The Remainders was founded in 1992 by
Kathi Kamen Goldmark In his memoir
On Writing,
Stephen King described the Remainders' performances as energetic, if sloppy, due to the limited music skill of himself and some other writers, and perhaps reminiscent of a
bar band when augmented by a few professional musicians. King wrote that "with a couple of 'ringer' musicians on sax and drums (plus, in the early days, our musical guru,
Al Kooper, at the heart of the group), we sounded pretty good. You’d pay to hear us. Not a lot, not
U2 or
E Street Band prices, but maybe what the oldtimers call 'roadhouse money'."
Dave Barry later joked, "We played music by what I call the Rumor Method, wherein from time to time an alarming rumor went around the band:
There might have been a chord change. This prompted everybody to change to a new chord. Although not necessarily the
same new chord." In 1995, The Remainders played at the opening of the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
Cleveland, Ohio. In April 2010, they launched the Wordstock Tour presented by the Pearson Foundation and We Give Books, benefiting the children and schools of
Haiti. The Remainders gave their last concert on June 23, 2012, at the annual conference of the
American Library Association in Anaheim, where they played their first concert 20 years before. The event, co-sponsored by
ProQuest, raised money for
library and information science scholarships. The Remainders' last performance was taped within days of the concert, then aired on the August 6, 2012, episode of
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, on which Stephen King and Dave Barry were guests. In September 2014, it was announced that the Remainders would reunite to perform at the
Tucson Festival of Books in March 2015. On March 15, 2015,
Merl Reagle's syndicated Sunday
crossword puzzle alluded to the reunion. Titled "Book Notes," the crossword included the band's name and several puns using names of band members. ==Concerts==