Friday, April 24, 2020

DC ExtraTime: Someone You Should Know - The Naked Brothers Band

BY DC CUEVA                      
■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

This winter, MTV's global reality dating franchise Ex On The Beach took its festival of love to somewhere it's never been before: a winter ski resort instead of summer sun & beaches. The slopes of New Zealand welcomed Challenge veterans, a Canadian Bachelor, alums of Are You The One and American Idol, a fan favorite of RuPaul's Drag Race and a trans Glam Master under the same roof. But by the time activities closed up at the Peak of Love, it was a pair of Brits, British reality alumni Georgia Steel & Callum Izzard, which provided a series-first: a proposal at the last crush ceremony, though we are saddened to report that they have just split on amicable terms.

A young lady who joined Georgia, Callum, Nicole, Marlon, Daniel, Adore, La Demi, Tyranny and Ryan for a totally-different Ex On The Beach this winter was someone who last year reemerged into the spotlight, also in the romantic reality dating pool. She was one of the handful who last spring came to Hawaii as the most notable person in a group of singles who came to paradise on USA Network's relaunch of 2000's reality pioneer Temptation Island. It was one of the first dating shows in the early years of the reality craze, returning in time for the love genre becoming a big thing, with Netflix's Too Hot to Handle and Love is Blind joining in on the fun among other offerings.

But being on Ex On The Beach felt almost like a spiritual homecoming for fellow single Allie DiMeco, who had her first national breakthrough in the Viacom family (whose remerger with CBS took place the week of Peak of Love debuting). Over a decade ago, she was on the cast of The Naked Brothers Band on Nickelodeon in playing the role of a girlfriend of the group in the movie-length pilot and the three seasons of the ensuing TV series. That, along with her two times in reality dating in the course of thirteen months, is among a list of credits that also includes One Life to Live, Saturday Night Live and The King and I... but it's her being on Nick that many remember most of her.

Last weekend as social distancing and quarantine life continues on, Allie had the chance to reconnect to her past through the magic of video conferencing to those who she shared some of the best years of her life with a pair of brothers who not only make music together, but have spent just about all their life as kids, adolescents and adults together, and who at one time was the biggest things going for the most-famous TV channel whose principal color is orange: Nat & Alex Wolff.

Nat and Alex grew up together in the company of their dad, jazz pianist & leader of Arsenio Hall's house band Michael Wolff, and their mom, actress Polly Draper of ABC's Thirtysomething, and part of a family with a strong family tree. Venture capitalist & civic leader William Henry Draper III is their maternal grandfather; Tim C. Draper, also a venture capitalist, is their nephew, actress Jesse Draper is a cousin, and the brothers are great-grandsons to banker & diplomat William Henry Draper, Jr. Nat is the older brother having been born almost three years to the month as younger brother Alex, who were both born on either coast.
   The older Wolff developed a musical pedigree from an early age when, while in kindergarten, Nat formed his very first band, The Silver Boulders, with a few of his friends including sons of journalist Ann Curry and actress Julianne Moore. By age 5, Nat had penned his first song, but out of fear that his own brother would harm things, Alex was not allowed to join Nat in the group once his dad taught him jazz tunes on the piano. But once the young son began to teach himself how to play the keys and the sax, as well as becoming familiar with The Beatles, things were well on their way... even to the point where, after they took a bath with their mom, that Nat & Alex declared themselves to be "The Naked Brothers Band!"
   As the Wolffs grew up in Lower Manhattan, the events of 9/11 struck near & dear to them... and a 6-year-old Nat wrote the song "Firefighters" for a benefit concert he & Alex performed at with their band after the attacks, and it raised $45,000 for children of the FDNY who died on that fateful day. The band then became staples of Christmas and wedding parties afterwards as Alex began to learn to play the drums around the time that the older sibling being cast in a local play with his mom, and he began to harbor a change in careers to becoming a child actor... a more tougher task than he seemed but who eventually would have his homemade sitcom.

When the brothers begged their dad to come to their studio to record music, their mom brought a camcorder along to document that milestone for their home video archives... but Polly Draper thought of something else: why not make a "mock documentary" of Nat & Alex becoming like John, Paul, George & Ringo? With the sons now being 9 and 6 years old respectively, summer 2004 saw that home movie project become much more, evolving into an indie film called The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie.
   That film boasted a sub-million dollar budget, original music from the young kids, and notable cameos from not just those aforementioned people above, but also Uma Thurman, Ricki Lake and Cyndi Lauper. It entered the 2005 Hamptons International Film Festival where, not only did it win the favorite family film award, it also had a notable audience member at the screenings. Spike TV & Nickelodeon executive Albie Hecht rung up his Viacom bosses and suggested that he not only get to have The Naked Brothers Band movie not only shown on the kids channel, but that it should also become a TV series on top of it after being impressed by its tongue-and-cheek nature.
   When they saw it, Nickelodeon was impressed by the film so much they asked mama Polly to produce a 13-episode half-hour series while her sons where on their summer vacation. The end result saw the Naked Brothers movie debut on the channel in January 27, 2007, followed by the series itself a week later... and it was Nickelodeon's highest-rated debut in several years with 3.7 million viewers tuning in. Allie played Nat's crush, Rosalina, while joining the cast as themselves was cellist Thomas Batuello, keyboardist David Levi, fellow friend Joshua Kane, and guitarist Qaasim Middleton.
   But it wasn't until ten months later that Nat & Alex could fully grasp onto their newfound teen pop star status until they and all of their bandmates headed into Times Square the day that The Naked Brothers Band's self-titled debut album dropped in stores on October 7 and ultimately debuting inside the top 25 on the Billboard 200 chart. They performed that morning on GMA and then went across the street to meet over 1,500 fans who waited as much as twelve hours early for a meet & greet at the flagship American location of the Virgin Megastore.

The next year saw NBB premiere season 2 of their TV show and released their sophomore album I Don't Want To Go To School. That fall, the band embark on their first national tour entitled "Nat & Alex Wolff: Fully Clothed & On Tour," taking stage in New York, L.A. and other major cities across America. That coincided with the third and final season of The Naked Brothers Band series which also included several movies and holiday specials before the demands of going to school eventually seeing the TV show come to an end in summer 2009.
   Nat & Alex, though, would plow along with their budding music career after the cancellation of the NBB series with their first full-length summer tour, then shared a stage with then-emerging artists Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez at Pop-Con 2010 and that year's Earth Day festivities in New York. Then came the siblings' first post-NBB album, Black Sheep, which showed their more mature side as they evolved out of their Nickelodeon & teen pop roots into more of a rock-based sound... and it showed in more of their more recent work.
   The guys' TV experience being on Nickelodeon has seen Nat & Alex also take on some acting roles on the side: Nat has appeared in New Year's Eve, Behaving Badly, and even his brother's play What Would Woody Do?  His most notable work came in a supporting role in 2014's The Fault of Our Stars that netted him two Teen Choice Award nominations, followed a year later by playing male lead "Q" in Paper Towns. And Alex starred in Fall Out Boy's video for "The Take Over, The Breaks Over," My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 and playing a terrorist in Patriot's Day with Mark Wahlberg.

COVID-19 has caused a complete overhaul of how all of us get to interact with each another as social distancing has become the norm, and where internet usage has reached all-time highs. Every major tech company has relished in this new life, including Silicon Valley-based video conferencing app Zoom which has become must-haves for offices and for families.
   And last Saturday, it made possible a reunion a decade in the making when Nat, Alex, Allie and the rest of their fellow Naked Brothers Band alumni joined forces one more time on Zoom. Also joining them and the aforementioned bandmates on the chat were other show castmates Kristina Reyes, brothers Adam, Jesse & Billy Draper, Teala Dunn and Cooper Pillot.


In what has to be the most awesome moment of the reunion for Allie, the siblings got to perform a song fittingly called "Rosalina" in front of the girl who dated them on the TV series and she tweeted, "and im so in my feels it's stupid. ... the whole cast joined in and I swear I almost lost it. That is my childhood in a song. I will forever be Rosalina. #nbbreunion2020"  And when that two-and-a-half reunion wrapped up, Allie was overwhelmed by the joy she got to feel in reliving how it all began for her, and she didn't rule out the possibility of a Hills-style reboot featuring everyone a decade older.















- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
Photos Courtesy: Nickelodeon and MTV
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