The Toefros

The birth of The Toefros is something that I am very excited about. It just goes to show how easy it is to create a band.

Over dinner earlier this week, the Skipper, Paco, Sunshine and I were having our normal interesting conversation about a little bit of everything. But that night, the majority of it was music. Somehow we went from talking about music we liked to starting our own band. We were throwing our jokes and ideas on the table. Usually when dinner comes we move on to another topic, but this time it just took off.

In a matter of minutes, we figured out our band name would be The Toefros, and we would be masters of the Ambient Universal Global musical genre. We also figured out which instruments we were going to play. Sunshine’s instrument of choice was the funk kazoo. Paco decided to take on the sexy samba whistle. Skip was determined to play the hand bones or the spoons, and I was on harmonica. Our instruments were carefully selected—since we were going to be an Ambient Universal Global band, our sound would have to be very organic.

On the way out of the restaurant, Sunshine and I thought it would be funny to ask a waiter for a good place to premiere our music and explain to him our sound. We told him we were big in Sarasota and he was surprisingly interested. He suggested a place called the Palace in downtown Amelia Island.

That night when Paco and I were in the hotel room, we just kicked back from a long day. I went into the bathroom to wash my face when I noticed something…. unsanitary on the toilet seat. First thing I did was ask Paco if he had done it. He said no and said he saw it earlier too. I knew I wasn’t cleaning it up so I called the front desk to see if they could send someone up to clean the bathroom. The woman at the desk was incredibly nice and since it was so late she asked if we wanted to change rooms. I looked at Paco to see if was cool with it and he just shrugged, so I immediately said, “Yeah, we’ll take a new room,” and went downstairs to pick up the new key.

When I met the woman at the front desk, she smiled and asked if I wanted a king size bed with a Jacuzzi. I laughed and said I was with Paco. She apologized and said she thought Missy was with me so she figured she’d give us a romantic upgrade. I laughed again and told her that wasn’t the case.

Instead, I blurted out, “We’re all in a band together called The Toefros.” She thought our name was cool then asked more about it. I told her our genre and the instruments we played. She kind of laughed and said, “Well, that’s interesting.” I also told her why were really on Amelia Island and all about VISITFLORIDA.com. I explained, “The Toefros thing is a hobby and we’re still up and coming.” Then she gave us the rock star treatment. She gave Paco and me the UPGRADE! We got a suite, which was much better than the room we had. It even had a balcony overlooking the town.

After we got situated in the room, I told Paco what had happened downstairs. He immediately started laughing. “Yeah right! For real?” Then the phone rang. It was Cyndi, the woman downstairs, asking if the suite was okay. I told her it was, and that out of my appreciation I was going to get her autographs from the whole band. I heard Paco lose it in the background, laughing hysterically. After I got off the phone, we grabbed Sunshine and we all went out for a beer.

The next morning we were still giddy from the night before. As we prepared for the day’s shoot, we explained to Skip what happened at the hotel and he gave us that classic Skipper grin.

Our location for the day was at Amelia Island Plantation and we were set to film their beautiful golf courses and nature tour. The shoots went great. Their 15th hole on Ocean Links is probably the prettiest hole out our all the courses I’ve visited in Florida. We wrapped the shoot and headed back to the hotel to clean up for dinner.

As soon as the TV-RV parked outside of the hotel, Paco said, “Let’s take our band picture!” We all laughed and started scrambling to get into character. We got changed and Skip set up the camera to go off on a timer. Since we were by a railroad track, we agreed that it was the most cliché and therefore the best place to take the picture. After the “photo shoot”, Paco brought our favorite shot into Photoshop to make it black and white. He also added our band name in The Crew’s favorite font, Papyrus. After tweaking out the picture, we split up. Paco and Skip went to film an impromptu carriage ride for a behind the scenes video because Skip had befriended one of the locals. Meanwhile, Sunshine and I headed to CVS for our 8X10 photos. When we got back, Skip had already befriended another local who invited us to their coffee house after dinner.

After dinner, we headed to the coffee house for some espresso. Of course, we got to talking about The Toefros and our sound. Just so happened this time we had our band photo. Skip, Paco, Sunshine and I all signed the band photo and gave it to the workers. They were so happy with the picture they said they were going to frame it and hang it in their front window. We got their email address and said we would send them an MP3 of one of our jam sessions.

The following day, we ate lunch at the Cracker Barrel (which was ever-so appropriate). This gave us a chance to get some instruments for a jam session. Sunshine bought her funk kazoo and Paco bought a slide whistle. Skip was trying to find some percussion but he settle for a fork and plastic cup on the TV-RV.

After dinner, we had a jam session and cut four songs in five minutes. It was almost like we were born to do this. How can you go wrong with song titles like Little Dummy, Okra Burger, and The woo woo WOO Song?

Up to this point, no one has heard any of our music. So we all agreed to make a basic website and leak our sound to the net. Feedback is always welcome and you can check us out at www.thetoefros.com.

Till Next Time,
Amon Focus