Jack and Sally - The Phopho Bandits
(Go to the link now or you may as well just stop reading my blog all together!)
Who are the Phopho bandits you ask?
That's right! That is my brother Preston and I!!
I know you're just dying to know the story behind the band. So let me take you on a journey to The Land of Lost Pockets...
One day when Preston was a wee lad of 16 (maybe 17, the details are a bit hazy) he purchased his first, and only, Fender Strat electric guitar. From the moment he sat down and played is first C chord the power of the guitar surged though his finger tips until they were bleeding (hopefully not literally). He was soon shredding out gnarly solos and wicked riffs.
This was all happening around the same time-ish that I acquired my first drum set. From the moment I sat on my drum stool it was, well, less than magical. It took years of practice for me to really be able to play along with some of my favorite artists.
One day we were able to move all of our instruments into a room in the basement. This upset some of our siblings. Why? Because that's when pure awesome was born!
Preston had a few songs he had written that he wanted me to play the drums to.
Our first "gig" was a talent show for my Achievement days. The 11 year old girls went wild for us. It was like they knew they had just witnessed something spectacular. Something they would never forget. Something that would be more memorable than the day they get married. Ok, maybe it was more like a disaster. But I felt like I was on top of the world!
Puff the Magic Dragon was the first song we recorded live, it was a HUGE hit (with us, no one else really knew about it). So we got to work putting simple bass riffs together with children's fairy tales (Froggie, Gilbatron 2000). We have since matured past that and our latest work, even though it's two years old, is Smells Like Heart. An album we compiled for Valentines Day of cheesy love songs.
We've also added quite a few instruments since our early days of just the guitar and the drums. Of course there's the bass, some ukuleles, the harmonica, the piano, and yes, even a cowbell!
We haven't been able to write music together lately because well, Preston started seeing this girl and now she's having his baby.
But one day we'll sit back down in our music room and have a good ol' jam session.
Love and Rockets,
Rodney
p.s. I should have mentioned the song, it's a good one... uhhh, Preston wrote it. Probably about his favorite movie Charly or something like that. He can explain it.
p.p.s. I know you are dying to know what Phopho stands for,
it's People Helping Other People Help Others.
p.p.p.s. Preston really deserves all the credit for the band, he writes and sings and plays the instruments in about 97% of the songs.
