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Note: This page is my own goofy history of performing music. If you don't know me, or any of the other characters mentioned below, you may not be amused or able to stay awake!!...Mac) |
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THE ROCKIN' SEVENTIES Here are some legendary bands from the mid & late seventies! This was when I really got started as a young gigging musician...who cared about record deals back then? Bring on the groupies! |
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Charge: Kiss meets Kool & The Gang (1975-76):
The name brings to mind glorious military memories (for Doc
at least) .... But this "Charge" was a great culmination of
styles, not only in music, but in costuming. Where else
would you find one band on stage with the following:
Platform clogs , Kiss makeup (& authentic
fire-breathing) "Shaft"-style pimp coats & hats ,
glitter "rock star" shirts & authentic "hot 'n
pants"? All at a country bar no less? Only at a Charge
show...the most outrageous show of it's time! The
stories about this band alone could fill a large book or septic
tank.
(Special thanks
go to "Crop-Top" for haulin' our stuff around in his
"fwd" pick-up & to the late "Dude" for amazing "wooden
keyboard controlled" lighting!)
The band
included:
(l-to-r)
Eddie "Da-Da-Da-Da" Dietz , Bob "Boob Dalty" Rychick , Chuck "Doc
Rothchile" Rosequist , me , Ed "Loin"
Bernik.
CLICK HERE FOR A NEW PHOTO & INFO PAGE ON CHARGE (')('09) Part of this band later mutated into... |
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J.B.
Red: Aerosmith in Leisure Suits (1976-77)
...what can you
say about a late 70's band that fused rock, funk, disco &
lounge music into a totally unheard of & totally unacceptable
style? This band's name still gets "bandied about" in conversations
about the best regional bands of all time in the N.Y / Pa. / Ohio
area.
This band
featured such noteworthy musicians as Bill "Organ Leroy"
Power , Dave "Nice Hat" Baird , Ed "Loin" Bernik , Brian P.
Bower , Eddie "Da-Da-Da-Da" Dietz, Ronnie Sutton,
Tracy Soggs &
Crackers (that's me, folks) , plus several other "rotating
members" .
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 "
Magically fast "fuzz-tone" solos, massive 12-stroke drum rolls,
tastefully simple bass lines, and tight atonal harmonies"
-review from "Groovy Scene" magazine
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"Victuals":
All Music Loving Sailers
Beware
This was the band that influenced a generation...at least in some extreme rural pockets of the U.S. ...managed by the always irritable but incredibly competent "Illustrious". On the left is
artist's J.C. Frenchy's rendering of the original album cover
of Victual's most popular album release. Although there were
never any "sailing chanties" on any Victory at Sea releases, the
"undercurrent" of undersea life is evident in the lyrics of several
classic Victuals songs like "Daze" & "Brownies
March".
The original
five members of this band had planned a "reunion" on the
anniversary of the release of "Sailors Beware", but due to the
untimely death of singer Boob Dalty , and the "legal
ramifications" involved with including bassist Fred Teisco ,
theses plans were dropped by the other three members:(Doc
Rothchile, Johann P., Queenie).
(Also, let's
not forget the other short-term members & road crew ; those
"musical
"pinch -
hitters" , the "virtual tugboats" that helped pilot "good ship
Victory at Sea" through treacherous musical waters : H.P.
Waters , "Mugician's Mugician" & of course the best roadie
ever: "Triangle Head".)
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Victuals: L to R : Queenie, Johann, Doc, Fred (Thanks to Doc for dredging up this live shot of Victuals performing probably at Sherman Central School/Public Hall some time in the first part of 1970s...alas, Boob was not present for this shot). |
from left: Brian Bower, me, Wayne
"Fat Dink"Anderson & Dave Baird in front; band name
pronounced "Bock"
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BAC:
Outrageous Bar Room Antics Fused With
Christian Values
(1977-78):- or "The Bower-Anderson Company" was a Tampa, Florida
based rock band in the late seventies. This was my first venture
in concept bands. BAC was a musical group that fused
Christian values & teachings with outrageous bar room band
antics ( I was largely responsible for the latter). We were quite a
hit in the Tampa Bay area for a short while.
Dave
Baird (JB Red) & I had signed on for this adventure at the
same time & when BAC disbanded , Dave went on to several
years of road work with Atlanta-based "Shorty Watkins Band"
(Polydor Records). On the other hand, I returned north & joined a
classic Erie, Pa rock band called...
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Vertical Union
included :
(from
left) Larry"C.L Strut" Zurn, Rick "Bo Bo" Andrews, Eric
"Parrot Throat" Alexander, John "Port" Portonova,
and of course, "yours truely".
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..."Vertical Union" Living a Rock Star Lifestyle on $3 a Night (1978-79) ....and moved west about 100 miles to became
"the loudest rock band in Cleveland" & " possibly
the most poorly paid road band in the midwest". We looked like
a million dollars, people thought we were rock stars but at the end
of the night , we usually had to borrow breakfast money from
soundman Jeff Hair. (Jeff went on to
become one of the most sought - after concert sound guys in rock
during the 1980's). Vertical Union traveled in "the truke"
which was our broken down , practically totaled equipment truck /
open air calliope...or in my just- as- broken- down Pinto...and
often slept in the basement of our singer's house between gigs, but
hey, we almost had great management courtesy of Otto Neuber &
Solar Management!.
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From L: me ,
Jeff Hair , Bill Power
click photo to enlarge |
The
Punkinheads...
Punk, Paper Sack Heads, Trombone & Tom Jones 1978-79 ...what the
heck was this all about?..This was a "sideband" to Vertical Union"
& featured V.U. soundman Jeff Hair on drums , Bill
"Organ Leroy" Power on keys , yours-truely on guitar &
trombone & regular guest star "Tinky Poo" Alexander on
vocals. This was the earliest example of a "Dread Zeppelin"-
style comedy / Elvis / Tom Jones / absurdity act that I know
of !
Bootleg copies
of our Sunday night fiascos at "The Rathskeller" may still
be circulating the country . But why? As Eddy DaDaDaDa
& Crop-Top would say: "You boys is mighty fine". |
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Before leaving
the seventies, got to mention a couple other great bands. I was a founding member a band that mutated
into a well known in Chicago punk band called
"The Young
Swingers". Note the "bass drum head" to the left (hand drawn by
Doc).
"Aris" or
"The Aris Bros" was another seventies rock combo that featured
many celebrities such as Jack "B" Belczak, Eddy Da Da Da
Da Dietz,
Jerry Bartone, Howlin' Phil Dogg, Fred Evanoff,
Dave Sipple, Rick Urban, Bob Gredler
& possibly some others I've forgotten...sorry! Anyone with pics of this band or of the famous
"Aris van", please pass 'em on! Finally, a short stint on drums
with popular polka kings
"Bob 'Dick' Uleck and the Versatiles"
rounded out a great decade. |
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THE
AMAZING TECHNO -
EIGHTIES: |
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This is when
real serious stabs at "making it' in the music industry were many
& extravagant! Having spent the entire decade in Los Angeles
& South Florida, my "ex-partner-in-crime and life" Diankeri "Daq" Bernet &
I got involved in everything "music" that was
available.
Working with
heavyweight record producers like Ken Scott, producing
a "Cyndi Lauper-esque" video in 1984, "stomach-churning" out a
self-produced & marketed Top-100 dance single in 1989, &
involvement with hundreds of other internationally-known but
domestically-ignored projects kept us busy & totally obscure !
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Original band
with Ed Cassidy of "Spirit" in L.A. / 1981
Erieites, that's Rick
Andrews on R.
(click photo to enlarge) |
"Reason" &
"Phobia" ...these were bands
started in the early 80's in Tampa & L.A. with all the best of
intentions of being original rock showcasing bands...& ended up
in varying degrees of hilarity. Bands with Ed Cassidy
('80),
Morris Albert (Feelings) ('81) , Randy May ('80-'81) who's now owner
of May Miking System , & studio work with various
producers & arrangers.
I worked
for a quite a while in some jazz/supper clubs in L.A. with a cat named Mark
Cianfrani who was a great singer & guitarist....but his
greatest feat was being able to fall completely asleep on a
gig while still playing the right changes to "Girl from Impanema" ! |
MusicBiz
version # 1 onstage
Stabbing
Blindly at Success:
MusicBiz had a
Billboard Magazine "Hot Add" song in 1984 on several radio
stations nationwide with
"No Sign of
Life" 
Second version
of MusicBiz l-r:
Me, John Port,
Mike Shanaberger, Bill Russell, Daq |
The "Music Biz"
band was a great sounding current cover & original band that
included a number of interesting characters:
Mike
"Booyah" Conway was the first drummer in my band
to have
Simmons electronic drums...remember the "octagon" pads from
early
MTV? He was a loud, party guy from Tampa & a great
drummer. Mike adjusted his Simmons snare drum module all night w/ a
little screwdriver & yelled out things like "booyah"
and "keep the heretoes of'n my drums". What was
that about?
Steve
Thompson from Detroit played guitar & keys and sang
great...he would just love it when women noticed him. He'd always
spin his finger around & tell us to "take it around again,
they love me" during his ballads! He also had a
"theoretical hand truck" to move equipment...it only existed in his
mind...months before it had fallen off of the drummers's truck!
Various edition(s) of this band featured
Frank Bradley of Ft Myers, Fl., Mike Shanaberger of
Naples, Fl. & Bill Russell of Cleveland, Oh. as well as
old hand and Erieites "Port" & Larry Z. Mike once got mad at Port while they were
riding in Mike's van , so he ripped off his rearview mirror &
threw it at him...right on through the back window of the van! What fun to be in a rock n roll
band! |
The Talk
onstage circa 1989 
Port , Larry & me on the road in
Tennessee just prior to the "retirement
flu" outbreak
NEW RE-RELEASES:   |
"The
Talk"
(1985-91) This
was a long running band starting in the mid -eighties. This band
(in varying versions) did some touring, played in S. Florida &
recorded a variety of good commercial rock, techno-pop and a bit
of pure crap, as well.
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At Criteria
Recording in Miami w/ Ron & Howard Albert producing /
1983
f/left: Port ,
Me , Daq |
Pushing the Transport Canister (VW
Van) To Miami:
Ron & Howard Albert produced MusicBiz in 1983. This was a pretty uncomfortable situation; they hired a room full of session cats...wouldn't let our drummer play at all, had us re-writing songs 1 hour before the session because the songs "were dogs"...many other experiences in "big time recording" were more pleasant. Such as Quadradial in Miami , Lyon & Overland studios in in L.A. all with name producers including the likes of Ken Scott, Herb Jimmerson & Cory Wade. This all
was inspiration to cause me to learn engineering myself. By 1985, we were
running a successful "pro" 16 track recording studio & putting
out local & regionally charting records all of the
time! So
there!
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THE DE-EVOLVING NINETIES
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The
nineties...a new decade...another new place to pursue the
dream...Atlanta, Georgia...building a new client base for studio &
gigs...still trying to make it in the "big time"...and...
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Larry & me
getting pumped for
a TerraPhane
show
1993-94
NEW RE-RELEASED CD:
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"TERRA PHANE"
Metal Band: What's That Grinding Sound? ('93-'95) "Metallica meets Heart" ...the last great musical endeavor of the 15-year DKB Era! As a chronic metal band, we played the showcase original clubs of Atlanta, then in desperation for acceptance, even added the irrepressible Angela Bowie (that's David Bowie's ex) to our shows. The 1994 cd was actually very original & creative for this kind of music, and followed another good album called "Youth & Other Lies" ...but...through all this , I'm under personal management trying to be a "smooth jazz guy"! Go figure!
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In KaroMusik
Studio in Germany working on "Saxon" project for Virgin Records
(July, 1994)
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"Dissed" in Deutschland
My personal manager hooked this deal up for me...remix producer on Saxon's "Dogs of War" album ('94). I ended up replacing & adding guitar parts, adding keys, and mixing three cuts while in Germany...what no one bothered to tell me was that the studio engineer on the project was also Saxon's former producer...who would probably have liked his gig back!. Needless to say, I was "dissed" on that festive expedition to Deutschland. (dissed?...whassup?) I did get line credit as one of the engineers on the Dogs of War album. Speaking of getting 'dissed'...check dis out: |
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Chillin' With The Posse Amidst the blur of hip-hop recording sessions logged in the early 1990s in Atlanta, I somehow tracked and mixed another version of "Whoomp-There It Is" ...called "Whoot-There It Is" ('93). This was just before the multi -platinum Tag Team version! The group I recorded in Atlanta was called "95 South" and, by god, they had already released a single locally when "Whoomp" was reportedly stolen from them! A couple other cuts I was involved with were later released as "Tootsie Roll" and "C'mon and Ride It (The Train)"... So now you see where I got some of my hip-hop cred & somewhat loud opinions. |
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Dinah Moe Humm & Pixie The Rat
The last half of the nineties included a 9 month production studio / solo act stint in Naples, Fl., followed by work with several exciting bands back in Atlanta including corporate bands Atlanta Blaze, ('96-'02), Alan Knieter Orchestra ('98-'02); r&b trio Seville ('98-'02) ; bar band B.B Dogg & the Hurlers ('95-'00) (all former minor league pitchers...yeah, right). Combine all of this with many biyearly trips to Put-In-Bay, Ohio with Florida show band Morningstar ('96-'00) and you've got a sure-fire recipe for success! This somewhat
murky period
also encompassed ownership of the notorious "Pleasant Hill
Studio" in the semi-police state of Gwinnett County, Ga. where daily adventures occurred that could have come
straight from "Seinfeld". Moving the recording studio into the
former regional offices of Q-Lube was okay...but having to also
live in the former regional offices of Q-Lube (because of being
tapped financially) was not!
Go 'head...ask me about when Johnny Cash passed out on
the mixing board, "Dynah Moe Humm" worked it's sexual magic in the
studio waiting room, the nightly
studio romps chasing pet rodent "Pixie". How about when the "alleged Mexicans
with New York accents" broke into the
studio & promptly changed the answering machine
message...setting off a cornucopia of late night law enforcement
adventure!
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What an incredible ride it's been. You couldn't pay me to change one word of this "historical document"...wait a minute...make me an offer... |
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