The Other - rev 1 (1987-1989)

The breakup of Show and Tell coincided with my getting a job at Apple Computer in the mail room. Rather than trying to form a new band I decided to focus on my own recordings for a while. However I soon started jamming with a new friend I made at Apple, Conor Maguire. Conor played drums, and I invited my old friend Mark Martin from the Grickstorgl days over. He brought his friend Scott Webster to play guitar and bass. We did a few covers and a few originals, but it was very informal. Eventually I invited Mike Thompson to jam with us, but it quickly became apparent he was more into doing progressive rock than the mainstream rock stuff we were doing. He and I decided to splinter off into our own group. (I would continue along with Conor & Scott however...for more on this go to the Dreamhouse blog). We looked up an old pal from the early Grickstorgl days, drummer/vocalist Steve LoBue and started jamming at his rehearsal cabin in the Los Gatos hills. Later I moved into a house in San Jose with my brother. It had a large back yard and Mike and I converted the garage into a rehearsal studio. Mike, Steve and I made a few 4-track recordings of some original songs, one of which you can hear above. I played the keyboard parts for the recordings, but we knew if we were to ever gig we’d need a real keyboardist. Mike had kept in contact with Sherri Sarto, from the Arms and Legs days, and invited her over. She brought with her a collection of her own songs, which we started learning. Her songs were not in the progressive rock vein, but rather more in the artsy side of post-modern 80’s rock. Sherri and I hit it off well as a song-writing team, and Mike and I encouraged her to take a stab at the vocals. Up until this point Steve and I were sharing that job. Unfortunately this led to a power shift, and soon differences in style led to Steve’s departure. So we put out some adds for a new drummer.