Throttle Back Sparky

Throttle Back Sparky was a Power Pop/Pop Rock band from Los Angeles from 2000-2006.

Throttle Back Sparky was an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 2000. The band's was formed by Allen Lulu and Jon Rosenberg after the two New York University college friends reunited at the Sacred Fools Theater Company's Music Night, an occasional late night program where theater members and affiliate actors and musicians would come together to play original songs and covers in the relaxed atmosphere of the post-main-stage venue.

The original lineup of the band was mostly an ad-hoc assortment of Music Night performers and their acquaintances.

Band Members
Allen Lulu - Lead Vocals (2000-2006)

Iden Kamishin - Lead Guitar (2000 - 2006)

David Holcomb - Rhythm Guitar (2000-2006)

Scott Brown - Bass (2004-2006)

Pat Godwin - Drums (2005-2006)

Crystal Keith - Backup Vocals (2000-2006)

Gary Viggers - Bass (2000-2003)

Damon Stout - Bass & Producer (2004)

Todd Myers - Drums (2000-2005)

Deena Rubinson - Backup Vocals (2000-2004)

Jon Rosenberg - Percussion & Producer (2000)

Doug Gochman - Guitar (2000)

Mary Hayes - Backing Vocals (2000)

Robbie Rist - Producer (2005)

Albums
Great Big Mardi Gras Head EP

Throttle Back Sparky

Formation
Encouraged by Sacred Fools founding member Jonathan Goldstein to bring an original song he had written for his brother's wedding, lead singer Allen Lulu began writing songs in earnest, bringing sometimes two or three new compositions to the concerts, which were held weekly during the spring and summer of 2000. It was there that Lulu and Rosenberg began their songwriting partnership.

After a handful of Music Night performances the duo decided to put an actual band together, made up mostly of musicians and actors they knew from Sacred Fools. The original line-up would only perform once, opening Music Night with a three song set consisting of "Sacajawea" by Lulu, Rosenberg & Kamishin, "Riding in the Whirlwind" by Lulu and Rosenberg and "Prozac Grrl" by Lulu.

On the "strength" of a particularly low-fi and poorly recorded demo the band procured their first gig at The Gig in Hollywood. Before which the band reconfigured into the seven-piece it would more closely resemble for much of it's existence.

Style
Described by producer Rist as "Seven people, each with different records in their record collections vibrating at different frequencies, held together by rubber bands" the band quickly began to make a name for itself in the burgeoning power-pop Los Angeles scene, led by groups like The Piper Downs, The Andersons!, Four Star Mary, B9, Powder, Jed & Drag.

The 90s influenced lead guitar licks of Kamishin melded with the southern classic rock/Kiss oriented style of Holcomb supported the "Meatloaf meets Jello Biafra" histrionics of Lulu were all complemented by up front backup singers Keith and Rubinson atop a jazz/pop bedrock of Viggers & Myers (later Myers & Brown, later Godwin & Brown).

Their sets would often see Lulu leaping into the crowd to Swing-Dance with some audience member during the New Orleans ode, "Great Big Mardi Gras Head", a crowd favorite which the band later turned into a post-Katrina dirge for the victims in New Orleans. Known also for their retro covers of Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop", a song about female masturbations sung by Lulu as well as The Sweet's "Hellraiser", often mistaken for a long-lost Motley Crue song.

The band's oeuvre ran the gamut from two minute punk homages (The Ramones influenced, "Joey Enough") to epic stadium anthems ("Age of Consent" & "Trusted").

Breakup
Shortly after being invited to play South By Southwest, Lulu's daughter, Elizabeth (Lizzie) who had been a lifelong sufferer of Cystic Fibrosis, was hospitalized for the last time. A lover of the band, Lizzie often talked about how she wanted to start her own band, The Sparkettes, and her face adorned the cover of the band's first EP.

In May of 2006, Lizzie succumbed to her disease and, shortly thereafter, her father established a Scholarship in her name (The Elizabeth Lulu Scholarship Foundation) to benefit college bound teens who suffer from the same disease.

To kick off the foundation, the band played a show at the same venue that had given them their start. Unbeknownst to the rest of the band, Lulu had confided to his wife and family that this was going to be his last concert and he was going to dissolve the band, the association with his daughter was too much for him to bear and the joy he felt performing on the stage "began to feel hollow, like I wasn't really there."

As of May 2016, no incarnation of Throttle Back Sparky has ever performed again.