The truth is, Oliver has been here since the beginning of time. Oliver grew and evolved billions of years ago with the Earth's first life forms. Oliver oversaw the fall of Rome and the duration of the triumphant Rennaisance. Oliver saw America break free of British tyranny and fought on the beaches of Normandy in the 1940s. When Rock 'n' Roll broke in the 1950s, Oliver knew its time was near. This whole time Oliver has just been dormant, waiting to take form. In 1990 Oliver saw its oppurtunity.
The protaganists- three unsuspecting infants. Oliver instillied in them unquestionable musical talent and an unnatural love for country music. He took away the love for country music soon after, learning that sick jokes like that don't get very far, but he left the talent. He guided the three through their journies, and brought Eric and Myles together. They met around age two at preschool. They quickly became good friends and discovered that they both liked to bang on things rhythmically. And oh, how they banged on things rhythmically. In December 1995, Myles received a crappy little acoustic guitar thing from his aunt for Hannukah. It was inevitable that soon Eric would bang on things rhythmically while Myles strummed melodically. They were pretty good for 5-year olds. In second grade, Eric got a set of bongos. They decided to start a band called Nebula. They began composing an instrumental original, which they titled "Butterfingers." The song was very easy to play, as it was pretty much Eric doing the rhythm from The Who's Pinball Wizard on his bongos while Myles played random notes that didn't really go together. They played it in their second-grade talent show, and were received very well by the teachers, who clapped enthusiastically after the performance and constantly remarked, "How cute!"
Their playing steadily progressed until Eric and Myles's next gig, a videotaped performance played on the school's TV during Music Month.. They played Black Sabbath's Iron Man and followed it by an abridged version of Eddie Van Halen's Eruption. The students had no clue what was going on, but the teachers realized that it wasn't every day you see fifth-graders rock out Iron Man. This built hype for their upcoming performance at the fifth grade talent show. They played a sloppy version of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven. It was just good enough to get them psyched about their playing.
In sixth grade, Russell Kotch, a friend of theirs who played the sax, presented the idea of starting a sixth grade jazz band for school. Eric, Myles, Russell, a bassist named Steven Teller, a few horns, and a pianist began to rock some jazz tunes like Plant That Root. Their friend Blake Feldman watched every practice. When Steven got kicked out of school for puffing the magic dragon, Blake, having already played guitar for a while, decided to step up to the plate. He bought a red Ibanez bass, and after a week he was better than Steven Teller ever was.
Blake, Myles, and Eric practiced at Myles's house about once a month (Myles also got a drumset that year, so his bedroom became the practice studio), working on some originals and such covers as Dammit by Blink 182 and Put Your Lights On by Everlast. They played two originals at the sixth grade talent show. The songs sucked, but their playing was pretty tight.
They perfected their playing until their biggest gig yet, Myles's Bar Mitzvah. There they played Sublime's Santeria and an original for a couple hundred people. At Eric's Bar Mitzvah, they played a rough rendition of the Grateful Dead's Fire on the Mountain in the middle of which they all switched instruments. After that, they had a bried stint with a singer named Greg Stead whom Blake met at an All-State Chorus concert. Greg was cool; he was a good writer and a good singer. They practiced together for a bit, and at Blake's Bar Mitzvah the four played an original and Santeria. After a while, they just stopped calling Greg because he was unreliable and it was more fun with just the three of them.
Around the time of the Bar Mitzvah gigs, the trio played a series of retirement homes and hospitals (Why? Because they're good people.) and discovered a little coffehouse called The Chocolate Moose that had an acoustic open mic every Saturday. In May of that year, they played Santeria at their school's Novapalooza concert.
The following year, 8th grade, started off a slow one for Oliver. Hours of homework per night prevented many practices. Towards the end of the year, however, homework lightened and practices increased. They were very impressed with their playing and played the 2004 Novapalooza confidently. Before going onstage, the MC asked what to introduce them as. They went with a name they had adopted a few days before, Oliver. With a rendition of Smells Like Teen Spirit, Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall, and an original known simply as The Song With The Explosion Thingy, Oliver was introduced to the world (an audience of about 40-50 people). In June of that year, the band played Another Brick in the Wall and The Song With The Explosion Thingy for their 8th grade graduation ceremony, which, for some reason, had about 700 people. They loved singing, "Hey, Teacher! Leave those kids alone!" to their teachers. At the dance after ceremony, about three times as many girls approached Oliver as would normally have, so they decided they had to pursue this. In August 2004, they made $27 (and a lot of phone numbers) playing at the Weston Town Center with a guitar case open for money. That was their first paying gig.
Now Adam is here too. He's not part of this whole legend prophecy thing, but he's pretty cool and he's got a good voice.
Iin full form, and promoted to high school band, Oliver is ready to take on South Florida. Is South Florida ready for it? (Give us money.)