*Important to note that this page is a bio with demos and live tracks that span the last 20 years…for the most current music of Patrick Kavaney or The Last Drags please check the myspace links, downloads page or iTunes or CD Baby. Gratzi!

The Last Drags by Claire Flint

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Fathead Minnow

A couple live Fathead tracks from ‘91 and ‘92 respectively.

Dustbowl Heaven
Snippy, the great white tiger

Patrick Kavaney started playing music because the voices told him to! There have been many bands since then….Fathead Minnow reared it’s head in 1991. Fathead was the band Patrick cut his teeth on with lots of jamming, expansive improv and his first stab at lead vox. In the fall of 1993, Wigglefoot started and was also brief but also instructive in the jam band format. All three of these bands happened in Potsdam, NY but were college bands and didnt make it out of the rural and pastoral upstate college town.
A track from Wigglefoot in 1993

Rainbow Man

Between 1993-1998 Patrick lived in Eugene, OR where he was in Dr. Fred and the Love Surgeons, with Fred Vanvactor, Rich Sellars and Noah Kamrat.
Here is a track from The Love Surgeon days in 1993-94

Sublime Remind

A funk, Chili Pepper-esque band, Dr. Fred was also not long-lived but was Patrick’s induction into gigging more regularly and also singing lead.
PK was also involved with Heckle and Jive, an acoustic duo with pal and music school buddy, Bryan Guerrena.

A strong showing from Heckle and Jive circa 1996

The Shores of You

In 1998, Patrick moved back east to Vermont and put the members of Wigglefoot back together to form Opius, a 6 piece acid jazz band. Opius played from 1998 to 2000 and ended in an explosion of silly drama. For a short summer, PK and friends, Andy Smith, Rich Furnis, and Rick Koelling played in the legendary, Parrotgravy but once again, it was short lived PK packed up and moved to Wisconsin where he began to work on his first solo CD Weather or Not. Patrick worked on his CD for a couple years at Boxcar Music Studios in Madison and in 2003 moved back to the west coast and set up shop in Eugene, OR.

 
Parrotgravy
A demo from 1998

An Oregon Gray

Since 2003 PK has been playing and performing with Rich Sellars, again in various capacities. Reeotch and Tricky Ps acoustic duo, plays PK originals and off beat covers, everything from Supertramp to Jeff Buckley. RETP eventually morphed into Chuckbarrymanilow, a 4 piece with a rotating cast of characters. RETP continue to play and perform, taking no prisoners.

Sept 2007 PK was approached by an Indie label in Hollywood, CA, called Jetspeed Records and has signed a limited distribution contract for Weather or Not Cross your fingers!

The latest and the greatest is of course The Last Drags consisting of Jerry “Groove” Abelin on bass,
Joel Albrecht on drums and Mike Gelardi on Keys, John Shipe on lead guitar, Lapsteel and Vox as well. This is the current inception of the band as of Nov 2009.
The new Last Drags album, Darning Socks for the Apocalypse released Nov 2009 is being played in Alaska, Texas, Maine, Oregon, Vermont. The new album is also going to be rotated on all International In-Flight Radios for Lufthansa Airlines starting in Jan 2010.
A tour of The Great Northwest is in the works for Spring 2010.
Watch for us out there