From the beginning of the 00-01 school year, Alex, Dave and Scott had been talking about getting together and "jamming". It took quite a while, however, for anything of the sort to take place. It finally began when Alex went over to Scott's house after school one day. They taped themselves playing bits and pieces of DMB songs, and very rudimentary improvised jams. They had originally wanted Dave to join the group on trombone, and although several jam sessions with all three guys were planned, it never actually happened. During February vacation, they planned to stay at Alex's house for a few days to write and rehearse material. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, until Scott informed Alex and Dave that he couldn't make it. Despite the hardship of not having a drummer, Alex and Dave forged ahead. With their faithful friend Mike documenting their progess with both audio and video recording equipment, they did as much as they could. This three-day period became fondly referred to as the February Sessions.
On the morning of the first day, Dave wrote Hurry Up, an instrumental which eventually became the first Jeboa song. It was written out like a jazz chart from a fakebook, and the original arrangement of the song was Alex strumming the chords while Dave blew the melody on his trombone.
Alex and Dave also recorded tentative versions of Airplane, with Dave on the ukelele. After the February sessions, Airplane was forgotten about for a long while.
Our dashing duo fooled and noodled for another day or so, but failed to come up with any more songs. In desparate need of fresh blood, they called up their friend Charles, who had recently started on the guitar. That evening, after a night on the town filled with donuts and armwrestling, the boys got to work. Alex, Dave, and Charles played everything they could think of, including a loose All Along the Watchtower jam and a rousing rendition of Three Little Birds.
At the end of the sessions, Alex and Dave deliberated over a band name. After tossing out suggestions like Save Our Town, they finally decided on the name Shower Cat, based on a towel hanging on Alex's wall.
After the February Sessions, Charles joined Alex and Dave in a school music project they had been working on, which was really just an extension of "band stuff". Although Charles was working with the other two in the project and had played with them during the February sessions, the others were reluctant to make him a member of the band (which had not yet actually rehearsed with Scott).
Finally, at the beginning of April, Scott, Alex, Dave, and Charles gathered at Scott's house for a rehearsal. The band worked only on Hurry Up, mainly because that was the only song they had. Although Hurry Up was intended to have a jazzy feel, Scott, having never heard the song before, threw that all out the window with a blistering rock beat. The song, largely free-form at the time, raged for about 13 minutes. By the end of the day, Shower Cat was a four-man operation.
After playing the tape of the session at Scott's house for the teacher in charge of the music project at school, the band was asked to perform at the school's talent show. Everyone in the band was reluctant to do so for a number of reasons. They weren't too sure they wanted to be involved in that sort of a thing, and the teacher had also told them that they had a time slot of five minutes, tops. The boys weren't too keen on the idea of cutting Hurry Up to half its length.
The band worked more, and two more songs emerged: Airplane and Wide Open. Their teacher at school was still pestering them about the talent show, and they were slowly wearing down. It finally got to the point where they were on the verge of agreeing to play the talent show, but they just couldn't decide whether to play Airplane or Wide Open. Negotiations had just about reached a deadlock when the teacher informed them they could have two spots at the talent show: one to end the first act, and one to end the second. The band then readily agreed.
The world debut of the band at the school talent show was a huge hit. Contrary to popular belief, this was not entirely due to the band's musical prowess. All the acts surrounding the band's performances were pretty lame, which made the band look better, and all the people in the auditorium at the time were just in the mood to make noise. After the talent show, the band enjoyed a new respect from their fellow classmates, and everyone had a very positive outlook about the band's future.
A little while after the talent show, at Charles's suggestion, the band decided to take a different name than Shower Cat. After a few days of deliberation, and after tossing out names like "Captain Utah", the boys decided on "Jeboa," a name Alex took from a random dictionary entry "Jerboa." After tossing the name around for a few minutes, they came to the realization that "Jeboa" rolled off the tongue a whole hell of a lot easier, so they removed the "r". They've been happy with the new name ever since.
As the school year slowly trickled to an end, the band was making progress. Charles was getting better every day, and the band was really coming together in general, and had begun to develop a "sound". On the last day of school, Jeboa put on their first full show at the going-away party for their friend John, who was moving to Maryland. The party was held at a public patio in the center of town. The show, although highly disorganized, sloppy, and ill-prepared for, was fun and a milestone for the band. The boys played in what was supposed to be a designated stage area, but the "band-only" quality of the area was completely ignored by everyone, so the band was essentially playing in the midst of the party, eating and drinking with everyone else, even while playing. Due to a lack of repoirtore, several songs played that evening were made up on the spot.
Freed from the constraints of school, the boys practiced a lot during the summer, holding several intenstive multiple-day sessions at band members' houses. They worked toward the goal of putting on another show, this one in Alex's backyard, which is eerily arranged like an ampitheatre, with a deck that made a perfect stage and a nice lawn to sit on. This was the first show with singing involved. The band had finally come to the realization that to be sucessful, they were going to need songs with lyrics. Alex and Charles sang on the various covers played that night, but all the orginals remained instrumental. Charles was later nominated the lead singer of the band.
August was a month for more growth. Charles and Dave began writing songs with lyrics. The band was becoming tighter. August also saw the addition of Jon Close-Reilly to the band on bass. Everyone was optimistic about the new member at first, and felt that he added something to the sound. Later on, after a couple of practices, the other members began expressing their doubt. They didn't feel that Jon really fit with the chemistry of the band.
Around the beginning of September, because of the lack of ability to organize any full-band shows, Alex and Charles did a couple acoustic performances, one at a local coffee shop. These boosted the publicity of the band. The band's entry into high school also provided a new, better environment in which to publicize the band. The fact that the band now had tangible recordings for the masses to consume also aided their cause.
At the end of September, Jon was asked to go on a sort of hiatus from the band in which to become more proficient on his instrument. Things didn't work out the way the band had planned, however, and it is likely that Jon will not be returning to Jeboa.
