Besides the shows and the CD's under my own name, here are just a few of the bands that I'm currently conributing to....

Heavy Petting Zoo-- We've been salwarts of the Bay Area music seen since before our first CD came out in 1994 (Yikes).  Originally the brainchild of my big brother Che, I quickly took over the band and eventually fired him.  We've self released four full lenght CD's (even one double live CD--- Oh yeah!!!) and an EP.  We still get together and rock the occasional bar/club.  Heavy Petting Zoo has kind of taken on a life of it's own.... here's a good quote from our bass player/songwriter/singer Daniel Stanton's website Stantonemusic.com....

The combination of Texas blues with New Orleans funk will keep the audience moving and the bar packed. This band can not only draw a crowd but can keep just about any audience’s attention.  Today one finds HPZ not in search of stardom but happy to play and improvise, focusing on being inspired by the moment and a good crowd. 

Shark Alley Hobos--  Too hard to explain so here's the bio from the our website... but SAH is another idea of my brother's, though I haven't fired him.... yet

Respected Bay Area singer/songwriter/guitarist Mikie Lee Prasad (aka Drunky McGee) followed the stars and gathered a ragged band of his most trusted musicians who shared a love of the sea, sharks, pirates, New Orleans and hobos. Out of this grog-infused meeting was born the Bay Area's premiere sea shanty and sing-a-long band, the Shark Alley Hobos. Drawing upon timeless ballads of the sea, modern day spirits-inspired sing-a-longs, and even original songs of wanderlust and debauchery, the Shark Alley Hobos will have you shivering your timbers and raising a glass to good friends and good times. This group of ne'er do wells, with their passion and punctuality, have led many an awestruck bartender to lament, "We're gonna need a bigger bar...." Come join Drunky McGee, Squinty Brown, One Eyed Jack, Bongo, Jackson, Shameless Seamus and Bloody Pisser for an evening you'll wish you could remember...

Double Distilled- This is my newest project with a musician I've played with and respected for a long time Chris Burns... this is some fun stuff. We play alot of old folks homes... they dig us.

Double Distilled is a Bay Area duo made up guitarist/singer Mikie lee Prasad and piano player Chris Burns. The seeds of Double Distilled were planted in 1992 when a young Mikie met already legendary Chris Burns while Chris was the house piano player for the Steve Gannon band at Blake's (Berkeley) Monday night Blues jam. In the following years Mikie and Chris (aka Mista Boins) played and toured together in many bands (Maria Muldaur, Steve Gannon, Heavy Petting Zoo, Shark Alley Hobos). Through many a drunken night on the road they realized that they shared a love of sometimes ridiculous, sometimes quirky, sometimes heart-breaking songs (going all the way back to the 1930's) that all of their other bands refused to play.... and so was born Double Distilled.

Tippy Canoe and the Paddlemen--- I've been playing guitar with Tippy for a few years now and she's currently at the height of her powers. Great singer and uke player, one of my favorite song writers, becoming a badass guitar player and a stage presence that can't be beat.  Here's a little something from her website....

Originally from Baltimore and now based in sunny Oakland, songbird and solo uke-slinger/guitarist, Tippy Canoe (Michele Kappel-Stone), made the switch from a 5-piece drum kit with the garage-pop princesses The Kirby Grips (Sympathy For The Record Industry), to a 4-stringed ukulele in 2003. In 2009 she upped the string count and added guitarist to her resume. She’s on a mission to bring sincere uplift in a severely down-slanted era by spreading her hook-laden pop-meets-roots music.