IRA... back for more!

I saw KISS in September (L.A.), and it was the COOLEST concert I've seen in my life! The Sex Pistols were playing the next night but I heard they sucked so I skipped it. If you guys had been here it would've been fun to go.
IRA reunion concert? Oh yeah baby! That would actually be fun to do... you know rent a studio, some instruments and just go for it... does Andre' still remember the lyrics to Jack & Jill..."Jack & Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water... I don't know what they did, but they had a little daughter"... I actually have a tape of us playing with Andre' singing this tune... talk about RAW POWER... and the best part, is that the tape (recorded at my house) features Rod doing a little introduction-type thing... hilarious!!!!

I must remind you though of my initial association with IRA. You may recall that for one day, I was the singer for IRA, after which I resigned due to musical differences with Mr. Luminati.
I also seem to remember doing backup vocals during an IRA recording session where we recorded "Breaking the law" (by Judas Priest) and some Def Leppard song. Do you have those "lost" IRA tapes? Perhaps you can put a .wav file on your IRA page to give people a taste.

Hey! How'd I get the blame for this? As I recall (and it is clearly documented on tape), Mr. Moreno's brief stint as IRA vocalist was stumped by lack of adequate amplification (see related story)... and NOT by Musical Differences. That is, unless Mr. Moreno is implying volume differences... in that case, yes, I must admit my amp was a tad too loud.
In order to settle all misunderstandings, I hereby offer Mr. Rod Moreno the position of Lead Vocalist in all future IRA endeavors... including the upcoming Reunion World Tour. I also offer one-sixth of all proceeds from royalties and merchandise tied to the band's estate. (the remaining 5/6 will be distributed evenly among all living current and former members of the band -- Andrea, Andre', Jun, Steve, Clay)
All in favor say "IRA"!

No blame intended. I share the blame along with those who imposed the musical morals of American mainstream culture upon me. I must admit that at that point in my life I failed to appreciated the anarchist style of music which would later become the staple of my record/CD library. My musical knowledge up to that point having been heavily influenced by the strict and structured methods of American Junior High School band rather than 4 rebellious youths of London, had my views prevailed, the IRA sound would have developed more appropriately for a football game half time show than the hallowed stage of CBGB's.
I do accept the 1/6 offer though, if not for my muted lead singer effort, then for my effort in the recording session where I did backing vocals on "Breaking the Law" and that Def Leppard song (you know, from the album with the truck on it, I think).

I'd like to suggest that the IRA Reunion World Tour be scheduled for the year 1999 with the final concert of the tour being performed on December 31st, at the Graded Auditorium in Sao Paulo, the hallowed birth place of the world's soon to be most famous band. The last song, preferably "Shot Stained Suit" should end with the final chord at midnight, whereupon all amps should explode so we can enter the new Millenium propelled by an acoustic blast.

Sounds cool enough. We must organize members of the audience, those who truly appreciate our performance. By the way, doesn't the new Millenium begin in the year 2001 ?

I like the part about the 1999 changing to 2000. That's when I am going to celebrate! Technically, you are right, of course.

Yeah... and that'll give us enough time to practice! Should we go with the old staples or should we tackle some new material? I think that if we play anything with more than three chords, we'd be dishonoring the band's memory... but I'm open to suggestions. I'll get in touch with the KISS people, and maybe we can rent their stage set-up. Andre' -- how many Marshall stacks will you be needing? Jun -- the drum riser is 10 feet high... will that be a problem? Will Steve be participating? Can I be the one to push him off his riser?

By the way, didn't one of Steve's drums (the Tom-tom) fall over and roll away one of the time we performed? Remember when Joe Something unplugged our amps? No appreciation for true genius I say.

I think you are right. During the performance, the cymbal that fell was in fact mine, and Steve's drums (the one with a twig instead of the leg piece) rolled away. I can still recall his "mu-hu-ha-ha-ha" expression when that happened! That was the moment when I realized we were a comic band instead of a punk band.

The way I remember it, Steve's tom-tom fell and rolled during either a stage rehearsal or... I'm afraid it might've been the actual try-out for the show (I'm not too sure... my mind seems to "blurrify" these traumatic memories -- I think it's called a defense mechanism). By the way, is Andre' still playing. He must be pretty hot by now. Andre', write me and let's talk GEAR (guitars, amps, etc.) I have now accumulated 14 guitars, and my latest purchase was a Fender Telecaster... I'm now drooling over a purple/sparkle Les Paul.

Don't know if this has any relevance, but I have now accumulated 7 computers.

Wow, 14 guitars! Do you have one that you don't even look at so it doesn't get damaged (a la Spinal Tap) ?

As a matter of fact, I do have an Ibanez Distroyer (Explorer-type), that I just love to polish and look at. That thing is too big for me (I'm still a little guy), and whenever I played it on-stage I kept hitting things (and band members!) with it. It looks so cool (in an adolescent-rocker sort of way)!

Cool, I can't wait to hear you play. You must be fantastic. Do you sing too?

I'd love to sing, but mother-nature did not bless me with that talent... God knows I've tried! However, I do sing in my demos (never could handle singer's egos... right Rod? ), and thanks to massive doses of reverb and studio trickery, I've achieved some near-decent results.

My impression is that you were not as bad as you say. The only reason you refrained from singing in the talent show was that you wanted to concentrate and move around with your guitar, right?

Truth is... I've always been afraid of the microphone... especially in live situations. Actually, I'm preparing a tape to send to you guys with some new funny stuff and other "real" stuff. The only problem is that whenever I think I'm done, I get a new idea and I'm back to the drawing board. I'm currently orchestrating "I don't want you near"... do any of you guys remember that song? It's the one that we played at the Chapel Gig, and we had that goof-ball with the mohawk sing... I forget his name. remember how we dyed his hair in the bathroom with red ink?

Orchestrating! Sounds like Brian May. These 13 years was enough to make you a professional musician.

I don't know about "professional", but I've discovered that my real passion is not so much playing, but arranging. Sometimes I get carried away, and thanks to MIDI, I add way too many parts. Writing music is the ultimate thrill, and I find it very challenging to look at a piece in its entirety rather than concentrating on a single instrument of choice. Many of my earlier composition featured massive guitar solos, but as the years have gone by, I'm now getting my kicks out of well executed bass lines, interesting keyboard arrangements, and lots of dynamic changes. Wow... I've just read what I wrote, and it sounds like I think I'm Danny Elfman (famous, and very talented soundtrack composer) or something... I hope I'm not setting some really high expectations... I'd hate to disappoint you. I just have a great time creating music... it's the ultimate hobby and it relaxes and fulfills me. Nothing more, nothing less.

I still have my guitar but haven't played much. So I probably play a *lot* worse now (if you can imagine it). But, that's never stopped me before! I have an old Kramer guitar which I bought because there was a picture of Eddie Van Halen on the box.

I've got a couple of Kramers too!! One black and one irridescent Pink (from my GLAM college years... pictures coming soon)

I've been thinking about buying a decent guitar for quite a while but I don't have anybody to play with and I figured it would just sit there gathering dust. I need to get back my IRA superpowers ...

Man... I remember you "picking up" stuff totally fast... you've got some major guitar talent in that curly head of yours! If one of us two had the potential of becoming a serious guitar hero, that was you! You were doing VanHalen stuff when I was still struggling with "Breaking the Law"... I'd love to hear how "much worse" you are now... probably giving Steve vai lessons in between programming gigs!!!!!!
By the way, I still have the BASS you gave me... it is now fretless, and I've added a single coil guitar pick-up to it. I totally treasure that thing... it's chock-full of memories and... of course... IRA Superpowers!

I'd love to buy a synthesizer, a new guitar, a drum machine and do a one-man band thing in my basement.

I've been doing those things in my University days, and it's cool when you want to do some classical stuff, but when you do some rock, pop, jazz, anything where the value is in performing TOGETHER, you can clearly see that it's just a bundle of machines you are dealing with. Gotta have "live" members to play with.

I agree with you. Especially drum parts tend to get a little static... the key is tweaking with dynamics, but that takes a long time... and programming is not what rock 'n roll is about. I've also discovered that the key is to not try to hide the fact that you're recording with machines. Since the "live" feel is close to impossible to recreate, I try to be honest and write around this limitation.

I believe I have an original recording of IRA at one of the talent shows (#2 I think). I seem to remember recording it with one of those '70's era portable cassette recorders (the band's sound demanded matching acoustics in the sound equipment =;~) which gives the recording a fashionable bootleg feel to it.
I also need to mention that in these modern times, a band's material is not complete without each song having an associated video. Also, given IRA's historical significance, I believe a film documentary also is in order.

Cool... I'll have my people call Quentin's (Tarantino) people... maybe we can get something together. In the meantime, let's all think of good titles for the film. Here's my suggestion: "IRA... so what? At least we weren't on drugs!" Of course this title would force us to leave the entire Clay era out of the movie... including that "laced" coffee bean that he slipped me on the senior trip. I swear, that thing had to have been dipped in something... I swear!!!!!

Perhaps we should commission the production crew of the Psycho Relogios commercial to capture that raw, inspiring, youthful, rebellious sound and attitude on film. Do any video clips of the band exist?

Unfortunately, we have a very few video clips of the band. Thinking back, it is VERY unfortunate. We should've made a lot of that! There is a 1-minute 8mm-film version of Andrea, Andre and Steve performing Silly Thing. I sent you that on the video about 5 years ago. In terms of video, I have a video of Andrea playing with Bunny and Co. in the talent show '84, but those are about it.

You do? I've never even seen that one! Where d'you get it? Please, please send me a copy. Is that the show where Bunny had no hair? It must be, that's the only one I played with them. That's the one when we played with that really cool Japanese guy (on bass)... what was his name?

Yes. It's the one with skin-head bunny, and Kyosuke was the Japanese guy's name. There were also 2 back-chorus girls, one of which was Stephanie Conn. Incidentally that video is on Beta, so I have to dubb it onto VHS in order to watch it.

Funny thing, I had a dream about you last night. We were going to shoot a video, and you still insisted on using Betamax tape... weird dream... Bod was there too!
O.K., here's an idea. Who's got video-editing equipment? We could all do little private on-camera interviews (sort of like Spinal Tap) where we share our thoughts on the world's greatest unknown band... then we send the tapes to whomever can edit them together... add the little bits of footage that we've got... and we all get a tape. It'll be great for me to see what you guys look like now... and it would be kinda funny! Let me know what you guys think.

I love this idea! I can do all the editing since I think I have the most of the materials required to do those works. Guys, have your video cameras ready for your own shots! If you don't have one, rent one! Use the best quality tapes because editing usually lowers the quality of image (unless I use a digital video editor or something).

Glad you like it! I'm pretty excited 'cause we're all pretty goofy and creative... and this could be historical!!!!

Back to lobby.