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Boston, Massachusetts Few feats are done only once, but it's a sure bet what Kipp Lennon did in a Los Angeles studio in 1989 won't happen again. During a recording session for Fox's The Simpsons, Lennon played the part of Michael Jackson, singing "Happy Birthday Lisa" to the cartoon that is Lisa Simpson – while the real Michael Jackson stood next to him in the room silently watching. Jackson only spoke his own cartoon character's dialogue in the show, but for some reason did not want to sing. Kipp, a sharp vocal mimic who was a member of Flaming Moe's singing group in the show – laughs at the surreal nature of it all. Imagine: imitating the King of Pop while the King of Pop watches every move and hears every inflection. Kipp takes a bit of pride in thinking that he - "this skinny white kid" - will be "a footnote in pop culture." That's not his aim, of course, to be a footnote. No one gets into the music business to be a footnote. And Lennon has been in the business about three decades, singing with the band Venice. The four core band members range in age from their early-40s to mid-50s. Kipp is one of four Lennons – two sets of brothers – that make up Venice. (Kipp and guitarist-singer Pat are younger brothers of the famed Lennon Sisters, who sang on The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955-1967. Mike and Mark come from another branch of the family. Between the two, there are 24 offspring. What's the effect of being younger brothers of the famed sisters? "The older we get, the less effect it has," says Kipp, "because fewer people remember the Lennon Sisters. When we were in our 20s, there was a real stigma, people thinking we were rich Hollywood kids, which we aren't remotely. It couldn't be further from truth. It was cruel, but we tried to ignore it, and it inspired to be real songwriters." Yet another part of the throat culture in the Lennon clan – and one whose crust mitigates the distant echo of the Lawrence Welk Show – comes in the form of uncles Jimmy and Jimmy, Jr., both of whom are Boxing Hall of Fame ring announcers.  Venice has darker sides, but their music stresses perseverance and resilience. They've garnered some mighty praise. David Crosby calls Venice "the best vocal group in America right now," calling their harmony vocals "very unforced, very from their hearts." Jackson Browne considers them "quintessentially Californian, with soaring harmonies… They sing and they play their asses off, and I have seen them knock out many an unsuspecting crowd." Venice has sung with both artists, and various members have accompanied Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Warren Zevon and Cher. As you might gather from the company kept, Venice is a mostly soft-rock and folk band, high on harmony. Vocally, they've got that brother-cousin connection going, like the Everly Brothers, the Kinks, the Beach Boys, and Oasis. Mike says it works because, "it's a physical similarity, the vibratos, the sound waves, they do something non-familial voices can't do. You can lock that vibrato to sound like one voice. It's been proven it's a physical thing in the vocal cords allows vibratos to match." Their songs have darker sides, but the music is generally buoyant and tends to stress perseverance and resilience. Mike says you'll find records by Peter Gabriel, Scritti Politti, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple in their collections. "Obviously, it's not heavy metal, but it's loud rock 'n' roll," maintains Mike. "But our strongest thing is the more mellow thing, We're not trying to pretend to be Metallica, but we don't just want everything slow and soft all the time either. The stuff I listen to is softer on my ears. I don't need that energetic rebellious thing all the time." "I say it's soft seduction," offers Kipp. "There's a lot of rockin' songs, but people come away with this sweet seduction." Is Venice famous? If you live outside California or Holland (more on this later), the answer is, no, not really. But Kipp says "in the L.A area, it's the traveling party thing – Grateful Dead meets Jimmy Buffett on a local level." "There's pockets of people," says Mike. "There are people that hold us up as high as U2, because we made that one connection with them." Continued on next page...
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