Copyright (c) 2006. The Adults. Website by: Sheridan Designs |
At the end of every episode of Scooby Doo, a foiled and sometimes soiled villain would sneer, "And I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!" Well, the kids are alright, but let's hear it for The Adults. Thousands of years ago, or at least in 1994, Jim Sheridan got hired to teach English at New Milford High School, where Mark Iannucci was already haplessly employed. Not only was Mark an Italian, he was a bluesman, having played guitar and harmonica for years, and at that time serving as the frontman for the New York band Blues Caffeine. That band had a caffeine crash and became the Robert Stevens Blues Band, and when they misplaced their drummer, Jim (who had played some drums in college before starting to play guitar) stepped in for a while. Though Mark and Jim departed the band soon thereafter, they kept a Friday afternoon ritual up: loud guitars at Mark's place after school to start the weekend. The mantra was "After a week of those screaming kids, it's time for some screaming adults!" After mastering some cover songs and mangling others, original songs started to appear, some in the blues vein, some rather Stonesy, and some sounding just like Mark and Jim. The band name "The Screamin' Adults" felt right, so it stayed. A 4-track recorder became an 8-track recorder, and the sound quality improved. Jim would put down drums while Mark played bass, and then guitars and vocals were piled on top. A CD of 9 original songs entitled "Second Takes (Are for Pussies)" was the result, and its title was the philosophy: raw rock'n'roll. The next disc "Sloppy Seconds (and Stretchy Solos)" followed, offering 11 more Iannucci/Sheridan tunes and some sonic advancements. Throughout that time, fellow Fairfield U. alumni Gene Tiernan and Pete Grennan (who had led the band Broken Bottles to glory, followed by Pete's epic work with Glue) had also been recording songs as a two-man band. It only seemed to make sense in a Brady Bunch kind of way for the two two-man groups to somehow form a family...well, for a little while! Jobs and kids and schedules have a way of interfering with bands (but it will all be worth it when those kids start mowing the lawn, dammit), so Mark and Jim put together an acoustic act. That sound influenced the next disc, "Sounds of the Day," which had some full-blown self-indulgent psychedelic tracks but also an acoustic center. After a few gigs at the Proud Mary in Newtown, some new fans confessed that the name "Screamin' Adults" had made them think that a heavy metal act would be playing, so the name shifted to, simply, The Adults, reflecting the change in sensibility. The fourth CD, "Homespun," was an all-acoustic disc that captured the milder sound of the duo, and even included covers of songs from The Beatles and Ray Charles. Then Pete continued to join us for most of the acoustic shows at the Proud Mary and helped out with a new set of songs. On the next CD, "Adult Swim," Mark and Jim did half of the songs themselves, while the other half brought Pete and Gene back in. The songs recorded in Pete's basement studio showed a real leap in sophistication and sound quality, while the other songs kept the Mark-and-Jim carelessness intact. Around this time, Bernie Reilly, Glue leader and all-around musical genius, returned to the area, and Mark and Jim basically joined Glue, or else Bernie, Pete, and Chris Grennan joined The Adults! However you look at it, the 5-man band played a number of gigs in Connecticut and Long Island and really broadened the repertoire, working out some jazz classics and many original songs. It all sounded so good that even when Bernie moved out to Idaho (!!!!), we kept the gigs going. All of this has lead to the newest Adults disc, "Smells Like Glue," an example of what music can sound like in the Obama era. Of the 10 songs, half are instrumental while the other half are vocal. The sound quality is light years beyond our earlier work, and Pete's guitar excursions are riveting. Chris plays drums on some songs, Gene on others, and on the 3 improvs that appear on the CD, the flexible Carlos Pena handles the drums. 5 songs from this CD are on our MySpace page, but new songs are already emerging. You can't stop The Adults. |
The Adults Everything a blind man wants to know |
Copyright (c) 2006. The Adults. Website by: Sheridan Designs |