A moe.Timeline by moe. (especially Chuck)

[editor's note: Chuck originally compiled this timeline in 1996 for the moe-l(istserve). We asked him if we would update it and he graciously/gracefully consented. Enjoy...]

This is by no means complete, but if you want to know vaguely what happened to us, this is about all that we remember.

THE UTICA CONNECTION

Al and Chuck go to grade-through high school in New Hartford, NY, but don't really know each other. Rob goes to another school in Whitesboro, which is about five minutes from where Chuck lives. Vinnie lives in Utica till he's nine, then moves to Schenectady/Niskayuna (Near Albany) None of us hang out until we are all going to school at U.B. in Buffalo, NY, with the exception of Al, who moves there around summer '91 after graduating from Oneonta.

Rob and Chuck meet at SUNY Buffalo and start noodling acoustic guitar with Rob's 36 year old Vietnam Vet roommate Big Jim.

bass, vocals: Rob Derhak

drums: Ray Schwartz

guitar, vocals: Chuck Garvey

The three of us got together by the suggestion of a friend of Rays. She wanted us to play at her house for Halloween and we complied.

Halloween 1989 Set list in no particular order: Green Earrings ( Steely Dan ), The One I Love ( R.E.M . ), The Munsters theme, Purple Haze, Melt With You ( Modern English).... you get the picture. We've tried to forget.

guit, vocal: Chuck

drums: Ray

guit: Dave Kessler

sax, vocal: Steve ?

The band actually forms in winter of 1990. Dave, Ray and Steve were playin with another bass player, but we all decide to start playing together. We were called "Five Guys Named Moe" from the Louis Jordan tune of the same name. We opened up for a band of especially good sports named Monkey Wrench at Broadway Joe's in Buffalo, NY. Thanks Timo.

We also played a "Talent Show" - type thing in the cafeteria at S.U.N.Y. Buffalo, battling against our friends Monkey Wrench and "The Groove", who would later call themselves Moon Boot Lover. These guys are now split into Peter Prince's Moon Boot and the band Soulive.

Rob

Chuck

Ray

Dave

In Fall of 90, Steve quits the band. We rename ourselves "Haggis" for one week, but soon go to moe without the period. Rob pushed for the Moe , but a Brooklyn band of that name already exists. Ray likes "Canned Pastries" and "Soft White Underbelly". We later find out that "Soft White Underbelly" is to Blue Oyster Cult as The Warlocks is to the Grateful Dead. moe. records two demos. One is a four track attic tape called "Codename: Weaselshark". The other is a live-in-the-studio-to-stereo-dat from which we made cassettes

Rob: bass, vocals

Chuck: guitar, vocals

Ray: drums

Dave: guitar

Al Schnier: guitar, conga

Al filled in for absent Dave at a party at the chicklets house in Buffalo. He played guitar and a conga. After that, he played back up guitar for several gigs - part time. (yes, there were three guitar players in the band . We were known as the moe guitar army.) At this time we also began to use the period at the end of moe in typewriter letters. In January of 1992 Al is inducted as official third guitarist. In Feb. of 1992 moe. goes out of town for the first time to Oneonta, NY. In Spring of 1992 Dave phases out due to lack of interest (on his part).

Rob: bass, voc

Chuck: guitar, voc

Al: guitar, voc

Ray -----> Jim: drums

June of 1992: moe. records Fatboy demo. At the end of mixing, Ray leaves to go to grad school. In September of 1992, Jim Loughlin officially joins the band as drummer. moe. records a couple of lo-fi live cassettes called "Scrapyard moe." and "Live at Nietzche's"(a Buffalo venue).

Rob,

Al,

Jim

In the summer of 1993, Chuck quits the band at a bad time for two months then begs for readmittance and more abuse. moe. plays as a trio while Chuck is gone, occasionally opening for itself as a band called "Pud", in which Rob plays drums, Al plays bass and Jim plays guitar.

Rob,

Al,

Chuck,

Jim.

Around this time we start meeting other like-minded bands such as the Ominous Seapods and Freebeerandchicken and start trading gigs (opening for each other) in different strongholds in the Northeast. In Spring of 1994, moe. records Headseed (our first real "album"). The sessions for both Fatboy and Headseed were conducted in an apartment/studio above Top Shelf Music on Hertel Ave. in Buffalo. Andrew Buscher engineered and helped us mix. moe. officially and finally quit their day jobs, move to Albany, NY (of all places!) and go Full Time all in the Fall of 1994. Headseed was released in October of 1994, just a month after moe.s first tour down south. In March of 1995, Brendan O'Neill joined the band as Audio Engineer for moe.s first trip out west to the Rockies. June 1995, Jim Loughlin leaves band to play with Yolk , from Binghamton NY.

[NOTE: Jim's last show was 7.15.95]

Rob: bass, voc

Chuck: guitar, voc

Al: guitar, voc

Mike Strazza: drums

Late July 95 Mike joins the band. In Sept. , Mike quits but agrees to play through the end of the year. Thanksgiving weekend of 95 - moe. records Loaf during two nights at the Wetlands in NYC. Mike Wright engineers, he and Brendan mix with the band. The disc is released on Fatboy records in late Winter(?). [NOTE: Mike played with moe. publicly between 7.22.95 and 12.9.95]

Rob: bass, voc

Chuck: guitar, voc

Al: guitar, voc

Chris Mazur: drums

December 29th 1995: Chris Mazur (from Pittsburgh, PA) begins playing with moe. in Erie, PA, Washington D.C., and for New Years Eve at the Wetlands, NYC till 7:00 a.m. to a record breaking crowd. Jan. 19th, 1996 - moe. begins its first tour with Chris.

Jan. 25th, 1996 - Chuck finishes his glib little history on moe. (phase one!) from Raleigh, NC, where the band (was) currently traveling their asses off to pay their bills and spread a little bit of lovin.

Stardate: February 6, 2001

Hey! Dither is released today!

Well, here we are again - me sitting in a hotel room somewhere, typing nonsense into a computer. Who'da thunk we would still be talking about this? I guess it's just a pleasant surprise! Thanks to all of the people (like yourself) that read and give a crap about this kind of history, we are able to continue playing, recording and contributing valuable bandwidth to upstanding members of society. Thank you!

I have updated a few details in the preceding section of the moe.timeline, as well as trying to remember the last coupla years.

Here we go.....

1996

In February, Mike Wright is hired to tour manage.

In april(?), moe. signs a deal with SONY and in the next six months, records and releases "no doy".

Chris is replaced by longtime friend and Buffalo drummer Vinnie Amico, who played in numerous bands, including Sonic Garden (Dead tribute), Outer Circle Orchestra and Acoustic Forum.

[NOTE: Chris's last show was 11.17.96. He was replaced by Vinnie Amico whose first appearance was 11.21.96.]

Ken "Scippi" (or Skip) Richman is hired to tour manage (replacing Mike Wright). He flies out to Minneapolis to start work on St. Patty's Day, 97. Skip is yet another Buffalo buddy from when the band played to 9 or so friends at Broadway Joe's.

moe. lands a spot on Further Festival for the summer of 1997 and is allowed to grace the same stage as The Black Crowes, Jorma Kaukonen, Arlo Guthrie, Ratdog and Bruce Hornsby among others. Way cool.

Chris Burrows begins working for moe. on their Fall '97 tour.

Fall/winter of 97 - Brendan O'Neill is replaced by Steve Young as Front of House Engineer / Monitor Engineer. Steve (as well as lighting director Chris Ragan) had been with us for a while. Steve was still another Buffalo friend who used to mix and record many of moe.'s early lo-fi Buffalo shows at Broadway Joe's, The curve (once!), Essex St. Pub,...etc......as well as Vinnie's bands.

Most of '97 is spent touring the entire country several times, then in the winter/early spring of '98, moe. records "Tin cans and car tires" with John Alagia and John Siket.

While rehearsing in Maine in January, '99, we decide to call up Jim Loughlin and get him to be the "rover" of the band. He agrees. [Drummer #2, Jim Loughlin, returned to the lineup on January 23, 1999. He is playing Percussion, Flute, Bass, Washboard & Acoustic Guitar with the band.]

April of '99, moe. and SONY part ways after two albums and three years.

August '99, moe plays at the early, "non-riot" part of Woodstock weekend in Rome, NY. The event is simulcast on pay per view worldwide to millions of people.

Late Spring/early Summer of '99, moe. begins studio sessions which, at first, are meant only to be a demo, but 4 or 5 studios later become the year-spanning "Dither" project. At the same time, moe. plays and records live shows with the engineering help of Bill Emmons, who also did work with the band in its San Francisco Dither session. John Siket (with the help of Al) mixes the live shows which are released as "L", as well as co-producing and engineering most of "Dither". "L" is released on moe.'s own label, Fatboy records, in April 2000.

August of 2000, the band does one final overdub, arranging and mixing session in NYC, then finishing up at Bearsville studios.

moe. releases "Dither" on Feb. 6th.

OK, that about does it fer now. I hope that this answers all of the gnawing, burning questions that you may have been grappling with for god knows how long.

We sincerely hope that this history will continue to grow indefinitely and that you will always be a willing, satisfied participant in some way. Achtung! Du liebst moe.! Mach schnell!!!! heh, heh.

Thanks for listening and being so durn cool!

chuck.