Bob Is Not a Chick Pea!!

ChickPeas get's its name from 1/4 frontman, Owen Mercurio. We wish there was some great cosmic meaning to each syllable, but there isn't. So anyway. The band was originally called "Bob's Not In This Band" (also Owen's idea). The lineup consisted of keyboardist/vocalist Owen, bassist/lead vocalist Matthew Clay, and guitarist/loser Phil Gamble. This was of course pathetic because none of them knew how to play and they had no drummer. The entire reason these three were thrown together was to open for the slightly less pathetic cover band "Dazed". No body came to watch BNITB play so Matt made a bold and daring walkout in mid song (that was Phil's fault too, but we won't go into that). So out went Phil. It seemed as though this lame band would never make it off the ground when two rays of hope shone down on them. A ray in the form of a pointy haired head-banger and a ray in male capri pants. Justin O'Brien had been looking for a bassist to accompany his two friends in a new band. Matt went to meet this disturbed youth and at about the same time the other two friends mysteriously disappeared. So Justin joined BNITB. Soon Owen dragged the lot of them to Ryan Loeffler's house and the group was complete. Owen stretched his vocals, Matt plucked the heck out of his bass, Ryan banged his fantastically fantastic drums with mad ass skill, and then Justin... tuned his guitar. The practices went on this way for much time and the jam sessions featured a few special guest musicians such as Ryan's Papa Freddy and his Uncle, as well as the always entertaining and formerly shaggy old Al Clay.



After deciding that "Bob's Not In This Band" was just too darn confusing, the band members tried to think of another name that was catchy and had no significance whatsoever. Ideas went from "A Twist Of Lime" to "The Zero Gravity Sound Machine" to "Cherry Monkeys". After little deliberation the fearlous four decided that these ideas were utter crap. In one last attempt they sat together and Owen threw out the name "One eyed Jack", and Ryan threw out the name "Becky". So Matt (who can always be counted on to be painfully non-partial) threw out "One Eyed Becky". This transformed into "Black eyed Susan", provoking Owen to make the observation that that happened to be the name of, you guessed it, a type of pea. The rest is simple. Someone shouted "Chick Peas" and after a few obscene jokes regarding chicks, peas, and pink elephants, it was decided. The Chick Peas Band Was Born!!