The Cereal Factory June 25, 2005 Review by Jake Thomas I’ve been intending to go to the summer Cereal Factory afternoon shows for years, but it never seemed to occur – mostly due to the fact that I just didn’t want to cross the bridge. But now, living in the Easy Bay, I got no excuse…and in fact was eagerly anticipating this show. When I got there I walked into the band room to experience the glory of Militant Children’s Hour. I had been hearing good things for a while, but somehow everyone neglected to tell me it was a one man band…or maybe I just wasn’t listening and had probably spaced out and was daydreaming about having a pet monkey, it happens often enough. Anyways – MCH was brilliant stuff. Dressed in a fine moustache and a leather vest, the dude simultaneously played guitar and a bass/snare drum combo with his feet and sang his vocals through one of those distorto-sound machines like they use for witness protection. The whole affair was a bluesey-hard rock thing with funny lyrics, and it was entirely brilliant and entertaining all at the same time. Don’t believe me? go to his website, there’s like a million songs to download there. JJ, co-runner of the Cereal Factory, went on and on about how great this band No Bunny & His Fabulous Flys was in their previous incarnation, and that I should definitely check them out. since JJ is smarter than me (he wears glasses after all), I figured I would listen to him and I’ll be damned if they weren’t a real fun time. Kinda soulful, kinda garage-y, they sounded like a cross between two of my favorite local bands, Harold Ray: Live in Concert and Thee Mothballs. Like any good band, there were outfits involved and the singer was dressed in a bunny mask and fuzzy slippers. As far as I’m concerned, unless you are a particularly fetching young lady, there’s really no reason NOT to dress in a funny outfit if you’re a singer. I had a real hoot. I don’t think I’ll be missing any Cereal Factory shows in the future.
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