RocktheMetro.com is dedicated to supporting live local music and events, and thus will always be free to use and to advertise your shows and events. Register now to get started!
I met Matt Korz and Brian Balak after their first meeting, and they let me sit in on all of their practices and even hang out with them outside of band stuff. Singers and guitarists, they are currently playing as the duo Spanky James. Being privy to all of the details, they asked me to write the band bio for the Five Simple Fools page. Since they have pictures of me and Cory Fuller in a hot-tub... together drinking Boone's Farm wine, I naturally obliged...
Long story short: There used to be an Omaha cover band called ASAP. They lasted from September '07 until December '09. Two of the founding members were Brian Balak and Matt Korz. Marc Dixon joined on drums in July '08. Although concentrating exclusively on covers publicly, these three wrote one original instrumental during that period. Ironically, this one tune would prove the ultimate demise of Marc and Brian, and eventually, that band.
Brian and Marc left over a dispute involving the publishing rights to “Evil Bunnies Eat Sarcastic Lettuce Leaves,” a thrash metal song with jazz undertones. Brian and Marc claimed majority rights to the song's melody, and Matt demanded an equal share, having conceived the title (which is a romantic sounding rhyme when spoken in German). The rift proved an irreconcilable difference that led to the exodus of Brian and Marc, and began the eventual demise of that group. Salt was rubbed into the wound when the copyrighting process was all said and done. The U.S. Government informed them that this tune was technically in the public domain; they inadvertently re-wrote the exact same tune as “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
Over the next year, Matt kept up with ASAP until they ultimately went separate ways. Brian played guitar and sang in the group Vital Signs, and Marc assumed the identity of the Dread Pirate Robert. Soon, enough time had passed to cool their differences, and the guitarists set about putting a new group together.
