(1999)

(2001)

Moke was a U.K. based band that featured the very talented John Hogg on guitar and lead vocals. I believe in 2002 Moke had broken up, and Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes had just left the band (for the first but not the last time) and decided to venture out on his own. He hooked up with John Hogg and they cut a bunch of demos under the band name of "Hookah Brown". The band went on the road opening for numerous bands while waiting for a record deal. But for whatever reason (probably because Rich is an ass), the band broke up prior to getting signed, and Rich went running back to the Black Crowes. There are numerous live bootlegs of Hookah Brown floating around, and I will be getting some soon. John Hogg is now fronting his own band "Hogg" which you can check out on Myspace.

It's funny because my buddy recently turned me on to these guys, thinking I would really like them. Said they sounded like solo Nuno meets the Police meets the Producers meets King's X. Good god? Where do I sign up?? How true that turned out to be! The whole time he was telling me about them, i never made the connection. I had no clue who they were. Upon listening to the CD he made me, the singer's voice sounded familiar to me. So I called him up and said, "Is this singer by chance black?" He said that he was, then it all came back to me. This was the guy that sang for Hookah Brown! When Hookah Brown's demos were floating around the net years ago, I remember reading that this John Hogg guy had came from some rock band that had just recently broken up. And even though I thought his voice was killer, for some reason I never followed thru with investigating his previous band. If I had, I would have became obsessed with them back in 2003! But instead, I find out about them 5 years later. It's kinda funny how close I was to putting it it all together, but never did. I guess I can't complain, because I have both CD's now, and I'm a better man for it. Carnival is probably their best. It is stellar from start to finish, with the "weakest" song probably being the first song if I had to pick.

You can pick these CD's up on Ebay for next to nothing. I think I got mine from Amazon Marketplace for $2.50 a piece. If you like it, buy it!

Links:

http://www.myspace.com/mokemusic
http://www.myspace.com/hoggmusic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moke_%28band%29