Rock Bottom Remainders
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The Rock Bottom Remainders is a rock & 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 for which the unsold remainder of the publishers stock of copies is sold at a reduced price.
The band members include Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Stephen King, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Barbara Kingsolver, Robert Fulghum, Matt Groening, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Tad Bartimus, and Greg Iles. Band members collaborated on a book about the band, Mid-Life Confidential.
The band's members have freely admitted their lack of musical talent. Dave Barry has been quoted as saying: "The typical band member knows three chords".
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History
The Remainders were founded by Kathi Kamen Goldmark in the early 1990s. Kathi is a trained musician whose day job is 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, CA. 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 in 1995. [2]
Quotes
- "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." - 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
Concerts
- 1992, Anaheim: American Booksellers Association convention
- 1995, Cleveland: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (opening)
Guests
Song covered include
- "Rockaway Beach"
- "Louie, Louie"
- "These Boots are made for Walking"
- "If the House is a Rockin'..."
- "Gloria"
- "You Can't Judge a Book by its Cover"
- "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere"
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]