plenty of other surprises planned for this evening, so be there.

Bring money. Cole doesn’t do this for his health, you know.