Some History
In 1983 we started playing our own tunes in a thrown together band in
Albstadt, Germany. We needed a band name for our first gig - everybody
in the band had just read Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas
Adams. We agreed that we wanted our name related with that book:
'BeebleBrox Spectacular' was born.
In 1986 keyboardist Monika Herzig joined the band. For reasons not remembered the band was renamed
'Bubble Gun'. In 1988 that band broke up when guitarist Peter Kienle and Monika moved to Tuscaloosa,
Alabama, USA. Shortly after arrival a brand new version of BeebleBrox was born
with Robert Dickson on bass, Woody Williams on drums and Greg Riley on sax.
Two years later, after many personnel switches, with Robert Dickson on bass
and Don Davis on drums we recorded the first album: Entropy.
Regrettably, there are only about two original tape copies left (it is available
for the die-hard fans on CD-R). It was a very adventureous album with 30 minute
long tunes and many odd meters (no vocals, though). Entropy was
recorded in drummer Don Davis' bedroom in Birmingham, AL, on our Yamaha four
track cassette recorder.
1991 saw the release of The Thing. Still the
same band in Alabama. That was recorded in our living room in Tuscaloosa live
to DAT. It really wasn't a great hit although it contains a few cool tunes
that will probably pop up in future BeebleBrox shows.
Later in 1991 we moved to Bloomington, IN, so Monika could pursue her academic
career. BeebleBrox got reformed once again, this time with bassist Jonathan
Paul (who went on to play with Fareed Hague)
and drummer Dan Vonnegut. In 1992 we recorded Bloomingtoon in
Dan's basement. For lack of funds we used the old four track cassette, but
people in the business say it sounds great and the tape is now in it's third
printing.
When Jonathan Paul left Bloomington we again got pressed for a bass player.
But in 1994 after many gigs with lots of different people in the band we recorded Raw
Material. This album brings together many of the musicians that have played
with BeebleBrox in Indiana. We are through the first pressing on Raw
Material - although we won't tell you how many discs and tapes were made
and how many were given away to press and radio people all around the world.
Just after Raw Material was in the can,
bassist Jack Helsley moved to Bloomington. All of
a sudden there was a real band. Even drummer Dan came back. Together with Russ
May on percussion we actually rehearsed every week and played loads of gigs.
Finally in April that year (1995) we recorded again. This time at a friend's
studio. For the recording sax/EWI player Tom
Clark joined the band. After Russ moved to Brazil Tom became a full-time
member of BeebleBrox. The next album was called Quantumn
Tweezers and was released in March 1996. We received some nice reviews
for Quantumn Tweezers (check out the Jazz Times December 1996 issue).
In May 1997 we released Indianapolis Intergalactic
Spaceport. This again featured two different drummers (Paul Surowiak
and Pete Wilhoit) and three bass players (Danny Kiely, Jack
Helsley and Paul Sturm). Around the same time we took the band on a three
week tour of Germany.
Dominant Domain was recorded in 1998
and had a few nice reviews, among others one in JazzTimes .
It features tenorsax great Bob Berg on
three tracks.
The latest release came out in 2002 and features all live tracks recorded
in May 2001. It's called RealBrox.
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