Young Rebel Goombas hail from Long Island, New York. Tropical rockers, their sound is not so easily pigeon-holed. Each member brings a rich and varied musical background to create the luscious Goomba sound.
Richie Saccente plays guitar and shares lead vocals with his cousin Cosmo Mallardi, who also plays bass guitar. Brian “Uncle Bee” Johnson sings backup vocals and shares percussion duties with Randy Knudsen, also on vocals. Kevin McCann plays guitar and sings backup. Special guests on their debut album include Richie Cannata (sax player for Billy Joel, Elton John, The Beach Boys, etc.) and Bob Cassera on trombone.
Filmmaker Jake Gorst first met Saccente as a student in his guitar studio. Over the years they have worked on many projects together. For the Young Rebel Goomba album, Gorst assisted the band in the production of the CD.
Goomba means family. Like a big family, they share songwriting duties, and sometimes they bring friends into the mix. Gorst wrote lyrics for “Feather,” “Cajun Band,” “Summer Whine,” and “You Must Love Me.” Mallardi penned “All Day” and “Daydream Smile.” Bob Seng, who wrote for trop-rockers The Mangos, contributed “Library Book.” Saccente was responsible for the rest. Saccente attributes most of his success as a musician to his affinity for Duane Allman and Dicky Betts. Young Rebel Goombas even brought their family members into the studio to sing on “Sing-A-Long.”
Knudsen and Johnson have been playing together for approximately 15 years. It is safe to say each knows what the other is going to do musically even before he does it. This is why their set up really works with the two percussionists. The easiest way to describe their roles is the following: Knudsen has the hand drums and Johnson has the percussion instruments played with sticks, but along with that they split up a drum set, as well. Knudsen sits and plays which allows him to include a bass drum in his rig. Johnson incorporates the hi-hat and snare drum, and both have a multitude of cymbals in each of their set ups. This allows the band to have a fuller sound, like having a drum set and two percussionists with only two players. The interesting thing is they don’t step on each other musically, each having his specific role as percussionists.
The percussion Goombas are a bit comical because when they are playing together, they are having a great time. They poke fun at one another only because they are all enjoying what they are putting together on stage. The audience picks up on it at times and will feed off of it. If the Goombas are having a good time, their audience does the same.
Mallardi, Saccente, and Gorst received an Emmy® award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2007 for composing and arranging the soundtrack for the PBS documentary Farmboy
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