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"Lawnchairs Still Everywhere" By Brian Hamlin:
Nearly forgotten in the drifting mists of time, the sounds of Our Daughters Wedding have returned to the world and, curiously enough, have nothing to do with anyone's daughter or anybody's wedding.
Our Daughters Wedding was a three-member synthesizer rock group that was born in the Bay Area nearly 30 years ago. The trio - Layne Rico, Scott Simon and Keith Silva - had a dream of bringing a new kind of music to the Bay Area and perhaps the world.
Their songs included "Lawnchairs" and "Buildings" and "Raincoats & Silverware," among others. "Lawnchairs" is, perhaps, the best remembered.
Lawnchairs, they sang, were everywhere. And who can deny that?
Unfortunately, the group was about 10 years ahead of its time and far from the painfully repetitive mainstream rock of the late '70s. People were still blearily focused on the Bee Gees, Pink Floyd and The Knack.
One day in 1980, members of Our Daughters Wedding decided to expand their horizons, packed themselves into a boat-like 1968 Chevrolet Caprice and headed east for the New York music scene. From there they took Europe by storm, touring from Germany to Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and England. The group found itself part of a growing new Eurosound and the Bay Area was left wondering what ever happened to those lawnchair guys.
By 1985, the band was no more and all anybody had were memories and a few vinyl singles on the Design Records Label (we love you Lil $), A special 5 song Mini Album and a full length Album on the EMI America Label, a Division of Capitol Records.
Our Daughters Wedding, however, was not to be forgotten and, just a few weeks ago, their never-before-released 22-track CD compilation "Night Life: The Collection" was launched by Almacantar Records and is available at www.almacantarrecords.com
This was a breath of fresh air for Our Daughters Wedding aficionados like Alan Novak, a longtime insider with the electronic rock trio.
"They were pretty phenomenal then and I think they're still phenomenal now," said Novak, a driving force behind the CD revival. "They were just great musicians."
Two of the band members, Layne Rico and Scott Simon, are living in Los Angeles and New Jersey, respectively. Rico is a corporate jet pilot and Simon is raising horses.
Although the pair are no longer the electronic warriors of the 1980s, they're both excited about the compilation CD and are talking about getting together in February to make some new music.
There's just one thing missing - Keith Silva has dropped out of sight and neither of his former band mates have been able to locate him. If anyone has information regarding Keith's whereabouts please feel free to e-mail ourdaughterswedding@yahoo.com or adnovak@sbcglobal.net.
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