Update: The Search for Surfing Moses

My two previous blegs (here and here) may be starting to pay off. Ask about anything for long enough and in just the right plaintive tone and the answers start coming.

First off: Proof that I didn't just imagine it at all.

I heard by email today from @Steve-O, who emceed the show I saw Surfing Moses at. It wasn't a "PointFest" after all: It was a "Dare to Care" benefit concert. Steve-O DJed at Channel Z in Springfield Missouri. Best radio channel EVAH, and I listened to it constantly as I commuted 45 minutes each way to work each day. Steve-O is with a Kansas City station now, and also has a MixCloud presence that looks fun.

So anyway, Steve-O sent me a scan of a local newspaper story on the concert. Quote of interest:

Surfing Moses -- Springfield listeners liked this New York group's single "Let's Go Bowling" so much, they made it the victor of Channel Z's "Cage Match Competition" two nights in a row.

Thanks, Steve-O!

I think I may have also tracked down the brains, brawn and beauty behind Surfing Moses. I keep seeing the name "Bret Reilly" associated with the band whenever I can find any references to them at all, and I'm at the point of being pretty sure it's this sculptor. From his bio page:

During his years in New York, Bret also pursued music. He performed more than 200 concerts in NYC clubs and has written and recorded more than 300 songs.

It's my opinion that Reilly's song "Too Much of a Good Thing," from the soundtrack of the film Dumb and Dumber (here's a Youtube grab), bears more than minor stylistic resemblances to my admittedly fragmentary, incomplete and imperfect memories of the Surfing Moses oeuvre both vocally and in the guitar department. Not as raucous, but there's just something going on there I recognize.

So I used his site's contact link to ask Reilly directly if that's him and if he can help me find the recordings in question. Just now, as a matter of fact.

The quest may be nearing its end.