Someone always asks me...."What's a Laxical Daisy?," and I sometimes respond, "I don't know, what's a Beatle?"
Every night it's the same story. The ones that have seen us before know what's coming, the ones who haven't, let's just say they go through a process. Initially, the crowd just kind of stares, surprised at how good the band is, how well we play. Almost immediately they find themselves bobbing their heads, singing along, even if they are not quite sure of all the words, yet. That's alright. Good hooks do that to you. The growing crowd draws closer to the stage, jockeying for their space to groove in. You can feel the energy building. Then, without warning, all hell breaks loose. Body to body they go, jumping, laughing, arms in the air....screams of joy amid the madness. The whole room moves as one in time. Song after song taking them higher until....the lights come up. The crowd calls for one more, but we see in their faces what we feel, a happily earned exhaustion. Their night of sonic sex is over. We thank everyone. We like to hop right off stage to talk to whoever is hanging out, just to meet some new people, get some feedback. A good part of the crowd hangs out afterwards. Some to chat with the band, which makes you feel kind of cool, and others just because they don't want the night to end. Without fail, as we work through the crowd, someone always asks me, "What's a Laxical Daisy"...and sometimes I respond.....
Laxical Daisy is a play on words. When Jedd was doing some shows down south, he happened across an ol' country gentleman who was describing one of his friends, a real "laid back, cool cat" as he put it. "Yep, that ol' boy got a real laxicaldaisy way about him". We think he meant laxidaisical. Either way, he meant it as a compliment.
Frank Picarazzi, Jedd Chlebowski, and I grew up ten minutes from each other. But we didn't actually meet until we were all trying to get our degrees in music education at the University of Bridgeport. We were fast friends, and bandmates. We'd play anytime, anywhere. When we were lucky, we'd pull in a few hundred dollars...each, playing a wedding pre-reception as a jazz trio. Then, of course, there were the Tuesday nights we'd drive into Manhattan to back-up a "singer/songwriter" for her midnight? show. We'd laugh the whole ride home trying to figure out how to split forty dollars three ways. After giving Jedd gas money, a bag of Doritos, and three Slurpies, well, you get the picture. At some point, we decided to add a fourth member to our group. We went about this very scientifically, conducting interviews, requiring medical records...O.K, we put an ad in what is now called The Fairfield County Weekly. The first person to call was Boondoggle Mike. I invited him up to my parents' house (every musician spends a portion of their adult life back at home)for a rehearsal. After we put the case of Pete's Wicked he brought in the fridge, he then led us through two straight hours of the best of the Beatles. Search over!
Just the facts ma'am....
Jedd Chlebowski recently received his Master's Degree in Performance from the University of Connecticut. In addition to LD, he has performed with the Hartford Symphony, and a number of the region's best acts. Frank Picarazzi is a much sought-after drummer/vibe player in the NYC area, an award-winning, published composer (Alfred Music)and considered by his predecessors and comtemporaries alike to be one of the most complete musicians of the 21st century. Boondoggle Mike performs acoustically as an accomplished solo guitarist/singer. In addition, he runs a music entertainment group with long time partner, Bill R. Derek Perry, that's me...and I'm just along for the ride. (If you believe that, then you must be asking yourself..."Why's his face on the cover?")
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