Last update, April 9, 1998

Volume II - Issue II (April 6, 1999)

Bill Richardson (CBC Radio's The Roundup) featured an unprecedented two Larry songs in a row one Thursday afternoon in March. After first spinning 'The Biggest 5'6" Man On The Team', he came on and said, "I could listen to this all day. But I can't, so here's another," and went on to play Wrestle With Me Xena. There are other reports of regional play on other CBC shows and stations as well as light but consistent play on campus/community radio.

Larry has come to an arrangement with 'Like I Care' artist management. Patti Maisonet will handle all bookings and can be reached at (604) 258-9047 or patti@conspiracy.com. A 10 day whirlwind tour of Quebec and Southern Ontario is being planned for June 3 to 13th with dates in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Peterborough and a few others. The next Vancouver performance....

Carolyn Mark, w/ Larry and Andras Jones
Thursday April 15th
Cafe Deux Soleils
2096 Commercial Dr.

Vancouver's Georgia Straight finally printed a review of Skips Like Us in the March 25th issue. Though many of Larry's friends have expressed their disappointment in the tone of the review, Larry's just glad to have his name spelled correctly. It reads as follows.

"As an indiscriminate ogler of famous women I don't have even a remote chance of sleeping with - Bridget Fonda, Shirley Manson, and Winona Ryder, come on down - I've got to give Larry (aka Dan LaRocque) credit for making one of his crushes public. Skips Like Us opens with "Wrestle With Me Xena", a sonic love letter to cable television's favourite leather-clad sex goddess. Unlike most of the show's more smitten fans, Larry has made his musical instrument of choice the acoustic guitar, not the skin flute. Strumming like a man who sees the world as his coffehouse, he begs the Amazonian focal point of Xena: Warrior Princess to roam the earth with him, fighting evil and beating up those who've made his life miserable.

As you may have guessed, Larry - who, like Neil Young and Perry Farrell, has one of those love-it-or-hate-it voices - doesn't get overly serious on Skips Like Us. That makes songs like "Dog For Hire", in which he dreams up jobs for his four-legged best friend, listenable enough. At the same time, other artists have writter funnier songs on similar subjects. "I Declare" which starts out with the line "This bank makes too much money" isn't nearly as inspired as "I Hate Banks" by Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper. And as for "Biggest 5'6" Man On The Team", Larry's ode to anyone who's ever skated onto a frozen rink to play net, let's just say it's not going to usurp Stompin' Tom Connor's "The Hockey Song" as Canada's unofficial national anthem."

by Mike Usinger.

Larry would like to say Happy First Birthday to his son, Jacob Edward LaRocque-Wall, March 31, 1999. He loves his boy and doesn't care who knows it.

Volume II - Issue I (Jan 18, 1999)

Larry just received a reply from Ken Dryden, one of nine NHL goalies who've received the disc so far. Mr Dryden, a multiple Stanley Cup and Vezina trophy winner and present GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs, sent along a personalized autographed photo of himself from back in the glory days of 'Les Habitants'. In light of that one wonders why it's so hard to get Mike Usinger to return his calls.

The inscription reads, "To Jacob, not yet 1, and Dan at 30 with many years of hockey ahead to share". A priceless treasure.

Excerpts from Earshot Online's recently posted feature, 'Deconstructing Larry', by Kirsten Weisenberger

Much is relying on the manly name Larry. He is a band, a foundation, a nationalist movement and an invaluable product that will revolutionize firewood. Larry is also Dan LaRocque, a Vancouver musician. Satire and simple chord progressions are his tools.

LaRocque's alter-ego, Larry, came out of the defunct Vancouver band, Sick Sick Yeah. He took on a name rejected by his former bandmates and began composing sweet, witty folk melodies. Superficially, his sound is sincere boy-with-guitar, but on closer listen LaRocque is at play with musical and lyrical conventions. His voice is self-consciously off key, his lyrics both vulnerable and caustically ironic.

Larry's CD, Skips Like Us, was released in 1998 on his Bank-B-Gone label. Although LaRocque and his acoustic guitar are the CDs main features, he's backed up with sparse instrumentation and vocals. The seven tracks represented run the gamut from a mock Stan Rogers ditty to a naively urgent plea for the attentions of Xena, Warrior Princess.

On a more satirically political note, LaRocque composed two anthems: Cascadia Cascadia with the lyrics "Faire squeegee et prendre le welfare," is destined in jest to be the cry behind the Cascadian separatist movement. The other, "I Declare (in Three and a Half Minutes or Less)", takes on LaRocque's Big Cause, with the words "the less you have the more you lose/to greedy profit-sucking bastard spawn of Satan"....

Visit their website for the full article.

Reviews as of Dec 11/98

From www.canmusic.com - The Official Website of Canadian Music - Dec 11/98

Larry is otherwise known as "Dan LaRocque", a musical genius from Vancouver. His latest CD entitled: " Skips Like Us", features guest performances by Shirra Wall, Diamond Dave, Brad Lambert and James Junger. The 7 song CD reminds you of a young Neil Young and a Phil Ochs with great vocals and excellent acoustic guitar. "Larry-Skips Like Us" CD will be on your top shelf to play again and again!

Just like Larry Robinson, the band "Larry" will make you proud to say you are "a Canadian"!

Favourite CD tracks are: Dog For Hire, I Declare and Covering Up.

Rated five leafs out of five

Larry, Skips Like Us

Larry likes - no, loves Xena, dogs, Canada, Hockey and he loves to write and sing songs. He's all solo, with a little help from his friends. A true modern-folk artist heads, and his tales are above any topical wanker at the folk fests. His issues ring true and he's got some sly laughs for you. A folk song is a wet coast anthem, an ode to the goalie, a tirade against banks, a portrait of a dog and an idiot box fantasy too. Patience, wit and charm. But most importantly his melodies are strong and keep ringin' in yet noggin. By the way, the Skips in the title refers to student loans, can you relate.

by Phil Oats

From: The Larry Report - Volume 1, Issue 1 - Nov 27/98

Larry's new CDEP, Skips Like Us has begun charting on campus and community radio, entering CFRO's top thirty at # 23 (Nov 20, 1998.) It entered CKMS Radio Waterloo's weekly chart at #33 of 35 (Nov 27, 1998). It's currently receiving sporadic airplay at over 50 campus, community and CBC radio stations across Canada.

The Loop magazine's Paul Gallant recently did an interview with Larry on the subject of banks, horoscopes and the perils of invention. It should be out in their December edition, or watch for the reprint here at the bank-b-gone website.

There is more ink forthcoming in the December issue of !Earshot on-line. Larry met with an !Earshot journalist at an East Vancouver coffee shop where they discussed Student Loan defaulters and the soggy joys of a Vancouver winter . The article is slated for the December !Earshot at http://www.earshot-online.com

Bank-B-Gone is pleased to announce its crossed the 1200 hit mark. Many new visitors to the site have been drawn by a new spam courtesy Hal North and his media machine. SEND FIVE DOLLARS - FOR NO GOOD REASON, has yet to net any greenbacks in the mailbox, but it has raised some hackles on visitors to alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.breasts.large Larry is still awaiting replies from the nine NHL goalies who received copies of the disc. Ken Dryden, Chris Osgood, Curtis Joseph, Cory Hirsch, Jocelyn Thibault, Mike Richter, Ron Tugnutt, Felix Potvin and Eddy Belfour have all been alerted to the goaltender tribute tune, The Biggest Five Foot Six Man On The Team. None of the aforementioned goalies are Five Foot Six.

A new comments page recently reared its head on the Bank-B-Gone site. You can mail your kudos and/or vitriol to larry@bank-b-gone.com. All letters worth repeating will be posted at www.bank-b-gone.com/comments.html

That is all

"We are thinking of emigrating, we are so filled with love."
Exclaim magazine's Deb and Brooke