THE OBITS:
Rich Restaino: electric, acoustic, & baritone guitars; lead vocals Dave Wylie: drums Zimmy 45: bass (Emeretus) Sara Shansky: backing vocals Elizie Ivey Restaino: backing vocals Roz Mandola: backing vocals Lloyd Wright: keyboards Hunt Wellborn: guitar Alex Sefchick: bass
BUY LIMITED EDITION "RICH & THE OBITS" T-SHIRTS With artwork from the CD by Hunt Wellborn: “working for a living will do you in” $10 (includes shipping)
Influences
MUSIC: First is my family (Pop, Uncle Steve, Bro Steve, Melissa, Bro Matt.) Second are my buddies through the years (Danny, Nehal, KDB, Adarsh, Puneet, Jarrod, Jason, Jay D, Matt Beer, Quirk, Caywood, Alec, Zach, Neil, KB, Rubin, Daniel Serrato, Buddha, Bigga, Leary, all the Fees, Lennings, & Dubkids, etc. ) NO.3 are the "famous folk": Elvis, Carl, Cash, Roy, Jerry Lee, Bobby D, The Beatles, Joe Strummer (& The Clash), Tom Waits, The Band, Leonard Cohen, Warren Zevon, The Stones, Ween, Randy Newman, Elvis Costello, Doug Sahm, Tupelo/Son Volt, Springsteen, David Byrne (& Talking Heads), The Pogues, Neil Diamond, Stephen Malkmus (& Pavement), The Ramones, Hank Williams, Mr. Bungle, Zappa, Beck, Cody ChestnuTT, Ani DiFranco, Taj Mahal, Dan Reeder, Michelle Shocked, They Might Be Giants, The Damnations, Prescott Curlylwolf, The Gourds, Redd Volkaert, Eliza Gilkynsen, The Wailers, Gregory Isaacs, Jimmy Cliff, Mark Ribot, The Meters, Marvin Gaye, Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, Sam Cooke, Dion, Buddy Holly, doo-wop, hard bop, syrupy pop, ad infinitum.
LIT: Chalres Bukowski, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain, Franz Kafka, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, James Baldwin, Ernest Hemmingway, Will Self, Tom Robbins, Gwaith Mulligan, etc., etc.
POLITICS: Che Guevarra, Paulo Freire, Ludvik Valcluik, Noam Chompsky, John Brunetti, Eugene V. Debs, Al "I Ain't Your Pal" Sharpton (I met him a few times, and he's a formidable mofo.)
LIFE: Every mad, wonderful fucker I've ever had the pleasure to meet, observe or hear about over the din of some noisy bar.
Sounds Like
Peanut butter on the roof of a dog's mouth—in four-part harmony, with angry cat accompaniment.
Rich Restaino is a songwriter and musician based in Austin, TX. A man of eclectic tastes and talents, he divides his time between his solo work, no fewer than two performing bands at a time, recording, cooking kick-ass food, and working a day job.
Current projects include Rich Restaino & The Obits, Sara Shanksy, and The Lennings. Restaino has also played with acts such as Mr. Brown (reggae), Zach Whitney (country rock), and The Boxcar Angels (folk). He runs and produces records for his own tiny indie imprint, madhouse! records. Rich & The Obits' debut record, The C'est La Vie EP is available through this website, iTunes, CD Baby, and in stores in Austin, TX. He is available for bookings through requests to this site and here.
“
Rich Restaino covers a lot of territory, as apt to remind you of Carl Perkins as David Byrne.” —www.austin.com
“Will Rich Restaino be Austin's version of Randy Newman? Just listen to his new CD, Revisionary Man, and you will see what I mean. Rich is intellectual (he's on his way to becoming a certified history teacher) and funny (well, he has a song written from his dog's perspective—‘Good Boy'), and well versed in the disconnects associated with too much drinking. . .” —Duggan Flanakan, Flanfire
“Revisionary Man is the work of a man struggling to find his footing in both the musical and physical worlds. Restaino's work is all over the place inspirationally, and as a result the record seems like an Ellis Island for musical and lyrical themes. Bring us your country, bring us your pop, and bring us your rock n' roll and folk. It's all here and though it was an extremely ambitious undertaking that could have resulted in a train wreck by a less talented artist, it works beautifully here.” —Whoopsy!, Feb. 2006
THE C'EST LA VIE EP by Rich Restaino & The Obits is available from CD Baby NOW!
In reference to The February 18th post by DJ Zimmy45... I don't do public displays of affection. Icky. :) Annnnnnnddddddd... where is my East Bound and Down?
I'm done with all the friend wedding stuff after this weekend so I should most definitely be able to attend the next show! Yay!!
Hello from Finland! It's a name-dropping FRENZY!!! I just released my new cd featuring Alejandro Escovedo, Mark Lanegan, Steve Berlin (los lobos), Chris and Carla from the Walkabouts, Peter Case, Scott McCaughey (YFF, REM)and Jim Roth (built to spill). CD has liner notes by Biographer Charles R. Cross (BackStreets-Springsteen...Heavier than Heaven-Cobain...Roomful of Mirrors-Hendrix...etc). Also I have finally put "Passing Thru" on my site as well for you to hear...this is the one with Eddie Vedder, Victoria Williams, and Carla Torgerson trading verses with me...it has not been availablé for a long time, and I also have it on i-tunes, etunes, amazon and rhapsody. Okay...I hope you are doing well!
Regarding the post by the lovely lassie under me... I don't know but her message along with that picture.... I took that as a come on. Does Jugs know about this Speed? Get it, I'm Mother, she's Jugs, and your Speed... damn jokes suck when you have to explain them
Thanks for keepin me on the band list... I'll come jam with you guys next time I'm in town :D which could be awhile because 14 hour plane rides suck balls
richard, are you mad at me? you seem distant. (o yeah, 8,267 miles) Shoot a brother an email HEY THERE'S ANOTHER BLACK GUY HERE!!! RIGHTEOUS! I told him I was surprised there were two of us here and he just said yeah man.
The show was fantastic! I had so much fun. Photos are up. I tagged a shit ton but I think I might have missed some so you have your own album on my page.
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