Steve Scariano: the Andrew Loog Oldham

Steve Scariano (shown above on the left with Mick Ronson & Ian Hunter in 1979) is a bass player. He is not a frustrated guitarist who had to play bass to stay in a band. He's 100% a professional bass player, and what a rare creature that is. Which is one of the reasons he's been invited into so many bands over the decades. Here's a list of bands he's currently in:
The Love Experts
Finn's Motel
Prisonshake
Among a dozen other bands he's been with is Turning Curious, and here's a great piece he wrote about his early years on his music, politics and doggies blog, Roll Away The Stone.


Above is a Toby photo of the Love Experts in the spring of 1989. At far left, is Steve Staicoff (a.k.a S3), and to his right is Scariano. So, they go back a ways. As does Scariano's knowledge and passion for music. S3 said of Scariano: he's one of the most encouraging guys around, always with a kind word to another musician. That's pretty rare, too, and it's that trait that made The Remodels happen.

He's our Andrew Loog Oldham in that he suggests and shapes concepts, re-directs traffic, executive produces and (the most Loog-ian trait of all) brings musical coolness to the project. Maybe he'll even play bass? This is why we call him Loog-iano.

Toby Weiss: sings and arranges

"I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet..." Well, above, I got to live out my Cher Half Breed delusions when I was part of the Finn's Motel video for "Recent Linear Landscapes." I did a little singing on their album Escape Velocity, a lot of photography. The biggest kick was one of my photos making the front cover!

For a living, I do marketing for a St. Louis residential design-build remodeling firm, with other stints in retail advertising, newspaper and graphic arts. For extra scratch, architectural photographer and writer. I prattle on about built environment issues at B.E.L.T, and media flotsam at M.E.L.T., and virtually ignore a musical diary at Song Line.


In the late 80s/early 90s I wrote, edited, photographed (and eventually owned and published) Jet Lag magazine. We also had a KDHX radio show by the same name. In the middle 1990s, I was part of a jazz duo (whose tracks will be shared if I ever figure out how to post MP3s to this blog). In 2004, I got to be Iggy Pop for 15 minutes, on stage with The Shemps, a Stooges tribute band put together for one night to honor fallen friends. I think it was because of that experience that Scariano decided the idea that became The Remodels should be pursued.


A brilliant photographer friend of mine - BiBi Erdeg - captured my inner-Auntie Mame, in the photo above.

Above, I got to meet Lindsey Buckingham backstage, and tell him he was on my list of Top 10 All-Time Favorite Producers. He looked genuinely shocked and touched, maybe because he never gets props for being a brilliant producer.

Below, is me with Cheap Trick, at the inaugural Trick Fest in August 1995. It was a total geeked-out, teenage girl moment in time. And now I'm so distracted by that memory that we're done with this bio.