The Rock Bottom Remainders
The All-Author Band
Announce Their 20th Anniversary & Final Public Performance During
The Past Our Bedtime Tour
In Concert at the El Rey Theatre
Friday, June 22, 2012

LOS ANGELES, CA – May 23, 2012 (Updated May 30, 2012) – The Rock Bottom Remainders, the all-author rock band with Stephen King, Dave Barry, Amy Tan and Matt Groening among its members, will hold their last public concert, after performing together for 20 years, at the El Rey Theatre on Friday, June 22, 2012 at 8:30pm. The show is part of the band’s final two-city The Past Our Bedtime Tour, which also includes an appearance not open to the public at the American Library Association Conference in Anaheim on the same weekend.  The entire band is together for the first time since 2007.  Roger McGuinn, best known as the lead singer and lead guitarist for The Byrds, will also join as a musical guest.  Proceeds will benefit literary causes.  For more information on the Rock Bottom Remainders, please see www.rockbottomremainders.com.

Doors open at 7:30pm.  Tickets are $40-$200 and go on sale Thursday, May 24, 2012 via TheElRey.com and Ticketmaster.  $200 VIP ticket includes pre-show reception and “meet & greet” from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.  This is an all ages show. The historic El Rey Theatre is located in the preserved art deco Miracle Mile district at 5515 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA  90036 (323-936-6400).  Valet, lot and street parking are available.

On the upcoming concert, popular horror and science fiction writer Stephen King, who plays rhythm guitar says, “A few years ago, Bruce Springsteen told us we weren’t bad, but not to try to get any better otherwise we’d just be another lousy band. After 20 years, we still meet his stringent requirements. For instance, while we all know what ‘stringent’ means, none of us have yet mastered an F chord.”

The Band –
By day, they’re authors. Really famous authors. But once a year, they shed their pen-and-pencil clutching personas and become rock stars, complete with roadies, groupies and a wicked cool tour bus.  Most of them are both amateur musicians and popular English-language book, magazine, and newspaper authors. Their self-mocking band name was taken from the publishing term “remaindered book,” a work of which the unsold remainder of the publisher’s stock of copies is sold at a reduced price.

Confirmed for the concert are Stephen King, who hasn’t performed with the band since 2007, as well as Amy Tan (vocals & whip), Dave Barry (co-lead guitar), Matt Groening (cowbell), Mitch Albom (keyboards), Scott Turow (vocals), James McBride (sax), Greg Iles (co-lead guitar), Ridley Pearson (bass), Roy Blount, Jr. (the crowd), and Sam Barry (harmonica).

King adds, “I’m looking forward to reuniting with all my bandmates. We’re older but not dead. Some of us can remember all of the words; all of us can remember some of the words; but NONE of us can remember all of the music. That’s why they call it rock and roll.”

Barry chimes in, “It’s not that we had a ‘creative differences’ issue, or some in the band wanted to launch solo music careers, but the fact is that we can no longer play an entire set without having to pee.”  Barry adds, “We realize the Rolling Stones are celebrating 50 years this year, but we don’t want to reach the point where our stage moves involve motorized scooters.”

Material –

The band has two original songs and mostly performs covers. Audiences are likely to be treated to some combination of the following classic tunes performed with The Remainders’ unique sensibility, as well as backing up Roger McGuinn on several Byrds classics.

•  “Gloria”
•  “High School Sweater”
•  “If the House is a Rockin’…”
•  “In the Midnight Hour”
•  “Louie Louie”
•  “Paperback Writer”
•  “Rockaway Beach”
•  “Stand By Me” Ben E King version
•  “Steamroller Blues”
•  “These Boots Are Made for Walkin”
•  “Wild Thing”
•  “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”
•  “You Can’t Judge a Book by its Cover”
•  “You May Be Right”

Band Bios –
Band member bios are at the links listed below:

Mitch Albom – www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/Mitch.html
Dave Barry – www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/Dave.html
Sam Barry – www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/sam.html
Roy Blount, Jr. – www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/roy.html
Kathi Goldmark* – www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/books/kathi-kamen-goldmark-writers-catalyst-dies-at-63.html
Matt Groening – www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/matt.html
Greg Iles – www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/greg.html
Stephen King  – www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/stephen.html
James McBride – www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/james.html
Ridley Pearson – www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/Ridley.html
Amy Tan – www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/amytan.html
Scott Turow – www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/scott.html

Origins –
The band was founded by Kathi Goldmark* in 1992 at a book convention in Anaheim.  Goldmark* was a musician at the time with a day job in book publicity. Through her work, she met many prolific authors.  While driving one of the authors around one day, she came upon the idea of making a band of authors.  The idea stuck and The Remainders’ first performance was in 1992 at the American Booksellers Association Convention in Anaheim.  In a review of that concert, which appeared in The Washington Post, the event was called “the most heavily promoted musical debut since The Monkees.”

* Since the original distribution of this press release, Kathi Goldmark died on May 24, 2012 in San Francisco after a courageous battle with breast cancer. The band dedicates these two final concerts to her.

“Kathi founded the Remainders as a one-night stand, and the fling turned us into family who have had 20 years of fun.  We promised Kathi she would be on stage with us for our 20th and final year, and so we have.  We dedicate these last two shows to our instigator and Remainderette.”  – Amy Tan

Causes –
Since the band’s founding, they have raised over $2 million for various literacy causes.  Proceeds from the Anaheim show support the American Library Association‘s scholarship program for graduate students in library and information studies.  Proceeds from the El Rey show in Los Angeles will benefit The Midnight Mission, the Los Angeles Downtown Women’s Center and a new Emerging Author Series at Live Talks Los Angeles to be launched in January 2013.

The Midnight Mission –
Established in 1914, The Midnight Mission offers a path to self-sufficiency for men, women and children who have lost everything. Their emergency services, 12-step recovery program, job training, education and work programs offer a compassionate bridge to productive lives. The Mission provides the accountability and structure that people who are experiencing homelessness need to rejoin their communities.  www.midnightmission.org

Downtown Women’s Center –
The Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) provides permanent supportive housing and a safe and healthy community fostering dignity, respect, and personal stability, while also advocating for an end to homelessness. Founded in 1978, DWC is the only resource in Los Angeles that is exclusively dedicated to serving the unique needs of homeless and very low-income women in downtown Los Angeles’ Skid Row community.  www.dwcweb.org/

Emerging Author Series at Live Talks Los Angeles –
Live Talks Los Angeles features live conversations with prominent writers, artists, actors, musicians, scientists, influencers and business thought leaders in various venues in Los Angeles.  The emerging author event, commencing in early 2013, will feature newer voices — emerging fiction and non-fiction authors in conversation with more established writers.  These events will be free to the public.  www.livetalksla.org

For more information, press passes, photos, or to arrange an interview, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.

“We play music as well as Metallica writes novels.” -Dave Barry

“The Rock Bottom Remainders?Who the hell are they?” -Kirk Hammett, Metallica

Stephen King (photo credit: Jane Kortright)