Live & Out Loud Lance

Lance & the Crocodile Tears dance, originally uploaded by Theresa K.

Lance Loud seen here doing his "Crocodile Tears" dance. His arms are the jaws of the Crocodile. This was shot in 1977 at the Starwood in West Hollywood, a club that is no longer in existence. In its places is a strip mall (same unfortunate fate for the Tropicana Motel).

I'm absolutely loving the fact there is a Mumps DVD! If you missed the excitement that was Mumps - and chances are if you're under 40, you did, then by all means, run to your nearest record store and pick up "How I Saved the World" for a treasure trove of Mumps gems, including a DVD!

I was just checking out the new Mumps website -- where you can coincidentally see a couple of my pix-- and I have to encourage you to visit that as well. So many memories ...

There's a lovely color photo of Kristian Hoffman with Lance's sister, Michelle Loud in Brother Studios, which as all music fans knows is the Beach Boys place.

Mumps spent a long while in there, recording the single of "Muscle Boys," and "Rock n Roll This, Rock n Roll That." Pleasant and I spent quite a few nights there as well... being their friends, and me being drummer Paul Rutner's bed & breakfast and driver... Once I'm back with my negatives and a darkroom, I'll print up some shots from the studio... there's Kevin Kiely trying to pull a heist of Beach Boys gold records, and the others just hanging out and of course, making music. Naturally, Brother was a state of the art facility, complete with Brian Wilson's piano (which I played, and did it the honor of playing Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique on it. I was rather impressed that Mump guitar god Rob duPrey recognized the piece!)

But of all the music that happened in those hallowed halls in Santa Monica, I remember the runs to Taco Bell most. And Pleasant and I also discovered that a chain of flower shops, Conroy's, did not put their flowers away at night. We, from time to time, would do floral drive-by's. I'd pull up to the gates of a closed Conroy's, and Pleasant would jump out and grab the flowers that were right there, waiting to be liberated. I remember once pulling up to a Mumps session with a back seat full of carnations.

It is always the silly things that jump out and sometimes I just flash on these memories and start laughing out loud, for no apparent reason. People must think I'm nuts...