Say your favorite band breaks up. Ouch. But you know the main man will land on his feet with a new project and a fresh babe on his arm. What happens to the unwashed horde of players who can say they once played in a famous band but have since plummeted into obscurity? Top of your head, name one member of 10,000 Maniacs or the Sugarcubes not named Natalie Merchant or Björk. Is DJ Jazzy Jeff guzzling Night Train in gutters while the Fresh Prince is raking in $20 mil per pic? Look what happened to Florence Ballard and Doug Yule. Who? See?
Now take the sorry case of The Smiths. Morrissey went on to be Morrissey without Johnny Marr and Marr went on to be Marr without Morrissey -- with mixed results. But whither bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce? At least they're not dead. Rourke is now a radio DJ, and Joyce has continued to make music in a variety of forms since the split whilst ducking poison darts from Morrissey, whom he successfully sued for performance and recording royalties.
Joyce joins the Valleys William "Fucking" Reed to spin some fave tunes -- presumably not Morrissey's -- at a guest-DJ gig at the Rogue.
Sat., Sept. 29, 9 p.m., 2007