In 2008, John moved to Philadelphia. Gooey kept playing for a while, but in reality needed to retool. Gooey took a short hiatus. I continued to write and play out solo acoustically. In 2009, Gooey had a chance to play together again, and in doing so, brought back Chris Eudy on electric guitar and recruited Tom Hickey, formerly of The Pleegs, on bass. We began playing out again and had a few other accomplished musicians, including Brian Burkhard (guitar and keyboards) of Lollygag and Jim Boyle (drums), join the band for short stints. Eventually, the current lineup was set with the inclusion of Brian Vaughan, formerly of the Baltimores, on electric guitar and the return of John Noyes on drums, in 2010.

Best Tree in the Whole Play 2006

Once we formed the band, Gooey, and began playing out, and our sound and my songwriting evolved. This really is the first “band” album. John and I worked really well together, with me writing and him producing. John still had a big part in writing out the parts for the rest of the band members, but they began to add their personal styles to the sound. Still heavily produced by John, but less studio production than the first Gooey album.

1. I Know (First track on the album. Sometimes ignorance is bliss; but knowledge is power. – Listen
2. Hope You Understand – Avila (The Best Tree in the Whole Play) 2006 Desperation and loneliness… Listen
3. Sign – Avila (The Best Tree in the Whole Play) 2006 The signs are all there. You just need to open your eyes and look. Listen
4. Hey Little Girl – Avila (The Best Tree in the Whole Play) 2006 Power pop that is so sweet, it’ll gives you cavities! Making the move… Listen
5. Take it Slow – Avila (The Best Tree in the Whole Play) 2006 Take it slow. Running a million miles an hour, sometimes you just need to slow things down a bit. Hard to do. Listen
6. Trampoline – Avila (The Best Tree in the Whole Play) 2006 I started writing this while watching the Man Show and then it wrote itself. Metaphor for life or relationships and their ups and downs… Listen
7. Spark – Peeler (The Best Tree in the Whole Play) 2006 Peeler wrote this song for Gooey. To me it’s about the anticipation, potential and energy of a night out in the city. Listen

Gooey Album

Mr. Juani’s Dojo never played out live. I continued to write and meet up with the Matt and John at Uptown. The songwriting continued to evolve and improve. John decided we should go into the studio again and he would produce a pop album. Being a pop album and being that I wanted a simple, easy name for the project, I came up with the name Gooey. I thought Gooey was perfect; as we worked on the album the power pop production highlighted the sticky melodies and sweet hooks. This is a studio album with great musicians from the Uptown Recording family. We sent the album out to music critics and received great reviews so we put a band together and began playing out live. The band consisted of John Peeler on electric guitar and me on acoustic guitar. Then we recruited Chris Eudy and John Noyes, formerly of the Nubile Thangs, who we knew from playing together from the WrightWalley days, on lead guitar and drums, respectively. We rounded out the lineup with Sue Zindle on bass, who we knew from playing at the studio.

1. Brand New Tune - Avila (Gooey) 2004  First track of the album.  Great studio production on a feel good pop song.  Great trumpet in the solo.  I had some family members going through some really tough times, and wrote it as a source of inspiration and hope.   Brand New Tune
2. Weatherman - Avila (Gooey) 2004  Love can be stormy sometimes!   Weatherman
3. For You – Avila (Gooey) 2004  Killer love song with killer drum track.  I wrote this song at Matt’s wedding.   For You
4. Don’t You Tell Me – Avila (Gooey) 2004  Morrissey infused love song.  Don’t try to cheer me up.  Just let me be.  Don’t You Tell Me
5. Little Boy Blues – Avila (Gooey) 2004  Miss you mom…  That’s all I have to say about that.  Little Boy Blues
6. Busy Day – Avila (Gooey) 2004  I wrote this a the kitchen table for Ileana.  She was running around with a million things to do.  If Pink Floyd wrote a childrens song it might sound something like this.   Busy Day
7. Lonely Girl – Avila (Gooey) 2004  Sorta the follow up to Love is Blind.  It takes two people to be used.  Great George Harrison guitar line in the break.   Lonely Girl
8. Birdie – Avila (Gooey) 2004  Childrens song.  We had just moved into our house and we would see the neighbor girl, who was two years old at the time, with her dad in the backyard.  Her daddy would push her on the swing and she would point at the birdies.    Birdie
9. Lost – Avila/Denny (Gooey) 2004  I didn’t know that I was lost.   Lost
10. So – Avila (Gooey) 2004  Peeler going mad in the studio.  To me it has a 70′s Phil Spector pop production feel.  So

Mr. Juani's Dojo 2001

The WrightWalleys broke up in 1999. The band members who remained in Chicago continued to hang out and collaborate musically. Matt Denny opened Uptown Recording. I was still learning how to play guitar and began writing and recording on a cassette player. As I would hang out with Matt and John at Uptown, I would pick up my guitar and start playing my songs. The songs were simple but they had a good melodies and hooks. Eventually, John thought there was enough potential in the songs to put together an experimental album at Uptown. I was just happy that we were recording my songs, and I was pretty open about the direction of the production. John was like the mad scientist in the studio. The result was Welcome to my Dojo.

1. Welcome to my Dojo – Avila (Welcome to my Dojo) 2001  First track of the album. The “Dojo” reference is from Dirk Digler (Boogie Nights) refering to his bedroom. The background dialogue is young woman speaking Russian; still have no idea what she is saying.  Maybe its better that way.  Welcome To My Dojo
2. Love is Blind – Avila (Welcome to my Dojo) 2001  Love song whose name is taken from television program playing in the background on first take.  When you love someone enough to know that you are hurting them.  She’s all by myself.  Perfect!  Love is Blind
3. She’s Bringining me Down – Avila (Welcome to my Dojo) 2001  Alt-country love song.  If they are making you miserable, it’s time to go.  She’s Bringing Me Down
4. Good Boy - Avila (Welcome to my Dojo) 2001  Ode to Jack, my buddy Ian’s Chesapeake Bay Retriever, who was our loyal friend and companion.  The idea took off from Ian’s love song to Jack “He Good Boy”.  Jack was a very good boy.   Good Boy
5. Who Let the Dogs Out – Avila (Welcome to my Dojo) 2001  I remember sitting at Sidelines in Chicago watching the baseball playoffs.  The original “Who Let the Dogs Out” was all over the place.  It became a sports anthem.  I decided to write my own version of a sports anthem.   Who Let The Dogs Out
6. Come Home – Avila (Welcome to my Dojo) 2001  Longing, isolation and regret.   Come Home
7. I Love Everybody – Avila (Welcome to my Dojo) 2001  Started out as a lullaby/childrens song but by the time Peeler was done with it in the studio, it turned into a Volkswagen commercial!  Love it!  Catchy and infectious.   I Love Everybody
8. Don’t Forget About Tomorrow – Avila (Welcome to my Dojo) 2001  Final track of the album.  Fades into a flat line…   Don’t Forget About Tomorrow

I was the percussionist for the southern roots rock band the WrightWalleys (chicken fried rock in a jalapeno funk sauce), from 1996 – 1999. Great band. Great guys. We were all good friends and had a lot of fun. We played from St. Cloud, MN down to Altanta, GA, and all points in between. We recorded three great albums. We were swimming against the tide though; we were a roots rock band in the alternative/grunge capital of the Midwest. We also had too many chefs in the kitchen; by the time 1999 rolled around, I began learning how to play guitar, and so 5 of the 6 band members were writing and singing on stage, including myself. The last album, which was our best work, included two songs I wrote. We never released the album as the strains of being pulled in different directions by multiple songwriters with different musical styles took their toll, and eventually the band broke up. Here are my contributions to the “Lost Album” and my first foray into songwriting and singing.

1. MTV – Avila (The WrightWalleys) 1999  Country song about MTV losing its way…   MTV
2. Right On – Avila (The WrightWalleys) 1999  One of the first songs I wrote became a feel good crowd pleaser.  Hippie rock anthem.   Right On

In 1994, I was at Otis’, a music club in Lincoln Park that has long since closed its doors. I was was out with a work group and there was a three piece acoustic cover band playing called Barton Biggs. They consisted of a lead singer, Ray Loureiro, and two acoustic guitarist, Matt Denny and Geoff Koss. The Chicago rock scene was on fire as everyone in Chicago was picking up an electric guitar to become the next Smashing Pumpkins. My roommate and some friends formed a band. They would get together and play at our apartment, without a drummer, so I would pick up some bongos and jam with them. I even played out with them a couple of times. But eventually they would move on to a real drummer. So back to Otis’. I signed up on the Barton Biggs mailing list and apparently wrote next to my name and phone number, “I play bongos”. Two weeks later I get a phone call from Matt of Barton Biggs. He says, “I hear you play bongos.”, to which I replied, “Yeah”. The next thing you know I am playing bongos with Barton Biggs. I played with Barton Biggs for three years until, Matt Denny (lead electric guitar), John Peeler (bass), and I left to form the WrightWalleys, with Tori Pater (acoustic guitar) of Deep Six, and Jim Sawyer (drums). We were later joined by Ben Ruth (harmonica). We were going to conquer the world!