The Experiment or what to do when you are itching to play and are 3000 miles apart

In the beginning, it was an experiment in long distance recording between Kelly Craven (drums, waffles) and Sean Carmichael (guitar) that got ELO Kiddies off the ground. They are former members of the Raleigh, NC, band Cirkus, a rock and roll powerhouse from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, who wanted to play together once again…so much for introductions. Y'all should know all that stuff if you got to this page. If you don't go back and start over. The only problem was that one was in Seattle and one was in Atlanta. They still are. Thanks to the modern technology available, namely some really cool software and the powers of DSL and file transfer protocol, They began madly swapping files back and forth across the country and the tune on the AMCT Cheap Trick Tribute Volume 4 CD (sadly, the link to this is gone), ELO Kiddies, is the end result of phase one of said experiment. Well, almost the end result. They soon decided that they wanted a real bass player for the tune, so Sean’s daughter Erin was recruited and EKS was born. Vocals were planned for the tune all along, but they couldn’t find the right person to do them in time for the tribute cd deadline and since none of the three are particularly vocally-inclined, or at least not in any shape, form, or fashion up to the standards set by one Mr. Zander or any half-way decent Zander wannabe, they decided to submit it anyway as a karaoke version, at least until our we could find someone to do it justice. (And they hope that all the folks who bought AMCT Vol. 4 have had fun singing along with it!) Luckily, Kelly stumbled across Terje on an internet message board, and a new side project between Kelly (phoo for those that don't have a clue - go back and start over) and Terje got started. It didn't take much to pull Sean into that fiasco. So, after doing the first phoo and the far tones tune, Terje agreed to finish off ELO Kiddies with them. No, they weren't called the far tones yet. They could have ended up being TEKS, but for some reason that just didn't click. We aren't politicians after all. And no, phoo didn't decide to add phoo and himself. That was done by some other greatly misguided individuals. Hint: If you dig through the Cirkus website and play some of the music while reading, you can find a couple more Cheap Trick tunes that Sean and guys actually sing on! And there they prove that they’re up to drunken karaoke standards, but that's about it! They’re not bad, mind you, just vocally challenged. Yeah, that’ll work. There’s one in Set One of The Castaways set, and another in Set Three. (hmmm…maybe a few more links are in order)

The Folks this is not your everyday computer music

Erin is a student at the University of Georgia who has been playing bass for several years and is currently in a way cool band called SIDS. Since Dad is a huge Cheap Trick fan, she’s heard them from infancy and obviously took to heart Dad’s expounding about what a great bass player Tom Petersson is — and she agrees, so twisting her arm to record the part wasn’t too hard. And boy howdy, did she do us proud. She drives ELO Kiddies along like a hammer pounding a nail. She ROCKS! Kelly now lives and works in the Seattle, WA, area after spending a great deal of his life on the road playing drums in one band or another. Kelly finally dug the drums out after moving them across the country and has been playing ever since. He participated in the 2003 Cirkus reunion concert but has yet to start jamming with with friends at home — maybe someday. Recording and mixing keeps him happy never-the-less. Sean is living and working in the Atlanta, GA, area after spending not quite as much time of his life on the road as Kelly did, but enough so that both can rightfully be called grizzled veterans. He also participated in the Cirkus reunion show and currently plays with a band on the weekends with whom he has re-discovered the joys of playing loud, nasty, live rock and roll. EKS got a chance to play live at the Cirkus Reunion, when Erin joined the band onstage for a rocking version of Cheap Trick’s Big Eyes. Steve sang, so we dubbed the band SEKS…well, why not? Get you mind out of the gutters. Seemed appropriate and besides — we’re guys. That’s all we think about anyway. Right? OK - OK - OK — Erin isn't a guy and is WAY too young to be thinking like the rest of us dirty old men. Right? …RIGHT?

The Future we're all still itchy

…and the future is now. Check out phoo and the far tones, the logical extension of the long distance recording concept. With contributors from Seattle, Atlanta, Norway and Sweden, the far tones are a true testament to the power of the Internet. The idea was conceived to record tunes that we’ve always wanted to play but never got the chance to in whatever band we were in for whatever reasons…and the results have been a lot of fun. And they hope to have a lot more fun so stay tuned…