The Roto Rooter Good Time Christmas Band

I don’t know if many of you caught the celebrity sighting here on KillThisBlog some months ago. It came in a comment on this post, made way back when, when we were led into a discussion of the fabulously obscure musical ensemble, The Roto Rooter Good Time Christmas Band. Yes, that highly demented Rootoid, Dr. Mabuse, d.o.a., dropped by to comment:

Nice to be “re-discovered”. The RRGTCB can still be heard on the syndicated Dr. Demento show. We did his theme as discussed on this site. “Pico and Sepulveda” without the Demento references is also on the 1974 Vanguard LP. Demo version available on our self-produced CD “Retro Rooter - 1972-1976? currently available on GEMM.com. All of us are alive and (mostly) well and 5 of us still get together to jam be-bop.

Since then I’ve had occasion to re-listen to the RRGTCB’s sole album, and I’m extremely happy to say it’s better than I remembered it. Maybe my tastes have changed, or maybe my tolerance for weirdness has increased, but there’s something exciting and eclectic about it — the range of influences it draws on, from classical music to The Great American Songbook to rock and roll are impressive. And did I say weird?

We need more wind instruments in our world… where’d they all go?

Turns out, too, that the Roto Rooters have claimed some space on YouTube, and have placed therein some viddies of their vintage performances. I do not know the provenance of these clips, but it looks like they’re in a church basement somewhere, performing with all appropriate gusto. Apparently, it’s from a local public television show, circa 1975.

Here’s one of their signature songs, The Martian March. Dig the fella playing the tuba through a gas mask:

Here they are performing another favorite, The Beer Bottle Polka. That’s Dr. Mabuse, d.o.a. himself, doing the Lawrence Welk imitation:

Finally, here they are singing Happy Trails, in a performance that was aped pretty much note for note by those rascals from Van Halen a few years later:

These guys need more attention. Here are some cool RRGTCB links:

RRGTCB on MySpace

Dr. Mabuse, d.o.a.’s Roto Rooter Good Time Christmas Band Blog

Retro Rooter, CD available on GEMM.com

Bookmark It