report filed 10/13/99, 12:03pm - Before we get into WMO's outstanding performance at the 'Live on the Bay,' festival in San Diego this past weekend, the time has come for the following official statement from the hard working team at Anytime/Anywhere studios:

A recent journal entry contained comments critical of a band that opened for WMO. While it's never the intent of mrlee.com to be mean, cruel or unnecessarily disparaging - occasionally an -opinion- on the quality of another band's music, usually positive but sometimes negative, is relevant to an accurate description of what transpired at any given show. Such was the case with the above noted journal entry. Disagree with the opinion? Fair enough.

But here's the deal - the comments and opinions contained in mrlee.com, IN NO WAY REFLECTS THE VIEWS OF WMO, the content in mrlee.com is completely independent and only reflects the views of mrlee.com and noone else. As always, feedback is appreciated. Whether you like mrlee.com or think the site sucks, feel free to let us know...

Now for the news- This past Saturday was a beautiful afternoon in the park with WMO. Lots of sun and irie vibes. Once again Big Board Bob was in the house to record the show. As we go to press, the monkeys are currently reviewing tapes from their past 18 shows, including the East coast swing a few weeks ago. Look for a live CD sometime early next year...

Kelly and Joanne relaxing under the sun

Hopefully, some of WMO's newer stuff will find its way to the upcoming live album. The band just keeps writing great new tunes and already have enough fresh material for a double CD. A couple of my favorites: 'Chase the Horizon,' with its hot and spicy salsa chorus that alternates with Tim's oh-so-silky-smooth jazz vocals on the verses..., and '67 Miles per Hour,' a straight ahead funk groove with a challenging, wildly non-melodic and dissonent tangent midway in the song... a musical simulation of a vehicle hurling over a cliff after going too fast on a Colorado mountain road - terrific dynamics on both tunes!

A couple of weird things happened at the show. Toward the middle/end of the set, the local cops came down and heavy handedly lowered the sound volume - even though the volume was within the decibel level required by the event permit. Not only that, but it was not a gradual reduction or timed between songs. Rudely, the volume was lowered abruptly -by the policeman himself-, so low that the only sound coming was from the stage monitors (small speakers onstage pointed at the band, so the musicians can hear what's going on). Unnecessary hooweenoowee that could've been handled much better while still achieving the desired objective... oh well. The other weird thing - the spun fool that was literally hugging the main speaker cabinets to get the -full body- experience. Who knows what went through this guy's mind when the cops lowered the volume... or beforehand for that matter.

As for the music, the band played great! Dave Ellis sat in for the third time in the past couple of weeks and absolutely ripped! I was pleased to learn that although the volume to the crowd was way too low, the recording levels were unaffected...

One of the highlights of the day - meeting and chatting with John Chaney, artist extraordinaire. In addition to painting the really cool, collage style Garcia image, among lots of other top notch creations, the guy is involved in all sorts of socially responsible stuff.

Anyone interested in his work or just saying hello can contact John @ (949)-376-8496.

'Til next time, that was this time - in the mean time, here's a few more images from last weekend-