Regular Guys

The Regular Guys formed in early 1977 as The Victims, regarded as the first punk rock band in the state of Kansas -and certainly the first in Lawrence. But the interest and crowds weren't enough to sustain a scene and by the end of 1978, the punk era was over. After a short hiatus, John Odell, Brad Reid and Mark Gilman of The Victims recruited new drummer John Chiarello, dumped most of the old punk material and exchanged it for "power pop" as the Regular Guys. 

The power pop craze was even briefer than the punk explosion, but it was long enough for Guys to gain a foothold. In late 1979, the band released a four song EP titled 'It's A Secret' on their own National Recording Artist label and things began to look up. The disc contained two songs each from guitarist Mark Gilman and singer John Odell (actually, everyone but drummer John Chiarello sang and swapped off on guitar and bass throughout the Regular Guys' career.) 

Trouser Press magazine (at the time, one of the few national mags to follow indie records -and one of the last to cover powerpop) voted the EP number nine in their top ten records of 1980. But still, without touring, it was hard to gain ground. Mark Gilman soon departed for Los Angeles to make films, including a hit Three Stooges documentary. Mark was replaced by close friend Dave Stuckey, who came with deep roots in rockabilly and traditional country music and brought those styles along with him. It made for an unusual combination but somehow it worked and the 'Guys started venturing away from Lawrence to play shows in Topeka, Kansas City and surrounding areas. Higher-profile gigs included opening slots for The Only Ones and Secret Affair from England, Pearl Harbor and The Explosions, and at one point the 'Guys even supported a minor Irish band called U2. The Regular Guys set obviously drew on surfeit of original songwriting talent, but they added a handful of well-chosen cover versions, including "You've Got My Number" by The Undertones, "I Won't Look Back" by The Dead Boys, "This Heat" by Gen X, "When I Get My Plane" by Todd Rundgren's first group The Nazz, and a couple Jules Shear tunes. 

By this time, the Lawrence alternative scene had its own fanzine ("Talk Talk"), its own local haunt (Off the Wall Hall) and a passel of great local and near-local bands like The Embarrassment, Mortal Micronotz, Thumbs (John Odell was a founding member in '76 and Dave joined them after the 'Guys broke up], The Debs, Smart Pils, etc., and increasingly found itself mentioned in the same breath as other "happening places" like San Francisco and Athens, GA. 

In 1981 the band went back into the studio and recorded 11 tracks across three sessions. Though Odell remained the primary songwriter, there were contributions from all three guitarists as well as guest guitarist/singer Bob Zohn (from The Blue Riddum Band, who was happy for an opportunity to record some of his non-reggae material). "Another Occupation" and "Death " are Brad and Dave playing all the instruments. 

 
Odell's sister Carolyn, a singer-songwriter in her own right, joined the band at the height of their popularity and brought with her a catalog of catchy pop songs. She and brother John did harmonies that hadn't been possible before, which expanded the band's possibilities. It seemed for a time that the Regular Guys might see some national success, but like the old story it just wasn't in the cards. The Regular Guys drew their last breath when Stuckey moved on to Los Angeles (where he worked with Mark Gilman: they collaborated a 1984 Bela Lugosi TV documentary called "The Forgotten King"), Odell moved to New Orleans, and Reid re-focused on his pharmacy career.

 
John and Carolyn Odell live in New Orleans and continue to make music as The Uptights. Mark Gilman lives in Santa Barbara, California and has helmed the old school punk band The DeRita Sisters. Dave Stuckey is in Los Angeles, where he has played with The Cramps, The Flesh Eaters, The Untamed Youth, The Dave and Deke Combo and his own band, Dave Stuckey and the Rhythm Gang. Brad Reid spent a couple years on the country scene (he backed Ronnie Dunn early on), but he's traded his guitar collection and the Hammond for a couple of Harleys for him and his wife. He works as as a pharmacist in Independence, Kansas. John Chiarello is a graphic artist living in Highland Village, Texas and continues playing locally. 

The Beatles Costello

Produced by Joe Pope, founder of noted Beatles fanzine "Strawberry Fields Forever", Boston's The Beatles Costello were a band with a serious sixties bent. They released a 4 track EP called 'Washing The Defectives', which includes covers of "I Feel Fine", "Theme From A Summer Place" and "Out Of Limits". The band was Eric "Slowhand" Rosenfeld (lonesome guitar strangler), Andy Paley (background vocals, rhythm guitar), Jim Freeman (drums), Chuck Chaplin (piano) and Jim Skinner (vocalist). Eric and Andy were members of The Sidewinders, who released a self titled album in 1972, and both were also a part of the 1978 Paley Brothers' first album on Sire. Eric also appears on Erik Lindgren's 'Sells Out', from 2001,but perhaps more importantly that's Eric playing guitar on the Meco hit album 'Star Wars And Other Galactic Funk' from 1977. Andy played guitar with Jonathan Richman's 'Back In Your Life', and also has produced the likes of Brian Wilson, Jerry Lee Lewis, NRBQ, Candye Kane and Madonna, as well as penning tunes for Solomon Burke, Take 6, Los Straitjackets and The Rubinoos just to name a few. Jim Freeman went on to do reissue production for dozens of albums from Nat King Cole to Sinatra. Meantime Chuck added his 88's to The Pousette Dart Band's 1979 album 'Never Enough', and Jim Skinner became an engineer of some reknown, with credits ranging from TownesVan Zandt's 1999 'Far Cry From Dead' to Jeff Carson's 2001 'Real Life'. 

Chris Moffa And The Competition

New Jersey's Chris Moffa & The Competition referred to their music as "Contact Music" which meant "music brought about by a real need to express some serious social issues". They were compared to The Clash (though they didn't completely agree). The band's music had punk and pop/rock influences. They toured up and down the east coast but soon split up when Chris joined Soul Attack. Chris Moffa & The Competition were Chris Moffa - guitar and vocals, Jim Ohm - drums, and John Lewis - bass. [SOURCE: LOST BANDS OF THE NEW WAVE ERA]

 

Regina Richards And Red Hot

Regina Marie Cuttita, also known as Regina Richards or simply Regina, is an American singer born in Brooklyn, New York. She began her career in the late 1970s as the frontwoman of the new wave band Regina Richards and Red Hot. The band regularly played New York City music venues such as CBGB, Max's Kansas City, and Irving Plaza. With the help of Richard Gottehrer, the band signed with A&M Records. The first single released was titled "Tyger", with "Tug of War" as the B-side. The second single "Don't Want You Back", with "Company Girl" as the B-side, was followed by a self-titled album; the records did not attain mainstream success. Subsequently, she dissolved the group and focused on writing songs for other artists and helping them record demos with Stephen Bray, her former Red Hot drummer.

 

One of the artists who approached them was Madonna, who was trying to secure a recording deal at the time; Regina helped Madonna with vocal harmonies on her demos. In 1986, Regina and Bray co-wrote "Baby Love", initially planning on selling it to Madonna or another artist. Her record label, Atlantic Records, however, requested that Regina sing the song herself. The single reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year and was included on Regina's 'Curiosity album', which also included "Say Goodbye", a song she had originally written with Kenny Rogers in mind. Another song from the album appeared on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart that year: "Beat of Love". 

 

Music publications of the time often commented on perceived similarities to Madonna, and called her the "queen of the wanna-bes". In 1987, she appeared in an anti-drug public service announcement with McGruff the Crime Dog that aired well into the 1990s. In 1988, Regina released the song "Extraordinary Love". It reached #11 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. In 1990, no longer with Atlantic, she released her final single "Track You Down". Plans to release an album titled 'Best Kept Secret' the same year were shelved indefinitely. In 1991, Australian singer Dannii Minogue released a cover of "Baby Love" as a single, reaching number 14 on the UK Singles Chart.[SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA] 

 

Steve Almaas

Singer/songwriter Steve Almaas rose from New York City punk of the late '70s into a well-respected artist during the '80s and '90s. Almaas wasn't a part of the whole corporate scheme of things, having played in various bands during the decade of big-hair metal and warming synth pop. Born to Scandinavian parents who emigrated to Minnesota, Almaas' adolescent years were spent exploring the Minneapolis post-punk scene, making music with The Suicide Commandos long before the haven days of Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, and Soul Asylum. Beat Rodeo followed in the mid-'80s, shortly after his stint with the alt-country trio The Crackers. Beat Rodeo scored a deal with I.R.S. and released 'Staying out Late with Beat Rodeo' (1985) and 'Home in the Heart of the Beat' (1986), as well as successfully touring across Europe and the U.S. A collaboration with George Usher resulted in The Gornack Brothers toward the end of the decade and a solo career for Almaas was about due. His gigs at the Ludlow Street Cafe in New York City allowed Almaas' tweaking rock to mold into his own creation. 'East River Blues' marked his debut in 1993; 'Bridge Songs' followed in 1995 and 'Human, All Too Human', which featured backing by The Ministers of Sound, was issued in 1998. However, his hometown still shared love for Almaas' original rock posse. In 1996, Minneapolis welcomed The Suicide Commandos in for one reunion show, where the group played to more than 10,000 people. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

The Go

The Go, hailing from Yonkers, NY, were active between 1979-1982 and included Joe Bryo (drums), Tom Conte (guitar, vocals), George Peters (bass) and Kenny Dutch (guitar and vocals). These guys were life long friends and music fans. The started out doing the usual 60's and 70's classics, releasing their sole EP in 1980, engineered by Rob Freeman, known for his work with the Ramones, Blondie and Robert Gordon. Favorites in the NJ / NY area, they got as far as playing CBGB's several times.

 

The Leopards

Showcasing the talents of Dennis Pash and Kevin Sanders and apparently initially a studio entity, The Leopards are simply a lost treasure. 1977's 'Kansas City Slickers' (rleased on their own Moon label, and sounding surprisingly good for a collection that was recorded in the basement of Dennis Pash's boyhood home), found the pair managing to nail Ray Davies and company's magical mid-1960s sound without coming off like mindless clones. 

 

After the release of The Leopards' debut the band relocated to Los Angeles, but couldn't make a go of it, subsequently returning to their native Kansas City. A second shot at L.A. proved equally unsuccessful. In the early-1980s front man Dennis Pash finally moved to L.A. full time where he put together a new Leopard's line-up, recording a series of demos while trying to interest a record label in his wares. Unfortunately in an era of new wave and disco madness, interest in Pash's English inspired power pop was non-existent. Luckily Pash's persistence paid off. Having sent Los Angeles DJ Rodney Bingenheimer copy after copy of a 12 track demo tape they'd recorded, Bingenheimer took an interest in the song "Psychedelic Boy". The resulting airplay caught the attention of the Greg Shaw's Voxx label which promptly released the song as a single. 

 
Encouraged by the single's local success Voxx agreed to finance 1987's 'Magic Still Exists'. Coming a decade after the band's debut, the self-produced LP was every bit as good as the debut. Exemplified by Pash-penned long-standing Kinks fetish remained firmly in place, though this time around he tempered it with a selection of out-and-out rockers and equally enjoyable Paisley underground/new wave influenced numbers. Fun through and through you had to shake your head and wonder why this wasn't a mammoth commercial hit for the band. [SOURCE: BAD CAT RECORDS]

 

Shrapnel

Shrapnel was an American punk and power pop band formed in Red Bank, New Jersey in the late-1970s, when its members were still teenagers. Originating as Hard Attack (named after the second Dust album), the band evolved and changed their name to Shrapnel, which became a militaristic, jingoistic concept band in its first few years of existence. Guitarist Daniel Rey cites the Alice Cooper stage show as an inspiration to develop a "schtick". 

 

The concept drew from singer Dave Wyndorf's strong interest in history, a desire to counter the hippie feeling still present in 70s rock, and memories of childhood games of play acting as soldiers (a practice that the band and manager Legs McNeil continued during the band's formative days). The band and McNeil also conceived of war as a relevant metaphor for both life on the NYC streets, and also for opposition to elements of late 70s culture that they felt alienated from. The band's stage show and lyrics were entertaining and helped them develop a local following, but were also controversial, not least for a masked character named "the gook". The band (and McNeil) had artistic intentions for these elements, such as satirically redefining slang terms that were used by soldiers during World War II, the Korean conflict, and the Vietnam War. Rey describes the net effect as being a display of "comic book politics", and McNeil provides the perspective that they were all "white liberals", albeit ones that had (to use contemporary parlance) a very un-PC sense of humor.

 

Wyndorf has compared the band's antics in the earlier part of their history to Vaudeville, and has stated that it was amusing to provoke the easily offended. At the outset, Shrapnel wore military uniforms onstage. The band's aesthetic included glorification of war, carrying prop M16 rifles onstage, and stances criticizing earlier anti-Vietnam War sentiment: "Hey, you asshole creep, I bet you were against the war." This satirical but straight faced outlook was criticized, including being labeled as "proto-fascist" by the Village Voice, due to the provocative stage antics, and song titles such as "Hey Little Gook". Although the band gained popularity in the NYC punk scene, they may have "suffered a virtual press blackout because they flirt(ed) with attitudes (which)... the rock press apparently deem(ed) unacceptable even as satire."

 

 

The band played CBGB often, and drew comparison to the Ramones. On April 9, 1979, Shrapnel opened for the Ramones in the latter band's last ever concert at CBGB. The concert was a benefit to buy bulletproof vests for NYPD. The concert was attended by Norman Mailer, who was a friend of McNeil. Shrapnel would soon play at parties at Mailer's Brooklyn home, including one that was attended by Kurt Vonnegut, Woody Allen, Glen Buxton and José Torres. The event was covered by Rolling Stone, with that magazine's Kurt Loder writing "It figures that author Norman Mailer would go for Shrapnel, a New York punk band whose act is derived from endless reruns of the old Combat! series." Vonnegut apparently was particularly impressed; Loder reported that while many guests danced, the author "stood transfixed by the spectacle", and later complemented Rey on the song "I Lost My Baby On The Siegfried Line", saying that it was a "damn good song, lots of feeling."

 

In 1980, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14 (by Frank Miller and Dennis O'Neil) featured a plot in which Peter Parker goes to see Shrapnel play at CBGB. A super-villain mind-controls the crowd and band, forcing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange to save the day. The comic also contained an ad for Shrapnel's 'Combat Love b/w Hey' 45.

 

By 1983, Shrapnel had softened their image. Michael Alago, who would go on to broker the band's Elektra Records deal (and who would later help major acts including Metallica and White Zombie sign record deals), had replaced Legs McNeil as manager. Gone were the combat fatigues, sandbags, and masked characters, although the band would still use a "bomb" as a prop during their performance of the song "Chrome Magnum Man", to Alagro's chagrin. Wyndorf, always an avid comic book enthusiast, explained that although the song uses war themes (bombs), it is actually a superhero song. He also stated that the band's use of a patriotic star in their imagery was a tribute to Captain America. During this period, the band retired some older material that, while amusing at the time, was written "while drunk" and started to "feel hypocritical". Wyndorf now wrote songs, such as "Hope For Us All", that had explicitly positive messages. This song would appear on the EP that would serve as both their major label debut, and their swan song.

 

 Two Shrapnel songs, "Sleepover" and "Come Back to Me", are used in the 1983 cult film "The First Turn-On!" by Troma Films. Shrapnel released two 7 inch indie singles in 1979 and 1981 respectively, and also had a major label (Elektra Records) 5 song self-titled 12" EP released in 1984, before disbanding in 1985. The members were Dave Wyndorf (vocals), Daniel Rabinowitz, aka Daniel Rey (guitar), Dave Vogt (guitar), Phil Caivano (bass), and Danny Clayton (drums). Wyndorf would go on to co-found eventual gold selling rock band Monster Magnet in 1989 and continues to lead that band 35+ years later. Caivano has also been a long-time member of Monster Magnet and has played in other bands including Blitzspeer and Murphy's Law. Rey has produced over 40 albums since 1987, including for artists such as the Ramones, Misfits, White Zombie, and Ronnie Spector, and served as Joey Ramone's guitarist during his solo career. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]

 

The Now

Hailing from New York City, Jeff Lennon (Geoff "Lip" Danielik), Mamie Francis, Robin Dee and Bobby Ore were The Now. They were playing the Max's Kansas City scene when they signed to RCA distributed Midsong International Records and hooked up with producer Bobby Orlando. An album was "produced, arranged, engineered and concieved" by Mr. Orlando and sold about 200,000 records -enough to warrant a second LP which the band started to record. Then the label literally disappeared from their New York City offices. The band never received a dime and that was the end of The Now. 

 

The band splintered off into various bands but none achieved any level of success. A live disc recorded in 1979 was released on CD. Geoff "Lip" Danielik had 4 bands during 1978-1981 (Alter Ego, Peroxide, T.K.O and The Now) all which did the major label flirting thing but never quite getting to where they all had hoped. Only Bobby O (Orlando, Orefiece) seems to have had a career (quite a major player) in Hi-NRG  electronic dance music that originated in the United States and United Kingdom during the late 1970s and early 1980s. [SOURCE: WHAT FRANK IS LISTENING TO]

 

Quincy

Quincy was a New Wave/Power pop band from New Jersey. They released their first album on Columbia records in 1980 entitled 'Quincy' and an EP in 1983 entitled 'Don't Say No', using the band name Lulu Temple. 

 

The band was started by two sets of brothers, Stephen and Brian Butler, and Gerald and Alex Takach. The brothers had met while going to Haddon Heights High School in New Jersey during the 1970s and eventually forming Quincy, where they started off with an acoustic/electric soft rock sound with 4 part vocal harmonies. In 1976, Quincy did a month long tour of the midwest with Bob Holden on drums. A few months later on Friday August 13, 1976, while playing at JC Dobbs club on South Street in Philadelphia, Alex Takach was mysteriously murdered. 

 

After a short period of inactivity, the band re-emerged embracing the Punk/New Wave movement. Gerald Takach took the stage name Gerald Emerick and the band added Wally Smith (aka Metro) on keyboards. They found their way to CBGB in New York and became a regular fixture in the late 1970s. They were managed by the owner of CBGB, Hilly Kristal and released a single on CBGB Records titled "Can't Live In A Dream"/"Salvation Fantasy". The band eventually signed with Columbia/CBS Records. 

 

The debut album was released to favorable reviews and enthusiasm at radio stations. Shortly after the first album came out, Quincy Jones sued them for using his name. CBS Records did not help the band with the lawsuit. (Both the band and Jones recorded for CBS, and Jones was vastly more powerful than the band.) The band Quincy and Quincy Jones eventually settled out of court. The band then changed its name to Lulu Temple. The settlement stipulated that no mention could be made of the lawsuit in public.

 

After a long battle to release a second record, the EP 'Don't Say No' was released under the new name Lulu Temple. In addition to a new name, the band took on a new musical direction adding horns and percussion and a more layered approach. Without the support of the label and the lack of press, even the band's fan base didn't know of their new record. The band soon split up and went their separate ways in various musical and theatrical endeavors. The Butler brothers eventually founded the band Smash Palace.