A Brief and Partially Factual History of Cody Weathers in the very exciting present tense:
1986: Cody Weathers buys used red sparkle Ludwig learner drumkit and 3/4 size nylon acoustic guitar. Cody subsequently forces childhood friend John Fried to join new band Solar Zundap as keyboardist. Zundap records four songs then returns to playing Dungeons & Dragons. Fried destroys keyboard to prevent reunion tour.
1987: Cody plays brief stint as drummer for The Biscuits. The Biscuits are not good at all. People hate The Biscuits. Babies hate the Biscuits. The deaf hate The Biscuits. The Biscuits hate The Biscuits and dissolve.
1988: Cody and Fried buy $25 used electric guitars, possibly left over from the early days of the Monkees and decide to start a new band, Rook. The original lineup is Fried and Nick Walsh on guitar, Matt Preheim on keyboards, Cody on drums, and Dan Levin as lead singer. Dan subsequently does not attend any rehearsals, and the Rook council convenes and decides 1-0 (which is sufficient for quorum) that due to the grave and demonstrated need for rehearsal, that Dan shall no longer be Rook's lead singer. Subsequently, a rigorous audition process commences to find a suitable replacement. Candidates are carefully screened via a two-part audition wherein they sing along with a tape of Motley Crue's "Home Sweet Home" for part one and with Matt playing the Beatles' "A Little Help From My Friends" for part two. Out of the literally hundreds of desperate applicants, Hannah Trechock is chosen as the new lead singer of Rook. Hannah attends one rehearsal with Cody and Matt and decides that she'd rather eat a jar of live spiders than put up with this crap (cutting edge artistry). Colby Goff, the number two candidate gets the call. With Colby at the helm, the band soon records groundbreaking new underground cover versions of "A Little Help From My Friends" and Cheap Trick's "Voices." Disaster strikes as a major class-action lawsuit by local classic rock cover band Rook forces the band to change its name to Roque, under Nick's patent assurances that this is the insider-chessmaster's TRUE spelling of "Rook," but it turns out to just be an obscure form of croquet in which a raised boundary exists to limit the playing field. However, as croquet is the sport which most exactly represents the spirit of rock and roll, the newly-annoited Roque views it as serendipitous destiny.... Shortly thereafter, disturbed by the delicate shift in the focus of the band's intensity from a chess band to a croquet band, Colby Goff steps down from the mic' ("I can be the lead singer of Rook, but I'm not ready for Roque....") and is relegated to the duties of the hitherto gaping void of third guitarist. Henceforth, drummer Cody Weathers assumes singing responsibilities. However, John Fried soon suffers a career-ending chord injury playing polo and must put down the guitar he so loved to become Roque's first-ever bass player. Soon thereafter, the band plays the first of its legendary shows at "Club John O'Meara's House" where they are discovered and signed (while still in high school!) by Checkmate Records A&R rep Cat Mayhugh.
1989: Roque records its first full-length album, Roque and Roll. With mesmerizing crowd-pleasing hits such as "Do You Want It," "Time, Trouble, and Expense," "Send Me Your Heart (On A String)," and the original version of "Little Miss NYC," the album rockets to the top of the Inuit charts and remains there until the end of caribou season.
1990: Having won the annual Denver Critic's choice award for "Band With the Name Most Frequently Mis-pronounced by its Own Members," Roque releases a new album, Separate Ways. However, before the summer tour in support of this album can begin, Colby Goff announces that he is contractually bound to attend ski-patrol school during the summer months in Michigan. Not having previously realized that Michigan was located in the Southern Hemisphere, the normally astute other members are flabbergasted. Faced with the daunting prospect of being whittled down from once three to now only one guitar player, the band begins a frantic search for a temporary replacement. Eventually, it is John Fried who finds the answer. He comes to rehearsal and informs Cody that he knows "a guitarist at school who has played for more than six years who's looking for a band." With much optimism, it is decided to allow this wunderkind to audition by sitting in on a rehearsal. Despite his curious interpretation of suspended chords and his liberal approach to tabulature, his brilliance is blatantly obvious. Thus John Speranza joins the band for the "1990 Roque World Tour of the Reeves and O'Meara Living Rooms."
1991: Upon Colby's return, there is but one clear path --to return to the three-guitar format and record the most rocked-out album ever to be made with a boom box in the middle of a bunch of guys: Checkmate. Having crossed the threshold of immortal three-guitar rock, Colby Goff --ever sensitive to the muse-- retires. In searching for a new two-guitar definition, the band decides to venture into a commercial recording studio to clean up Hollywood-tainted rock and roll once and for all. Their strategy is to re-record some of their earlier two-guitar anthems from Roque and Roll and Separate Ways on a greatest-hits anthology entitled Not! Audioworks is the lucky proving grounds for this momentous new direction. Purely as a statement, Roque enters and places third in a local Battle of the Bands. John Fried is observed to lean against a file cabinet in a sweet prelude to later motionless efforts on the part of other members. Cody and Speranza begin their long and illustrious undercover open stage project with help from local giant John Steidemann. Work is already underway on the band's third resounding strike into the heart of the youth, As Rome Burns, which is released in December.
1992: Roque delves ever deeper into charity work, playing at benefits for SADD and Amnesty International, where Matt Preheim single-handedly kicks the collective ass of local Ubermorons Wretched Refuse for stealing and burying two official Roque patch cords. Feeling that their third-place statement was largely ignored/misunderstood in 1991, the band returns and loses the same Battle of the Bands. Matt Preheim, feeling similar closure to Colby Goff after this anti-commercialist message is finally driven home, quits the band to pursue his other "goals." Cody, having recently written music for avant-garde fairy-tale showcase The Flower that Shattered the Stone where he was able to finally boss around keyboardist Neil MacPherson, brings Neil on board for what shapes up to be Roque's final album, Less Yackin', More Snackin'. In preparation for the Yackin' sessions, the band plays two critical shows -the infamous "Paris on the Platte Gig In Which Five Were Not Fed" and the more austere "Mercury Cafe Fully Motionless Gig." During the mix of Yackin', it is discovered that Fried was less than forthright about Speranza's original qualifications, as he was about 5 years and 10 months short of playing for six years. Yackin' is accompanied by Roque's first and only live album, How About a Beating. Destined for separate colleges and minimum-wage jobs, the band breaks up. However, that winter, Cody and Speranza decide to reunite in preparation for a new summer album as well as their newly acquired session job as the bass and drums for Neil MacPherson's new band, Shadows. In addition to rehearsing with Shadows, Cody and Speranza return frequently to old haunts like the Mercury Cafe and Coffee Grounds playing several nearly-attended acoustic shows under the moniker "Cody and John."
1993: "Cody and John" no longer seems to cut it as a name which truly indicates what this band is made of, so the band changes its name to Splat Monkey and promptly records Drive By at Free-Reelin' studios with engineer Broz Rowland. Drive By is recorded in record time -just over 20 hours of studio time to record and mix 17 songs-despite the fact that Broz's initial comment upon entering the studio is, "Man am I tired -I was up on Mt. Evans all night doing 'shrooms." Drive By is also accompanied by a new Splat Monkey live album, Suck Pumpkin. The Shadows album is recorded without incident. Fried, having attended the entire Drive By recording process and having volunteered such names as Splat Monkey and Suck Pumpkin, feels that he most certainly must come out of retirement so that the band can attack the last unconquered field of rock left to them: the power trio.
1994: Searching for a new name, the band goes through a brief period during which they change their name every gig. They go through The Algae Salesman, Haardvark, The Ex-Camels, and Randy Napkin before getting tired and settling on El Squeako. Following the example of The Unpronounceable-Glyph-Once-Named-Prince, the band decides that "El Squeako" will henceforth be pronounced "Snausages." They win their second Denver Critic's choice award for "Band With the Name Most Frequently Mis-pronounced by its Own Members" and release Pronounced "Snausages" with Shadows' engineer, Ben Tanler, who immediately earns the respect of the band by truly understanding their vision of (as Speranza notes) "playing about four feet beyond the edge of our ability." Snausages is accompanied by two separate live albums, The Bootleg No One Else Would Make (or buy) and Senor Squeaky.
1995: Cody graduates from Lewis & Clark College having never ever met or sexually harassed academic contemporary Monica Lewinsky, but nonetheless succeeding in garnering a degree in Music Composition. Returning to Denver, the band decides to rename as Flip Nasty in a constant effort to avoid fanaticism. Flip Nasty records Guitool and sells in excess of ten copies. The band is paid on consecutive weekends by the same person to not play for 200 people and then to play for no people. They also release their most adventurous live album to date, Secret Microphone.
1996: Cody and Speranza join blues-rock cover band, Live Bait on drums and bass. Flip Nasty plays more shows than ever before in its 8-year history, and is told by Lonesome Dan Case (1995 winner of the Denver Critic's Choice Award for Artist Most Closely Resembling a Ventriloquist's Dummy) while playing with Live Bait at now-defunct pretend blues coffee shop, The Denver Blues Co. "You'll never learn playing in coffee shops what I've learned [pulling my pants down and groaning with delight as I p*** on my shoes] on street corners." Flip returns to a newly re-vamped Checkmate studios and records Archaeology. Getting in touch with the stripped-down, almost 4-track demoesque feel of Archaeology, Cody embarks on a solo acoustic tour of the Northwest, where his promotional Nerdtease posters nearly get him banned in Salem despite the fact that they are clearly a joke. A man buys Guitool after hearing Cody check levels, and promptly leaves the Salem show. Late in the year, Flip returns to Checkmate and cuts six songs with John Fried before he departs for a two-year hiatus in Japan. These become the preliminary track for five of the songs on their 1997 album, River Dreams. The sixth song, a new version of "Dollface" from Roque's As Rome Burns, is never released.
1997: Cody and Speranza complete River Dreams and embark on another tour. Capitalizing on the underground appeal of River Dreams, Checkmate Records makes Flip Nasty the cornerstone act of the First Annual Checkmate Exemplathon -a festival held in Glenn's Ferry, Idaho featuring Checkmate artists. John Fried is flown in specially from Japan and joins Cody and Speranza for two shows in Corvallis and the Exemplathon before returning to Japan. After taking a lot of abuse from the childish antics of volatile Live Bait frontman Pete Vincelette, Cody and Speranza decide silently to quit Live Bait at precisely the same time that Vincelette decides to silently fire them, and thus the band is dissolved without a single word ever having been spoken.
1998: Checkmate releases a sampler, Monkey Eat Monkey, featuring the bands from the Exemplathon, including a new Flip Nasty song -"Cruel"--from their pending release, the soundtrack to the epic Frumples Pictures release: Flame Cow. Flip releases Songs You Hate, a retrospective of their first decade. Notably absent are "Coyote" and "So Will I," which together won a Denver Critic's Choice Special Achievement Award for Best Songs Mentioning the Death of Dogs in Supposedly Metaphorical Context. These songs are being re-recorded for Flame Cow; Cody explains, "in light of the award, we felt that the songs needed a new definition, maybe more mumbling...."
1999: Flame Cow, the film and the soundtrack, languish in post-production, experiencing innumerable delays related to (from an official press release dated 4/8/99) "....y2k non-compliance issues with the performers. Frumples Pictures and Checkmate Records are working dilligently with a number of well-paid and surprisingly-independent contractors to upgrade the personnel in question to meet the stringent international performers' standards (IPS) for the new millenium." John Fried returns from Japan a married man (sorry, ladies!) John Speranza enters a sensory deprivation tank on April tenth in preparation for the last five guitar tracks on the album. Cody produces the major-label debut of progressive Seattle bluesman Leaky Joe, Fistful of Blues. On July 8th, John Speranza enters a USBank branch and experiences what technicians later classify as a "routine hard drive fragmentation episode." Flame Cow is scheduled for late Autumn release in record stores and theaters everywhere.... Flame Cow, the film, is released to such raving reviews as:
"This is the worst thing you've ever done!" *1/2--George Weathers
"Honey, this is really terrible." *--Kathy Weathers
"It is kind of hard to swallow." **--John Fried
(whispered in Japanese)"Don't ever show me one of these again." (no stars)--Akari Fried
"Release the hounds!!!!" ****!--Moses, the giant dog
Flip records two gigs with percussionist Derek Sanchez before "speechless" crowds at The Rising Phoenix and La Dolce Vita and compiles their first live album in 4 years, Clapping Sold Separately, due for release in March '00. Cody joins The Stunt Beatles, Denver's premiere teetotaller cover band.
2000: Flame Cow is finally released in early 2000. Shortly thereafter, on the Ides of March, Clapping Sold Separately is released to stunned approval at La Dolce Vita, where it was largely recorded. John Speranza runs away from home and is presumed to be living the carefree hobo life of his hero, microtonalist Harry Partch, skinning rats and grinning in the endless sunshine of the Burlington Northern line between El Paso and Denver. Cody and Fried shed real tears of joy and await his triumphant return. In the meantime, they invite drummer Kevin Ozias to rehearse with the band for some in-your-face rock and roll shows with Cody slinging the electric axe on for the first time in the history of the band. However, jealous of Speranza's newfound good life, Cody decides to put the band on indefinite hiatus and move to Buffalo for a few months in June '00. "The ass of Western York has yet to be truly kicked by my nerdy singsongs," he says in a cryptic message to Joh3n O'Meara, his longtime "confidant." Says Joh3n: "Actually, he had to leave it twice because my machine cut him off, so to be truly accurate for posterity, the hiatus of Flip Nasty actually was announced in two parts like this:
1.Yo O, it's Co. Look, the a** of Western York has yet to be truly kicked by my nerd.
2.Dude, your machine cut me off. F***in' fix it. I hate f***in' unreliable answering machines, OK?! Anyway, as I was saying, (ahem) nerdy singsongs.
I assume he told Fried or something." In the hiatus, Fried plans to pursue his solo performance art career, including a whirlwind danger tour of his most famous concept happening: Pickle Meets Chicken, which the ASPCA has lauded as "gruesome" and "criminal." "I cram the pickles down the chicken's throat until it vomits or dies," explains the genius. After a pause, he adds, "It's our society, man." "Am I the chicken?" I ask. He just shakes his head slowly, "Try to pay attention. It's Pickle Meets Chicken. It's not a Feynman diagram. This s***'s easy. It speaks to the ignorant masses of which you are but a single cog." I would've asked more, but I'm not smart enough to understand if I am a pickle or a chicken. Long live rock and roll. Long live swank. In June 2000, Checkmate Records releases the first disc of a projected 10-disc box set of previously-unreleased/unrecorded Flip Nasty material, I Hate You. In July 2000, Cody Weathers puts the finishing touches on the first studio release from The Stunt Beatles, 2x3<4, including re-recorded versions of Separate Ways and Cocoon, as well as newly-penned Cody songs, Oui, Je Sais, Fall On Me, and Blue As The Moon (another version of which was recorded for the feature film Colfax and appears on I Hate You. In August 2000, Cody Weathers produces the debut release of Sunhouse Branch, The Top Secret Band That's So Secret That The Members Don't Even Know That They're In The Band. In November of 2000, Checkmate Records releases a second sampler, Tongue Meets Eyeball, featuring an unapproved track (Deep) from a mystery band, UFO Catcher. The ensuing investigation discovers that Tongue.... producer Cody Weathers has abused his producer's status to insert the track onto the final mix without notifying the record company. Furthermore, it is discovered that UFO Catcher is comprised of none other than Weathers and long-time best friend, Vaunne Ma. But the biggest shock comes when Checkmate counter-intelligence agents discover that the furtive co-conspirators became engaged on November 30th, 2000. Checkmate CEO Wally Haht-Caulkie reluctantly agrees to sign the new band to a ridiculous long-term deal to avoid a cataclysmic drop in share prices.
2001: In March, Checkmate announces the re-release of back issue Flip Nasty material on CD with expanded liner notes and additional material. On June 16, 2001, Ma and Weathers tie the knot at Willamette Gables outside Portland, OR and announce that they are expecting their first CD.
2002: In January, UFO Catcher releases their critically-acclaimed debut, The Tale of a Sad and Lonely Boy Who Dreamed of Love, to mixed reviews. Cody assumes the helm at the inexplicably-popular Cafe Delirium open stage in Portland, leading to projects with Jonathan Aebischer, Erik Prince, and Lone Pine Motel. Alas, the runaway success of the forum is short-lived, and the stage is suddenly canceled by Autumn's end, the owner citing security concerns. In this case, the terrorists won. For shame.
2003: In January, Cody Weathers releases the much-anticipated second disc in the planned 10-disc box set of previously-unreleased/unrecorded Flip Nasty Material, Free Horse Manure. In February, Cody briefly joins Portland's Jesters of Rock, Alex Arrowsmith and Mayhaw Hoons in the short-lived band Lone Pine Motel, recording a rough demo and playing one spectacular show at the Meow Meow. In April, inspired to rock once more on this continent, Cody undertakes his back burner Fortnight project, writing one song a day for fourteen days. So great is his enthusiasm that he accidentally loses track and writes 15 songs by mistake. Cody and Vaunne Weathers conspire with John and Akari Fried to create an uberband of Asian baby girls spoon-fed a steady diet of nerd rock v2.0. Recording for Fortnight begins. In September, Cody makes a surprise ER guest performance.
2004: On Wednesday, March 17th at 12:30 AM, UFO Catcher welcomes the unique wiggly talents of Cara Weathers into the hitherto-stalled Fortnight recording process. By July, the album is finally completed for release.
2005: Cody undertakes a massive acoustic re-recording of long-time fan favorites, as voted by the Flipkids Funklub Nerd Patrol (tm). The 48 ensuing songs are eventually split into two simultaneous releases, Least Significant Failures, and I Love You, Helicopter (disc 3 of the 10+ CD Box Set project). In August, Cody (Mr. Green) joins a local startup group on drums. He is joined by Sturgis (Mr. Red) on bass (later replaced by Josh --Mr.Blue) and Rob (Mr. Orange) on sax, under the direct supervision of Jay Millas (Mr. White: guitar, vocals). For their own protection, the members of the band never learn each others' true identities. The band is comprised entirely of strangers answering the same ad on Craig's List, so Cody begins referring to it as Craig's Band despite the fact that Millas "isn't feeling it." On Monday, November 7th at 3:30 PM, UFO Catcher creates piano player Hadley Weathers out of thin air. And so the uberband grows! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
2006: Cody finishes writing music for the long-contemplated second Sunhouse Branch album, Cinema. Envisioned by co-lyricist Cat Mayhugh as a song cycle celebrating the films of Werner Herzog, it evolves over the course of two years into a Rashomonesque lens of different perspectives on Herzog's work, laid out in exclusive odd time. In keeping with the amazing story of Sunhouse Branch, Weathers and Mayhugh lure the unsuspecting French musicians into a clever ruse, tricking them into auditioning for a Broadway musical that sadly doesn't exist, all the while taping their sight readings as a live session for the album. Currently in production. In late March, Cody quits Craig's Band after a bizarre incident in which --according to anonymous sources-- fellow megalomaniac and bandmate Jay Millas attempted to decapitate him with a broadsword while chanting, "there can be only one!" Officially, Weathers cites "time commitments and creative differences" as the true reasons for the split. While winking. And air-fencing. Subsequently, Craig's Band renames itself --completely by coincidence-- Flip Buckle, but it's just not the same. Cody begins writing new songs for a riff-oriented hard-rock album (working title: Haardvark). Cara Weathers completes three new songs by herself: Right In The Middle (Right in the middle/Everybody gets tired/But we can't take a nap/So we had to take a nap/Doot-do-doo!), Knocking (Open the door/Somebody's knocking/There's nobody there/The tree is still broken/And we can't fix it, we can't fix it, we can't fix it, we can't fix it anymore), and Hands and Fingers (Hands and fingers/A-burdle-bat!). "It's not fair to compare Cara's effort to mine," cautions Cody, "Just because her album is on track doesn't mean I'm too old to write new material!"
2007: In February, Cody is featured in the first semi-annual 9 Muses Acoustic Tavern songwriter's showcase. "On the basis of my finish with the judges, I declare myself ineligible for prizes," says Weathers. In March, Least Significant Failures becomes available on CD Baby and iTunes.
2008: Flanked by his UFO Catcher bandmates in no-nonsense buns and black eveningwear, Cody releases a terse statement explaining his decision to enter a yearlong rehabilitative seclusion, "The lights are on, but I'm not home. I'm gonna have to face it: I'm addicted to love." As he tackles personal issues and continues to steam at least 10% speed ahead on both Cinema and Haardvark, his web presence grows ever more meaningful and less smarmy with expansions into The Book of Face and other social networks. Cody takes time to complete a first draft of his second feature film, Hound, a collaboration with fellow Frumples alum, Eric Rorem. Cody completes selection of tracks for a massive Live eeLbum, Live Significant Failures, to see exclusive web release in mid-2009. Cody posts 3 free XMas classics to his GarageBand site.
2009: Cody collaborates with former "Flower That Shattered The Stone" and "Intergalactic Soccer" alum, Aerron Allen on a potential score and comic revisions to her existing musical screenplay, Corpulent Power. Tracking for Haardvark and Cinema continues at its own pretty pace. Cinema is released in July as a free mp3 download. Cody resumes active gigging as Cody Weathers & The Men Your Mama Warned You About (with Tim Krajcar on bass and Evan Whitacre on percussion).
2010: Cody & The Men Your Mama Warned You About endeavor to play wherever coffee and muffins are sold in the Portland metro area. They release a new live album, Mama Done Warned Ya, featuring some of their early favorites. Steve Quintana joins the group on lead guitar in September.
2011: v 1.0 of the Men Your Mama Warned You About disband amicably over logistical conflicts. In their place, Cody and guitarist Jean Gustin reform the band and rotate through a few drummers and bassists before cementing the lineup with Budget Airlines bassist Sean Mersereau and fusion drummer Bill Neighbors.
