Uncle Scummy Home Page

Uncle Scummy is a blues-based, rockabilly influenced power-pop-punk-grunge-underground-progressive-alternative group that features former members of JACKSON'S HOLE, the SICK PUPPIES and MY LIFE AS DIRT. Its current members include:

Bubba Stein -- vocals and guitar
Hans Rizzo -- guitar, harmonica
Juan Teutopolis -- keyboards, vocals
Skipper Patel -- bass, primal screams
Franco O'Reilly - drums, percussion, chalkboard

Uncle Scummy burst on the scene in 1997 by making some local headlines in Cairo (pronounced Kay-ro), IL when local parents, led by the Rev. Cameron Burger, tried to block the band's performance at the local high school prom. The Thursday before the prom, Burger, accompanied by 20 irate parents, had marched into Superintendent Barney Storm's office, demanding the band be pulled from the venue.

Rev. Burger brought with him a flyer quoting lyrics from the Uncle Scummy song "Beaver on the Wall"

Beaver, Beaver on the wall
With the fairest fur of all
Down by the river, you gave a damn
So I shot you and had you stuffed.

Objecting to the use of the word "beaver", Burger claimed that the lyrics were only a cleverly disguised innuendo for not just sex, but violent sex. Bubba Stein, speaking for the band, said that the song was only about people who kill animals needlessly, and was meant to be "funny in an Uncle Scummy sort of way." After meeting with the band the next day, Superintendent Storm decided that the show could go on: Uncle Scummy would play in Cairo the following night.

The controversy was first picked up -- some say fueled -- by local radio station WSCM, particularly DJ Anthony "Blue Moon" Hansen. On one of his morning shows about two weeks before prom, Hansen had referred to rumors about "members of the community who want to ruin prom because they don't like the name of the band" and reacted by playing some demo tapes provided by Uncle Scummy's sound man, Duke Duke.

While the tape had only three songs: covers of The Beatles' "You Can't Do That" and Elvis Costello's "The Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes", it was the band's own "Beaver on the Wall" that led the Rev. Burger to react, using his service the following Sunday as a pulpit to criticize the school's choice of Uncle Scummy. Burger then held what he refers to as a "community meeting" the following Tuesday, which in turn led to the confrontation with Storm.

When WSCM's Hansen found out about the Reverend's misgivings and plans to get Uncle Scummy dumped, he began urging listeners to call, fax and email the station to join the "Scumbuckets" -- people supporting the right of Cairo high school students to choose Uncle Scummy for their prom. By Friday, when Storm met with the band, Hansen had a listing of over 2000 pledged Scumbuckets.

As a result, local curiosity in the band was sky high. As Uncle Scummy opened the prom dance with their version of the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go", hundreds of locals, many armed with their own lawn chairs, milled in the parking lot outside of the school gymnasium where the event was held. While many of the older members of the crowd left after a few songs, about 100 or so of those in their teens and early twenties hung around until then end, applauding and igniting their butane lighters as Uncle Scummy performed its encore song, "Pretty Smart for a Toaster", a Stein/Rizzo composition.