Rock Bottom Remainders

The Rock Bottom Remainders is a rock and roll band consisting of published writers, most of them both amateur musicians and popular English-language book, magazine, and newspaper authors. The band took its self-mocking name from the publishing term remaindered book, a work of which the unsold remainder of the publisher's stock of copies is sold at a reduced price. Since their formation they have gained nearly $2 million for charity from their concerts.

The band members include Dave Barry, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Maya Angelou, Cynthia Heimel, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Sam Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Joel Selvin, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Barbara Kingsolver, Robert Fulghum, Matt Groening, Tad Bartimus, Greg Iles, as well as professional musicians Josh Kelly on drums, and Erasmo Paulo on saxophone. The original band members collaborated on a book about the band, Mid-Life Confidential. Published author Al Kooper also was a member for some time.

History

The Remainders was founded by Kathi Kamen Goldmark in the early 1990s. Kathi was then a musician whose day job was in book publicity. Through this, she met many prolific authors. One day while driving one of the authors around she came upon the idea of making a band of them. It stuck. The Remainders' first performance was in 1992 at the American Booksellers Association convention in Anaheim, California. A review of the concert, appearing in The Washington Post [1], claimed it was "the most heavily promoted musical debut since The Monkees."

The Remainders also played at the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio in 1995.[2]

In April 2010, they began the Wordstock Tour presented by the Pearson Foundation and We Give Books, benefiting the children and schools of Haiti.

Quotations

• "We play music as well as Metallica writes novels." -Dave Barry
  • "Rock Bottom Remainders? Who the hell are they?" -Kirk Hammett, Metallica
• "Your band's not too bad. It's not too good either. Don't let it get any better, otherwise you'll just be another lousy band." -Bruce Springsteen
  • "I picked up one of the two guitars I'd been using, and just as we were about to start, Stephen King tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'We have a special guest.' I turned around, and there was Bruce Springsteen. I still don't know how he came to be at this convention; I don't believe he's a bookseller. All I know is, he was picking up the other guitar. My guitar. 'Bruce,' I said to him. 'Do you know the guitar part to Gloria?' This is like asking James Michener if he knows how to write his name." - Dave Barry
• "People are throwing panties at you. They certainly never do that at my book-signings." -Matt Groening
• "There's an audience out there, and the key is to kick it in the ass." -Stephen King
• "Roy actually coined the term for our genre of music; 'hard-listening music.' " -Dave Barry
• "Most people seem to think critics are as useful as tits on a priest." -Joel Selvin

Concerts

• 1992, Anaheim: American Booksellers Association convention
• 1995, Cleveland: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (opening)
• A version of the band with at the very least Barry and Albom and Ridley Pearson and Warren Zevon also played at the Miami Book Fair in 1997

Guests

• Lesley Gore
• Roger McGuinn
• Bruce Springsteen
• Warren Zevon

Songs covered include

• "Gloria"
• "If the House is a Rockin'..."
• "In the Midnight Hour" (The Rock Bottom Remainders performed this song during an appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Host Craig Ferguson—himself the best-selling author of Between the Bridge and the River—played the drums. Just before the performance, he joked that "the only reason [he] wanted to write a book was so that he could play with this band." Dave Barry was also the first guest on the show.)
• "Louie Louie" (Matt Groening claims he uses the "explicit" interpretation of the lyrics and Dave Barry claimed that it was so filthy that the U.S. Constitution should be amended to prohibit it.)
• "Rockaway Beach"
• "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"
• "Wild Thing" (In one broadcast of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, Barry revealed this song as a band inside joke, since Roy Blount always mistimes his single vocal line: "You move me.")
• "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere"
• "You Can't Judge a Book by its Cover"
• "You May Be Right"

Discography

Several RBR songs are featured on the double album Stranger than Fiction ("Don't Quit Your Day Job" Records), also featuring other noted authors' comic attempts at song. [3]

External links

• Official website