Local Music

[Angeline]

I'm interested in hearing music you like by artists from your hometown (or thereabouts) or wherever you are now. These are not the big name artists (I'm originally from New Jersey, but everybody knows about Bruce Springsteen already). So these are artists who maybe recorded an album or two, maybe even had a brush with fame but never really got there.

Oh and the artists don't have to be currently or even very recently active. Lord knows mine won't be!

So I had the great fortune to grow up about halfway between New York and Philadelphia. There was a great music scene in my hometown as well as the Jersey Shore (pre-Snookie days). I'm going to start with two Philadelphia bands.

Woody's Truck Stop produced two albums. Todd Rungren played with them briefly before they released their first album. I believe there is some bootlegged stuff out there now from when he was with them, but I prefer their sound without him.

People Been Talkin'

Got My Pride

And then there is The Edison Electric Band, who recorded one album. Their bass player, Freebo (a real hippie kinda moniker lol), went on to perform with Bonnie Raitt for many years. I love this strange song by them. Weird lyric, but a great groove.

Baby Leroy

Show me the music!

 

[Tzara]

I had written out a more detailed post about my local music, but the Internet ate it when I timed out of Literotica and picked the wrong option to continue.

So I'm going to start in 1967, when I was fourteen, with The Daily Flash.

I didn't much buy singles, but I bought the single for the Flash's "The French Girl." I think because it appealed to the me that responded to the Byrds, as it's a pretty folkie sounding track. It's a song written by the folk duo of Ian and Sylvia who recorded it themselves (see below), but the recording I knew was by the local band.

• The Daily Flash: The French Girl

There are, of course, other versions of the song:

• Ian and Sylvia, who wrote the song:The French Girl
• One by Gene Clark, one of the original Byrds: The French Girl

Both good in their own way, but for whatever reason, perhaps nostalgia, the version by The Daily Flash is, for me, the definitive version of the song.

Interesting side note: Lead guitarist Doug Hastings was briefly a member of Buffalo Springfield, replacing Neil Young during one of Young's not infrequent "I quit" periods. He was fired when Young returned to the group (before he quit again for good).

 

[Tzara]

Okay. Now let me reset a couple of years earlier. What I want to talk about is not the first LP I ever bought (which was Paul Revere and the Raiders' Midnight Ride, because I loved the song "Kicks," with its Byrd-like guitar riff, and which I may, embarrassingly, talk about later), but the second, which was Here Are the Sonics!!!.

The Sonics were/are a local band (from Tacoma, basically 30 minutes south of Seattle, or thirty minutes south of where I grew up on the Kitsap Peninsula). They were loud. They were basic (they're now often termed proto-punk, or garage rock); I think you can hear the obvious influence on grunge.

And I loved them, even though when I first heard "The Witch," the quintessential Sonics song, I was maybe thirteen years old.

Power chords and distortion probably affect early development.

Anyway, here's my three favorite Sonics cuts:

• The Witch: This is the foundation, the ur-track of Sonicsdom. This track is why I loved this band. As history-of-rock.com says: "Unlike what was customary in those days the Sonics used to play as loud as possible. One of the semi-legendary stories going around about their recording sessions tells that the Sonics were only satisfied about the studio sound when all VU-meters were continuously in the red, thus driving the technicians to despair." It's loud, it's loud, it's really loud.
  
• Have Love Will Travel. This track was also used as the music in a Land Rover car commercial, of all things.
  
• And then, of course Louie, Louie. The quintessential Pacific Northwest rock song. (It was even seriously considered by the Washington legislature as the offical state song.)

 

[Angeline]

I had written out a more detailed post about my local music, but the Internet ate it when I timed out of Literotica and picked the wrong option to continue.

So I'm going to start in 1967, when I was fourteen, with The Daily Flash.

I didn't much buy singles, but I bought the single for the Flash's "The French Girl." I think because it appealed to the me that responded to the Byrds, as it's a pretty folkie sounding track. It's a song written by the folk duo of Ian and Sylvia who recorded it themselves (see below), but the recording I knew was by the local band.

• The Daily Flash: The French Girl

There are, of course, other versions of the song:

• Ian and Sylvia, who wrote the song:The French Girl
• One by Gene Clark, one of the original Byrds: The French Girl

Both good in their own way, but for whatever reason, perhaps nostalgia, the version by The Daily Flash is, for me, the definitive version of the song.

Interesting side note: Lead guitarist Doug Hastings was briefly a member of Buffalo Springfield, replacing Neil Young during one of Young's not infrequent "I quit" periods. He was fired when Young returned to the group (before he quit again for good).

That's lovely. Folky but right on the edge of psychedelia. The guitar does sort of sound like The Byrds to me.

Next I have The Next. They were a group of guys from the Philly/Central Jersey area who had played together in various iterations between the late 1960s and mid 1980s. They were a great bar band with a big local following. Most of their songs were original compositions. One of their number went on to become a household name playing lead guitar for another Jersey band who did hit it big. My favorite member is singing lead in both songs. He was a dear friend since my early teenage years who died about a year ago. I've written about him; my first poem in the 12 Bar Blues thread is about those early days and mentions him (though I changed his name a little).

He's still one of my favorite singers. He never really made it big and too bad. He was so talented and spent his life writing and playing music. Here he is singing with The FM Band, another Jersey group.

 

[Tzara]

That's lovely. Folky but right on the edge of psychedelia. The guitar does sort of sound like The Byrds to me.

Probably because the opening chords are on a twelve-string guitar. Not quite McGuinn's electric Rickenbacker, but something of the same quality.

Next I have The Next. They were a group of guys from the Philly/Central Jersey area who had played together in various iterations between the late 1960s and mid 1980s. They were a great bar band with a big local following. Most of their songs were original compositions. One of their number went on to become a household name playing lead guitar for another Jersey band who did hit it big. My favorite member is singing lead in both songs. He was a dear friend since my early teenage years who died about a year ago. I've written about him; my first poem in the 12 Bar Blues thread is about those early days and mentions him (though I changed his name a little).

He's still one of my favorite singers. He never really made it big and too bad. He was so talented and spent his life writing and playing music. Here he is singing with The FM Band, another Jersey group.

He sounds a bit like Brad Delp of Boston to me, especially on the high notes. In fact, these tracks all sound a little like Boston crossed with, maybe, Bachman-Turner Overdrive (some of the rhythmic feel).

Or not. It could just be the general tenor of what rock sounded like at that time.

The Mr. Sambora thing just points out how arbitrary success is in music (or anything, for that matter).

 

[Angeline]

Okay. Now let me reset a couple of years earlier. What I want to talk about is not the first LP I ever bought (which was Paul Revere and the Raiders' Midnight Ride, because I loved the song "Kicks," with its Byrd-like guitar riff, and which I may, embarrassingly, talk about later), but the second, which was Here Are the Sonics!!!.

The Sonics were/are a local band (from Tacoma, basically 30 minutes south of Seattle, or thirty minutes south of where I grew up on the Kitsap Peninsula). They were loud. They were basic (they're now often termed proto-punk, or garage rock); I think you can hear the obvious influence on grunge.

And I loved them, even though when I first heard "The Witch," the quintessential Sonics song, I was maybe thirteen years old.

Power chords and distortion probably affect early development.

Anyway, here's my three favorite Sonics cuts:

• The Witch: This is the foundation, the ur-track of Sonicsdom. This track is why I loved this band. As history-of-rock.com says: "Unlike what was customary in those days the Sonics used to play as loud as possible. One of the semi-legendary stories going around about their recording sessions tells that the Sonics were only satisfied about the studio sound when all VU-meters were continuously in the red, thus driving the technicians to despair." It's loud, it's loud, it's really loud.
  
• Have Love Will Travel. This track was also used as the music in a Land Rover car commercial, of all things.
  
• And then, of course Louie, Louie. The quintessential Pacific Northwest rock song. (It was even seriously considered by the Washington legislature as the offical state song.)

So I listened to The Witch (oy the fishnets) and thought The Sonics have a Ramones like sound (maybe even a little 13th Floor Elevators), but the other two songs sound more like standard garage band music to me. Do you think they (or other bands you'll showcase here) have the seeds of grunge rock in their sound? The stuff I shared thus far sounds characteristically East Coast to me. And yeah Mr. Sambora...I was never a fan.

And now I'll make you feel better about your Paul Revere and the Raiders admission with my own, rather embarrassing, story. They were the first band I ever saw (at The Lambertville Music Circus ). My BFF and I had front row seats and were in teenybopper heaven, especially when we discovered we were sitting next to the editor of Sixteen Magazine . After the concert she went onstage and got us their used water cups and the sweaty towel Mark Lindsay had used to wipe his face. My friend's mom picked us up and we drove away screaming out the window and waving the towel like a battle flag. And I slept with the towel under my pillow for a few months until my mom spirited it away and washed it. Yeah the power of rock and roll on adolescents can never be underestimated.

 

[Tzara]

So I listened to The Witch (oy the fishnets) and thought The Sonics have a Ramones like sound (maybe even a little 13th Floor Elevators), but the other two songs sound more like standard garage band music to me. Do you think they (or other bands you'll showcase here) have the seeds of grunge rock in their sound? The stuff I shared thus far sounds characteristically East Coast to me. And yeah Mr. Sambora... I was never a fan.

Oh, yeah. The Sonics are the lead-in to the Northwest Sound, which ends up grunge and riot grrl (which to come).

I can't find it right now, but I had come across something that linked the Sonics and the 13th Floor Elevators as progenitors of, I think, grunge. That seems iffy to me and may be wrong, as I think of the Elevators as kind of psychedelic rock.

But, as you know, these labels are a bit randomly applied.

And now I'll make you feel better about your Paul Revere and the Raiders admission with my own, rather embarrassing, story. They were the first band I ever saw (at The Lambertville Music Circus ). My BFF and I had front row seats and were in teenybopper heaven, especially when we discovered we were sitting next to the editor of Sixteen Magazine . After the concert she went onstage and got us their used water cups and the sweaty towel Mark Lindsay had used to wipe his face. My friend's mom picked us up and we drove away screaming out the window and waving the towel like a battle flag. And I slept with the towel under my pillow for a few months until my mom spirited it away and washed it. Yeah the power of rock and roll on adolescents can never be underestimated.

Now I want to have been the guy sitting behind you in eighth grade English and passing you notes about how I so liked your hair.

God, adolescence. Especially that early tween bit. The thing is, "Kicks" is actually a pretty good song. Ranked, at one point, number 400 in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs. It was written by the iconic duo of Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, and it does have a guitar intro that sounds like the Beatles' "Day Tripper" crossed with the twang of the Byrd's Roger McGuinn on his Rickenbacker twelve-string.

Oh, and yeah. I will get to grunge.

 

[Tzara]

And now I'll make you feel better about your Paul Revere and the Raiders admission with my own, rather embarrassing, story. They were the first band I ever saw (at The Lambertville Music Circus ). My BFF and I had front row seats and were in teenybopper heaven, especially when we discovered we were sitting next to the editor of Sixteen Magazine . After the concert she went onstage and got us their used water cups and the sweaty towel Mark Lindsay had used to wipe his face. My friend's mom picked us up and we drove away screaming out the window and waving the towel like a battle flag. And I slept with the towel under my pillow for a few months until my mom spirited it away and washed it. Yeah the power of rock and roll on adolescents can never be underestimated.

I forgot to say that this just makes me want to hug your younger self.

Though I could do without the sweaty Mark Lindsay towel.

But, hey. You liked music. That was the important thing.

 

[Piscator]

I've got a bit of a thing for Kevin Breit an amazing guitarist in the jazz/pop realm, who mostly works as a session musician ( and has performed on recordings that have earned 13 Grammy Awards) but also plays locally. Last year he and Jeff Bird (who plays with Cowboy Junkies) did an amazing session at the Guelph Banjo Fest ranging from medieval madrigals to blues to ???). Most recently we saw him with the Sisters Euclid and an amazing saxophonist who's name I forgot. Here is a link to Sisters from their most recent release.

 

[Angeline]

I've got a bit of a thing for Kevin Breit an amazing guitarist in the jazz/pop realm, who mostly works as a session musician ( and has performed on recordings that have earned 13 Grammy Awards) but also plays locally. Last year he and Jeff Bird (who plays with Cowboy Junkies) did an amazing session at the Guelph Banjo Fest ranging from medieval madrigals to blues to ???). Most recently we saw him with the Sisters Euclid and an amazing saxophonist who's name I forgot. Here is a link to Sisters from their most recent release.

P'tor I really like the Sister Euclid song. It's mesmerizing! And I love Cowboy Junkies. Margo Timmins has a beautiful voice.

 

[Tzara]

P'tor I really like the Sister Euclid song. It's mesmerizing! And I love Cowboy Junkies. Margo Timmins has a beautiful voice.

Ditto me. On both things Angie said.

There's a particularly relaxed groove to that Sister Euclid thing. Slide guitar, I assume?

Anyway, really nice.

 

[Tzara]

OK, confession: I didn't much listen to rock/pop music as an undergraduate at university as I really got into 20th Century classical music and a bit into jazz and world music. So there's kind of a gap in my liking local bands through the 70s.

Which brings us to the 80s. And New Wave. And Big Hair.

Visible Targets made quite an impression locally in the early 80s. Three women, all sisters, fronting the band with a guy drummer. They made a couple of EPs, one produced by Mick Ronson, and disappeared. But they were probably the one 80s Seattle band I really liked:

• Mechanical Man: From their first EP. Probably the song that hooked me.
• Life in the Twilight Zone: Their closest thing to a "hit." Regional airplay was pretty positive.
• Autistic Savant: From the second EP, produced by Mick Ronson. Check out the fashions and Rebecca Golden's David Bowiesque hairdo (she's the blonde one). That was the 80s, folks.

I'm not at all sure why this band didn't make it bigger. Catchy tunes, three attractive women leading the band, why did that not catch on?

 

[Angeline]

OK, confession: I didn't much listen to rock/pop music as an undergraduate at university as I really got into 20th Century classical music and a bit into jazz and world music. So there's kind of a gap in my liking local bands through the 70s.

Which brings us to the 80s. And New Wave. And Big Hair.

Visible Targets made quite an impression locally in the early 80s. Three women, all sisters, fronting the band with a guy drummer. They made a couple of EPs, one produced by Mick Ronson, and disappeared. But they were probably the one 80s Seattle band I really liked:

• Mechanical Man: From their first EP. Probably the song that hooked me.
• Life in the Twilight Zone: Their closest thing to a "hit." Regional airplay was pretty positive.
• Autistic Savant: From the second EP, produced by Mick Ronson. Check out the fashions and Rebecca Golden's David Bowiesque hairdo (she's the blonde one). That was the 80s, folks.

I'm not at all sure why this band didn't make it bigger. Catchy tunes, three attractive women leading the band, why did that not catch on?

They're very good. The woman with the crazy 80s hair has a beautiful voice. And yeah it's a very Spiders From Mars kinda look.

And just to go back to the Raiders for a moment they were a great show band and I agree that Kicks is a very good song. I remember watching them on Where The Action Is.

Also, look what I found while perusing Action clips!

 

[Angeline]

Now here is an interesting musical clip. At first you'll see two easily recognizable music icons, but give it a minute and you'll see a third, unrecognizable guitarist on the left. That is Steve Burgh, a super-talented musician from Trenton, NJ. Steve never became known outside the music industry but within it he did extremely well. Here is a great clip of the fabulous Phoebe Snow and the equally fabulous Dixie Hummingbirds with Steve on the far right in his hat, playing some tasty blues guitar. He never was a center of attention kind of guy. He was very low key and sweet-natured, but driven in his music. By the way, the exuberant drummer in that clip is the "M" in the previously mentioned FM Band. These guys were all buddies and in and out of each other's bands back in the day.

Steve's family owned the Jewish bakery in Trenton. We used to sneak in the back sometimes (at Steve's urging I might add) to steal "No Seeds" stickers meant for the rye bread lol. Hey it was hippie days so you can use your imagination as to where we stuck them.

 

[Tzara]

And just to go back to the Raiders for a moment they were a great show band and I agree that Kicks is a very good song.

What made them kind of a joke was the Revolutionary War uniforms and the silliness of their performances. The uniforms, though, were in keeping with the standards of the time: think of the early Beatles outfits, let alone the Sgt. Pepper era outfits.

The comic performances, though, were Paul Revere's idea—he apparently was fond of the comedic big band music of Spike Jones and thought a rock equivalent would be a hit.

He may have been right commercially, but it affects how his band is perceived.

I remember watching the Raiders on Where The Action Is.

Also, look what I found while perusing Action clips!

I love that guy in the pool. That is such a lame intro/outro to the band. But that was music TV in the 60s.

I'm curious, since you grew up fairly near to Philadelphia, were you ever on (or tried to get on) American Bandstand? That was filmed in Philly, wasn't it?

Anyway, thanks as always for the vids.

 

[Angeline]

What made them kind of a joke was the Revolutionary War uniforms and the silliness of their performances. The uniforms, though, were in keeping with the standards of the time: think of the early Beatles outfits, let alone the Sgt. Pepper era outfits.

The comic performances, though, were Paul Revere's idea—he apparently was fond of the comedic big band music of Spike Jones and thought a rock equivalent would be a hit.

He may have been right commercially, but it affects how his band is perceived.
I love that guy in the pool. That is such a lame intro/outro to the band. But that was music TV in the 60s.

I'm curious, since you grew up fairly near to Philadelphia, were you ever on (or tried to get on) American Bandstand? That was filmed in Philly, wasn't it?

Anyway, thanks as always for the vids.

Nope never on Bandstand or even The Jerry Blavat Show, which was very popular in the Delaware Valley. Jerry, who is also known as The Geater With The Heater and The Boss With The Hot Sauce was wildly popular and still hosts dance parties where his now aged audiences still do the line dances his show popularized, like the Chez Vous Walk. Jerry was (and is) quite the character who was at one point accused of attempting a mob hit on a DJ he didn't like. Both he and Dick Clark would bring their shows (like Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars) to the NJ State Fair, which at that time was held in Trenton, so I did get to see a few of those.

My sister and I would practice dancing with our bedposts because neither of us wanted to lead. And by the time I was old enough to actually go to a dance "leading" only mattered on slow dancing anyway!

 

[Tzara]

My sister and I would practice dancing with our bedposts because neither of us wanted to lead.

I remember practicing dancing by myself, trying to make sure I wasn't too dorky when I actually went out on the dance floor.

It didn't work.

And by the time I was old enough to actually go to a dance "leading" only mattered on slow dancing anyway!

Which was kind of a clutch and shuffle, where we guys were trying to be not too obvious that we mostly wanted to feel your breasts against us while we had no idea how to take that contact further.

But both sexes eventually get over that awkwardness, which is why the species continues.

 

[Angeline]

Another Philly-based band I love is Elizabeth. They had a lovely folky-baroquey sound with just a touch of psychedelia. Their one album was on Vanguard Records (a great label) and they opened for some big names but, like so many bands, never made it big themselves. One of their members went on to join Todd Rungren and his first success, Nazz.

Lady L

Mary Ann

 

[Tzara]

Another Philly-based band I love is Elizabeth. They had a lovely folky-baroquey sound with just a touch of psychedelia. Their one album was on Vanguard Records (a great label) and they opened for some big names but, like so many bands, never made it big themselves. One of their members went on to join Todd Rungren and his first success, Nazz.

Lady L

Mary Ann

This did seem folky, but to me maybe a little more flower-child-like/psychedelic than your impression. Very gentle music that might make one want to twine flowers in their hair and go play a recorder barefoot while leaning against a tree in some park.

That probably sounds like a cranky, old person's response, I know. I guess I think of it as good music that didn't end up going anywhere, didn't inspire variations and follow-ons.

More reminiscence/nostalgia than a trend that developed into something more current.

Ack. I'm making things worse, the more I comment, perhaps because I'm currently listening to these guys.

Even that album is 42 years old. Geez.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I only know of local musicians that made good i.e The Zombies, Paul Young (he used to work at the same firm as my Ex).

 

[Tzara]

I only know of local musicians that made good i.e The Zombies, Paul Young (he used to work at the same firm as my Ex).

The garage band I was in used to play The Zombies' She's Not There.

Badly, but at ear-crushing volume, because while we couldn't be good, we could certainly be loud.

 

[Tzara]

OK. This is as much about the PNW's record labels as it's about this band. I love this band, which is kind of like power pop crossed with New Wave, salted with a bit of punk. But it's our local labels that record them and make them accessible. (Thank you Sub Pop and Kill Rock Stars.)

Anyway, here's The Thermals:

• A Pillar of Salt
• Returning to the Fold
• How We Know
• Never Listen to Me

The group disbanded about a year ago, after a sixteen year run.

Love these guys.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

The garage band I was in used to play The Zombies' She's Not There.

Badly, but at ear-crushing volume, because while we couldn't be good, we could certainly be loud.

I expect a lot of groups started that way and to my ears some of them these days haven't got past it!

 

[Tzara]

OK. This is as much about the PNW's record labels as it's about this band. I love this band, which is kind of like power pop crossed with New Wave, salted with a bit of punk. But it's our local labels that record them and make them accessible. (Thank you Sub Pop and Kill Rock Stars.)

Anyway, here's The Thermals:

• A Pillar of Salt
• Returning to the Fold
• How We Know
• Never Listen to Me

The group disbanded about a year ago, after a sixteen year run.

Love these guys.

OK, this: a roughly thirty minute performance by The Thermals live on KEXP, Seattle's alternative radio station.

I'm too old to get this, really. I certainly can't dance anymore without damaging some ligament or another. But I still like it, what the hey.

Sorry about the intrusive ads that show up periodically. Blame YouTube.

 

[With_David_Bowie]

Hey, Angeline.

With Melbourne, its kinda harder to do, because of the whats famous/non famous especially in the states.