Jay Tiller and Neil Socol -- aka Couch Potatoes and, later, Couch Flambeau -- have made it to 25. Yes, it's true. Milwaukee's own witty rock trio -- part Circle Jerks, part Van Halen (there's have a "gear" page on the band's Web site!) -- is a quarter-century old.
The band celebrates with a gig at the fresh and clean new Cactus Club on Saturday, Sept. 29.
The bulk of the band's output and activity came in the 1980s but the retrospective CD "I Did a Power Slide in a Taco Stand: Anthology 1982–2001," released in 2004, has all you need to know about most of Couch Flambeau's 25 years.
Order it at the band's Web site (see below) and study up. Then go to the gig and celebrate the birthday of one Milwaukee's most influential and long-lived underground bands.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
