The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
Point to a picture and see what happened when in Exboyfriendland. Click to make the text and picture the default. Click again to continue.
Summer 1994
— David Kern, Larry Cowen, Lehho Rebassoo and Jeff Liebert place an ad in The Village Voice searching for male singers in New York City. The Audition finds Jeremy Lipkin and two other dudes who subsequently quit after one rehearsal. They dub themselves "The Y-Chromotones" until they can think of something better.
Fall 1994
— Their first official function of the group takes them on a road trip to New Orleans. While there The Y-Chromotones sing an impromptu set at the Hooters in the French Quarter, thus supporting the theory that the group was really formed as a ploy to pick up chicks.
March 1995
— The Y-Chromotones perform their first official show at The Sun Mountain Cafe in Greenwich Village, NYC. Sadly the venue has long since gone out of business so we have had to strike it from The Exboyfriends walking tour.
1996
— Larry leaves the group to pursue a solo career in Law — Meanwhile, Lehho and Dave bump into Brian Reichelt at a New York City bar and ask him to set in on a few practices (they must have been drinking). Later that spring the group changes their name to "The Very Special Guests" and perform at Boston University's Beanpot of A Cappella Festival along with some of the best groups from local Boston colleges. The audience went wild.
Fall 1997
— The group begins to joke about how they should call themselves "The Exboyfriends". Turning away from performance, The group commits solely to commercial and jingle work, recording over a dozen promos for Nickelodeon. Their big break comes in November when they woke up way too early in the morning for an on-air audition to be Howard Stern's Dirty Christmas Carolers.
December 1997
— The Exboyfriends snag the part of The Howard Stern Christmas Carolers over a group of stuffy nerds and make an appearance on The Howard Stern Radio show as well as a taping for Howard Stern on E! They dress up in caroling garb and shock holiday shoppers with raunchy adaptations of beloved Christmas classics.
February 1998
— The Exboyfriends enjoy a tryumphant return to the stage with a packed show at the historic Village club The Bitter End and in the same week win the Audience Favorite Award performing at their first New York Harmony Sweepstakes vocal compitition.
Summer 1998
— The Exboyfriends welcome David Curry and Xerxes Eclipse (you can call him Rex) to their ranks in an effort to appease David Kern's insatiable hunger for more notes in his chord. After all, why have five when you can have seven.
Fall 1998
— The Exboyfriends begin recording tracks for their first album, while continuing their jingle work and giging around at New York Clubs. Later that year they record new dirty Christmas carols for The Howard Stern Show which are played regularly throughout the holiday season.
February 1999
— The Exboyfriends snag the Audience Favorite Award once again at the New York Harmony Sweepstakes competition. It must have been the sparkly matching shirts we wore that year. Late spring the group's once and future bass Lehho parts ways with the group. Farewell, Lehho.... We hardly knew ye.
September 1999
— The group's first full-length album, A Cappella's Dead, is released to the public with a rip-roaring party at Le Bar Bat in midtown Manhattan. A month later The Exboyfriends appear on VH1 posing as the country & western version of The Backstreet Boys on a hidden camera segment on "Rock of Ages". Ari Picker joins as the groups new bass.
February 2000
— The Exboyfriends sweep the New York regional Harmony Sweepstakes. They not only win first prize and a spot in the National Finals in San Francisco, but they also win "Best Arrangement" and the Audience Favorite award for the 3rd year in a row. The Ex's also appear live on Boston Radio WERS 88.9 FM and are dubbed "The Pink Floyd of A Cappella" by the show's host, Ann Webb. By the way, which one's Pink?
May 2000
— The Exboyfriends travel to San Francisco to perform in the Harmony Sweeps National Finals and take home the Audience Favorite Award. We are nothing if not consistent. Shortly before that they make their debut at New York's famous Bottom Line Cabaret performing at "A Night of Modern A Cappella" with 10FM, Da Vinci's Notebook and Naturally Seven.
June 2000
— After making an appearance on "The Smith and Barber Morning Show" on WPLR 99 FM, New Haven Connecticut's classic rock station, the Exboyfriends are invited to open for The Marshall Tucker Band at WPLR's "Rites of Spring" Concert. The evening's highlight came when we got the chance to sing backup for The Marshall Tucker Band on "Can't You See".
September 2000
— Another Evening of Modern A Cappella at NYC's Bottom Line. The Exboyfriends with Minimum Wage, Da Vinci's Notebook and Naturally Seven. Hosted by Sean Altman. All of The Exboyfriends bleach their hair blond seemingly for no other reason then to amuse themselves.
New Year's Eve 2000
— Jeremy Lipkin and Michelle Ciulla are wed. The Exboyfriends kick the new year off right at a beautiful hall down on the Sea Port. The Exboyfriends debut CD A Cappella's Dead is named one of the PICKS OF 2000 by the Recorded A Cappella Review Board. Album sales triple in one day. (We sold 3 copies!)
March 2001
— Somehow, several of the Exes find themselves in the middle of the first known Karaoke Bar Brawl! Nothing a few stitches to the forehead couldn't repair. You should see the other guy. Prior to the incident The Exboyfriends bring aboard producer and Rockapella vocal percussionist Jeff Thacher, and begin recording their second album.
May 2001
— Our Lincoln Center debut! The Exboyfriends host the 2001 International Collegiate A Cappella Finals. Who would have thought the Exboyfriends would rock the stage of Lincoln Center. There are good reasons for that. Mental note: Fart jokes don't go over as well there as they do downtown.
July 2001
— The group is invited by EDGAR WINTER himself to perform "Frankenstein" on stage with him and his band in Huntington, NY. It was an incredible opportunity to perform one of our covers with the original artist as well as an amazing show! The next morning The Exboyfriends climb into a van and cruise down to join Da Vinci's Notebook at the Summer A Cappella Festival in Arlington VA.
February 2002
— The Exboyfriends perform a Valentine's day show with the Fonic at The Bitter End. They dressed up in vintage '70s clothing because they heard it was in . . . four years ago. This apparently mortifies group bass Ari who has no other choice than to leave the group. Farewell Ari, we knew ye even less.
July 2002
— Embracing the Spinal Tapish nature of the group's bass problems, the Exboyfriends set out to find a replacement. Luckily, as it turns out, Lehho is back in town. The Exboyfriends make a fourth visit up to "The Smith and Barber Show," and perform at WPLR's Buried at the Beach week in New Haven CT.
December 2002
— The Exboyfriends' second album, Karaoke Bar Brawl, is released with a huge show at The Elbow Room in New York City. They introduce A Cappella Karaoke and invite a few audience members to come up and sing lead on songs from their first album. Most likely won't be doing that again.
