Music
Press
I heard cuts of the LBSL's Happy Town at a recent festival and was impressed by the style and lyrics of their music. They combine lyrical wit and irony with flawless musicanship to create more than memorable songs. Roswell is as clever of a cultural satire as you will as ever find. - CDBaby:Mike Bernos
I heard cuts of the LBSL's Happy Town at a recent festival and was impressed by the style and lyrics of their music. They combine lyrical wit and irony with flawless musicanship to create more than memorable songs. Roswell is as clever of a cultural satire as you will as ever find. - CDBaby:Mike Bernos
Whether it's the Devil lamenting the lack of souls avaiable for barter or a New Orleans hurricane victim singin' the blues from Mayor Nagin's penthouse, Lonesome Bert and the Skinny Lizards have made a CD that's fun to listen to. Not a lot of frills to this recording, but then, it doesn't need them. The imaginative lyrics laid down over acoustic guitar, bass and percussion give a true flavor of grassroots music that is both insightful and amusing. After listening to Bert and the Lizards, you won't be able to pass an abandoned rail spur or a Hummer without wondering how they nailed it so well. This music is the real deal! - CDBaby:Don Petersen
Whether it's the Devil lamenting the lack of souls avaiable for barter or a New Orleans hurricane victim singin' the blues from Mayor Nagin's penthouse, Lonesome Bert and the Skinny Lizards have made a CD that's fun to listen to. Not a lot of frills to this recording, but then, it doesn't need them. The imaginative lyrics laid down over acoustic guitar, bass and percussion give a true flavor of grassroots music that is both insightful and amusing. After listening to Bert and the Lizards, you won't be able to pass an abandoned rail spur or a Hummer without wondering how they nailed it so well. This music is the real deal! - CDBaby:Don Petersen
Discography
Lonesome Bert & the Skinny Lizards
Happytown
Everything Everything
Photos
Bio
“I’ve tried to make some sense of all the things I’ve seen,
But I might as well expect the moon to shine down green”
from "Where the Track Meets the Sky" by Lonesome Bert
In a world of perplexing possibilities ruled by chance, whim and caprice, Lonesome Bert & the Skinny Lizards have, you might say, been around the block. Their reward is the experience itself, and the stories-put-to-music it has left behind, like treasures wrapped in seaweed along the high tideline at the beach.
“I have been to Area 51,” says Lonesome Bert Hodge, frontman for the group, “But I can’t talk about that. You won’t quote me, will you?” Of course not. Lonesome Bert writes many of the songs they sing, including one about Roswell, and simultaneously plays guitar while they sing them. He is experienced as captain of the B727, and put in many hours hauling freight and passengers through the skies. He learned to fly in the US Navy, which he feels was almost a fair trade for the years of servitude they exacted.
Bassman Chris Clark, the original Skinny Lizard, crawled forth one day from the murky pool of thrash metal music and assumed an standing posture so that he could reach all the positions on his new upright acoustic bass. Academically trained in Graphic Arts, these plebeian skills are forgotten when he grooves into a suave bass line or maybe rips into one of the high-temp overdriven idea excursions that he has written for the band.
Steve “Mr. Stiv” Mitherz puts the engine in the boiler room with his instruments, the pandeiro(a sort of Brazilian tambourine) and the cajon(a type of box drum). A former Manhattan pottery artist who dabbled in rockandroll drumming, he has found his place amongst the Lizards. He even gets to sing, too.
Captain Mark Saunders, an unrepentant sailboat bum, overcame a serious case of Irish(even born on St Patrick’s day!) to serve up a fiddle voice full of melodic imagery and double stops. He claims to have lived everywhere, being raised as a Navy brat, but now his anchor is firmly set in Lizard Lagoon.
Altogether, the boys put the cancan in Americana when they set out for some serious entertaining. Their originals draw from the 60’s folk revival, from back-country bluegrass, from 30’s jug band celebrations, and from a collective social conscience that demands expression of today’s injustices.
You might compare them to Tom Rush, Old Crow Medicine Show, Townes Van Zandt, and Arlo Guthrie; the Lizards would certainly not object. They have all been around the block, and now they’re back, and they are prepared to tell you what they saw, even if they couldn’t believe it. Just remember, when you listen to them, expect irony in unusual places. And enjoy!
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