Fantasy Draft!

the day (02-22-09) we drew the groups for the reactionaries recording was pretty exciting. for some, there would be the chance to play with dudes such as mike watt, chuck dukowski and george hurley. for others the chance to play with people they've never met before. both are pretty awesome opportunities. we (me, craig ibarra, vince giobbe, kid kevin and raul morales) each drew two groups from four separate plastic l.a. dodger cups and a ups coffee jug. here's the original (fantasy?) draft sheet for the groups that will be making up the record. photo & scan: craig ibarra

here is the email that craig sent out to the 37 musicians asking them if they wanted to participate:

Subject: WE WANT YOU TO PLAY ON OUR RECORD!!!
Friday, February 6, 2009 7:48 PM

Hello folks,

If you are receiving this email than you are basically being asked if you would like to participate in a recording project that we have come up with. Here is the skinny on an idea that has been brewing: I have decided to start a record label (WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE) along with my partner Bob Archer that will put out only San Pedro bands (for now) and what better band to start out with than San Pedro’s first punk rock band the Reactionaries (1978-1979) which featured Mike Watt, D. Boon, Martin Tamburovich and George Hurley. Our idea is to put out the 10 song Reactionaries practice tape that was recorded on a boom box (most likely) at George Hurley’s (shed) house in San Pedro circa 1979. We plan on remastering these 10 songs and releasing them on a 12-inch vinyl record on SIDE ONE. Here is where you come in… we want to consolidate a bunch of musicians from past and present San Pedro punk bands and record these same 10 songs on SIDE TWO. My idea is to ask 10 different singers, 10 different guitar players, 10 different bass players and 10 different drummers if they are interested in participating in this project. Once I get everyone to agree and fill all 40 slots, I will then get four hats. One hat will be filled with 10 vocalists, the next hat will be filled with 10 guitarists, the next hat will be filled with 10 bassists, the next hat will be filled with 10 drummers and the last hat will be filled with the titles to the 10 reactionaries songs that we will record. We will pick one vocalist, guitarist, bassist, and drummer from each hat which will make up ONE GROUP and then we will pick one Reactionaries song from a hat and that will be the song that, that ONE GROUP will record. Does that make sense? We plan on recording these songs from the 10 groups at a home recording studio here in San Pedro on various scheduled days. We thought this would be a fun project to start out with and we want you to participate. Please let us know if this sounds like something that you would be interested in so we could pencil you in…

Thank you.

Craig Ibarra

along with Bob Archer

Here are 9 of the 10 songs that we will be releasing and recording (free to download): http://www.corndogs.org/

Here are some people we have in mind to fill the slots:

VOCALS

1. Cindy Vodovoz-Bradley

2. Jack Brewer

3. David Love

4. Jimmy Mack

5. Alma McLay

6. Todd Congelliere

7. Craig Ibarra

8. Christian Wabschall-Moreno

9. Mike Watt

10. Sean Cole

GUITARISTS

1. Joe Baiza

2. John Blazing

3. Rick Pugliese

4. Alex Sandoval

5. Jacob Gaxiola / Kevin "Kid Kevin" Carle

6. Todd Congelliere / Sean Cole

7. Vince LaFarga

8. Adam Gaxiola

9. Bob Archer

10. Jessica Feeney

BASSISTS

1. Chuck Dukowski

2. Erik Korte

3. Lina Sedillo-Litonjua

4. Luis "Madmax" Maldonado

5. Christian Wabschall-Moreno

6. Tony Cook

7. Casey "Chachi" Ferrara

8. Mike Watt

9. Vince Giobbe

10. Ethan White

DRUMMERS

1. George Hurley

2. Pat Speers

3. Dirk Vandenberg

4. Raul Morales

5. Denis Fleps

6. Jerry Trebotic

7. Mike "Jimmy" Felix

8. Ritch Wilder

9. Jacob Partida

10. Joey Simeoni

Please get back to us asap...

Thanks.

MORE USELESS INFO: Some of the people (Erik Korte, Lina Sedillo-Litonjua, Rick Pugliese and Pat Spears) from the list above could not participate. RJ replaced Erik Korte on bass because Erik now lives in Virginia and we couldn't work it out. Vinnie Vegas took Lina Sedillo's spot on bass. We were originally gonna pair-up (guitarists) Kevin "Kid Kevin" Carle and Jacob Gaxiola and also Todd Congelliere and Sean Cole to make room for more guitarists but since Rick Pugliese could not participate and Jessica Feeney could not be reached (her MySpace page was not working correctly), we decided to split them up. Pat Spears could not find time with his busy schedule and was replaced by Casey "Chachi" Ferrara. Jack Brewer also asked if he could do dueling vocals with Freda Rente which we agreed on.

GROUP PRACTICES

we basically left it up to the various groups to get together and learn the songs. vince giobbe offered his lockout at koos (harbor building) rehearsal studio in pedro with a full backline to any of the groups for free. this was very helpful indeed.

the practice room has a nice view of the harbor, really though.
photo: craig ibarra

"brigate rosse" practice. christian wabschall-moreno (bass), casey "chachi" ferrara (drums) and john blazing (guitar). cindy vodo-bradley (not pictured). photo: craig ibarra