"What's That? (a Radiohead Project)" is a 6-piece group of Minneapolis-based musicians devoted entirely to the presentation of the music of Radiohead. Embracing the experimental nature of Radiohead’s music, the group utilizes improvisation and unique arrangements of Radiohead's most challenging and popular material, while remaining true to the originality of the compositions.

“What’s That? (a Radiohead Project)” has been generating a buzz around Minneapolis, which has not seen a concert by Radiohead in more than a decade. Musical Director and keyboardist, Marc Z., says he formed the project out of a desire to bring Radiohead’s music to the Twin Cities. “When I saw that Lollapalooza in Chicago was as close as they were coming this year, I wanted to bring something to the fans in the Twin Cities who deserved to hear this music performed locally.”

“What’s That? (a Radiohead Project)” strives to deliver a fresh and spontaneous approach to their interpretation of Radiohead's music. “We try to avoid mimicry and imitation as much as possible,” Marc says, “while at the same time remaining true to what makes the music so original in the first place.” Like their namesake, the group incorporates a fair amount of improvisation into their performances, while also developing unique arrangements of the material. “Our goal is to embrace the experimental nature of Radiohead’s music, while delivering a quality live experience for all the people who’ve connected with this music over the years,” Marc said.

Members of “What’s That? (a Radiohead Project)” were recruited entirely through an ad placed on Craigslist. “Quite a few people responded and asked to audition,” Marc says. “When I pointed them towards the most challenging Radiohead songs and asked, ‘Can you play this?’ a lot of them stopped returning my e-mails. But luckily, the ones who stuck with it are the ones in the group today.”

The group’s current set list includes nearly 30 of Radiohead’s most innovative and popular material, ranging from the multi-platinum album, OK Computer, to its equally successful follow-up, the experimental Kid A, to this year’s name-your-price download, In Rainbows.

Two performances are also scheduled for December. The first will be a free, all ages 1 hour set at The Whole Music Club, Coffman Union, University of MN campus on December 4. Immediately following this will be a full evening’s performance at The Terminal Bar on Friday, December 5, with “EXIT STAGE RIGHT,” a tribute to the Canadian progressive rock group Rush.

More information about the group is available on their homepage, located at www.radioheadproject.com, and also on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/radioheadproject

Biography
From Grandpa I got my storytelling. His visits were rare, as he and grandma lived in St. Catherines Ontario, and we lived just outside Calgary, Alberta. They spoiled all 8 of us children (according to my dad) but the biggest gift Grandpa always gave us was to tell us bedtime stories of the “olden days”.

Grandpa’s stories usually involved exciting stuff like runaway teams of horses, shooting at wolves, or somebody getting body parts torn off. His tales were filled with gestures and sound effects. He really had a way of bringing them to life. And he listened when a kid told him a story. He made you feel your stories were important.

From Mom and Dad I got music. My Dad and my other Grandpa were both musicians. Grandpa Hubele (of whom I knew very little) was a very good organ player. My dad played fiddle in his early years, touring around southern Alberta with a country dance band. He and Mom would, very occasionally, play duets on fiddle and piano when we were little kids.

I can remember waiting til my parents went out. Since I was the oldest, I often babysat my brothers and sisters. I would sneak into Dad’s fiddle case to take out the fiddle and play it. Except I was always trying to make it sound like a guitar, and I played it like one.

We moved back and forth across the country, from Ontario to Alberta and back many times as I grew up. Dad kept trading up for jobs, and I was in a new school almost every year. I became a loner and a rebel. I turned to humor to make up for my small size. I’d find the biggest kid in class, figure out how to make him laugh, and I didn’t have to worry about the rest of the bullies. It pays to have friends in high places.

I believe I had an undiagnosed hearing problem caused by a trauma (now confirmed as a severe hearing loss). I never could quite understand the lyrics on the radio which was always on in our house, so I made up my own.

My earliest memories were of crossing the big empty fields which made up the neighborhoods of my youth, singing at the top of my lungs and making up words as I went along. My mom says she could pick me out of the flocks of kids coming home from school. I’d be waving my arms and singing to myself as I walked across the prairie.

I started writing songs in a serious way when I was 21 years old. A friend, who had been showing me how to play guitar, and I went out to live on the beach on Vancouver Island at Pacific Rim Park. I was picking away when a simple line kept repeating itself in my head. I wrote it down, and in ten minutes I had a song. It seemed to open flood gates, and for the next 2 or 3 years I wrote a song or two a week. I average about a song a month now. But, they are better songs.

(over)

Biography, page 2

To write successfully, I usually have to be alone, have all my chores done and time on my hands. Words and melody most often develop at the same time. It takes from 10 minutes to 1 hour to write a song. It takes me two weeks to learn it. I like to wrap a song around a good story line. They always come from my own experiences.

I was fascinated with the blues from the get-go. I came in through the back door. J.J. Cale, then Hot Tuna. Then B.B. King, Freddy King, and Muddy Waters.

When I heard Bonnie Raitt play slide guitar, I was gone. I had to learn how to do that. I followed her trail back to Mississippi Fred McDowell. “You want rock, you gonna have to put me in a rockin’ chair. I plays the straight and natural blues.”

I also paid attention to the songwriters, my favorites being Paul Simon, Harry Nillson, Willie Dixon, and Tom Waits.

My interest in jazz developed through my association with other musicians like Calgary’s late Chuck Tracy, a gruff, funny, kind of crazy lounge musician. He introduced me to Tom Waits, Mose Allison, and Fats Waller amongst others.

As well, it became a habit to listen to the great Alberta radio station CKUA on Saturdays. Bill Coull’s Jazz Show was a fifteen year course in ‘Everything You Should Know About Jazz’.

I also have a life-long addiction to comedy movies and comic books. One of my Dad’s jobs was as a projectionist in a small town. Once a week on Saturday night the local community hall was turned into a theatre. I was very young (3 years til 7 years old) but those old black and white 16mm movies of the Marx Bros, Chaplin, and W.C. Fields remain deep in my psyche.

I think this was a great influence on my writing. Most of my songs have a little humor and a strange twist to them.

I have worked as a laborer and heavy equipment operator and truck driver since leaving the University of Calgary after 4 years of unrelated courses and wandering interests. Previous to that, I had worked at the CPR as a ticket clerk. I began working at age 14 at the steel mill where my father worked. I did not graduate from high school.

I have written songs for 32 years. Recording began for me in 1978 with the Acme Sausage Company with Holger Petersen broadcast on CKUA. Since then, I have been on countless radio and tv programs. I have recorded 6 albums of original material, and I just finished recording my demo for the 7th, and most exciting, CD - ‘Down In Davis Bay’.

•  Somewhere down the midnight cafe