Richie Chodes
Richie Chodes is the leader of the Elephant 6 based, novelty-pop project "Kingsauce". He was also the bassist/keyboardist for "Vince Mole and his Calcium Orchestra" featuring original Apples in Stereo guitarist Chris Parfitt.
Early life: Richie Chodes was born in Teaneck, New Jersey on December 24, 1967. He was brought up in a Jewish household, though not religious. At 4 years old, he was turned on by the Beatles and his older brother. He also started to listen to the Monkees and AM radio hits of the early 70's. During the summer of 1975, his family relocated to Manchester, New Hampshire. Around this time, he started taking piano and guitar lessons and totally immersed himself in music. Soon after, he began buying Beatles albums and by the age of 9, he owned every Beatles record. In 1977, he wrote and recorded his first song, "Six Million Dollar Man" on a Panasonic tape recorder. The song parodied the popular tv show of the day and laid the groundwork for what would later become "Kingsauce"-novelty songs parodying 70's tv shows
In the fall of 1979, Richie met classmate Chris Parfitt. They were friends briefly on and off during 79-81, socializing only on occasion in junior high school but never making the MusicAL connection until a few years later. In the fall of 81', Richie joined his first rock band "The Forms" which was a popular high school band playing occasional dances and keg parties. Richie also jammed occasionally with neighbor Adam Sandler, being that the Chodes and Sandler families were close friends at the time. He even recorded a song entitled "Adam Sandler's wawa pedal" referring to the effect pedal he purchased from Adam at the time.
In the fall of 1982, Richie reconnected with Chris and formed a musical alliance which continues to this day. In 1984, Chris, Richie, and fellow classmate John Benedict started recording original music for the first time, written entirely by Chris. They started recording in a barn in the backyard of Bendict's house. The band was originally knows as "Contents", but went through several name changes over the next 2 years("Obsurity Purists", "Bewildered Populists", then finally "Rabbit Catalog".) The line up was Chris on guitar and vocals, Richie on bass/keyboards, and John Bendict on drums. Other friends contributed vocals and guitar such as Kevin Swope and Michael Bart. They performed 2 backyard parties during the summer of 1986.
In the fall of 1986, Richie went away to college at Adelphi University on Long Island. The other members of Rabbit Catalog went to college and recorded occasionally when they reunited during the college vacations. It wasn't until 1994 that Chris and Richie would team up once again and start recording more seriously. Chris had just left the [Apples in Stereo] and had moved from Denver to Brooklyn,NY to live with Richie in his studio apartment. Here they formed what was known as "Vince Mole and his Calcium Orchestra." Between 1994 and 1999, Vince Mole recorded several songs and released several EPs (the first which was self-released). In 1999, Richie started to record his original songs(seeKingsauce)which he still does today. He is still good friends with Chris who he visits frequently.
Richie is married now to Wendy Newman and has 2 sons, Adam and Corey. He lives in Columbus, New Jersey and works as a middle school math teacher in Brooklyn,NY.