Music Style Folk & Pop.

Musical Influences all kinds

Artist History JAYFISH consists of a group of songwriters and is led by the songwriting team of Tommy Jay & Nudge Squidfish, which formed in 1979 in Columbus Ohio. JayFish has played live and have released numerous musical projects over the years. This folk & pop duo both write & play a wide variety of instruments & styles. With Mighty Whitey & Ted Lust in 2001 they form The Whales which is a power pop karaoke folk rock band. Finally, Along with Mike Rep & Mighty Whitey they play with the punk rock act called Mike Rep and the Quotas. For more information visit their web pages at: HTTP://WWW.ORANGEENTROPY.COM HTTP://WWW.MP3.COM/JAYFISH

Group Members THE MIKE REP & THE QUOTAS STORY Mike Rep Hummel recorded his first single (Rocket To Nowhere /Quasar MOXIE RECORDS) along with a handful of other crude crud classics in 1975, including the recently released Swedish single "Mama Was A Schitzo Daddy Was A Vegetable Man /Rocket Music On". "Rocket To Nowhere" was pressed in 1976 and 'released' in 1978 in the Berkeley, Ca. MOXIE label to at-the-time resounding indifference. "Back in 1975 absolutely nothing was happening locally or on radio except Disco music and California Country Rock" sez Hummel, "It was a very dark time for original rock. I just wrote the music that was missing from my life but was in my brain, and recorded it by bouncing tracks between one-track decks. So in a twisted way disco music was a sort of inspiration to me. Originally it was just myself and TOMMY JAY on drums recording and bouncing tracks in Tommy's basement. There was no 'Quotas' band per se at that time; The Quotas were the SONGS, not band members." A few years later Tommy and Mike and Tommy's brother "The General" formed a live performing group, calling themselves TRUE BELIEVERS. "True Believers became a media buzzword after the REV. JIM JONES GUYANA MASSACRE for anyone belonging to a weird cult", says Hummel, "That group was in essence The Quotas reborn and renamed, just like good reborn cultists should be. Plus we were playing Tommy and The General's songs too by that point and so a new name seemed appropriate". In 1980 the critically acclaimed True Believers "Accept It!"7" EP was released on Hummel's fledgling NEW AGE RECORDS label, and actually sold 1000 copies, "quite a feat for a domestic band on an unknown label at that time". The New Age label also released singles by SCREAMING URGE, and JIM SHEPARD's VERTICAL SLIT among others. IN 1981 True Believers disbanded and a few years later the final New Age release, GREAT PLAINS "Mark Don & Mel" 12" EP was released and the label dissolved. "By1984 NEW AGE had become a buzz-word for Yanni-like music. I suspected a CIA conspiracy at the time... I was sick that decade." muses Hummel. In the final year of the group Al Martin (A.K.A. Nudge Squidfish) had joined on, and continued along with Tommy Jay to record with Mike throughout the 80's (and 90's). After a year long stint with the Great Plains in 1984, MIke left and started the D.I.Y. OLD AGE/NO AGE label, which produced 15 custom-made artwork /cassette only releases from 1985 to 1990. These tapes featured the first recordings of groups like THE GIBSON BROTHERS and previously unheard early recordings by RON HOUSE and JIM SHEPARD among others, as well as Mike's own recorded material. "Hand-made casettes were a viable and inexpensive alternative to exploitive record label shenanigans which also allowed all involved total artistic freedom" says Hummel, "and many get reviewed in major publications like SPIN and MAXIMUM ROCK AND ROLL. Those tapes really got around!". Mike was playing with a "Rock N' Rural" group CAMPFIRE WALKERS at the turn of that decade ("that was my hippie period, I had dropped out of everything") but by1992 the local band scene was exploding with new hard-rocking talent, and Mike's D.I.Y. recording sensibilities came into new demand. "Groups like MONSTER TRUCK FIVE and BOYS FROM NOWHERE were actually playing early Quotas songs, so I naturally fell in with them" says Hummel, who went on to record and "Lovingly Fuck With" (Hummel's term) recordings by the likes of NEW BOMB TURKS, GAUNT, GUIDED BY VOICES, BASSHOLES, STRAPPING FIELD HANDS and THOMAS JEFFERSON SLAVE APARTMENTS among many others. This all coincided with the underground Philadelphia label SILTBREEZE's release of the "STUPOR HIATUS" LP, which featured 70s and 80's recordings by Hummel and restablished the monikker MIKE REP & THE QUOTAS to stay ("I figured why confuse people any more?"). Mike also formed QUOTAS '92 to perform his punk songs live and recorded a live EP for Siltbreeze later that year. Says Hummel, "SILTBREEZE was a label with amazing integrity run by wonderful person(s). They had no 'big-time' agenda". But QUOTAS '92 was short-live when their drummer went insane and had to be institutionalized (I think he was taking my lyrics a little too close to heart . I knew then how Ozzy Ozbourne must have felt. My lyrics were sometimes nihilistic but usually tongue-in-cheek; life IS worth living!"). Mike again retired from group performance until very recently. "Tommy and Al and I never really stopped playing and recording, we just went back to the basement (actually a converted barn) and played there or under the stars, my favorite audience". BUT NOW MIKE REP & THE QUOTAS ARE BACK, at least for a while, playing select local shows and making a small amount of out-of-town gigs. " Tommy Al and I figured we should do it before we get too much fatter and our peckers shrivel up and our livers explode, if they haven't already... We still ROCK HARD AND LONG and have added the wailing guitar of our long time collaborator JOHNNY FURNACE. It's time to say hello and maybe goodbye to our friends in other cities that we love". NEW RECORDINGS are also said to be in the works as of this writing. "There's already stuff in the bag waiting to be heard ; we'll see..." INDEED WE WILL. (for MORE INFORMATION of further interviews and questions contact MIke at: oldagenoage@earthlink.net or call (614) 877-3379

Location Delaware, Ohio - USA

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