:::::This is the press release for the show.  This page was set up in June 2004.  Ideally, Julian's comic will appear on this page. ::::  
 

The Drippytown Manufacturing Concern and Pro-Am Entainment International proudly present


July Fourth Toilet
plays 
K-Tel’s
 Rock Fantasy

> with special guests <
The Penguins


Friday July 23 at the WISE Hall, 1882 Adanac Street
> Two Shows! <
5:00pm   All ages show, children and families welcome! 
 9:00pm   show 19+
Adults: $8 / 13 and under: $5, Tickets at Scratch and Zulu.

 
After Ten Years Together, July Fourth Toilet Visits 
The Land Where The Animals Are People (And People Are The Animals) 

July Fourth Toilet is celebrating their tenth anniversary by staging the biggest performance of their notorious history. The enigmatic troupe will play the rock ‘n’ roll musical Rock Fantasy, an obscure, generic K-Tel children’s record from 1975. Their entire 18-piece music and performance ensemble will be dressed in strange anthropomorphic animal costumes.      

“Rock Fantasy was a loosely-structured concept album in which characters lived in ‘a land where the animals are people, and the people are the animals,’” said show architect Julian Lawrence. “I’ve wanted us to play this album since I discovered it ten years ago!”  Most of the songs on Rock Fantasy were actually first recorded by novelty pop singer Jewel Akens (“The Birds and the Bees”) in 1965.  The album itself consists of new lyrics and funny animal vocals dubbed over the original backing tracks.  Toilet performer Jody Franklin did some research on the record’s curious and elusive history.  “I found out that K-Tel bought all the music from Akens’ label Era Records when it went belly-up in the early 70s,” said Franklin. “All of the songs were credited to the label’s owner Herb Newman, who didn’t compose any of them.”   

Lawrence, the publisher of Drippytown Comics, founded July Fourth Toilet in 1994 with then-roommate, writer/performer Robert Dayton.  “We’re all big music fans, and enjoy a variety of styles,” said Dayton. “With each show we put on, I wanted us to try something new, to push our own boundaries, and the boundaries of our audiences.” Following this philosophy, the band garnered a reputation for having an amusingly eclectic and wildly unpredictable live act. Music critic Shawn Conner once wrote in The Georgia Straight, “That is the beauty of the Toilet: one never knows what to expect. I’ve seen the band five times, and each time has been radically different.”   From skid row bars to art galleries, July Fourth Toilet played spectacular costumed theme shows that defied genre conventions as they seamlessly switched from bluegrass through southern rock to exotic lounge.  “We’ve set audience members’ hastily scrawled poems to music, we’ve played six and seven hour sets.  We even did a tribute to Michael Nesmith that earned a nod from the Monkee himself!” said Franklin.

Lawrence mused, “We plan to celebrate our tenth anniversary in style, the only way we know how!”

Joining Lawrence, Franklin and Dayton will be fellow long-time Toilet regulars Big Hamm of Canned Hamm, Susan Box and filmmaker/photographer Clancy Dennehy. They’ve invited several guests to participate in this show, including comedian/actor Paul Anthony, Buy Nothing Day Founder Ted Dave, The West Ender "Clip ‘n’ Save" cartoonist Robin Konstabaris, singer-songwriter Mark Szabo, film producer and Phat Tank creator Step Carruthers, comic artists Owen & Terry Plummer, and many, many more. 

The Penguins is a group of five young musicians that formed earlier this year at Windsor House School.  They play a combination of classic rock and new rock cover tunes as well as some originals.  Far talented beyond their years, they have already had several public performances, including shows at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre's Annual Youth Festival and the Vancouver Children's Festival.

 

Press Contacts:  Julian Lawrence,Jody Franklin,  Robert Dayton 
press@julyfourthtoilet.com

photos by Clancy Dennehy