Backing Iggy Pop on "The Adventures of Pete & Pete"

Our experience appearing on the legendary Nickelodeon show, Rummy 500 with Iggy, and putting rumors to rest about the DVD release. Plus, an exclusive chat with Little Pete, Danny Tamberelli!

We've heard from many of you (especially our millennial fans) that your first introduction to our band was through our guest appearance on the mid-'90s Nickelodeon show, The Adventures of Pete & Pete. It's so cool to know that our music reached you through such an innovative and beloved show. Here’s the scoop:

We had a blast doing the show, playing three of our songs: "Angel" and "Here" from our album Natural Ingredients, and "Satellite" from In Search of Manny. And we also got to be Iggy Pop's backing band for a song he sings to his daughter on the show.

If you’ve never seen The Adventures of Pete & Pete before, it’s a quirky show about two red-headed brothers, both named Pete. It was known for featuring a bunch of awesome artists and actors throughout its three-season run. The show featured folks like Michael Stipe from REM, Kate Pierson of the B-52's, Steve Buscemi, Debbie Harry, LL Cool J, and even Adam West TV’s Batman.

The plot of our episode, called ‘Dance Fever’

The much-loved season 3 episode 5, "Dance Fever," originally aired November 5, 1995:

Little Pete (Danny Tamberelli) attends his first school dance, and Big Pete (Michael Maronna) develops a crush on the guitarist (Gabby Glaser) of the hired band (Luscious Jackson). Pit Stain learns of Little Pete's fear of dancing and tries to exploit it, and Nona (Michelle Trachtenberg RIP). tries to avoid the embarrassment of dancing with her "Pop," (Iggy Pop) who takes the stage and sings a song for her.

How did we get cast?

Pete & Pete co-creator, Will McRobb: “We were fans of Luscious Jackson. And, of course, we wanted Big Pete to fall in love with one of the people in the band, and they were all girls, so it was easy for us to have that moment.” Uproxx

Iggy Pop: “I sing a song to my daughter Nona, much to her embarrassment. I had to learn a song they had written, a really corny song, and I wanted to sing it well. And I remember I was a little jealous because Luscious Jackson was in the same episode, and they got to do their own song. It was like a guest spot where they were doing this pretty song and I was singing a corny song.” Uproxx

This is the climactic act of a buildup wherein Nona’s dad wants to dance with her which, naturally, mortifies Nona. In the end, Little Pete bites the bullet and dances with Nona so she doesn’t have to dance with ol’ Dad. Everybody dances and has a good time, including Iggy Pop, while Luscious Jackson plays. What says Pete & Pete more than that? Uproxx

KATE: We shot at Bayonne High School in New Jersey, which is right across a bridge from Staten Island. The neighborhood is very suburban, and the school wasn’t like any school we went to— it was clean, surrounded by grass & trees. I remember they handed us a recording of a jazzy song that Iggy was going to sing. We thought we were going to have to actually learn the song and play it live while he sang, but it turned out it was pre-recorded, so we only had to fake-play while Iggy lip-synced. Gabby had to do some heavy lifting for this episode because she had to act, dance, and memorize some dialogue (see below). I just had to pretend to drum in the background.

JILL: I don’t have a full recollection of the shoot. Just flashes of memories of performing on the stage, and sitting on the grass outside with Gabby and Iggy. It was fun to relax and chat with Iggy in such a bucolic spot, and contrast that with his raw music that I had listened to a thousand times. A very sweet guy.

What did Iggy Pop do that pissed off Gabby?

GABBY: So fun to be Iggy’s backup band for that song! All the young actors were very sweet and professional. I remember the young Pete walking around on the set with his big bass guitar. On set, there’s a lot of waiting around, so I brought cards. Me, Iggy, Vivian, and Artie (Iggy’s manager), played Rummy 500. Iggy won by a landslide, which pissed me off. I’m pretty competitive with card games.

I recently found the original Pete and Pete script (below), and on the back is the score from our game. In Rummy 500, the winner is the first to score 500 points.

Iggy won by 100 points! Gabby came in 2nd. Viv in 3rd with (surprisingly) only 275 points!

GABBY: A few months later, Iggy did a show at the legendary club Coney Island High on St Mark’s Place. Small room, great show. Seeing him live and being an acquaintance of his are vastly different. You get lost in his performance. He’s a wild man on stage and a reserved, calm, and well-spoken guy in person. So he plays this awesome show, and afterwards, I see his manager Artie, who summons me down to the dressing room to say ‘hi’ to Iggy. As I get downstairs, I hear a loud “Gabby, Gabby!” I look over and there’s Iggy in his little silver leggings and nothing else. The first thing he does is look me sincerely in the eyes, and he says, “I’m so sorry. I’m really, really sorry…” I was confused and asked what happened. He then reminded me that he slaughtered me at Rummy 500! Lol. He came to my birthday a few months later at my friend’s restaurant, Kate’s Joint, and we had a real sweet time.

KATE: Gabby, where was I when you and Viv were playing cards with Iggy?! We played Rummy 500 nonstop on the tour bus, so much so that I used to get cramps in my hands from holding cards for so many hours. I remember Viv would get impatient with me and Gabby because we’d be yammering so much and take too long to discard.

Kate, Gabby, and Viv playing Rummy 500 ALL NIGHT LONG on our tour RV

Gabby wouldn’t let darkness stop her from playing Rummy 500.

Gabby’s interview with Danny Tamberelli, who played little Pete:

Gabby: I texted Danny “Little Pete” Tamborelli a few questions the other day, and he gave us some great stories. Of course, the kid turned out to be a gem!

Gabby: Did being on the show encourage you to play music since there were so many guest musicians?
Danny: 100% ! In addition to all the cool musical guests, such as yourself, the crew thought of me as their own little brother to bestow their tastes in music. I was getting mixtapes/CDs and general recommendations every day. From Billy Bragg to The Replacements to Cypress Hill to Monster Magnet to Gil Scott Heron to Squeeze to BAD to Ministry, etc. I was fully immersed in so much music that it was impossible not to come out a musician. In Search of Manny cassette was also quite helpful in my journey… I was aware of Debbie Harry, LL, Michael Stipe, and Kate Pierson, but had to be briefed on Iggy, Marshall Crenshaw, and Syd Straw from my mom and pop. But once I was shown the light, I was diving into whatever I could find. When I had auditions in the city, I would make my folks stop at Bleecker Bob’s to acquire the music I needed “to know who I was acting with” was my catchphrase. David Johansen was Buster Poindexter to me and even more, was the Taxi Ghost from Scrooged… So there was a learning curve, but I was always up for the research.

GG: Got any Iggy stories?
DT: Iggy taught me how to play “TV Eye” on the bass during your episode! I also remember there being a lunch time jam session? Am I making that up? I was also into stealing PA’s cigarettes at the time and so I could have been on a tobacco buzz… Iggy was the coolest and we sat at lunch together many times just shooting the shit. Gave the rundown on why he was called Iggy, living in the Midwest vs. NY, I think I even made him laugh by asking if he would break my Snapple bottle and roll around in it because I had heard he did that…but he saw me coming in every day with my bass and asked if I wanted to learn any of The Stooges songs since he knew I was a big fan of Fun House, which I would blast during breaks from being tutored… I told him “TV Eye” and he said he would bring his guitar in. A Black PRS if I remember correctly with glow in the dark inlays so, “he could see what he was doing onstage.” I think there was a skull and crossbones on the twelfth fret. I told Maronna, Big Pete, about it and he brought his guitar and he taught us both. During the teaching, we were rocking so hard that we blew my amp. Still have it. Still broken.

GG: Any memories of our episode?
DT: “Dance Fever” was your episode and other than the smoking and jamming, what I remember most was being doused in clear slime that they said was used in the Alien moves so I could fly on a ball bearing’s low rider skateboard to make it look like I poured wax on myself to shoot around the school halls. It was also fresh in my mind what a school dance was all about as I had recently experienced my first “teen canteen” at my home town school in NJ. There was also an extra who tried to tell me he was in gangs, plural and showed me how to write blood with my hands… I can still do it. Core memory, huh?

GG: What was your favorite part of being on the series?
DT: It’s hard to pick a favorite thing but being able to have these ridiculous and fantastical ideas brought to life like riding down a hill on a giant block of ice or actually having to do stunts and fight with Adam West, fucking Batman!! The first spots really were so amazing. Bill Hickey was my grandfather, Chris Elliott was my meter man…it was surreal to say the least. I think though playing a cool character on tv while you are growing up at the same time can sort of blur the lines of puberty and kind of turning into the person you are going to inevitably evolve into. I’m not sure where little Pete and Danny started and finished. I guess for the most part, I wasn’t really a tough guy with a younger brother chip on my shoulder. I was the oldest of 3 so I never felt that kind of sibling animosity but I think being someone who fought the good fight, starting a band and being a leader in a friend group were all things that kind of made us the same. I think that’s a pretty cool situation. That and having my first smooch on set… another core memory

GG: What have you been up to since?
DT: I continued to act and worked for a while until I turned 18 and wanted to go to college like all my friends. Took a break during college to continue my musical career. My band Jounce has been touring and making records for 25 years at this point. Still going. New release sometime early next year. Got married, have 2 kids. My wife and I have written two adult romance-coms which you can find IN bookstores! Still acting. Co-own a podcast network called Seltzer Kings. But always a little Pete at heart. That experience quite literally gave me everything… except my children. But they also have little Pete tendencies and they haven’t even seen the show so who knows? Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna try to get a Jounce/Luscious Jackson show to happen in Brooklyn. You folks down?

LJ: YES!

Before we go, we’d like to put to rest the rumor that LJ somehow prevented the DVD release of season three of the show.

Some backstory from KEXP:

Sadly, season 3 of The Adventures of Pete and Pete has yet to be released on DVD. In a 2012 interview with the L.A. Times, co-creator Chris Viscardi says, "It's packaged, it's recorded, we did commentary tracks with a bunch of the cast, there's all these special extras on it. They pressed them, we saw it. Nothing." Ten years ago on LiveJournal, Vicardi elaborated: "The reason is that there is a song in an episode by the now-defunct band Luscious Jackson and Nickelodeon doesn't want to pay for the rights. Until they do, the DVD's will just sit there, unsold and unseen. A shame."

JILL: On our end, we didn’t have any knowledge of the music licensing negotiations. It’s done by labels and publishing companies. We would get nasty messages years later asking why we are blocking the DVD release of season 3. Anyway, now you can see the shows online, so the hubbub has died down. But if you want to see the full DVD released, ask Nickelodeon directly.

GABBY: We’d be thrilled if Nickelodeon would release the season 3 DVD with all the extras. Hopefully, this can happen sooner rather than later. Then a DVD release party with Danny’s band Jounce!”