Obscure bands

I guess I define obscure differently than some others. Commander Cody obscure? He had a giant hit record, fer Chr@st's sake! No, "kids" today haven't heard of them, but what have they heard of older than their current pair of Chuck Taylor's?

I guess to a lot of people Rockpile is obscure, and member Dave Edmunds himself, though everybody I know (or want to know ;-) loves them both. How about NRBQ, everybody's favorite Bar Band? Keith Richards asked NRBQ bassist Joey Spampinato to join The Stones when Bill Wyman retired, and Joey turned him down! Why quit the best Rock 'n' Roll Band in the world to join "The Best Rock 'n' Roll Band In The World"?

Here are some truly obscure Bands you might love as much as I do, should you ever hear them:

- The Skeletons: from Springfield Missouri, THIS is what a great Band sounds like. Dave Alvin (if he's not too obscure himself for ya!) stole his drummer from them. Great, great band, they had it all.

- The Lyres: My favorite Garage Band (and I'm from San Jose California, Garage Band ground zero in the 60's. I saw Buckingham & Nicks live in their Garage Band, Fritz, in '68), like The Kinks meet The Sonics (the great Seattle Band from the 60's who did the classic songs "Psycho" and "The Witch"). About as nuts as I've gone seeing a live Band, and I saw The Who with Keith Moon, twice.

- The Flamin' Groovies: Not at all obscure, at least by my standards. But I can not in all good conscience recommend other Garage Bands without including them. Their album "Shake Some Action" (produced by the great Dave Edmunds) is a stone classic, one that should be in the collection of every lover of true Rock 'n' Roll.

- The Leroi Bros.: From Austin Texas, a swingin' little combo I love. Drummer Mike Buck was the original in The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Buck Owens on them: "These guys play my kind of music...honest and unique. Listening to them is like you're sitting in the same room with them."

- The Notorious Cherry Bombs: again, not really obscure, but it seems like a lot of people missed them. A Country Rock 'n' Roll SuperGroup whose members include Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill, Tony Brown, and Hank DeVito. Wow!

I could go on all day (how about The Fraternal Order Of The All, Andrew Gold and Graham Gouldman's 90's Group whose "Greetings From Planet Love" album is a real trip), but that's enough outta me, I'm sure you'll agree!

Terry Reid was Jimmy Page’s first choice for singer of the new Group he was putting together in ’68. When Terry declined, Jimmy asked another guy ;-).

Marti Jones, and her producer/husband Don Dixon, as SO good! Don may even be a better producer than T-Bone Burnette (and definitely a better songwriter and singer, not a T-Bone strength, imo). It's a shame he never progressed beyond that amateur DIY recorded sound quality as an engineer. I do believe there is an anti-audiophile sensibility in a lot of independent R & R producers, for some reason. Like to sound too "good" is to become mainstream.

But look at Nick Lowe; his first album (and the ones he produced for Elvis Costello) sounds pretty bad (though being musically great), but his second sounds completely different, pretty good (that may be due to Dave Edmunds' involvement).

Yeah Marty, I used some more familiar names to make the point that those names shouldn't be obscure, but appear to be to (perhaps) younger participants here.

You want obscure? I'll give ya obscure. For fans of Instro/Surf, the bass player of Los Straitjackets (themselves no doubt obscure to most, though they are on the same label as Nick Lowe, and appeared regularly on Conan O'Brien) was leader of his own Surf Band prior to joining them, The Halibuts. Drenched in reverb and fast songs.

There were thousands of San Jose, California Bands/Groups never heard from outside the Valley. Here are the ones who made records receiving national distribution:

- The Syndicate of Sound ("Hey Little Girl")

- The Count V ("Psychotic Reaction", a rip-off of The Yardbirds "I’m A Man")

- The Chocolate Watchband (three albums on Tower Records, their label-mates being early Pink Floyd. Seen in the Roger Corman movie Riot On Sunset Strip. They were basically The Yardbirds with Mick Jagger as lead singer)

- Stained Glass (two albums on RCA Records)

- People (two albums on Capitol Records, the first containing their national hit, a remake of a Zombies song "I Love You")

That was the 60’s. Stained Glass bassist/singer/songwriter Jim McPherson (R.I.P.) went on to join John Cipollina in his post-Quicksilver Messenger Service band Copperhead (and John’s younger brother bassist in The News, Huey Lewis’ Band). Larry Norman, one of the two lead singers of People, became a leader in the Christian Rock field in the 70’s.

The two Bands to come out of San Jose after the 60’s were The Doobie Brothers, and Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham of local Band Fritz (full original name Fritz Reiner Memorial Band!).

Straitjackets bassist Pete Curry was the leader/guitarist/songwriter in The Halibuts, and LS record in his home studio, a pretty nice one with a 2" 3M recorder, Manley tube mic pre-amp, and Neuman, Sennheiser, and AKG mics. Pete and I grew up together in San Jose, I learning to play on his drumset (his first instrument, which he now plays in a side-project band when not on the road with LS). We were in a great little instro-band together, The Hillbilly Soul Surfers, but Pete had left to play with LS when we backed Evan Johns in the studio for his Moontan album. Evan Johns, a not-so-obscure guitarist who played with Danny Gatton, The Leroi Brothers, Wayne Hancock, and hundreds of others. He had three albums on Rykodisc, about a dozen others on various labels. He’s in Austin now, though not on stage anymore. The drinking has taken it’s toll.

Historical footnote: On the day of The Chocolate Watchband’s debut gig (fall of ’65, iirc), drummer Gary Andrijesivich took sick, and Pete subbed for him. Here’s more: in the Spring of ’65, Gary was in a Frat Band (look it up ;-) named The Squyers, and I was in my first Teen Combo ("Faux Pas". Oy.). Gary left The Squyers to join the just-forming Watchband, and they stole the two older guys (in college. I was in 9th grade.) from Faux Pas before we had a chance to play out even once! Ironically, I took Gary’s place in The Squyers, and Pete moved to Santa Cruz (to avoid having to cut his hair to meet Cupertino High's dress code. Santa Cruz High didn't have one.), major surfing town (as immortalized in The Beach Boys "Surfin' U.S.A.") and perhaps the impetus for his deep interest in Surf (though we already loved The Ventures). This was all over fifty years ago!