Promoting The Project>How I Met Clean Boys>Chapter 6

I mean, it was alright for me, until Clean Boys were dealt a blow. Like myself, they intially had the better deal too; hooked up with a Danish television station, who had promised them a live feed and a potential audience; essentially, the whole nine yards. And then the week before, the bottom dropped out for them. The station handed them a pink slip, simply stating that they were unable to help them out. And just like that, they were left out in the cold. No further explanations. And so, they resorted back to their rehearsal space, Cairo Hi-Fi, in Aarhus.

The record itself, as stated previously, was recorded on Skype, a free downloadable telephone software program, plus two computers on both ends. I had both a sound engineer and an events coordinator for the session. Initially, we had done a Skype test on December 22 2009, to see how well Skype would hold up-that was done w/Mulle the drummer/percussionist and computer whiz, which I discovered later, whom, I was developing a better relationship via Skype, as we moved well past the “Sid Shittish” affair.

A week before we actually recorded, we brought our project public through the magic of radio, with help from Chicago Tribune columnist & radio host, Rick Kogan, who was intrigued with the whole project. How I managed to get on the program was still simply amazing. I had met Kogan previously at a venue in which I performed at in the fall of 2008. Talked to him for a bit afterward, told him who my brother was and that lead to months of difficulty, which amounted to an extremely hateful sibling rivalry on behalf of my older brother, Louie. But in the meantime, whilst Rick promised to get me onto his program, months passed by until, a cold, grey November afternoon, when I saw Kogan and Chuck Osgood, former Tribune photographer outside the opening of an exhibit that featured both his and Kogan’s work in downtown Chicago, close to the ICC rail station over on Randolph, just off of Michigan Avenue, where only moments earlier, I had emerged out of. Kogan was surprised to see me and I told him my story.

Me and my now former pal, Twitchy, were returning from a funeral/memorial of my late friend Scott Bapple Sr., who died from a freak accident; checked himself in for a routine catscan in Indiana and for some reason or another, fell off the operation table and cracked his skull; doctors didn’t give him much hope for survival-three months at the most, but it didn’t look good. And so, within hours after hearing the news, he died. Like Kogan, I too didn’t believe it. It was all just a little too mind-numbing for me. In any event, I told Kogan at the time that I was going to Denmark & Germany in the springtime and recording the album and I think I asked him again to get onto his show. He told me to email him the following week and for me to pick a date. And so I did, ironically and perhaps coincidently, picking January 31, which just happened to be the birthdate of Mykel Board, the man who put the four of us together to begin with!

I remember the night before the radio program-I was performing at a hair salon opening somewhere in the city (Chicago) and got home rather late. I had a feeling if I went to sleep, that I would never wake up, so I decided to make a night of it and just stay up all night. Around 3 am, I took a shower, got dressed, stuffed my backpack and walked toward Main street and Chicago Avenues, to catch the Evanston night bus.

It wasn’t terribly cold that morning, as I rode on into the Howard El and from there, a Red Line train down to the Grand Avenue subway stop, all the while, texting back and forth with Pedro Da Palma, bassist for Clean Boys, who would also appear with me on the program, via phone. I remember how concerned at the time Pedro was, in regards to the radio station calling him up, thinking it was a tiny radio station. Not to worry, I told him, as I knew better; this was after all WGN Radio, 50,000 watts of purepower-a superstation to boot!

From there, I walked around in the darkness for the next hour or so, looking up at the great majestic buildings covered in shadows. Then eventually made my way up to Michigan Avenue and stood across the street from WGN Radio itself-felt nervous and excited and from there, ducked into a local diner and bade my time until it was closer to 6:30 am, when I crossed the street and entered Tribune Tower. Got to the guard’s desk, where I was ID’d and then a call was made into the station. I’d be picked up by the producer. I had to tell them my real name. that was a hoot! No one knew who “the other guy” was, but the producer remarked, “it’s okay, your friend can come too.”

Oh! If only she knew...