Ep 233 Dead Freddie

Dead Freddie's original music is a blend of garage, glam, punk, post-punk, power pop, ska and straight up rock. The original group, called Dead Freddie Band, formed in 1979 on the southwest side of Chicago.  The group played mainly original material but was certainly influenced by the then new Punk movement. The original group disbanded in 1982, but the DNA of the original sound continues with the current line up which goes back to 2013.

Transcript

Ep 233 Dead Freddie

Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, it's the Rock and Roll Chicago Podcast. Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this is Hollywood Mike.

How you doing tonight, Ray? I'm still freezing. I know. Can you believe it? It's April and what's this weather that we're having? I know, snow and distilleries in Kentucky getting flooded out.

When are we going to get our bourbon? I am heartbroken. I know. For those who haven't heard, the Buffalo Trace distillery is underwater.

It's underwater? I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm not switching to vodka again. No, never.

I'm glad I got my supply though. Yeah, yeah. Me too.

I got a good... One of our guests in the studio is wearing a t-shirt that I've been trying to find for like 10 years. Really? Which one? We've got Red Fox over there. It's a big dummy.

Yeah. The one that I found though was navy and Red Fox was in like a yellow velvet. Wow.

Nice. I've got to find that one. The one you really want is Red Fox and Bubba where it says, I want my daddy's records.

Yeah. Oh, that's a good one. That's a good one.

I've seen it at record conventions. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, now that everybody knows there's other people in the room with us. Yeah. I thought that was a ghost.

Did I spoil it? We have ghosts. Yeah. Let's welcome Dead Freddy.

Dead Freddy in the studio, everybody. There he is. Hello.

Great to be here. Since we're dead, we're ghosts, right? Yeah. You haven't been here that long yet.

So don't say it's great to be here. You have no idea what the hell is about to happen. So first question, I'm getting the first question on this one.

You do it. Who is Dead Freddy and why is he dead? You take that. Well, it's quite a history.

Back in 1979, when we first recruited the original lineup for Dead Freddy, we decided we do not want to have a band that starts with The. The Cars, The Beatles, The Who, whatever. It was not going to be a The name.

So both our bass player and original guitarist at the time were at Quigley South. Now it's now known as St. Rita. That's right.

Now it's known as St. Rita. Back then it was still Quigley South Seminary. And the bass player was sharing with his friends that, yeah, me and a couple of guys were starting this band.

We're trying to think of a name. And his buddy goes, well, I was going to have a band, too, but it just isn't coming together. But I had this dream.

And I was going to name my band Dead Freddy. But if you guys want to be Dead Freddy, then you can use that name. And they didn't want to call it The Dead Freddy.

No, no. They didn't want to call it The Dead Freddy. So, yeah, it came to somebody, a mutual acquaintance and a dream, and he passed it on to us.

And then we decided we're going to stick with that. So we have no idea whether he is alive or dead. No, we don't.

But what kind of a dream do you have where you've got this Dead Freddy thing in your brain? Yeah, I'd be checking under the bed when I went to bed every night. Maybe he had just seen Nightmare on Elm Street. Possibly.

Something like that. Possibly. You know what I think is fascinating about our guests tonight? What's that? We have one guy that plays the accordion, but he's not the one that looks like Weird Al Yankovic.

I get that all the time. I get that. I take it as a compliment now.

I used to take it as an offense. I used to have a handlebar mustache, so I used to get Frank Zappa sometimes back in the day. I used to get John Lennon.

But now it's Weird Al all the time. And you are correct. I don't have an accordion.

Have you seen the movie? Which one? So there's a spoof biopic about Weird Al Yankovic. Yes, yes, I did. Yes, I saw it on the Roku channel.

Yes, that's where I saw it. Yeah, Roku channel. But what's the guy's name? I bet you it's Frodo, no? No, he played, he was Harry Potter.

Yes, Daniel Radcliffe. Daniel Radcliffe plays, yes. And the whole thing was a spoof because Weird Al Yankovic is like a lurch.

He's like 6'6", and Daniel Radcliffe is like 5'4". Exactly. He's about as big as the accordion.

So everything, everything was the exact opposite in the movie. You know, they talk about how he was like, he'd go to parties and stuff, and they're like, hey, Al, get your accordion out, man. I mean, it was just, it was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life.

Yeah, but unfortunately, he does not have the honor of being the first accordion in our studio. He does not. So we're the first accordion.

No, no, no, not the first accordion. We've had one other accordion. Yeah.

No glockenspiels, though. Wait, who was our accordion guest? I forgot. Eddie Carossa? No.

Oh my God, I forgot. He didn't bring one in. That's a friend of mine.

We did Eddie Carossa, we did Frank Rossi, but they did not bring anything in. I've played with Eddie many times. Talk amongst yourselves.

I'll find out. No, I'm not. Because you said, no, I can't.

You said you guys are going to do this entire thing in Lithuanian. I decided not to now. Oh, OK.

All right. I wanted to speak Lithuanian. I don't know why I don't speak it now.

I don't know. OK, OK. So you speak French? I know oof.

Oof is egg, right? Oof is egg. Yeah, it could be. I think that's the sound you make when you fall down.

I don't know. Oof. A couple more bourbons and it might happen.

Yeah. So you guys have been around, well, at least you've been around since 1979. Yes.

Yes. And before we before we go on with that, you got to tell everybody how to actually pronounce your name, because I tried and I spit on myself. Go ahead.

It's pronounced Donatus Romanauskas. There you go. The Lithuanian.

Donatus Romanauskas. That's right. OK, excellent.

Roll that R. Yeah. And you are? Gentus Bujnavicius. It's worse.

It's worse. Wow. Not as bad as Bernadicious.

That's a good one, too. Wow. I mean, do you do you do you roll that in a tortilla or something? Yeah, it is.

Gotcha. OK. So, yeah.

So you guys have been around since 1979. You were all part of that like early kind of punk scene that was going on in the city. We were on the we stood over that threshold between hard rock of, you know, the classic rock Rolling Stones, The Who, The Beatles, Zeppelin.

We one leg was on that side of threshold. And there was this moment of punk epiphany where one of our mutual buddies brought in a Clash record, Ramones record and a Sex Pistols record. You got to listen to this.

Yeah. And after that, nothing was the same. Were you a were you a fan of the stuff coming out of CBGBs? Yeah, there's plenty of good bands coming out of CBGBs.

I ate that shit up. You know, when I was in, you know, I was in high school in the 80s and all my friends were into bands like Guns N' Roses and Poison and Cinderella and stuff like that. And I was listening to like the Dead Boys, you know, and really, really early Police and Talking Heads and stuff like that.

I absolutely loved that music that was coming out. It was so cool that there was somebody doing that. Yeah.

To me, it was like, OK, it was a bunch of people playing in their parents' garage and somebody had a black tape recorder just on record. And let's put the, you know, put the stuff out as an album. Right.

I was lucky enough to actually be at CBGB for one time. It was I got to see they had a whole bunch of bands from Ohio, and it was the first time Guided by Voices tour, you know, because he was a schoolteacher, Robert Power was or whatever. And they came out with Propeller and it kind of like propelled them.

So I flew to Connecticut because my cousin lived there. And then we took a train to New York. So we went to CBGBs.

I was like, oh, my gosh, this is fantastic. But I got to tell you, like the toilet at CBGBs is kind of Viversoft's train spotting. Like when he gets sucked into the toilet, it looked like it was whatever horrible thing.

It was CBGBs, but it was so classic there. And it was like, I loved it because it's like I got to touch like part of an icon, so to speak. Yeah.

You know, it was wonderful. No matter where you sat, you got to touch part of an icon. Yes, you did.

And smell it too. Yeah, I couldn't couldn't imagine there's my daughter and I would like to watch a movie called Bandslam. Oh, we watch it over and over and over again.

The movie's probably about 15 years old or something like that. But it's about it's about a battle of the bands competition. And there's a school assignment where one student has to bring his his partner in this in this assignment to his favorite place on earth.

And they go to CBGBs. The you know, the, you know, you lift up the door, the grate and the sidewalk to make the deliveries and stuff. And the thing is unlocked and they go in there.

The place you can tell that the place they filmed it and it was left the way it was when they probably closed the doors for the last time. Yeah. And if you could ever smell a movie clip.

And he talks about how many times Patti Smith must have spit on this floor. Sure. Yeah.

This just in from our newsroom. Yes. The original accordion band was Gotham Ramblers.

Oh, that's right. We did have them. But did they bring a real accordion, though? She did.

What a great. I swear she did. Yeah, she did bring an accordion.

Yeah. Not the Gotham Ramblers. No, just Gotham.

No, it's just Gotham Ramblers. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Very, very unique band as well. Yeah.

Rock and rock and Celtic. Yeah. Rocking Celtic.

She's actually from Ireland, has the broke the whole bit. Drink whiskey with the best of them. And they were they're called they're called Gotham Ramblers because the leader of the band is actually the owner of a Michael Keaton Batmobile.

Yeah. Oh, man. And when he's not performing with the band, he's dressed up as Batman, marrying people as Batman and taking them for rides in the Batmobile.

It's great. You can't make that up. No.

So what do you got? Right. So I mean, we're musicians, so we all have a little bit of ADHD. Right.

So 1979 was this formed. It was like a like a high school band. How did everything come together? Take us take us to the beginning.

So we live we grew up in a Lithuanian diaspora of the south side of Chicago. So we became what was known as practicing Lithuanians. So we were part of Lithuanian Association.

We went for multiple. I went 11 years in a row every Saturday to Lithuanian school. I was in a Lithuanian choir and I was even fact in a Lithuanian Cub Scout choir.

I think I brought the record. In fact, I can show you later. So so props.

We grew up in this bubble on the south side. And as we got older, you know, we felt like we were constrained by by the Lithuanian culture. You're a teenager.

You want to rebel. You want to do other stuff. And, you know, there was this band way back then and they were called Mist.

Oh, yeah. They were a kiss cover band. And we saw that and we go, I want to be in a band.

And so a number of my friends that were in the grandest Lithuanian folk dance ensemble, we decided we're going to make a band. And so that's when my my good friend, Vinus and I, in the summer of 78, we started learning covers. And then he started writing material.

And then by 1979, he had enough original material to warrant finding some other musicians. So we were at a typical south side Lithuanian basement party and word had gotten out that, you know, Donatas and Vinus, they're they're trying to start a band. So and they're bringing an accordion.

And so and so I knew I knew two of these guys were at this party through being in Boy Scouts. And they said, well, I know how to play bass. My brother knows how to play guitar.

And we have a good friend, not a Boy Scout, I know, but he plays drums. And so that was the whole start of it. So we had Joey Mikujus on drums, and then we had El Ploplis on one guitar.

And then we had Vitas Ploplis on bass. And then we had Vinus Alexa on guitar and the main composer of the songs. And then there was just me just yelling.

No Bob, no Bob in the band. But why is Gary Mathers in your Boy Scout troop? I mean, those people that were actually in your Boy Scout troop? They were part of the council. They weren't all in my direct group.

But are you on the cover? Yeah, we know we gotta we gotta we gotta take a look at it here. He was Gary Mathers. I won't pick it.

I won't I won't wait. I won't pick it out. Is that you? Nope.

The one right next to him. Right there. Yep.

Okay. And the one right next to me to my left, you're right. He was Vinus.

He's the other guy that started that. Wow. That's how far back we go.

That's 1968. I just like to say I really love my parents even more today. Yeah, they didn't make me do any of that stuff.

I knew so many people that were into all those organizations and they didn't make me do anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had a lot.

I had tons of friends that were like in Boy Scouts and all that stuff. I said, no, I chose to have sex in high school. The closest thing I got to any kind of organized organized thing is one of my best friends.

His parents owned Litz Club. So, you know what we got every weekend? That must be some Lithuanian inside joke. I'm assuming it's a bar.

It's a bar. It was a bar. 69th Street.

It was like all bars down there between California and Western. I think there was like 26 bars. I lost part of my liver down there.

I know it very well. Wow. Excellent.

Excellent. You're the only original member of the band. I'm the only remaining original member.

Have you guys been operating as a band the entire time or did you go on hiatus for a while? There was a long hiatus from about 83 to 2011. Wow. You did take some time off.

Did take some time off. Well, we had a lovely family. We each gone through a couple of marriages and, you know, that was life.

And once our kids got old enough, actually my older daughter, she's a guitarist in her own right, a songwriter in her own right. She's a Scott musician. And so once she got old enough, she'd start playing guitar.

And so, Dad, what instrument should I learn? I said, well, we'll go to Guitar Center. So I went to go. It was a thing for us.

Every Sunday afternoon we go to Guitar Center. And so I'd love to play drums, Dad. Well, sure.

Let's let's try those out. And then I steered her to the guitars and she says, OK, I'll learn guitar first and I'll learn drums later. Yes.

There you go. You said you wanted to be a musician, honey. You got to choose.

You can't be both. You can't be a drummer and a musician. I take offense at that.

I'm the drummer in Dead Freddy. Don't let this guitar fool you. So from 79 to like 83, you guys were playing.

What was the what was the first gig you guys played? The very first gig or since we restarted the band? No, the very first gig. The very first. As a matter of fact, we are at the 45 year anniversary of that very first gig, I think yesterday or tomorrow's.

Wow. Nineteen eighty. It was Lithuanian Youth Center at 5620 South Claremont Avenue in Chicago.

Yeah. Gage Park neighborhood. Yeah.

And it's still to this day is the functioning Southside Lithuanian Center. Sure. Sure.

So I think things still happen there. Right. So during that time, were you pretty much just maintain kind of a reputation as a bar band or did you take it a little bit further beyond that? Tell us a little bit about the early days.

Early days. Well, because three of the guys were under 21, we had a very difficult time booking into bars. So we did some Lithuanian events.

Probably the most famous or infamous event was, I think, right around 4th of July. It just happened to coincide with the International Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival, which that year was at the amphitheater in 1981. We still had an amphitheater.

And one of the other side organizations goes, you know, we're going to we're going to have a dance for all the kids that are here in town. And so you guys are going to be the band and the only band. So so there we were at the I'll just say the Knights of Lithuania Hall on 44th and Artesian.

It has a standing room capacity of about 40. And as legends grow and time goes on, people were telling me, yeah, like 400 people waiting outside. I don't remember that.

If you do, you weren't there. It's kind of like the fish was this big. Exactly.

Right, right, right. The place was packed. It was probably the most packed show we've ever played then or since.

And that that was probably the most memorable show of the early era. And then we played some shows that were not so memorable. I mean, we had our opening show at the Lithuanian Youth Center a couple of weeks later.

Another organization. Hey, you want to do that again? Yeah, we'll do that again. And then we played at this place called the Forum Club.

I think it was like at 61st and Kedzie. And it was abysmal because a guy wouldn't let anybody underage get in there. So, you know, we had we had our three friends that were over 21.

They're watching us play. And so, yeah, we did a couple of shows on Beverly Shores, which is a lot of Lithuanian summer people that live there. And they invited us to play out there.

And then eventually I moved to Detroit for for love and glory and a job. And the other guys still carried on and they still played some shows. And every once in a while, I come back and still play a show with them.

I come back from Detroit, play a show with them. But by about 82 into 83, people were finishing high school. People were getting into college.

Uh, my buddy Vinus had finished UIC and moved to Germany to be a high school teacher at the V-16, which is the Lithuanian Independence Day, February 16th. And, you know, the other guys, two brothers took over their dad's metalworking business. And then Joey decided, I'm going to sell cars.

OK, yeah, he sold his drums, Vyta sold his bass. I don't know what Al did with all of his gear, but they just the dream was gone. Yeah.

And so I reached out to them in 2000 for a 20 year reunion. I got crickets. And then I tried again in 2005 for a 25 year thing and still got crickets.

So fine, typical musicians. Yeah. So finally, you know, we were at summer camp.

I was an instructor. And this other lady that remembers us playing our earliest show, she goes, well, we got to do this again because you guys are really good. You think you get the band back together? So I try it one more time and everyone says, no, I can't do it.

No, don't want to do it. So then I go, well, I'm still want to do this. So I got my daughter to play guitar.

I got another one of her buddies to play bass. And then an older dude, he ended up playing with us in Dead Freddy Ed. He ended up playing the other guitar.

And then he had a buddy, Thomas Mulhern, and he played drums for us. So that was in 2011. And the reason we got the band back together is because they wanted us to play for a fundraiser, to raise funds, to send kids to high adventure camp the next summer.

And so we did we did well, you know, we probably drew about three or four hundred people at that show, which is pretty good. And the next year we did it again. And then in 2015, we did it one more 2014.

We did it one more time. And then after that, it's like, well, we should do this more than once a year. Yeah.

Right. And so by then, get this play in the first one with his original band Steak. Yeah.

In 2014, he took a hiatus, but that's a whole other story for all of the time. A whole other story. Steak.

He didn't want a The Band either. Just Steak. We used to play Batteries Not Included, if you remember that was on Webster and Clyburn.

We played there a lot. Yeah. So this is back in the 80s, early 90s.

We played Avalon. Yeah. Way back.

Steak as in through the heart or steak like medium rare? Like medium rare. OK. Just Steak.

Just Steak. So one of the members that played one of the Youth Nights approaches me and he goes, you want to have the best version of Dead Freddy ever? Well, yeah. Well, I got my buddy.

He's a good drummer. He's Guinness. So he introduced us.

He's the mutual guy that gave us the connection. And so then in the fall of 2013, that's when he and I first started being in a band together in 2013. So, you know, it's wacky because our mutual friend, he comes up to me and goes, and I used to see Dead Freddy back like, you know, when I was in high school, I would I didn't know him.

I didn't know Donatas, but we would go to these dances and stuff, you know, like, oh, Dead Freddy. Yeah, sure. OK.

I knew about it. So then again, Sherman set the Wayback Machine way up, you know, and and our mutual friend goes to me, he goes, hey, he goes, you want to be a drummer for Dead Freddy? I just started laughing. I go, Dead Freddy.

I go, you got to be kidding me. What? Like the Dead Freddy? I'm like, yeah, sure. I mean, because I was mainly guitarist.

I, you know, but I play drums as well, which is a blessing and a curse to be a drummer. It's so much easier to just bring a guitar, whereas if I had to bring a drum kit now, which is how I curse myself and four hernias later, you know, so. But anyways, I go, yeah, sure.

I go, let's try it out, you know. So so I joined, you know, we joined and I had to transcribe the original music from Dead Freddy. There weren't any like sheet musics or anything like that.

So I had to sit and I'm like, OK, I got to figure out all the chords. I got to figure this. I got to figure that out.

And it's all original music. So you really had no reference. No reference at all.

No, just a crappy old cassette that sounded like it was like, you know, under under grandma's armpit recording or something. Oh my God. It was in my glove box.

High quality. There's an image I don't need. Can't unsee that one.

Yeah, or unsmell that one. Right. Right.

But yeah, so so I I finally deciphered everything and I put in a nice sheet music and stuff like that. And then I'm like, well, I got to start writing for the band. So now that I had transcribed everything and really studied all of the Vinus's and Donatus's music, like, OK, well, I got to start writing because I've written songs forever.

So I started getting into the how do I I have to write like how Dinus wrote back in the 70s and 80s. But yet I still have to kind of put a modern flair on it as well, you know, and kind of like take this into like, OK, now we're in the 2000s, you know, because I wasn't in back then. So I think I successfully did that, you know, and luckily, you know, our friend Nick, who's also a bass player, he's now our guitarist as well.

But so he was a very big support system for me. He's like, oh, yeah, that's a great song. We're going to totally do it.

And then we all worked it out and we melded together the old with the new. And then here we are today, you know, so. Well, I think it's about time we hear some of this music.

Yeah, this. Now I'm scared. Music from this Lithuanian island.

Chicago. That's right. So we're going to take a short break.

We'll be right back. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Hey, everybody, it's Ray the roadie.

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All righty, for the first time this evening, Dead Freddy. One, two, one, two. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh Why are you talking and talking Oh Yay Yay Yay Clean up and how all of my excitement I spilled all over the table, I think Are you going to get a towel? I was going to go get a towel.

Wow So, okay. So mary's waiting in the yard um Do tell That's that's like an original. Yeah, she's still waiting.

Yeah That's probably one of the first two or three songs that we've ever wrote and we ever played. Yeah Closer to the mic Yeah, and and to this day we play it at every show pretty much play that every show we play that song So is it about a girl? It is about a girl. Okay, because I was totally imagining the statue on my grandmother's front yard I never thought of that angle There's mary's just staying waiting there in the yard That's been great for the video.

Yeah For the next mary or that's an album cover mary's waiting in the yard is the name of the album is So the story behind the song is that uh Semi-biographical it was um, our our lead guitarist had a couple of relationships happening Pretty much at the same time and one of the relationships was was more of a wild child kind of a girl And the other one was more erudite educated, uh the daughter of a famous lithuanian poet, you know, very straight girl, and so he respected the one but Lost it after the other one And this is the story about the conflict that song is the conflict that he was going through at the time. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah I still think mary's waiting. God.

That's great. I love that I I couldn't get she's just there. Somebody let her in.

It's cold. Look at their snow. There's snow on her for christ's sake Someone like mary and mary.

Yeah What year did uh, did you guys write that song? Uh 79. Wow. So that's been around.

Wow. Yeah, no kidding So it seems like you guys really uh, get a rock and roll chicago podcast flashback. Yeah I mean you guys really it seems like you guys really got your support and got your inspiration from the lithuanian community I mean at the beginning.

Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, yeah, if it weren't for the for that community It's like we'd still be in a garage somewhere in someone's basement or whatever is that even? Interesting.

So fast forward. Let's talk about the new era the new era. Yeah Um, i'm actually now besides donatas.

I am the longest running Dead freddy member even the originals. That's right. I have them all beat i'm in about 11 years now So, uh, one of the interesting facts, yes, i'm still the only original, uh member from the original lineup and since that Including the original lineup.

There have been 24 different people. Yes That have more than yes or fleetwood that played at least one rehearsal or one show with dead freddy now certainly You know if you if you drew the bar graph gintas i'm way out here gintas is not far behind Uh, and then you know, we have others that have been in the band three four or five years and then they move on for whatever reason um, and we just we just Bond and we have such a good time doing it that we always Have what we call the bullpen and yeah, we have the bullpen and he's the president. I'm the vice president That's pretty much well, you know what you've got more original members in your band than foreigner.

Yeah pretty much you do You've got more original members in your band than leonard skinner now. That's true. And now kansas and kansas Right.

Oh my gosh. Yeah Aren't they considered legacy and we're not counting you right? Yeah, right That's right. I may get a call.

So so yeah, we're the two constants now. Yeah, we have been since 2013 um, so We in 2015 we sat in his his living room and we had just played a open mic. It was a great success It was even flow and geneva.

Oh, yeah, we had such a great great place. It really is How'd you draw there? It did was it a good show for it was a good show It was an open mic and it was it was an open mic. Okay.

Gotcha. It was december 23rd. Oh, it was like The day before we didn't play there as well a little bit, but yeah But in this particular case, it was this open mic that convinced us to get back together right after new year's and discuss the the possibility of making this, uh, Not a full-time thing, but a more formalized thing more than once a year.

Yeah, and uh, so So yeah, we said well we're older and we should be smarter We could it doesn't always work, but you're musicians. So I mean that doesn't work. So toss smart out the window right off the bat.

Yeah Nothing you can do about older. Yeah I said to my I said to my parents I said ma when I grew up I want to be a musician and again, my mom said you can't do both son. That's right.

Yeah You can't choose Yeah, yeah, so, uh, it was 2015. We ended up, uh, we started like a lot of bands, too We went to uh open mics. We had to even flow we went to Oh god, what's the name of that one place, uh, Smiler Coogans.

Oh, yeah Coogans, man. We went to uh, Montrose Saloon. Yes Now here's a crazy story.

So the importance of having open mic nights and attending open mic nights and Now we all love Fitzgerald's, you know, you know, this is bill bill still owned his way pre-pandemic and all that I I before I even knew the nazis I would play open mic nights at Fitzgerald's every week I was there no matter what so then when dead freddy started coming around i'm like dudes We gotta we gotta play open mic nights at Fitzgerald's. So one night, uh, it was uh, what's bill's wife's name? Kate. Yes.

Kate Fitzgerald She walked in on us and she it was just a three piece and there was no drum kit or anything You know, it was just us doing this kind of thing acoustically and And she saw us and she liked us. It was great. Well unbeknownst to us We didn't know what was going on apparently she went up and talked to donatas, you know, sort of like okay, you know And he didn't say anything to us because he's a strong silent type.

He doesn't always share this information with us So we're sitting around at one of our practices And we're talking about you know, what's our next moves and blah blah blah and he goes. Oh, yeah, you know what by the way? um, kate fitzgerald said something about um The it was what's american american music festival It's some kind of four-day event they have there and she wants us to play but I I just said no We don't and we just literally I took my shoe off. I threw my shoe at him I I took my aquarium and I poured it on his head and we're like, are you crazy? That's like the best gig ever.

So we did get to play in 2016 We we got back a hold of uh of kate and and we did get to play uh, american music festival, which is awesome It's a very very very nice thing on the resume and it's very cool and our name's on the t-shirts It's on the t-shirt. Yeah That's what counts. Mm-hmm.

So, uh since 2016 we've been then booking shows um part of the strategy for Getting to book shows is you know, think global act local And by that I mean is like yeah, we do all the social networking But it's really important to meet face to face you go to you go to the venue Talk to the bartender you talk to the guy that books the band you talk to the the the guy spinning or the girl spinning the records and the dj booths And you just make sure that they see you and you talk to them And it's really important and then you follow up, you know with a facebook message or an email or a text or whatever and uh that has proven to be relatively successful and we haven't played uh metro or uh not yet that's that's That's that's a craw that i've got with my band steak. We were supposed to play metro in 1990 or 91 if you guys remember far back Uh, it was valentine's day and there was the biggest snowfall chicago hit and we were supposed to play Rock against depression on a wednesday night at the metro and it got snowed out So I I lived in burbank at the time right by midway airport Normally would take me like 25 minutes to get to the metro Well, it took us four and a half hours to get there by the time we got there Joe shanahan already canceled the gig and only uh The terminal white was playing because they literally lived around the block or something like that So we got in there We got a free case of beer and that was it and we never got to play the metro since so it's been one of those You know what? I mean? Like I don't forget about that You know, so i'm hoping dead freddy might get to play one of these one of these days So what kind of places are you playing then? Um, well, we we um Um We played out of space until it shut down out of space in berlin We played at uh cigars and stripes until they stopped playing music there. Yeah, but more recently and very cool Uh, one of the best punk dive bars in chicago liars club.

We got to play there. Oh, yeah, it's okay. It's february.

Yeah Punk rock tacos punk rock tacos. That's a whole movement that needs to be discussed. Yeah Um And you know the effigies were supposed to play uh in a couple weeks We were gonna they canceled but the punk rock tacos thing is kind of a big deal Like it's at a mexican restaurant, you know, which is crazy, you know, wow Yeah, so yeah, so we this will be our third appearance at punk rock tacos reggies Reggies.

Yes. We played twice at reggie montrose saloon. We do the halloween every year montrose saloon.

Okay. Okay Wow, yeah last year we were What were we we were bowie one year then one year we were talking past year. We were psychedelic psychedelic for us.

Yeah, that's right Yeah, so you take on the persona of a different band? Yeah Montrose saloon every halloween has a two-day event and each band has to take a persona on whether it be this that or the other And we were psychedelic furs one year. We were the clash and that went over really big. So that's pretty cool So yeah, because generally you don't play a lot of covers.

Yeah Yeah, yeah, and you don't find out if you're gonna be in the hollow weekend event until like three weeks before And then it's like you're cramming Well, i'm sitting here chomping at the bit for that special song they have for us. Oh, all right You mean the one that i'm not gonna understand any of the lyrics, right? Okay. Perfect.

Well, it's a good thing I brought my whiskey. Here we go Second time tonight dead freddy. All right So this song is called kaip gražu miška, which means how beautiful the forest and it's by an artist in lithuanian called vitotas Karnagis Now he's passed away unfortunately, but he is a very ironic kind of funny sarcastic guy The forest isn't actually beautiful.

It's actually like you can walk in it's like oh wow Oh, look, there's dead things crawling out of stomachs or blah blah blah blah blah, but it's such a happy song, but it sounds heavy Yeah, so in a nutshell But anyway, so we I heard it one night. So you were speaking of bourbon. So it's about two in the morning donatas Earlier sent me a link to this Vitotas guy and i'm going through the youtube rabbit hole as everyone does and i'm sipping on two tree bourbons, you know I'm down pretty good and I come across this song.

I'm like, oh my gosh. I was like grab my guitar I'm just like oh my gosh We got to do a cover of this and I told him I go we got to do it Lo and behold it ends up being like one of our showstoppers like because we make everybody sing And you guys are gonna have to help us out with this as well Sure. Yeah, so you're gonna so in in american when you laugh you go All right, but in lithuanian you go ha ha Okay, so so i'm gonna say i'm gonna stop the guitar at one point and you guys are gonna go ha ha you'll you'll follow along So we're gonna need your help everyone lady ladies you to the entourage the entourage So yeah Is We're going to go one more round on that.

Don't be stingy, come on, give it up. Here we go again. One more round.

Come on, don't be stingy. Now you all know how to speak Lithuanian. I did not even close.

Not even close. Okay, so where can people find you out in social media world and all that? In a forest where stuff's falling out your gut. That's right.

Yeah. If they happen to be walking through this forest and looking. I wonder where dead Freddy's at.

No, he's the guy with the guts all over the place. That guy right there. Walk around, slip on your guts.

Over by there. So we are most active on Facebook. So it's dead Freddy and friends on Facebook.

We also have a website, www.deadfreddy.com. And the dot is very important. Dot com. You can't have that missing.

And we do have email info at deadfreddy.com. All of our music is on Spotify and Bandcamp. And SoundCloud. So that's where you can find all of our stuff.

And I think that about covers it. All right. You got 30 seconds to say whatever it is that you want to say to everybody in the world, including India.

In any language you wish. In any language that you want. Yeah, India is our number two market.

Any language that you want. Go ahead. What's the one thing you want to say to anybody? Heute ist Großvater's Geburtstag.

Which means today is grandfather's birthday in German. Okay. And I'll finish with let's all support our own local bands.

We try to do that as much as we possibly can. And we hope all the other bands. Because tide rises all ships.

Look at you going. You went to high road. I took the low road.

You went to high road. That was deep. Very deep.

That was good. Very deep. All right, Dead Freddy.

So everybody get out and see these guys. Definitely. If you're into that sort of thing.

Yes. And if you're a Lithuanian, you must. Yes.

Your parents would be very disappointed. I think there would be trouble if you didn't. There would be.

There would be. Yeah. All righty, guys.

Thanks for coming out. Thanks for having us. Pleasure meeting you guys.

It was wonderful. Pleasure meeting you too. It was wonderful.

Thanks. All right. Well, that's the music of my homeland.

Not really. Yeah. I was going to say.

With the South Side. Yeah. That's the music of the South Side.

That's right. The South Side Lithuanians. Yeah.

From Lithuanian Plaza. Yeah. Interesting.

Very. That's the first time we sang in the studio. I think so.

We've never sung with anybody else. That's. It's funny.

You know. Ha ha. I mean, what does that mean in Lithuanian? Ha ha.

Same thing it means here. Yeah. Yeah.

No, that was interesting. That was. That was very interesting.

Different. Interesting. Man.

Longevity. Yeah. 79.

Yeah. And they had a little, you know, a little hiatus in there and stuff, but to bring it all back and just say, let's do this again. Yeah.

You know, and be successful at it. Yeah. And they're enjoying it.

That's right. So, hey, cool. That was a lot of fun.

So as usual, thanks for listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Check us out every Tuesday for another exciting new episode. See ya.

The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin. Theme song courtesy of MNR Rush. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the show.

The music is used to promote the guests that are featured.