Of interest to lovers of Fine Art:  For the CD cover, Wayne and Pete were going to use a painting by some famous Dutch guy - you know, the one with the dogs playing poker - but then Fred Harper did this cover drawing for them, which is nice too.  Turns out that Fred is a pretty famous illustrator.  Wayne and Pete are totally thrilled at the prospect of having some classy, actual original art raise the level of our tasteless music project.

Produced by Wayne Lammers & Pete Levin
Recorded and mixed by Paul Levin at Sonart Recording, Mount Tremper, NY, and at Buttons Sound, New York, NY
Mastered by Cynthia Daniels at Monk Music, New York, NY
Cover art by Fred Harper
CD graphic design by Samantha Levin

Lead Vocals: Wayne Lammers, Robin Skye, Annette Sanders, Arlene Martell, Paul Evans, Paul Rolnick and Caroline Kuhn
Group Vocals: Leslie Ritter, Linda LoPresti, Caroline Kuhn, Karen DiConcetto, Samantha Presti, Tim Shew and Pete Levin
Guitars, Mandolin: Mike DeMicco
Drums, Percussion: Ken Lovelett
Keyboards, Arrangements & Orchestrations: Pete Levin

GOP Party Monsters; Hilarious New CD
By Eliot Camaren   Clinton Chronicle,  September, 2004

Now that the GOP convention has taken its chicken-hawk patriotism and left town, here's a wickedly funny reminder of just who they really are beneath their false “compassion”: GOP PARTY MONSTERS is a new CD crammed with 18 tracks of Liberal, anti-Bush musical satire. Writers/performers Wayne Lammers and Peter Levin send their devastating satires right to the target using an abundance of musical styles. There's the opening military march “Mission Accomplished,” which revels in Bush's “miscalculation”about the war (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, TIME BOMB.  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, LIKE ‘NAM.) and the 1920's Fox Trot “Sorry,” which skewers the administration's response to the torture of Iraqi citizens (SORRY ‘BOUT THE PRISONERS, SORRY THEY GOT RAPED, SORRY THEY GOT TORTURED, SORRY IT GOT TAPED) Anti-”ditto-heads” will surely enjoy the Country & Western kicker “My Drugs Are Red White & Blue,” or the 50's rocker “Do The Chicken-hawk,” which memorializes the Draft Deferring Dance Craze that is sweeping the Administration. Also in for the Lammers & Levin treatment are Condoleeza Rice, Bill O'Reilly (“The Bill O'Reilly River Dance”), John Ashcroft and Ann Coulter who gets it but good in a lilting children's sing-along called “The I Hate Ann Coulter Song.” “All the performers had a ball doing this project,” Lammers & Levin told us. “Everybody was up for a little Bush Bashing, and we had no problem finding Ann Coulter haters to come on board! One of the 7-year old singers on the I Hate Ann Coulter Song session said, ‘When Ann Coulter hears this on TV, she's just going to explode right off the planet!!' Way to go, Caroline! We couldn't have said it better.” The public also takes a hit for our inability to focus on the real stories rather than the fluff in a whimsical ditty called “Janet Jackson's Breast” (BIG BUSINESS STOLE THE COUNTRY, BUT EVERYONE'S OBSESSED, WITH THE BIGGEST CRIME IN HISTORY, JANET JACKSON'S BREAST).

GOP Party Monsters is a must have for the music, the wit and the sheer historical value (although it is light-years funnier than my vinyl LP of “Spiro T. Agnew Is A Riot”...). There's lots of subtle humor, lots of unsubtle humor, references torn right from recent headlines and many belly laughs as well, but the serious message is always there. Lammers & Levin are true Hypocrisy Busters.

Wayne Lammers:

Wayne Lammers’ one man multi media musical sending up Rush Limbaugh was presented at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in New York City with video donated by Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Leadership Council on Civil Rights, NOW, PETA, AFL-CIO, Rainforest Action Network and Kevin Rafferty. Another of Wayne’s one man shows, “For No Apparent Reason” received praise from The New Yorker: “Wayne Lammers casts a wry satiric eye on American culture past and present”. This show played at The Westbeth, La Mama Galleria, The Nuyorican Poet’s Café, and was held over for a year and a half at The Trocadero Room in Manhattan. Wayne was also the weekly poetic political comedy correspondent for the Jackie Mason Radio Show and The Felder Report nationally on the Talk America Radio Network, where he wrote and performed the TWO MINUTE WARNING, a two to five minute spot at the end of each program that wrapped up the politics of the week in rhyme. His 23 comic music videos co-directed with Henry Chalfant have been seen nationwide on PBS and in numerous film festivals. 

He has a BFA and MA from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. If you watch too much late night HBO, you might catch Wayne, Pete Levin and Jay Chattaway’s title rap for “Maniac Cop 2”. If you’ve seen too much MTV, you may recall his classic “The Parisian” on Oddville. Coming soon, the newsbreakers from outer space rock musical, "Alien Stars", shot on digital video. Most importantly, Wayne sends a great big thank you to Al and Franni Franken for this opportunity! 

Pete Levin:

In a diverse music career spanning several decades, keyboardist/arranger Pete Levin has performed and recorded with hundreds of Jazz and Pop artists - including Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, Miles Davis, David Sanborn, Lenny White, Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Robbie Robertson and John Scofield - receiving critical accolades for his work during a 15 year association with the legendary Gil Evans, and his 8 year stint with jazz icon Jimmy Giuffre.

While playing French Horn with the Gil Evans Orchestra in the early 70s, Levin brought a Moog Synthesizer to a gig at New York’s Village Vanguard. Already known as a “go to” synthesizer specialist, Pete was at the vanguard of that technology. Gil loved it and Levin’s role was permanently changed as the band transformed itself into the electric/acoustic hybrid ensemble that captivated audiences worldwide for years, winning two Grammy® awards along the way.

An in-demand New York session keyboardist, Levin has also created electronic realizations for hundreds of TV commercials, dramatic series and feature films, including “Missing in Action,” “Lean on Me,” “Silver Bullet,” “Red Scorpion,” “The Color of Money,” “Maniac,” “Spin City,” “America’s Most Wanted” and “Star Trek.” In a dizzying array of unrelated commissions, Levin composed orchestral scores for the feature film “Zelimo” and for a stage production of “The Dybbuk;” had the honor of composing the anthem for the 1992 United Nations Earth summit, “The Future is in Our Hands,” performing it twice for the U.N. General Assembly; and, as far removed from Jazz as it gets, was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for writing the official military band arrangement of the U.S. Infantry song.

But Levin, whose wry sense of humor is never far from the surface, reveals that his all time favorite recording session produced the top-40 hit single “Close to You” by The Clams, a Spike Jones tribute band formed with his brother, bassist Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson), drummer Steve Gadd (Eric Clapton, Paul Simon) and Grammy® winning recording engineer Dixon Van Winkle (Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra). Thirty years later the recording is still a cult classic.

In 1990, Levin signed with Gramavision to release his first solo jazz album, “Party in the Basement,” followed by “Solitary Man” in 1991. Collaborating with drummer Danny Gottlieb, Pete released “The New Age of Christmas” on Atlantic and “Masters in this Hall” for Gramavision. In the years following, he released four New Age CDs for Alternate Mode Productions, and a variety of eclectic albums for independent labels.

With “Deacon Blues,” Pete Levin returns to the cutting edge as a band leader, while tipping his hat to his mainstream jazz roots. Expanding on the traditional organ trio format, his innovative arrangements are flavored with soul, samba and hip-hop grooves. The set mixes four Levin originals with his unique treatments of familiar classics, including Steely Dan’s “Deacon Blues,” Ralph Towner’s “Icarus,” the Beach Boys’ “Sail on Sailor” and Erik Satie’s “First Gymnopedie.” The album features outstanding performances by bassist Tony Levin, guitarist Mike DeMicco, percussionists Ken Lovelett and Carlos Valdez, legendary jazz guitarist Joe Beck, and drummer, Danny Gottlieb. For Levin, this recording was a labor of love.

Veteran career side men and solo recording artists, both Levin brothers produce their own albums close to home, collaborating with other world-class musicians in their Woodstock, New York community. Pete’s Hammond is featured on Tony’s latest critically acclaimed Narada release, “Resonator,” while Tony’s basses grace several tracks on Pete’s “Deacon Blues.”

Pete currently tours playing piano and organ with The Tony Levin Band, his brother’s high octane Progressive Rock quintet that plays world-wide to sold out houses. Plans are in the works for double bill concerts with Pete’s trio opening for the Tony’s band in a historic pairing that aims to fire up legions of crossover music fans, as Tony’s fiery progressive rock is paired with Pete’s contemporary, improvisational jazz.

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