Some information taken from The Spin Doctors Information Page

While at the New School Jazz Program Chris Barron and Eric Schenkman formed a band with John Popper, Brendan Hill and possibly others called Trucking Company. Originally Chris was not in the band. After Trucking Company started up Popper re-started an old high-school band, Blues Traveler. Blues Traveler all lived together and needed a fifth roommate, so they called on friend and former bandmante Chris Barron, who had been living in his hometown of Princeton. To help pay the rent, Chris unknowingly paved a way for a place for his future band to play by opening up for Blues Traveler at the Nightingale Bar (the bar where Blues Traveler and Spin Doctors, as well as God Street Wine and Joan Osborne would get their starts).

Soon, Popper found it difficult to maintain two bands and thought about the possible dilemma of a night when both bands would have gigs on the same night (they were both getting to be well-recieved bands). John couldn't sing for both bands at the same time! He put his allegiance behind Blues Traveler, though. So again he turned to Chris and asked him to join Trucking Company as lead vocalist of when Popper wasn't there and backing vocalist when he was there. In the very first rehearsal Chris and Eric got into a huge argument and the band almost broke up right then. But they worked out their differences (for at least seven years) and Chris eventually became the lead vocalist as Popper joined Blues Traveler full time. Drummer Brendan Hill also joined Blues Traveler full time so they replaced him with Aaron Comess, whom they knew because he was also at the New School Jazz Program. The band went through a series of bass players, starting with Trucking Company's original bass player and settling on someone named Ross for a few months. By then the band had become something new. They got their first gig at a party at a Columbia frat house called Delta Phi, where the band would do several shows throughout the next year or two. Eric came up with a name for this new band: Spin Doctors. Spin Doctors would do shows in the New York college circuit for the next several months. In the spring of 1989 Ross left the band and a 26 year old self-taught bassist from Queens, NY, Mark White, joined. Mark had been in several bands before Spin Doctors, most recently Spade.

With Mark in the band the Spin Doctors. sound finally took shape, stemming from the diverse musical tastes of the band members. Just a sampling: Mark is a big Prince fan, Aaron listens to John Coltrane, Eric is an Al Green fan, and Chris likes The Who. Eric once commented in an interview, "The four of us have always made a really unique type of fusion of our musical tastes. They are all rather different but it still clicked somehow and that is the reason why the band now sounds the way it does. We had several bassists before Mark, but after three days of playing together we were together on stage. That's really when we noticed that this was working out. It doesn't matter if the musicians are good or bad--you just come into a room sometimes and after playing a few notes with the others, you can tell that it's gonna work."

In November 1989, the band cut it's first studio demo tape, entitled "Can't Say No". Among the classics recorded for the tape were three that would make it onto Pocket Full of Kriptinite: Refrigerator Car, How Could You Want Him, and Shinbone Alley. Also included were the now live classics Cheeseburger Dulexe, Cop That Robber, Yo Baby, Piece of Glass, Yo Mamma's a Pajama, House, Rosetta Stone, Freeway of the Plains, and Hungry Hamed's, which would later be released on Turn It Upside Down.

The band cut another demo tape in March of 1990, this time with What Time Is It?, How Could You Want Him, Two Princes, House, Hungry Hameds, Refrigerator Car, Rosetta Stone, and Freeway of the plains. The band was becoming quite popular in NYC when Up For Grabs was released in early 1991. And in 1993 when "Two Princes hit the airwaves, the band was a success story. But the band members were not getting along.

``At the height of our popularity, we were yelling and screaming at each other and no one was getting along or agreeing on anything,'' said Aaron Comess during a 1999 interview with the Boston Globe.``When a band gets out in front of 20,000 people and it's breaking up backstage, it's hard to have a positive vibe.''

The arguments escalated to the point of a band member leaving. The story, from Mark White's point of view, is as follows: right after the band signed its record contract in 1990, Eric changed. He started to have this vision of the sound the band should have that no-one else agreed with, except his guitar guru. Around 1993, Eric brought this guy, his guru, on tour with the band. No one could stand him and because of his and Eric? view on sound, they couldn't? keep a sound guy; they kept getting new ones and firing them. As a result they sounded horrible at big venues and they knew it. Finally Mark confronted Eric? guru and said he'd beat him up unless he stopped bothering him (which Mark assures us was an empty threat) and that day the guy packed his bags and went home, not out of fear, but knowing that he was unwanted. Everyone including the road crew was applauding and really happy. That day Mark went and said the same thing to Eric, who had also been annoying or bothersome in some way, and after that Eric left Mark alone. But the rift grew too big, and in Mark? words, "We just couldn't? stand being around him," and so Eric left, according to the band of his own accord, according to Eric because they forced him out. After sifting for the truth in the middle it seems most likely that Eric left, but that was only because it was clear he was unwanted, but they allowed him to stay. He didn't?.

The band then went out in search of a new guitarist. They found Anthony Kirzen. Anthony and his band (with Noel Redding) were opening up for Wasabi, (a Spin Doctors side project) and Aaron had talked to him. When Eric left, the band held try-outs for three guitarists they had hand picked: Anthony, the guitarist for the New Bohemians (Eadie Brackel's band) and someone named something Skolnick. Anthony got into the tryouts because Aaron called him up when they started looking, and Anthony popped in Pocket Full of Kryptonite and learned Jimmy Olsen's Blues and What Time Is It? over the phone. Aaron liked the way it sounded so they flew him in to jam with the band. Mark had just been married so they jammed without a bass player, but after he made the first cut they all flew out to California so they could practice with Mark. Well, they liked the way it sounded so they chose Anthony.

Anthony left after the small You Gotta Believe in Something tour. No one ever said why. What was said is that it was a friendly break-up, and at the time Anthony volunteered to do any gigs for which they didn't have a guitar player.

To find Eran Tabid, their current guitarist, the band held open tryouts. They heard demo tapes of each guitar player and then chose a few to jam with to see who they liked. The band agreed on Eran. In Eran's words: "I immediately felt like I could do whatever I wanted. I played, they smiled, I was in." Ivan Neville, the band's keyboard player, came along for the YGBIS tour and never left.

For more information about the Spin Doctors check out the Spin Doctors information page. For info on their CDs, check discography.