In February of 1988 the rock band Parousia began rehearsing at Bob’s house on Tularosa Dr. in Silver Lake, just a few miles East of Hollywood.
732.5 Tularosa, Los Angeles, CA
The house was small and cozy and we practiced our songs in the living room with soundproofing stapled up to the walls. We had a lot of rehearsing to do. This was our first chance to play and ‘turn it up to 11’ since we moved to Los Angeles about a year ago.
Robert Lowden and Patt Connolly face to face.
Bill Simms on Roland Juno 60 and Casio keyboards.
Gerry North Cannizzaro with North Drum Kit and Simmons electronic drums
What U lookin’ At?
But we weren’t dormant. From the time we landed in Hollywood, we started marketing our cassettes and video to rock promoters, managers, agents and club owners under the name the Original Music Organization. The previous month we landed a review in Buffalo’s Night Life magazine for our newly released cassette EP “Turnaround”, produced by Colin Hilborne at Mark Studios in Clarence, NY.
Colin Hilborne, rock music producer and road technician with legendary Bob’s big boy.
January 1988 – Night Life review of Parousia’s Turnaround EP
At this point the band consisted of Patt Connolly on vocals and flute, Bill Simms on keyboards and bass, Gerry North Cannizzaro on drums and for now, Robert was our lead guitarist as we still were not sure what was going to happen with Garth. We had to forge on and roll with the change. It wasn’t easy without Garth. We not only were missing a critical piece of our artistic chemistry but also a good friend and core member of the group.
Robert Stuart Lowden Guitars and vocals
Patt Connolly Flute and vocals
Gerry North Cannizzaro Acoustic and Electronic drums
Look through the lens of the microphone and see the music…
The interesting thing about the house is where we got the “soundproofing”. Robert had the great idea to soundproof the house with carpet reminants we procured from the Carpetland dumpster after hours. Robert hopped the fence and passed the carpet and carpet pad over to us and we loaded up the car. I don’t know if it was stealing technically, but it sure felt like it and it we were happy to make our getaway. We stapled the reminants to the rental unit’s walls. So much for that cleaning deposit. For those following in our footsteps, it took care of the high end ok but you could still feel the booming bass from outside.
I think this was my best hair period since I was out of work after the Champagne Accident of 1987 where I cut the tendon to my thumb opening a champagne bottle on Thanksgiving. Luckily that thumb is the only digit that isn’t involved in playing the flute, since the instrument just rests on the right thumb. I didn’t work for a long time after that since I received a legal settlement that set us up for quite a while.
Correction. The Champagne accident was in 1988, since it took one year to get the $100,000, and my van that I bought brand new was a 1990.