Bill Locey, Los Angeles Times, November 26, 1999:

Life isn't fair, and life's weird soundtrack, music, is doubly not. Lousy bands dominate the radio and win Grammys. Every geezer who ever sang a song or played a note is coming back or won't go away. Disco not only isn't dead--it's not even sick. Talent, while a good thing, clearly isn't the only thing. Even around here.

For my money (and I get in free), the Mudheads out of Ventura and Tao Jonz out of Santa Barbara were the best two local bands of all time.

Both bands entered the past tense years ago, but the Jonz boys, with all four original members, are coming back to Santa Barbara for a five-buck gig tonight at that Mexican restaurant that rocks, Yucatan, located on State Street.

Just another band with a cool and funny name, Tao Jonz had a repertoire of more than 70 originals that were an eclectic mix of reggae, ska, blues and rock and that sounded like, well, Tao Jonz.

They released a tape and two CDs and never played a cover song. They're back in town for tonight's gig and a wedding on Saturday, then it's back from whence they came. The band's last local gig was five years ago at the Calypso in Santa Barbara.

Shortly thereafter, guitar player and singer Jimmy Werking, with a brand new PhD in electrical engineering from UCSB, bailed to Austin, where he has been ever since. The other singer, bass player Doug Jaffe, is in the Bay Area along with the drummer, Stosh, both doing their own things with their own bands. The keyboard player, Johnny Atmosphere, is a professional student elsewhere, evidently learning how to be poor.

Here's the lowdown according to Jaffe:

"I've got a band up here now--with a rapper, sort of like Limp Bizkit, except mellower. Stosh has a band, too. Johnny is still going to school up in Humboldt for something like 20 years now. I see Jimmy once in a while but he still lives back in Texas, working as an electrical engineer. He has a band, too. I heard them over the phone once. We've all been practicing Tao Jonz songs--we may mess up a word here and there, but it's gonna be cool."