Thursday at Xcalibur
Xcalibur Restaurant & Lounge, 2519 Pennsylvania Av NW, Washington, DC 20500

Tonight I left as early as last time, but did not get lost and parked right by the Xcalibur, so I arrived real early. That was good because it gave me a chance to talk with the band members, particularly Doc. Donnell worked on setting up the audio equipment. He said, "With Googie not here, I am the only one who knows how to do this." Doc said, "You have no idea what I can do." Doc came over and asked me if I knew IzReal "Izzy" Wright. I said that "I don't, who is he?" He told me that he has a studio in Waldorf (MD) and that he works with Ras Lidj.

Ras Lidj
He said that Izzy had told him about my website and that my assumption was incorrect: Physical Wunders has not broken up, that they (nine members strong) still perform twice a month on a circuit "Like a chitlin circuit" mostly in non-traditional GoGo venues in Virginia. I told him also that he (Doc) had emailed me a few years ago to correct my discography. (I really need to do a major update at some point soon.) He said that Physical Wunders put out nine records, three of them albums, the rest singles. Then he left me to eat (I had a delicious crab cake sandwich).

I thought for a moment about what Doc had said - I had emailed Sean Wright who must be Izreal; I had gotten his email address from the Washington Post MP3 website on Ras Lidj. I had looked up the site because a girl posted on TMOTTGOGO that she really liked Ras Lidj when he sat in with Familiar Faces at Takoma Station, but Donnell had called him Reggae Ray (which Doc told me he used to go by), but Kato had said that he was Ras Lidj. He said yeah, he had gotten Ras Lidj into performing with Physical Wunders. Doc went further to discuss how Sugar Bear of EU gotten him into the business in the 70s, that he had been performing for 28 years. He discussed an opportunity to tour with Ginuwine (real name Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, who had started off singing with Physical Wunders) that he declined because he is married with kids and has a good job. I told him about Rhino's handy man, who was a drummer that Dweezil Zappa tried to recruit, turned down that offer for the more steady paycheck. He recommended other musicians, and the touring band ended up breaking up, justified his caution.

Doc talked about how Physical Wunders had opened for 50 Cent and that when 50 Cent came out, there were eighteen guys wearing identical outfits including bulletproof vests and that it wasn't until he started rapping that you could tell which one was 50 Cent. This was because someone was out to get 50 Cent at the time.

Doc said that there are a lot of GoGo bands with a lot of talented members, but without the chemistry that makes great bands. He said that chemistry is more important than all of the members being really talented, for instance Earth, Wind & Fire is a great band, but not everyone was really good. I told him how after their second album, Maurice White fired most of the band, and then the new EWF made it big. He talked about how not enough GoGo groups had their own definitive sound - Backyard Band, Junkyard Band, EU, Trouble Funk, Rare Essence and Chuck Brown are trend setters. He said in he believes Junkyard Band is the quintessential GoGo band. He said that a lot of young people forget that Trouble Funk started the roto-tom sound, and that Rare Essence ran with it, but Trouble Funk started it. He played a Trouble Funk tape and his son said, "They stole that from Backyard", but Doc corrected him. I told him how Duane Face had told me he didn't have any Trouble Funk records. I told Doc how I am planning to see them on Saturday at Mayo Island, Richmond. I told him how their latest official release, Unplugged Live at Mayo Island which was recorded last year, but released this year, has crankin' music, but (Big) Tony's voice is gone. He said Little Benny's voice is basically gone, but he gets by anyway. He said he needed to get the Trouble Funk compilation listed on my website with all of the big hits (except for Arcade Funk); I told him it is on Amazon. He also said that early Northeast Groovers best continued Trouble Funk's roto-tom sound.

Doc talked about how it is a shame that GoGo bands don't support each other enough that rappers will hate one another personally, but tour together if it means money. He said that bands that leave (the DC area) have a tough time getting back the local respect when they come back, that it took EU a long time to come back. He said a lot of groups go through different membership changes, that Andre ("Whiteboy" Johnson - the guitarist and now leader) was the only member of Rare Essence still with them, that he remembered Rare Essence before Donnell was a member. I mentioned how someone on the PA Palace board said that Rare Essence is the Temptations of GoGo, to which Doc agreed, he said "Go-Go Mickey could leave and his replacement would be really popular, definitely not as talented, but as popular". He said that it is unfortunate that pretty much all of the members of Familiar Faces have other projects going on, that whenever one guy leaves and either comes back or is replaced, that it takes time to get back "Up the pyramid". He talked about how Ms. Mack told Rare Essence that they shouldn't leave (DC) that they were making plenty of money in DC.

Doc said he isn't a hater, that L!ssen has something going, if they make it, he will wish them well. He also told me that he studied the history of successful Funk bands such as Earth Wind and Fire and the Bar-Kays to see what they did to be successful (Doc, if you read this, here is Larry Dodson's email address larrydod@juno.com from the latest Bar-Kays album). Then I went back to eat my sandwich.

Unfortunately, very few people were in the audience. Donnell mentioned he didn't have time to call anyone (it is an invite only audience for men); he said he knew Bojack wouldn't come. Donnell asked me about the photo of Doc on this blog that his son told him about (it was actually only linked to in an earlier post, but here it is):

BJ talked about how he has a picture from 1985 of Doc with a glass bass. Doc also mentioned that he wore leather pants in that picture as well.

Donnell talked about how funny some of my descriptions are, particularly the note about Rayful Edmonds. I told him how I added a Sax picture to last night's description based on his friend confusing the Soprano Sax with a Clarinet. He said that family members were telling him that he should say things like "He's seeing Michelle" (see here, but Donnell said his response was "They're just jokes."

Familiar Faces
The line up was: Mike Muse, D-Floyd, BJ, Pooh (with a different drum kit than he normally uses), Doc, and Dwayne Lee. This time at the Xcalibur, they had two front line mics, and Donnell did the audio set up. The pre-recorded music they played while FF was not performing was different from at other of their performances - it was dance techno - ugh! They started out instrumentally, and then Mike joined in. I was tired and started to fall asleep a bit in the first set.

The Lieutenant showed up during the break and said hello.

During the second set, the audience and band members were distracted as the TV above them was showing Dancing with Divas: A G-String Special, which is apparently an HBO series about strippers that shows all. While singing Marvin Gaye's I Want You, Mike turned to the TV and said, "I have to take a five minute break to watch this. I didn't turn this on, but whoever did read my mind. I know nobody with pay attention to us for the next ten minutes." Shortly after, he resumed singing. During the second set, both Nephew and girl in the audience were sleeping (not because of the music, I can assure you), at one point, Mike dedicated a song to DeeDee of the Positive Black Men Coalition because she was the only woman awake. Before performing their last song, Donnell kidded, "Here's a song we came up with in 1982", Mike responded "1984", of course it was Prince's Purple Rain. Donnell said he didn't like Prince: Mike said you don't have to like him, but you do have to respect him. Donnell started singing Raspberry Beret, and went on about how his favorite Prince song was about where his friend went off to war on the album, Around the World in a Day. Donnell said that he thought the same about Rick James and he went over the skit on the Dave Chappelle Show. Donnell heard that George Clinton (who had performed with them (either RE or 911/FF) at some point somewhat recently) got thrown off a plane for smelling too bad, that he never takes baths anymore if he ever did. A long musical discussion ensued as well as a discussion of humorous stories which resulted from Donnell challenging Pooh on having been a minor league baseball player for the Chicago Cubs organization. DeeDee asked Pooh how old he was, that "He looked sixteen". He said "Twenty-four". Mike responded to Pooh that he had a cousin who played minor league baseball. The result of this discussion was that Donnell said, "That's what I miss about Rare Essence, that they would tell lies and each member would top them."

Mike talked about how it took longer for him than a musician to memorize songs, but was easier for musicians. Donnell said, "Don't you mean musician" (singular) - a jab at BJ. BJ said, "You think yours are the only songs I have to memorize; another guy wants me to know twenty-eight songs." Donnell asked "Rahsaan?" - BJ tours with Rahsaan Patterson. Donnell talked about a show at the Warner Theatre with Rahsaan and Rachelle Ferrell (wasn't sure of the last name, just a stab in the dark based on looking at Allmusic.com), how if she were playing in his living room, he'd be in his bedroom watching M*A*S*H re-runs. My waiter (a Caucasian guy with dark hair, dark glasses, black slacks and a gray collared shirt) said, "What you should have said is, if she were singing in my drive-way, I would go out if I had to take out the trash." DeeDee asked why he didn't like her and that Cookie didn't like her either, he said she made weird faces when she sang and sang obscure songs instead of her hits.

Mike Muse talked about how he really liked Steve Wonder's album, Fulfillingness First Finale, as well as the song, Girl Blue (from his 1972 Album Music of My Mind), which Mike said was a quintessential Neo-Soul song.

Donnell talked about liking India Arie until she started dating the midget (Musiq). Donnell debated with DeeDee over whether Musiq's song, Love (off the album Aijuswanaseing is about God (Donnell for, DeeDee against). She said that he said it wasn't in an interview, but Donnell and Nephew said that didn't mean anything, he could be lying. Donnell also talked about the merits of his song Halfcrazy from the album Juslisen.

Charles Smith had cancelled Saturday's date at Reggie's. Charles was a basketball player at Georgetown (graduated in '89) and played for the Boston Celtics before having his career ended when he hit someone driving drunk. They talked about Charles' girlfriend - BJ and Donnell said she was cute, but DeeDee said she couldn't get past her mole on her face. This led into a discussion of Steve McNair's (starting quarterback for the Tennessee Titans) drunk driving arrest video. He had been arrested in 2003, but the video became public last week. I told how the officers involved had taken home copies of the video. Donnell made fun of how McNair had said, "Don't you know who I am" and the cops said they knew who he was and cuffed him anyway. The video also shows him taking a breathalyzer and Pooh said you don't have to, "I would never agree to take a breathalyzer."

At one point DeeDee talked about her heritage of having a grand parent who was Filipino and a grand parent who was French-Canadian. Mike said in response, "French-Canadian, Cappuccino!" Nephew laughed real hard. DeeDee said, "Eric (the only time I've heard him addressed by his given name) what are you laughing so hard for?"

Bojack had said (at some point) that he and Go-Go Mickey were the best percussion duo, but Donnell said that Jungle Boogie and Dave could sing. Mike went on to talk about how Jungle Boogie would like his hands when he played the congas (even the drumsticks). Donnell said, "Remember when Dave Green went nuts? He was playing when all of a sudden he started kicking the congas. Donnell had asked 'what's wrong?' Dave Green responded, 'They killed Martin Luther King!' Donnell said, "This was in the 80s..." (probably 15-20 years after King's death).

Donnell talked about a fight BJ had with Whiteboy where BJ said, I'll be back, everyone got there stuff and split before he could return and in Donnell's words, "Go postal". He also mentioned how after Godfather was fired, he came back the next day walking with a limp (not real) walking with a cane, and they supposed that Godfather was going to hit Whiteboy with it (since he was known for hitting Jas Funk upside the head once).

At some point, Mike talked about how BJ doesn't sing - Donnell said he can't, except for when he sang the James Ingram part of the song Secret Garden (which featured a quartet of Ingram, Barry White, Al B Sure! and El Debarge) from the Quincy Jones album, Back on the Block But the funniest vocal they kept talking about with that song was Godfather doing the Barry White Part "Yeah, baby
I'll take good care of you
That's what a man is supposed to do
And I'll be there for you all the time
Let you hair down
Let me get you in the mood
(Come on, come on, come on, come on)
Come on, take me, take me with you". They kept talking about how he smoked a bunch of cigarettes and put his head back to sing in the low bass and that he hit it in the first performance, but not after. Someone asked why he did it, and Donnell said (Jas) Funk told him too, you don't turn him down. They said that Go-Go Mickey did sing the Al B Sure! part of that song. A further discussion on this occurred online here and a follow-up here.

They also talked about how on rare occasions, Godfather plays the Flugelhorn. They also talked about a members only meeting of Rare Essence where they voted to go against Ms. Mack, but that she was smart. When they told her about the vote, she cried and asked to see s a show of hands of who voted against her - Footz (her son) was in front and he showed his hand proudly, but no one else did (they chickened out) and that was the end of the mutiny.

They also talked about two vocalists singing, with one vocalist running off the stage during the song; why - because his teeth fell out! The also mentioned how during a song, the RE vocalist Lawrence humped the ground, BJ said he saw him do it another venue as well. Nephew also talked about Big G (of Backyard Band) had been in some movie recently (I discovered Saturday that it was Bruce Brown's Divided City) and that he had signed a multi-episode deal to appear on HBO's The Wire.

I talked a couple of times with Greg, the owner of Xcalibur, about my thesis, he was interested. I did miss some of FF's conversation when I talked with Greg (which is okay). The reason that I had this fortunate experience of getting to hear and participate in these post-performance conversations is that the band members waited to be paid. After Donnell obtained the fee, and divided up the cash, people started to leave, so I walked out. Doc and Dwayne were outside and asked me the URL of my site. I told them that Donnell had their money, so they went back in.

Another fan's description.