From Minnewiki

The Buck-Fifty Boys

The Buck-Fifty Boys were formed on a street corner in Minneapolis in 1994.

The band had been playing on the street for hours and it was getting late. They stopped and counted the money in the guitar case. The total was a dollar fifty in change.

'Hey fellas, we're The Buck-Fifty Boys.'

A few weeks later, they went into the studio and recorded an EP called Seth Hogan and The Buck-Fifty Boys. That EP laid the foundation for a full-time touring and recording band that included:

[1] Seth Hogan: Vocals & Guitars

Eric Christopher: Vocals, Guitars, Violin

David Van Eeckhout: Bass

Ram Zimmerman: Drums

The Buck-Fifty Boys made two records, The above-mentioned EP (1994) and a self-titled full-length CD (1996). The band was invited to play The Bottom Line in New York in the spring of 1997 and did two East Coast tours before hanging it up. Seth discovered the accordion in Italy, went on to form The Black Lashes and studied accordion with Mark Stillman in Minneapolis and Bill Schimmel in New York. Eric continued write music and play violin in a series of artistically acclaimed bands, including The Minor Planets, The Boot Draggers and The High 48s. David became a successful organic farmer. Ram continued to be a professional drummer and lives in Austin, Texas.

A Review of The Buck-Fifty Boys CD (1996)

Let's cut to the chase and toss critical self-restraint out the door: The Minneapolis-based Buck-Fifty Boys have uncorked the first great rock 'n' roll record of the year.

Singer/guitarist/chief songwriter Seth Hogan is a storyteller operating on a higher plane than most of us, with his tales playing like dusty mystery/romance vignettes that sound as if they're delivered by the demons of Gram Parsons, Keith Richards and John Prine. The fiddle-driven opener, The Seven, the Six or the Nine, could be the middle of a musical Oreo of Dylan's Hurricane and the Waterboys' We Will Not Be Married, and that's only the beginning.

Cut Time features a muddy horn bottom worthy of James Chance & the Contortions, Hollywood Movie Star is a maudlin vampire ballad, Jukebox a wonderfully off-the-cuff basher, Out of the Habit a squealing send-up of the vice-free life, and two of the record's strongest songs - Carmen Miranda and Set Me Down - were penned by singer/guitarist/fiddler Eric Christopher.

Both he and Hogan can sing, both can write, and when they do it together, they sound like gin-soaked soul mates. Which is why it's no exaggeration to suggest the Hogan-Christopher team is a budding duo on the lines of Pirner-Murphy or Olson-Louris.

Nor is it hype to call The Buck Fifty Boys exactly what it is: A sophisticated, spirited, sloppy, stunning debut.

JIM WALSH - Knight-Ridder