Artist Biography

Margaret Explosion History
as told by Paul Dodd

As I remember it, it's all Pete's fault.

Pete LaBonne and Shelley were going to be housesitting for the summer in Rochester's South Wedge and we talked about putting a band together while they were in town. This was '97. Peggi and I set up the Friday happy hour slot with Casey at the Bug Jar and we had the gig before we had the band. We asked Jack Schaefer if he was interested and he said he was. We never rehearsed or anything and then Pete was in town before we knew it. So we just showed up at the Bug Jar and kind of jammed. Pete came up with the band name.

It was Jack on guitar, Pete on bass, Peggi Fournier on sax. I played hand drums and Shelley Valachovic played the shakers. We played every Friday through the summer and then Pete and Shelley moved back to the mountains. Jack bowed out to spend more time with his family and Greg Slack, who used to play with Lou Grahmn, started playing bass. Mike Rizzo joined on drums and Scott "Fex" Smith sat in on trumpet. This new Margaret Explosion lineup continued playing at the Bug Jar on Fridays for two years.

The original Margaret Explosion lineup recorded a cd as Invisible Idiot while the "new" lineup recorded a cd of the songs developed at the Bug Jar entitled "Happy Hour". Pete LaBonne, Jack Schaefer, Phil Marshall and Bob Martin all played on Happy Hour

Bob Martin officially joined on guitar in 2003 and he, Peggi, Greg and I recorded the cd entitled "1969". Bob had played with Peggi and me in Personal Effects and it was great to be back with him.

Greg left in September, 2004 to play with his church band and Ken Frank, who played with Lydia Lunch before she left town, 5 Star Buffalo, The Flower City 5 and Colorblind James Experience joined us on bass. We always loved Ken's sound and are thrilled to be playing with him. We continue to play Wednesday nights at the Little and elsewhere. We have just released our first cd with Ken, entitled Skyhigh.