Joe Poss recalls these fond memories...

Sometime in 1994, Paul met Joe Giardella at Manhattan College. They played together...Paul invited me over one day to play...after this they decided I was the best bass player they ever heard (all right, disregard that last part). Chris soon rejoined the roster and we commenced an eleven year creative oddessey playing AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, SRV in Joe Giardella's basement until we went deaf.

A retrospective look at this period...

During this time, the band really honed in on their craft. While actual paying gigs were scarce, the band got together somewhat regularly to practice and hangout. Jams often occurred where the song was created as it was being played. These long free-form explorations of riffs and rhythms were often followed by lengthy discussions of sports, religion and politics.

These sessions were diverse in their nature. After refining a song, it was not uncommon for the band to refine their palate with wine and cheese tasting or discuss the dualities of string theory. A typical session; the exploration of D minor followed by a nice Gruyère over discussions of Bach's unfinished Fugue. Then, somehow they would segue into Man in a Box with sax solo. Their love of music, wine and cheese led them on a quest for the ultimate turophile's wine songbook.

While Blues, Rock and Jazz were in the catalogue, the band enjoyed adding horn arrangements to Hard Rock and Heavy Metal songs. For example... the band's favorite... Paranoid with horn section arrangement. This twist is what separated them from other bands of the time.

These pedagogical workshops (as they liked to call them) had no teachers... but much was learned and fun was had.

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One of the few paying gigs was at the The Montebianco on Staten Island. The band performed well but they were poorly treated. The Maître d' kept shushing them as they played, "You are too loud", he said. During the breaks, he made sure the band was only drinking domestic beer, "No imported beer for those LoveCats!"... It was not pretty. By the last set, Joe Giardella was using pencils for drumsticks and Poss's bass was not even plugged in.

It was later reported that the Maître d' got fired. We can only surmise that it was due to his paltry treatment towards the LoveCats. Since this incident, the band amended their rider to include full access to the bar 4 hours before each show. Since then, the show have been much better.

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The Line-up of the Band included:

• Paul Mancuso - Guitar - Vocals
• Joe Possavino - Bass - Vocals
• Chris Longo - Tenor Sax - Vocals
• Joe Giardella - Drums

Occasional guests included:

• Jay Krantz - Alto Sax
• Mark Fiorentino - Drums - Percussion - Vocals

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Below are transcript of some of those sessions:

Poss: Ahhhhhhh...

Paul: He can't play the f*&%ing guitar anymore.

Joe G: You know the part, you did it this morning.

Paul: No, he doesn't know the f%$&ing...if he knew the f&$#ing part he'd play it, wouldn't he?... Are you walking out? Are you walking out?

Joe G: F%$@!

Paul: Great, just tell me what I'm supposed to do, alright?

Poss: We're supposed do play the f@#$ing thing, aren't we. We've no choice, we've spent an hour and a half...

Paul: I'm doing my part...do you know what would make this a lot simpler, I mean I hate to cut right through it here, why don't you play this alone, without some f$%#ing angel hanging over your head, you know what I mean?

Joe G: Jesus Christ, this is &%$#ing all we need!

Paul: You can't f&^%ing concentrate, because of your f%$#ing wife, simple as that, alright, it's your %$#&ing wife!

Poss: She's not my wife!

Paul: Whatever $%#& she is, alright, you can't concentrate, we can't @!#$ing do the track.

Poss: This is unbelievable! This is unbelievable!

Paul: No, it's not unbelievable at all...it all leads up to this...it all leads up to this

Poss: This is unbelieveable. Will you check me on this, am I losing my @#$%ing mind? Could you check me on this, am I losing my mind? I-I-I-I don't understand what this has to do with anything.

Chris: Pass the provolone.