With all of the recent lineup changes, we thought it might be useful to you our loyal fans to provide a background/bio of Beat Soup (a chronology if you will) that will be both useless and un-informative to everyone except that guy that shows up at every show asking to hear "Dance like the Pope". So without further adieu, we present "The Making of Soup"

• Before Soup (BS): Dan (ex. Plastic Money) joins Tom and Ted (ex. Miriam Your Toast Is Burning) in The Verdun Choir which becomes The Baffled which breaks up, citing "Irreconcilable Similarities"
  
• 1991: Tom, Ted, and Dan, realizing that they still hadn't managed to get any sex in return for their musical efforts, decide to press on and become a Ska band. Dan writes Time is not Money and they begin their assault on the Phoenix Musicians Classifieds. This effort comes up big. Zack (original drummer), Laura (original sax), Mike Brick (original white guy with dreadlocks), and the infamous Jeremy Mushlin (original), who later went on to leave the Allstonians, and currently resides with the NYC based Slackers (Jeremy's voice is the one you hear at the beginning of the Allstonians classic "B-Train to Allston") all came on board at this time.
  
• 1992: Chago joins band on percussion, "House of Cards" plays first gig: a party at Dan's house.
  
• 1992: "Beat Soup" (after edging out "Love Salad" and "Bathtub Jesus" in the name-the-band competition) begins it's rise to obscurity without trombonist Mike Brick. Having threatened bodily harm to Zack and Jeremy, he went to Jamaica and we never heard from him again.
  
• 1992: Beat Soup's first demo tape is recorded at the White Room (with Eric Masunaga of the Dambuilders at the controls). Tape features Time is Not Money, Down, Peace, and Smoke.
  
• 1992: Beat Soup plays a Tuesday night gig at Edible Rex (Billerica) in front of 7 friends and 2 Bikers. Payment for the show: $11.
  
• 1993: The Hi-Hats discover Beat Soup and realize that they can now put together full ska shows with them headlining, Agent 13 and Beat Soup warming up. Many good shows at good places with these 3 bands happen during 1993 (including the Paradise - now we're getting cocky)
  
• 1993: Time is Not Money lands on Mash it Up '93 compilation. Mail starts arriving from places like Alaska and Coventry, UK

• 1993: Rude Boy Mush defects to the Allstonians, but before doing so manages to convince a shy, soft spoken friend of his (no lie) to join Beat Soup. Glen 'Buster Horn' Pine is unleashed.
  
• 1994: Russ Robar shows up to a Wednesday night show at Avenue C in the middle of February during a major blizzard. He's one of 5 people there. He says he plays trumpet; asks to join the band. What could we say?
  
• 1994: Soup is asked to cut a track for the next Mash it Up compilation. Goes to studio to record 6 song effort "Borscht". Decides to submit Coup de Ska by the considerably less soft-spoken Buster.
  
• 1995: Soup starts headlining more regularly. The brewery fetish begins.
  
• 1996: Zack gets bored, Ted begins his year and a half effort to quit. Soup takes another trip to the studio, thinking that might galvanize the troops. Something to Be is recorded during this session and later used on the 4th Mash it Up comp.
  
• 1996: Troops not galvanized by recording. Zack quits. Laura quits. Ted, always polite and unwilling to disturb people, doesn't quit. He does, however, sell all his bass gear (I guess that means that technically, he's still in the band; he just doesn't play an instrument. From now on when you're listening to Beat Soup, that instrument you're not hearing is Ted).
  
• Winter 1996/1997: The darkest period. Morale is lower than low. Disbanding is a distinct possibility, but somehow there's always another show on the horizon. Fortunately, John Jackson has stabilized the drum situation and provided just enough "new guy" enthusiasm to keep the rest of us going. The fill in bass playing of Art Cohen (Steady Earnest, the Agitators) was also crucial in keeping us afloat.
  
• Spring 1997: Dave Alexander fills the bass void and all of a sudden we all feel rejuvenated and re-energized. For the first time in months, we get a full compliment of people at rehearsals and we actually start writing new stuff. Life is good again.
  
• Summer 1997: Russ, unfortunately, can not force himself to get caught up in the revival. He tenders his resignation.
  
• Last Tuesday: John's friend Robin Haynes comes to her second rehearsal as Beat Soup's new sax player.