2001 - Complete

12/30/2001 - Well, well, well... another year draws to a close. It seems like only yesterday when it was just New Year's 2000 and now it's 2002! It has been a crazy year for me and for everyone it seems. But, all in all it has been a great year filled with lots of fun, lots of new songs, the release of our new CD and our first show. Keep checking back at the site for more information about the band, our shows and our work on another record. As soon as everybody gets back in town I think we are going to start pre-production. I'd also like to say hello to everyone that has come to our site from other areas of the world via our mp3.com site- I see by my stats machine that we have been getting hits from Japan, Germany, Canada, and even China - hello! In closing I hope that everyone has a fun and safe New Year's Eve wherever you may be! - I just got back to St. Pete - John

12/28/2001 - As promised we have some more pictures available from the CD release party. These excellent photos were taken by Marcus' friend Carrie. - John

12/27/2001 - Hello all! Well as promised here are some pictures from the CD release party that Trish took. I've talked to a few other people and I should have some more in the next few days! Enjoy - John

12/25/2001 - Merry Christmas! It has been a few days since I have been able to get to a computer to update the site, I am currently out of town on a family emergency and I am using a computer inside the hospital to write this entry. We'd like to thank everybody that made it out to our CD release show at the Emerald last Friday, I have never seen that many people in that club! We got there in the afternoon and set up the wall of white Christmas lights while Kenny Watts set the PA up. We ran through a couple of tunes for sound check and then we all split for dinner. When we returned we got the merchandise all set to sell. Thanks to Natty, Trish and Sherry for helping us sell all those CDs and tee shirts. At about 10 p.m. Marcus put one of his fine mix-CDs in and the people started to come in - that place filled up quick! My friend Jim, whom I haven't seen since high school was there with his lovely wife. Also in attendance was Brian and Stan (thanks for getting me the drink!) from Barely Pink, Eydie, the guys from Greed Engine, original Spiller bass player and singer/songwriter Lance Rowland, Jon from Welcome, Stacy and so many others. We hit the stage about 11 p.m. and proceeded to "rock the peoples." We were a little loose, but we had an absolute blast. From the opening guitar riff of Marcus' new tune Sooner or Later the set had a real spark to it. From there we skittered into Check 1, 2..., Inside Out and all the others... I asked the guys to skip the song Veil (written by Lance Rowland and myself) because I couldn't remember the words, but they made me play it anyway. Some other highlights for me were the songs All right, the Letter, New Girl in Town, I've Changed, Sad Song, Lottie's Daughter...OK, I think all the songs were highlights for me... While I'm rambling, I'd like to apologize to anyone that I did not get to say "hello" or "good-bye" to that night after we played, I had a two-hour drive ahead of me and I had to hit the road before it got really, really late. So, after I left I hear that drinks were drunk and so were the rest of the guys as an open jam broke out a little while later. Perhaps one of the other guys can fill in the sorted details. Well, I better run, I think the nurse wants her computer back. Check the site in the next few days, I should be posting some pictures from the show soon. If anyone has some pictures that they took, send them in and we'll send you something special for your efforts. OK, talk to you soon, good night, drive safe, tip your waitresses. - John

12/20/2001 - Another fun practice last night at the State Theater - back to the scene of our first full band practice with the five of us. Special thanks to Dave for letting us jam there whenever we didn't have a place to practice. Well, this will be my final journal entry before the big gig on Friday, it looks like it's going to be a full house. It seems that everybody I know is coming out to see us rock the Emerald for our first show. We finished working up Marcus' new tune and I think we are going to open the show with it. It also looks like the stage production is going to be nice and bright, we're trying to go the extra mile to make it look and sound good for everybody. We care about you, the fan - (warm fuzzy). Just so you can keep score, here is a quick rundown of all the song titles that we are going to be playing on Friday: Alright, Check 1.. 2.., Let me Sing the Praises of Loneliness, the Letter, Lottie's Daughter, I Wanna be Your Boyfriend, If You See Her, Inside Out, I've Changed, New Girl in Town, Sad Song, Sooner or Later, Veil, We're the Same. Also, the newest issue of Focus magazine should be out sometime today or tomorrow - be sure to pick it up and read a great article that Juliette wrote. I'll post it as soon as I get an electronic copy! We also started talking about doing pre-production on the next record - we have a slew of tunes to record. Hopefully we'll start working on thing immediately after Christmas. Hope to see you tomorrow! - John

12/18/2001 - Fun practice last night, the songs are really sounding great. Can't wait for Friday! We even worked up a brand new song of Marcus' called Sooner or Later last night that really sounds great. We also took some pictures for our article in this weeks' issue of Focus Magazine. I'll post the Focus article as soon as I get a copy, most likely on Thursday or Friday. OK, so Martin sends me some crazy pictures sometimes, but these pictures, mostly taken at his Christmas party, are the craziest so far. - John

12/16/2001 - Another fun party at Marcus' last night. Always a good time. I didn't stay all night - I left after the cops showed up for the third time. Well this next week will have us getting ready for our show on Friday - we are ready to rock! I hope that everyone can make it out to see us play. - I'm keeping today's entry short and sweet, hope to see you next Friday night - John

12/15/2001 - Last night's party was a real blast. It was good to see everyone out having a good time, dancing, eating, and enjoying themselves. Travis and Charlene definitely know how to throw a party. Bumped into Bill Umberto for the first time in a long time - I'm sure you remember his as the outstanding bass player in Helium Bomb. Well guess what, the Bomb is putting it back together and hopefully we'll get to see them play some shows in the not to distant future! Tonight finds us all going to another Christmas party at Marcus' pad. A party at Marcus' can only mean 1 thing - karaoke in the back yard! You better believe that there will be pictures from this one too! - John

12/14/2001 - We here at the MF500 are pretty pleased with ourselves, not only did we get a really cool article printed in Weekly Planet this week, but we got our CDs in! Woo-hoo! However, I would like to point out one glaring error in the article however, the Show at the Emerald on the 21st is FREE! Everyone met down at the Garden for drinks and conversation as we all got our paws on the new disc for the first (ooohhh-ahhhh). Thanks for the round of drinks JD! We also gave a CD to the Bartender there, so don't hesitate to ask him to give the disc a spin if you find yourself down there. After few at the Garden we headed over to Mastry's where Martin and the guys got 57,000,000+ points on one of the bar trivia games while I chatted with my buddy Matt. We have also been trying to line up some supercool gigs in the not to distant future - we have a couple of hot leads so stay tuned, we hope to have a major announcement soon. Tonight most of us are headed over to a friends house for a party, hope to see everyone from Dank, Sparky's Nightmare, the Mojo Gurus and MF500 there. - John

12/11/2001 - Greetings all! Practice was fun last night. Juliette from Focus Magazine came out to interview us for a feature in the magazine. She hung out while we played a few tunes and Chris rocked the flops. Next she asked some really good questions - well done! We are looking forward to a great article. We finalized an arrangement for a few songs and will just run through the set for the next three practices. - John

12/10/2001 - Well we got practice tonight - getting ready for the big show on the 21st. Hopefully we'll wrap up a few new tunes and have a full 12 or 13 tunes to play for everyone. Also, Juliette from Focus magazine is coming out to take some pictures and interview us for an article that will run sometime in the not to distant future. I'll give everybody an update and some pictures tomorrow. Chris had a great show with Harry Dash opening up for the Cranberries last night at the Mahaffee Theater. Hopefully he'll drop an entry and let you know how it all went. - John

12/09/2001 - Hello all, just in from the Sparky's Nightmare show at Largo Central Park. It was a Human Rights Day show that benefited Amnesty International. The weather was a summer-like 80+ degrees and and the stage was even hotter. Still, we sneaked some beers into the big festival and proceeded to have a good time. I missed the first few acts, but I caught Ronnie Elliot and the Nationals and they were excellent. The next band was supposed to be Saturn 5, but apparently they bailed at the last minute, so we in Sparky's Nightmare were up next after a brutally long speech by the nutty USF professor that got his ass handed to him on the O'Reiley Factor. But, I digress... Once we decided that the monitors were defiantly not interested in working we tore into a short but excellent set. I think I lost 10 pounds on stage it was so hot. Stacy Mathis popped by for a few pictures and then bee-lined it back to work to control the chaos. Got your note - Catch you on the e-mail! Next up was The Lisps (pronounced with a lisp) featuring Martin, Chris Barrows (Pink Lincolns), Hunter Oswald and um, two other guys who names escape me at the moment... dang - sorry about that guys. Anyway, they tore it up with some killer punk covers. My favorite moment was when Chris was singing about how every little girl is a little whore - while there were children's birthday parties on the picnic tables around the park. Nice touch guys. - John

12/07/2001 - Well folks it looks like the Joe Popp show that we had scheduled for the 5th of January will not feature Joe Popp the band, in fact we are going to reschedule the entire show until the end of January so we can get the show together properly! It seems that I jumped the gun by saying that they had all committed to playing the show. Keep checking the shows page for the new date when we get it. We'll have to come up with something especially new and exciting for everybody at the Orpheum that night. Got any ideas?

After a rocking practice at Circle Studios on Wednesday night he band convened down at Limey's on 4th street for our Weekly Planet interview with Scott Harrell, lead man for the Cocktail Honeys and an excellent literary writer in his own right. The interview mainly focused on how long all of us have been in the scene (veterans, if you will) and why we keep doing what we do! I must say there was a bit of reminiscing about old bands Scott and and all of us were in and how the scene was before all these garsh darn whipper snappers came in and messed it up with their Ibanez guitars and Crate amps and their rock and roll music. Hopefully he will get a chance to listen to our new CD while he writes the article. You'll be able to read all about it in the December 13th Weekly Planet when it comes out. However, we here in Misfortune 500 like to speculate, especially Marcus. Here now is his interpretation of how the interview will likely play out. Enjoy. What's new with you? - John

12/04/2001 - Just got word that Ravis from the Weekly Planet will be interviewing us for a feature article tomorrow night after practice down at one of the local watering holes. Should be fun. Ravis did some excellent work with my previous band Spiller and is one of the best guitarists/singers/songwriter around, and probably one of the only people that is qualified to make fun of us - let's hope he asks the tough probing questions. This just in - just got off the phone with Martin, seems that Joe Popp (the man) will be in town the week of January 3rd for the opening of his play Maxwell at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Theater in Tampa. The other good news is that Misfortune 500 will be performing with Joe Popp (the band!) on January the 5th at the Orpheum in Ybor City. I'll post more details when I get them. John

12/02/2001 - Well last night's Christmas show was a ton of fun. All the bands sounded good and the improv comedy troop called the Caffeine Kids were really funny too. If you missed the show you also missed some really nice Christmas decorations and good sugar cookies. We in Sparky's Nightmare had a great set beginning with Martin's new Christmas tune and then segueing into Elvis' Blue Christmas (I finally nailed that guitar solo). Next up was a tune Sam wrote call Just Give Me Some Presents and we finished up with a punk-y Silent Night. Hope everybody enjoyed our home video on the big screen behind us! The Gita were in rare form tonight - Christmas rapping and a dancing Santa Claus were highlights to be sure. I also especially enjoyed the set by Ashes of Grisum. Chris started the set a-capella and then brought the band in for the remainder of the tunes and even obliged the crown with an encore at the end of the evening. Oh, don't park your car behind the State Theater any more - cars were towed... - John

12/01/2001 - This year is flying by so fast I can hardly believe it. Everyone headed out tonight to see Chris play with local band Harry Dash. Also playing was 10 Second Drop and E3 from Sarasota. Spoke with Doug Tackitt (excellent drummer who's been rocking the scene for nearly as long as I have) from 10 Second Drop and he hooked me up with their excellent new EP - good stuff. Chris made us all jealous rocking out with his Les Paul, keyboard, and laptop computer on-stage. How one dude be so cool (and tall). The mad Swede rocks! Also bumped into Rick Mongaya (sp? - sorry Rick) the original drummer from Lie, it was good to say hello and catch up. Tomorrow night Martin and I are playing with Sparky's Nightmare at the State Theater for the 2nd(??) annual "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out" Christmas Special that the Gita have been putting on. Tons of bands are playing - I'll catch up with you tomorrow and give you the scoop. Until tomorrow - John

11/21/2001 - Hello everybody and happy Thanksgiving! This year finds us getting together with family to enjoy some food and hopefully some football. We just received the proofs back for the printing for our CD booklets and everything looks great. Can't wait for everybody to see and hear what we have been working on all year. We should have the CDs by the time we play our first original show at the Emerald in St. Pete on December 21st. We still haven't lined up the other acts that are playing, but hopefully we'll have an acoustic opening act and then a DJ after we play. It's a free show so come out and cheer us on, we are hoping to have a few surprises for everyone. See you soon. - John