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Once upon a time, in an Iowa City music scene long forgot, there was a guy named Kevin Neal. He and his best bud from high school, a bass player by the name of Jay Andersen, decided to start a band. They needed a drummer and they met up with Kevin Doull and started jamming. Songs started to be written and soon to follow were aspirations to go out and pursue the rock dream. Ah, but before they could start performing, they needed a band name, and Critical Gopher was born.
Before CG started to play out, they recorded some tunes at John Svec's Minstrel Studios in IC. After having a single released on a
local music CD, Iowa Compilation Volume 3, local interest in the band took off. In November of '93, CG suddenly had the number one requested song and #1 single on the local college station, KRUI, for three consecutive weeks. The band was getting some good reviews and things were good. It was a pleasant surprise for the boys, but they weren't prepared and didn't have anything to release to follow up their sudden success. Consequently, there shows turnouts were starting to hurt and band moral was a little shaky.
Kevin Doull decided to leave Gopher in late '94. Jay and Kevin auditioned many a drummer, but with the music being a tad bit difficult to play, they had no luck and they just about gave up. Then one day Skip Lowe called the boys up. Skippy was an extremely talented drummer who performed in many IC bands including the Steam Boars and No Pain. Things went well and the band suddenly had the ability to perform again.
CG released the CD Machine in early '95. It contained 14 tracks of music that defied categorization. Once again, the boys got good reviews, and even a label or two showed some interest, but no takers. CG got to play shows with some amazing bands including The Urge, Fragile Porcelain Mice, The Blue Meanies, House of Large Sizes, Season to Risk, Squidboy, NIL8, and many others. CG continued writing more music in hopes of recording yet another CD and finding that elusive record deal, but then CG suffered yet another blow.
Skip left the band in the fall '96. CG tried to find yet another
drummer. Mark Barry from Cedar Falls filled in and played one show with the boys and quit as well. Without a drummer, and believe me they looked, CG's heart stopped beating.
Kevin and Jay went their separate ways. Jay played in various local bands and Kevin assembled a 3 piece instrumental band called The Retired Firemen with ex- Gopher drummer Kevin Doull and Jake Dulitz on bass. Time went on, the Firemen broke up, and CG still had no drummer. Then in late summer 2000, Jay talked to Kevin about a drummer he had met that could possibly fill the missing CG drummer slot.
Sean Dorton from Muscatine auditioned and suddenly Critical Gopher was reborn. Sean was the missing puzzle piece that the band needed. Since then, CG has recorded a new demo and they are currently writing more tunes and playing out locally.
Rodent Ruckus 2002!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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| reviews coming soon! |
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| Date |
Venue/Club |
Location |
| April 13, 2002 |
Gabes oasis |
Iowa City IA, USA |
| May 11, 2002 |
Hairy Marys |
Des Moines IA, USA |
| April 17, 2002 |
Muscatine High School |
Muscatine IA, USA |
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Location:
Muscatine IA, USA
Critical Gopher Website
congatow@hotmail.com
Regular Tour Area:
Central Iowa,Midwest |
