Anyone remember that band you liked?

Cafe Society
1

I brought up the band Chase in another thread. And I wondered if anyone else here had ever heard them.

And that got me thinking that we all have bands from the deep dark past that no one we know has ever heard of.

Wouldn’t it be a gas, thought I, if someone from Detroit posted an appreciative note about the “Whiz Kids”. And I could sigh, “Ahhhh… saw them live in Hillsdale. best version of Delta Lady ever”. That’s just my example. I was wondering what yours is.

So who do you remember that your friends don’t?

(Or… if you brought up their name your spouse would just give you that “I give up” look?)

2

Just to get it off my chest, a snip of my post from that other thread:

I got to see them live in a tiny college gymnasium, and they were treating it like a dress rehearsal for their second album (reading off charts, etc.). Very powerful stuff – they’d screech out a high note on all the brass at once, and plaster would drift down from the old gym rafters.

Oh, and The Whiz Kids were two guys on Hammond Organ and drums. Like Lee Michaels and Frosty the Drummer (Lee might also qualify for this thread, if it weren’t for “Do You Know What I Mean?”).

3

Not only do I have the “Chase” LP, and the single of “Get It On”, but also the quad 8-track!

I grew up 1200 miles away from where I am now, and I could go on for hours rattling off the names of bands that would produce only blank stares to any of the locals, except for my wife. She likes my taste in music, and has learned about all these groups. However, I might have to ask millions of people here before I got a glimmer of recognition of the names Steel River, Max Webster, Edward Bear, A Foot In Coldwater, A Stitch In Tyme, Cat, The British Modbeats, The Shays, The Ugly Ducklings, Billy Mysner, Joshua, Lighthouse, Valdy, Chilliwack, Ian Thomas…

…but if you lived in Southern Ontario and were an avid radio listener from the mid-to-late '60s until the mid '70s, most of these names would be familiar to you. Steel River played at my high school. Loudest thing I ever heard. Every time the guitarist went for a solo, he’d stomp on a box that increased the volume of his guitar to ear-bleeding level. In a gymnasium, no less!

4

Some Texas bands I enjoyed while growing up include the 13th Floor Elevators, who used an electric jug and impenetrably mystical lyrics, The Electromagnets, with flying guitarist Eric Johnson and frantic drummer Bill Maddox, The Moving Sidewalks, Billy Gibbons’ high school band and Extreme Heat, an outgrowth of the earlier Steam Heat.

Just a few; I could go on for a while.

5

Liz Sineath Band. “Three little big words.”

6

The Catherine Wheel. One of my favorite band. I know of one person who’s heard of em.

7

GMRyujin, I saw the Catherine Wheel about 12 times back in the day.

Nobody remembers Belfegore …

8

Gotta be Doll by Doll the only people I know who have heard of them - heard about them from me. And I only ever got to hear them 'coz I bought one of their records by mistake. Confusing them with Joy Division* (don’t ask).

Incredibly I got to see them when they re-banded (years and years after splitting up) and played a gig which I spotted in the local paper when I was on holiday in Bournemouth, if I’d been at home in London I would’ve missed it. Unique band.

*I am not a Joy Division fan, this was a real result.

9

I can list plenty:

The Siegel-Schwall Band (others on the SDMB also love them)
The Bonzo Dog Band
Kak
Emitt Rhodes
McDonald and Giles
Flash and the Pan
Otis Taylor
Deborah Coleman
Spirit
Jo Jo Gunne
The Anemic Boyfriend
Soft Machine

10

RealityChuck
The Bonzo Dog (Doo Da) Band are not forgotten! Have you heard the recent BBC sessions CD? Gotta hear the “Craig Torso Show”.

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RECENT Bonzo Dog Band?

Wow. I’m there.

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digs Err… not recorded recently you understand, what with Viv being dead’n’all. It’s collection of Radio One sessions from the late 60’s.

The “Craig Torso Show” in itself is worth the price of admission. And there’s Legs Larry Smith tap-dancing! And the worst guitar solo of all time! in “The Canyons of your mind”.

13

Anyone else here ever heard of Welbilt?

I went to their CD release party a few weeks ago, and ran into their manager about a week later. They’re a lot better than I expected. Apparently they won Hard Rock Cafe’s Best Unsigned Band of 2002. They put on a good show, and it turns out I know a guy from waaaaaay back in the day who was instrumental in getting them signed.

14

I’ve never gotten an err… before. I winced.

Guess that would put a damper on the Creative Output.
Sorry. Never mind. Keep moving
…

15

VH1 Classic does. They play that video damn near every day…

16

Well, I’m a little too young to have seen the 13th Floor Elevators live, but as a matter of fact I just picked up the greatest hits album on Saturday! Roky Ericson has got to be one of the more interesting personalities of that era and I wonder why I’ve never heard more about him. I got into the music in a roundabout way, but thanks to the song “Dust” I just had to reasearch him more. Anyway, I guess he is still alive in Texas somewhere after having spent quite a bit of time in a mental institution…I take it you saw them before his meltdown?

17

I’m 18 years old, and I’m familiar with The 13th Floor Elevators. Between the Nuggets box set, High Fidelity and the stories of his drug use/insanity, I’d say they’re not forgotten.

18

Hey, I’ve heard of them too. They used to get played quite a lot on a couple of stations here in Boston. Well, one anyway.

Anyone ever heard of the band Tribe? They never quite got past cult status locally (early 90s).

19

Lockfist, yes, I first saw them at (heehee) a Methodist church’s Teen Canteen; that would’ve been about 1968. Roky was pretty spacey then, but I don’t think he actually lost it until many years later. I saw them again at Love Street Light Circus. They really were a good live act.

They remain one of my all-time favorites.

I lived in Austin in the '70s and Roky was around. I believe it was during this period that he released a solo single, Two Headed Dog, that had some alternate radio success. That record, and a solo album I got from somewhere in the late '80s, were definitely the unique work of Roky Erikson, but I think his best stuff was done with the Elevators.

My first job after high school was driving a florist’s delivery truck; my boss invested ~$20K in the Elevators. I don’t think he even recovered his investment.

Besides Roky and the above mentioned electric jug, the Elevators had Stacy Sutherland playing lead guitar. I don’t know how he rates with the guitarists of the world, but I liked him. Check out the Elevators’ rendition of Bob Dylan’s Baby Blue. IIRC, Sutherland was shot and killed by his wife.

Or Slip Inside:

Bedouin, your tribe’s ascending,
From the egg into the flower,
Alpha information sending,
States within the heaven shower…

Egad! What rattles around inside my head.

Another song, unlike most Elevators tunes, was You’re Gonna Miss Me, which I understand has followed Roky around most of his life.

Another Texas group that’s been present in my life occurs to me: Wheatfield, who metamorphozed into St. Elmo’s Fire. By the 1980s one of their principals, Ezra Idlett, had gone on to Trout Fishing in America.

20

Man, a couple more people have heard of the Wheel. I continue to be impressed by the Dope, where at least one person will answer your “Ha! Nobody’s ever heard of…besides me!”