The Killer Kona Buds | Comedy Rock Band

The Killer Kona Buds - Comedy Rock Band Profile

The Killer Kona Buds hilarious comedy songs have been played in almost every major market around the country to millions of listeners. We have performed at huge festival concerts to 10's of thousands of fans, and never made a dime. This is our history.

It all started back in March of 1993, while I was working mornings with the extremely talented Charlie Logan and Marla Stone, at the now infamous 98 Rock, WXTB. The idea was simple. The show desperately needed parody songs, beds, and original comedy material. I thought, why not use talented local musicians to create the comedy product and I would record the material at the radio stations production studio.

Charlie gave me the o.k., so we put the call out for musicians over the air. Dozens of hopeful Kona Buds responded, some could even play instruments. After several auditions the original lineup was announced; Bob Narley on Guitar and lead vocals, Rich on Bass, and Gary Corriston on Drums. The comedy rock band, The Killer Kona Buds, was born.

Our first comedy song was a horrible parody of the Hokey Pokey called "The University Pokey", about a doctor who cut the wrong foot off of a patient at University Hospital in Tampa. Soon, other songs followed "Talking Headlines", "Scratch that Beaver", all recorded on a tiny Fostex 4 track recorder.

Somewhere around this point Gary's cousin, Rich, was replaced on Bass with Raven. Raven had played the metal scene in NY with a band called Mr. Nasty, and really laid down a fat bottom end. The man had skills.

So, the band now needed to step up the production process and some strings were pulled to use the 98 Rock production studio's. At first this might seem like a great idea, however we were only allowed 8 hours on Sunday afternoon to record, and we had to be packed up and out by the time the research nerds came in to do the Sunday night call outs. 8 hours to haul all the gear up 4 stories in an elevator, record all the tracks and mix them down. Unfortunately, radio production studio's are not setup to record bands, not by any means, so the process became a huge hassle. Wires were hanging from the fluorescent lights, microphones were sandwiched between pillows for support, it looked like NASA threw up all over the studio. As if that wasn't bad enough, the 8 track reel-to-reel was so old that it would start to rewind if it was stopped or paused, causing me to keep a finger on the reels the whole time in order to keep the damn things from rewinding during takes. We persevered, and recorded many great songs in that tiny little studio, the first one was OJ's Back, the last, well.. I have no idea maybe smells like fish but I'm not positive.

Every song we recorded and played over the air became the #1 requested song on the station for weeks, many actually out performing the original. Jacor, the same company that would later fire me during their take over of 98 Rock, actually bootlegged "hey man, nice fart" off of the air and distributed it to their affiliates around the country, without giving me a penny. Nice huh? Love those guys.

It wasn't too long before the station wanted us to play some live shows. The very first live show was at "The First Day of Summer Party" at Gators on Madeira Beach. We played on the roof deck while hundreds of people crammed inside, out the door, down the block, and across the Johns Pass bridge. My program director was quit impressed and soon asked us to play as one of the headliners for LiveStock 6 with bands like Joe Satraini and KORN. I could write for hours telling you the tales of our LiveStock performance and party, but that would be a book in itself. Suffice it to say, we doubled the Sunday morning attendance record and had a fucking great time in the camp ground. We still wonder where the nasty chic is now who walked around with "Slap my ass you fuck" written on her ass in permanent marker.

Since then many great musicians have played with the Kona Buds. Raven left the band, and Erik took over on Bass for a short period of time and recorded Sporting a Penis in one excellent take. Soon after, the radio station was eventually sold to Jacor ( now Clear Channel), and my radio contract was bought out. Gary and Erik fell along the road side and I was forced to record and play all the instruments myself in my home studio that I paid for with the money Jacor had dished out for my contract. Many of the songs I recorded myself went on to get airplay in Chicago and N.Y., but it was never as much fun as practicing and recording with the guys.

In 2001, Kylee Brooks, Program Director for Real Rock 92.5 in SW Florida, hired me to bring "The Bob Narley Show" to morning drive. It was finally a chance for me to do my own show, and bring all the creativity to the table. I put the word out for new Kona Buds, and eventually brought aboard; Ken and Gerry on guitar, Billy Nuggets on Bass, Drummer Dave. We played several crazy shows and recorded some good tunes. My favorite being "Vagina" a parody to Bob Marley's "Jammin". Both the radio show and the band were a huge success. What a blast!

Over the years many other very cool people have helped out the band doing what they can; Kurt totally gave us a financial kick in the ass and still helps with the crew work, Bruce and Monster Eddy have done the road crew since the very first show and probably always will. Without every single one of these guys the Kona Buds wouldn't be on the air.

I have the greatest respect and admiration for every single musician who has ever played with The Killer Kona Buds. Each one of them has excelled in their own way and made contributions to the project that nobody else could have made. They have all been outstanding musicians and the best of friends, and I guess that is what this band has really been about the whole time... good friends and good times.

Like it said on the cover of our first album "you'll hear tape hiss, pops, and squeaks, my singing sucks, I know it. We don't take any of it too seriously and you shouldn't either."

On behalf of all The Killer Kona Buds, thanks for listening!

Killer Kona Buds Rule!

Bob Narley.

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The Killer Kona Buds - Comedy Rock Band Profile