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Bill Spitzer and Brian Lehrman
Bill Spitzer And Brian Lehrman

Bill Spitzer and Brian Lehrman are integral parts of the Beastiemania history. Both played with Money Mark in early incarnations of his band, providing the onstage experience and practice that impressed the Beastie Boys.

Bill Spitzer And Brian Lehrman

Staying within the theme of the Beastiemania.com Who's Who, we try to include anyone and everyone within one or two degrees of separation of the Beastie Boys. The reason is that we believe everything happens for a reason, and you can't truly appreciate the finished product unless you know the history behind how it all came together and happened.

Bill and Brian are a part of that history. Both played with Money Mark in early incarnations of his band, which gave Mark the onstage experience and practice that it required to impress the Beastie Boys when the time came.

Bill Spitzer plays lead guitar and has the ability to sing both in Spanish as well as in English. He still plays with Mark's brother Mike Nishita in an original rock band called Headcase. In very much the same way that Money Mark can play various instruments, Bill can also play drums and bass piano. Having German-Mexican heritage, it goes without saying that Bill loves beer.

Brain Lerhman, who at one time had a punk band, plays guitar and has been responsible for the singing in the band over the years. Money Mark's band has had various names over years. Prior to all of this, Mark played with Mario C in a band called Phaze (circa 1978 whose members were: Terry Leary, Mark Nishita, Mario Caldato, Steve Watson, and Pete Alvarado) and then later Phaze2 . Then following the end of that period, Mark Nishita and a new band formed under the name Junglebugs, which later became the Magnetics.

Brian is notorious for his snoring. On tour the band members usually had to share a place with a roommate, but not Brian. He had his own room. As the story goes, while in Amsterdam Kid Koala had to sleep on the tour bus because he could not take the noise!