Another installment in “7 Gigs in 8 Days: A Week in the Life of Being Kid Kazooey”.

I started playing klezmer music with the freaks from The Japonize Elephants around 1996. We called ourselves The Hunted Haunted Bazerghan Klezmoikestra”. We were rowdy, loud, always fast, furiously funky, and purposefully rough around the edges. We played for over a year before the first Jew joined the band (Significant, considering that Klezmer music is music of the Eastern European Jews from the 19th Century).  After The Japonize Elephants left Bloomington to The Bay Area, we kept playing klezmer, but it was a little more mellow. Months would go by without a gig. After while, it would be a little over a year between gigs.

But then we changed our name to just: The Klezmorchestra, and decided not to moan and groan that Dave Gantz, Evan Farrell, Sylvain Carton, and Meegan Weeder weren’t in the band anymore. We started playing weddings and Bar Mitzvahs instead of Second Story and The Upland Brewery. We became… respectable!  NOW, we even have a dance leader we work with to teach Israeli dances and get folks off their duffs to dance the Hora (since most of our audience is 50 years old or older!).

My, the times they are a-changin’! I still love the band. And now that Mrs. Kazooey is the new drummer, I suspect that we might recapture some of that edge we used to have. Don’t get me wrong, even a “respectable” klezmer band is very exciting. The music sees to that!  Well, enough about all of that. Enjoy The Klezmorchestra!

The band will be hosting another “Evening of Jewish Music and Dancing with The Klezmorchestra” on Thursday, May 2, at The Player’s Pub, here in Bloomington, IN, from 7-10pm, for a cover charge of $5.

So, my 4th installment of “7 Gigs in 8 Days: A Week in the Life of being Kid Kazooey” concerns my interview and performance on WFHB’s weekly program, Local Live.

Kid K in the Live Studio, just before going on air with WFHB’s Local Live.

If you don’t already know, WFHB is Indiana’s greatest independent, volunteer powered community radio station (which happens to be celebrating it’s 20th anniversary this year! ). This radio station has been very berry good to me! February 13, 2013 was no exception.

Kid K and Local Live Associate Producer, Nicole O’Neal in the Live On Air Studio.

The ever hip, bright and sweet Nicole O’Neal, Local Live Coordinating Producer, and I had great time in the Live Studio and here is the interview in it’s entirety!

Kid Kazooey on WFHB's Local Live 2/13/13 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Fat Tuesday this year has come and gone, 2/12/13, but some of us still feel it, if you know what I mean! Thanks to The Monkeyheads’ Social Aid and Pleasure Club of Bloomington, IN, threw yet another fabulous Mardi Gras celebration/benefit concert for WFHB at The Player’s Pub, titled “The Third Greatest Mardi Gras Celebration on Earth!” (Doesn’t matter who you put in #1 and #2, WE’RE #3!).

Kid Kazooey has opened the event with a family friendly performance in the back room at the pub (where kids ARE allowed!) for years in a row. This year it was with The Mardi Gras All Stars (Dave Baas on guitar, Steve Mascari on bass, Joe Donnelly on saxophone, Donn Middleton on percussion, and Lara Lynn Weaver (Mrs. Kazooey!) on drums and vox), as everyone in this band played at least one other set that night with other bands!

This year we decided to tackle some of Kid Kazooey’s favorite songs written for and performed by The Coasters! These Lieber & Stoller tunes (Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller) are great early rock-n-roll story tunes with much humor! This particular video is of their tune “Idol with the Golden Head”.

Don’t forget that Mardi Gras marks the beginning of Lent, and DYNGUS DAY marks the end! This year Dyngus Day falls on Monday, April 1!! No Foolin’! That’s another favorite gig of mine, as The Bufoonski Brother’s Polka Ensemble plays 3 hours of Polka music at Yogi’s Bar & Grill from 6-9! See you then and there, baby!