GENERATION A's (from the Oakland A's promo commercial) Tom Candiotti: "We need a fight song...hey Spiez', you play in a band..." (pan across table to Spiezio sitting with Les Paul guitar) Scott Spiezio: "Hmmnn, a fight song..." (camera pans back, cuts to studio band setting, with band rocking and Spiezio on the mike. The band stops and Scott shouts out: "HATE the Angels!" Shot of team standing by approvingly nodding their heads). Voice over: "They're young, but they can play"

SANDFROG: The Band

SS: We basically just started like, a year and a half ago. Two years ago we just went out and bought instruments.

CM: So you're doing it totally from scratch?

SS: --Totally from scratch. This off-season we went to a studio and recorded two songs; and sent one of 'em to L.A. Some guy's gonna put out a major league baseball cd. I think (Mark) Langston's gonna be on it, Paul O'Neill, Jack McDowell, Radinsky--there's gonna be ten of us on it. So they picked one of our songs. The name of the band's Sand Frog. (he slides me a copy of their two-song cd) Keep in mind that we're beginners, and...

CM: Nahh...that's pretty admirable. Just the fact that you'd just go out and get instruments and start at square one.

SS: Well, we made it all ourselves...went to the studio and got it. We had them burn it down to a cd...and we have a cd burner, and burned them ourselves. We made these, and I just give 'em to people. We'll see what they think about it.

CM: So what's up with the band? Are you playing live at all?

SS: We've got about 15 songs; we're trying to finish 'em off right now. We did the drums and the vocals, and the scratch guitar. Right now they're at my house working on the guitar and the bass. So they're gonna finish it hopefully by the end of the year. But we haven't really played out much because we're so new. I built a stage in my basement. We got a huge p.a. system; we got fog machines, lights, the whole deal. (laughter) It's like a nightclub in my basement. I got La-Z-Boys lined up down there. We'll invite like, 40-50 people over, once a month or something and just, plug it in and play. We came out here to Fan Fest (Oakland A's off-season outdoor fan-oriented party) and played about six songs...about a half hour, thirty-five minutes. So that was kinda fun. That was really our first public performance, so...we were kinda nervous.

CM: Did you have stage fright?

SS: I had a little stage fright. The reason I did is cuz I had my A's jersey on. They (the A's brass) made me wear my A's jersey, and I didn't like that feeling of getting up there, you know-- (more laughter)

CM: Meanwhile bands in town are going up on stage with their A's jerseys on all the time.

SS: There I am singing "Man In The Box"... (much chuckling) and the band after me is that, uhh...that R&B band...Lakeside.

CM: You mean from the late '70s/early '80s..."All The Way Live"?--

SS: -That's them!

(laughs all around)

CM: I didn't know they were still around.

SS: I'm trying to think of their big song...something about, uhh...voyage..."Fantastic Voyage". Yeah, that was it.

CM: Was that the real slow one?
SS: Yeah, that one. So we're playing Alice In Chains, Metallica, that kinda stuff. And then our own stuff, which is... (chuckling) a little bit more edgy than Lakeside. (laughter) So it was kinda funny...

(Scott then breaks to suit up for the game. I head down to the photographer pit. The next part takes place next to the dugout)

CM: So how long was the first gig after you picked up your instruments for the first time? Who decided who played what?

SS: Actually...I guess it wasn't all exactly the same time. The guitarist went and bought a guitar first. Then he was starting to learn some songs, and...nobody would sing. So I just started singing. I was the only one that would do it, that had enough guts. Then I went out here (Oakland) and I bought a guitar here, so I started to learn to play a little bit. So then all that was left was drums and bass. And we needed another guitar player cuz I couldn't sing and play guitar at the same time. So, next was the bass player, he went out and got a bass...cuz that was the next least expensive thing. And the next guy went out and got drums, and that left the second guitarist, cuz I couldn't play and sing at the same time. And that's how it happened.

CM: You're just on the mike?

SS: Pretty much. I'm getting to the point now where I can do some, like, Green Day stuff (on guitar and singing)...the power-chord specials I can do. Other than that, if it gets very tough at all, I can't handle it.

CM: If it's too tough it ain't worth doing--

(laughing)

SS: -That's right!

CM: It's just music, it ain't surgery--

SS:--Right. That's right.

CM: When you guys got it together was there some type of sound you were going for?

SS: I think...well, we all kinda like the same music. We really liked Alice In Chains coming up through college. We all went to college together, and high school together. And real early Metallica stuff. We liked chunkin' the E string a lot-- (laughing)

CM: --Chuggin', the dugga-dugga music--

SS: Yeah! Exactly.

CM: So do you remember where you were when Cliff Burton died?

SS: Jeez', no. I can't remember. But you see the VH1 things now (the "Behind The Music" series) and see all the stuff that happened to guys like that...some of the bands, it's just amazing. All the stuff they went through. Dave Mustaine getting booted out, so he goes and forms Megadeth...all kinds of crazy stuff.

CM: Not to mention the "loser's lunch."

SS: Yeah..."baloney on hand" (does the Scott Ian "baloney on hand" gesture).
(laughing)

SS: It's fun though. I always loved music. I always buy every cd I can get my hands on.

CM: Which college did you go to?

SS: University of Illinois.

CM: So did you see all those bands, Metallica, Anthrax, when they would go on tour?

SS: We saw Metallica, we were third row for Metallica. We saw Alice In Chains at a small club called Mabel's, that held maybe 300 people. Right when they released Facelift...it was unbelievable. Smashing Pumpkins came through at a place called the Blind Pig.

CM: That's when they were all just starting to come up too, right?

SS: Exactly. It was great. We were all in college right when that Seattle thing was coming to form. We got into Badmotorfinger from Soundgarden a lot. We tried to play some Soundgarden; the problem is singing Soundgarden. (laughter) I don't have that vocal range, you know. There's like, maybe 20 cover songs I've got the vocal range for, so... (more laughing)

CM: So you're not doing any Queen or anything?

SS: Nope. No Queen, no Led Zeppelin...

CM: So can you give me a quick (a la "Whole Lotta Love") "Wo-man!"...

(laughing)

SS: Maybe in a falsetto! No Guns N' Roses...

CM: So here's the question we have to ask every baseball player: What do you have in your car's cd player right now?

SS: I got...Sevendust. Sevendust is a new group. I think they're out of Atlanta. They're heavy. They're a different sound. It sounds like they're playing their guitars through bass amps. They got great singer too. It's not thrash type of a vocal, he's really got some talent. They've been out only about a year, but I think they're gonna be big stuff. Same with this band Godsmack. I don't have the cd, but I really like the guitarist. It's another new one that I've just heard on the radio. They've just recently come on, but they're like...dropping a whole step on the guitars...they're real heavy too.

CM: --Down to C--

(laughing)

SS: Yeah, they are!...I really think they are. It's unbelievable. It's fun stuff. I just love going into a record store and grabbing a cd that I don't know anything about. Scanning it and listening to it...

(talk turns to "Have you heard"s and "are you into"s, the Iggy Pop VH1 special, and Dock Ellis' 1970 no-hitter. The din of the crowd as the announcer reads the starting line-up forces us to take it back to the clubhouse)

SS: (talking about their first two recorded songs) We went into the studio cuz at the time we didn't have all the equipment to (produce the tunes they exact way they wanted to). Now we've got all the equipment, we record in my basement. We've got an eight-input card. So we throw the drums in, then the guitar...just a dry track so I can sing over it. Then I leave and they can do all the rest.

CM: There's defintely some Metallica in there.

SS: Yeah, a little chunk in the E. The rest of our songs are more like that.

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