The Daffy Dave Band
Meet the Daffy Dave Band
Rock and Roll Children's Music that Adults Will Love Too
Biography
The Daffy Dave Band
The Daffy Dave Band is usually an hour-long fun-filled concert for kids and parents to come together singing, dancing and laughing! That's right! Laughing! The way only Daffy Dave can tickle the funny bones of kids and grown-ups too, all while moving around, dancing, singing, and physically acting out parts of Daffy's infectious audience participation cues. (Kids will want to go to bed early after such fun!)
Fresh from premiering Daffy Dave's new movie, Sidekick Productions Presents: "The Silly Adventures of Daffy Dave", The Daffy Dave Band features Daffy Dave (aka Dave Mampel) on guitar and lead vocals, Dusty Buckles (aka Scott Smith) on Lead Guitar and back-up vocals, and Uncle Ben Franklin (aka Mark Stein) on Bass Guitar and back-up vocals. The DD Band set list includes silly original Daffy Dave audience participation songs, traditional kid songs with a silly twist (e.g., "Wheels on the Bus" and "Hurry, Hurry Fire Truck!"), as well as rockin' pop tunes and the always fun, "Chicken Dance"!
Award winner and California's favorite, Daffy Dave, (aka Dave Mampel) has been performing professionally as a Variety Entertainer since 1992. His Comedy Magic, Music and Juggling Shows, have been a popular hit with family audiences in many regions of the USA.
After hearing rave reviews about Scott Smith in 1999, a talented local musician and record producer in the Bay Area, Dave sought out a meeting with him to produce his first children's album, "Get Down and Funny!" which later morphed into "Silly Party Songs" and has now sold over 10,000 copies, thousands of digital downloads, radio airplay, positive reviews in School Library Journal and Booklist Magazine and has won several "Children's Music Web Awards". One of its songs, "Soccer Rock N Roll" even aired on The NBC Today Show. Scott helped Dave record a total of seven albums and eventually played the character, "Dusty Buckles", on Dave's local TV Show, "Daffy Dave's Tree Fort" which won 2nd place in the 2003 nationally acclaimed, Hometown Video Awards.
Scott's multi-talented musical background includes recording with or sharing the stage with Micky Dolenz, Rick Derringer, Larry Coryell, Bon Jovi, Cheap Trick, and members of Santana, Sheryl Crow's band, the Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Stevie Winwood and Lindsay Buckingham, to name a few.
As Dave and Scott continued to turn out more fun children's albums and episodes of Daffy Dave's Tree Fort (co-produced with Peter Lonsky), they formed The Daffy Dave Band to play to local fans that now includes over a thousand families in Northern California and in a growing number of other national and international regions.
As the band developed, playing at The Save The Music Festival in Belmont, California, The Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose, California, Coyote Point Museum, The City of Redwood City, Bookstock III and corporate shows for Nvidia, Apple Computers, and others, old members moved on and Mark Stein joined as the Bass Player and back-up vocalist, "Uncle Ben Franklin".
Mark helped to Master a few of Daffy Dave's albums and is a long-time friend and associate of Scott Smith. Mark's background includes owning and operating his recording studio and record label and playing in the rock bands Life Of The Party, Symphony Of Satire, Tiny Violins, DMV, as well as several Irish duos and trios, country and jazz bands.
Most recently, Kyle Bowers joined The Daffy Dave Band as "Rocker Dude" and plays many of the incredible lead guitar solos on The Meet The Daffy Dave Band album. He was introduced to the band via Scott Smith (Dusty Buckles) who co-owns (with Scott and two others) White Rabbit Studios in Campbell, CA. Some of Kyle's leads remind us of listening to a live Cream concert or Joan Jett. It's so cool to mix up the adult sounds with kids lyrics and attitudes and Kyle helps us accomplish this unique, edgy kid's rock and roll that adults love too!
Most of us don't think of silly musicians as educators, but a successful clown/magician/juggler and comedy music group can have a pretty big impact on a young audience. The Daffy Dave Band's themes are simple, important messages that every child should learn --mistakes are okay, the value of song and dance, cleaning up after yourself, and, most importantly, how to have fun while you are doing and learning these things and so much more. The Daffy Dave Band is now poised to continue touring their positive, funny music and antics to other local, regional and national venues and are currently negotiating several shows for 2009 and 2010.
So, watch out world! Here they come!---The Daffy Dave Band! And, if your older kids love Guitar Hero, they're going to love The Meet The Daffy Dave Band Album. Younger kids will love the innocent spirit and silliness, and parents will chuckle and groove on traces of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, The Beatles, Joan Jett, Lou Reed, The Talking Heads, and other cool rock influences. You'll swear your hearing live Cream and Bo Diddley on "Birthday Party", Sargeant Pepper's on "Time To Go To Bed", Joan Jett and Lou Reed on "The Singin' Dingalings", David Byrne and Johnny Rotten on "I Don't Want To", and other wierd, off the wall musical resonances. There's also a funny "behind the scene" studio rendition of the Jay Ward cartoon classic "Super Chicken" and a silly, but cool "audio skit" called "Dusty's Drum Solo". The final cut is an instrumental version of Time To Go To Bed that will help the kids wind down and sleep after such a rollicking rockin' kid-friendly and parent-tested album.
Instrumentation
Daffy Dave - (Dave Mampel)- Lead Vocals & Rhythm Guitar
Dusty Buckles - (Scott Smith)- Lead Guitar & Back-up Vocals, Drums
Uncle Ben Franklin -(Mark Stein)- Bass, Guitar & Backup Vocals
Rocker Dude -(Kyle Bowers)- Lead Guitar, rhythm guitar, back-up vocals
Discography
The Silly Adventures of Daffy Dave (DVD) 2007
Daffy Dave's Tree Fort (DVD) 2004
Meet The Daffy Dave Band (2009)
Stories of the Silly and Strange (CD) 2007
Class Clown (CD) 2006
Silly Party Songs (CD) 2006
Bedtime Stories and Lullabies (CD) 2003
The Little Monster (and other silly-scary stories & songs) (CD) 2003
Moods: Mood: Funny