The Maxx RebO Band

Formed in the fall of 1996, this band was probably the first combining of forces that would later become the Collective Intelligence. (It's not entirely certain whether this band or the first inception of Brodie was formed first, but since that first Brodie only featured one current C.I. member (Kody Yardley), it probably doesn't count. ...Although it did have some catchy songs.) The Maxx RebO Band came about when guitarists Peter Evans and Charles Humes became fast friends in their Wasatch High French club. They talked about everything from politics to animal rights to tasty fast food joints to music. They discovered that they each had younger brothers who played instruments that would complement their guitar playing quite well: Matt Humes, the prodigiously energetic drummer, and Brad Evans, who would discover he could play the bass when Peter got home from school that day.

The band first jammed in the upstairs bedroom of one of the Humes brothers, but later expanded to the basement when things got more serious. They played several informal gigs, parties, and at least one high school assembly featuring Peter on his back on the stage a la Back to the Future, and Brad wearing a bathrobe. Though they started out covering mostly Smashing Pumpkins songs, the band expanded into the songwriting field with tunes such as The Circus Song, The Peppermint Song, The Surfer Song, and Left Behind, which was later informally adopted and played by Venus Euphoric. The band also experimented with instrumental tunes, and their album featured two: Trek 13 and Trek 72.

The band's only album was the first primitive production of Blue Boots Studio, finished close to a decade before that title would ever be used to refer to the Humes basement. It was done on an old, borrowed four-track before anyone had ever heard of putting music on a computer, and when "burning CD's" was what you did to Mariah Carey albums. The album was called Tribute to Tentacle, making reference to a huge extension cord the band loved, which was later lost in one of their many equipment-moving trips.

Lineup

 * Peter Evans - guitar, vocals
 * Charles Humes - guitar
 * Brad Evans - bass
 * Matt Humes - drums

Discography

 * Tribute to Tentacle (1997)