An eclectic group of long-time, local Sacramento musicians has collaborated to form a group that will have the local Sacramento Valley Music Scene asking, “Who are those old rockers?”

With over 125 years in combined experiences in the music, arts, & original theater scene, Throwing Monkeys kicks out a wide range of raw & powerful, yet, diverse song list that samples the last four decades.  Breaking out from their usual private performances, they decided to see how the “local music mainstream” would respond to their style and interpretation of cover songs.

Throwing Monkeys five musicians are:

Gary Sears, guitar, vocals, and producer, is a musician’s musician with an extraordinary sense of music interpretation.  He draws from his past 37 years of experience that includes writing, producing, and performing music.  Another group that he participates in is dRAW PiNKY (www.drawpinky.com), Northern California ’s premier original musical/theatrical troupe.  Dogs, another “project” keeps him busy playing in and producing their CDs.  Throwing Monkeys is without doubt, fortunate to have this musician as a monkey member.

Lenny Schotter, percussionist and vocals, also has been in the Los Angeles and Sacramento music scene for over 35 years.  He was in “OZZIE”, “Frankenstein Haircut”, with performances at the old Oasis Ballroom, Shire Road Pub, Slick Willeys, etc.  Throw in performances at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco and in So Cal, auditioned for Ozzy Osbourne and Ricky Nelson.  More recently, he has been in local groups such as Just Us, Simulators, Meat Plow, Dirty Penny, and GLE.  Close your eyes and you’ll swear you hear John Bonham…

Doug Land, lead vocals, brings his baritone voice to Throwing Monkeys.  His past 20 years have found him performing with Frankenstein Haircut, Meat Plow, and Dirty Penny.  Doug has a natural ability to orchestrate the band’s diverse song list to address the appropriate venue, while retaining the band’s natural high energy throughout the entire performance.

Charlie “The Kid” Fruits, bass guitar, was just ripe enough for us to pick.  His addition has provided Throwing Monkeyswith an extremely solid foundation and bottom that provides cohesion and structure.  Although this is his first working band since bustin’ him out of his home, the other “elder” members are lucky to have been the first to rob this cradle.

Greg Lim, Manager of Throwing Monkeys, plays keyboards and vocals.  He started out playing classical music and ended up playing classic rock in his first band in 1967.  His 60’s-70’s bands included playing with musician virtuoso, Steven Mackey Ph.D. (Professor of Music Composition at Princeton University).

Bud Cockrell (Pablo Cruise), and Pattie Santos (It’s a Beautiful Day).  Local bands included GLE, Just Us, Meat Plow,
and Dirty Penny.

For more Monkey business info, please contact Greg Lim, Manager at 916/456-7318

MONKEY CREDITS

Website and logo designed by local artist extraordinaire, Tony Natsoulas (www.tonynatsoulas.com).  His numerous credentials includes the bigger-than-life size, flying art pieces located at the Sacramento Downtown Plaza, an exhibition at the Crocker Art Museum  and HGTV’s Carroll Duval Show showing Tony working in his art studio.

Video and sound production courtesy of David Essary, Force 4 Digital, a full service video production company (www.force4digital.com).  His accomplishments include international travel to the wilds of Africa to video bow hunting of big game, deep jungles of several Central America countries documenting relief efforts, and working with many of America's largest corporations.