Monocled Alchemist

Raw Blastin’ Mid-60s Punk!!!

THE PASTELS – “Circuit Breaker” (Century 226980 October 1965, Pasco, Washington
Kicking off this New Grave with this pounding mostly instro NW STOMPER! Pastels’ Ron Jones in Nov 2013: “It’s a fairly sexual song for a bunch of 15 year olds.” INDEED! I was able to meet with Ron at 3:00 pm on Nov 12th 2013.

We had an appointment for 3:00 pm at the Port Angeles High School, so I arrive early at 2:00 pm, feeling like a bit of a freak/ stalker sitting in the 1989 van in the school parking lot, when “Hello, Mr Jones can see you now” says a kid about 14. I wonder to myself “Do I or does my decrepit van STAND OUT so much as a signal of “freak”? Anyhoot: on to the Pastels story:

The second of three great 45s (“Why Don’t You Love Me” / “What Can I Say”, then “Circuit Breaker” / “How Many Nights” on Century 22698 in October 1965, then “Mirage” / “Where Is The Answer” on Century 23507 in March 1966) by these Teen Titans of Pasco.

Ron Jones had been taking guitar lessons from the local King of Guitar, John LaChappelle. Recently relocated to Pasco was Dale Anderson. Dale and Mark Gage called Ron up in March 1965 and said “Hey, wanna start a band?” and Ron wisely said “Yes”, then auditioned by playing a merseybeat cover.

The Pastels came up with the band name by painting their Beatle boots a different pastel colour (Green, Blue, Yellow, Magenta) and matching their boots with turtlenecks of the same colour.

Back From The Grave | Volume 9 (Part One) | (Crypt) 2014

Red Elder, the drummer, wore Yellow. Mark, the organ player, wore Blue. Ron, the bassist, wore Magenta. Dale, the guitarist, wore Green. Their first gig was playing an all-covers set at a local teen dance club, and after having been promised $75, the lads were quite bummed when the club owner only paid them $30.

Ron’s father overheard them grumbling about the rip-off and offered his services as their booking agent/manager. This worked quite well for the Pastels; Ron’s dad Don was a cement contractor and would travel all over southern Washington and northern Oregon, and in his off-time he would investigate the local clubs and book gigs for the Pastels.

He was also wise to book them into the remote, smaller villages and farm communities (Othello, Moses Lake, Connell, Walla Walla, Dayton, Pomeroy, Lewiston/ Clarkston, Yakima, Prosser, Sunnyside, Umatilla, Hemiston, Pendleton, La-Grande, Hepner OR, etc) in a 150-mile radius around Pasco, where the local teens were starved for R & R entertainment as all the bigger local & national acts, booked by Pat O’ Day, would just play the larger cities.

Don also set up an accounting system and dole out each Pastel a weekly allowance. (Red’s mom acted as the band’s bookkeeper.) The lads travelled to shows in a station wagon with a trailer attached that stored their own hand-built stage.

Their 45s came about because Century Custom would send reps to local high schools and say “We’ll record and release your songs”. The local Century rep contacted the Pastels’ school’s choir director, Harold Peterson, and he suggested the Pastels. For each of their three 45s the rep would arrive at Ron’s house with two Neumann mics running from the garage where the lads would blast forth and ran the mics into a reel to reel deck set up in the kitchen, then the band would overdub the vocals.

One larger gig the Pastels played was as the band between two AIP “Beach Party” movies at a theatre in Kennewick sponsored by Vox. A Richland music store that sold Vox gear loaned the Pastels an all-Vox backline for that gig and, in Ron’s words: “That Vox gear was GARBAGE!” Another big show was a Dick Clark event at a baseball field, where the Pastels shared “backstage” with the Wailers in the first base dugout, and the Knickerbockers and Merrilee & The Turnabouts had the third base dugout.

When the Beatles played Portland in 1966 the Pasco radio station set up a contest where the 2nd place winner would travel to the show with the Pastels driving and the first place winner would travel in the disc jockey’s car.

Red and Mark left to form the Rock-N-Souls (who cut one 45, “Not Like You” / “Got No Love”, on Rich Tone, after winning a local Battle Of The Bands). Mark was replaced by Frank Flames, Red by Larry Home. In 1967 Dale, now at age 19, left, and was replaced by Larry Rogers.

As the “long hair trend” increasingly came in vogue, manager Don approached the high school principle to get approval for the Pastels to grow their hair long to remain in mode, and hired on the band’s own hairdresser. (Note to the Download Generation: ye entitled kiddies that think music should be free: here’s a crew of 15 year olds paying for their own band hairdresser outta their hard-earned gig money!)

The Pastels were invited to play the 1967 Spokane Teen Fair at the Coliseum with Glen Campbell, Fifth Dimension, and Vanilla Fudge. In June 1967, at age 17, Ron graduated and went off to college in Lewiston, Idaho, and formed a new band with old Pastels mate Red, who was also studying there. Ron has been teaching music at high schools since 1975.

Back From The Grave | Volume 9 (Part One) | (Crypt) 2014

THE HIGH SPIRITS “It’s Alright With Me” (Dove Studio acetate) unknown date, Saint Louis Park, Minnesota
Unreleased and most ripping cover of a Zombies first EP tune by these MN cats. The three screams and burning guitar break just plain NAIL it, so please pardon us for “sullying” a Grave with a (cough!) Cover Tune! (Prepare to be further enraged by a Sonics cover and a Donovan cover on Grave #10!)

Revered by the Garage Loons for their majestic second Soma 45 “I Believe” of December 1965, this pounding beast shall give the High Spirits a further notch up the ladder o’ Respect.

Rhythm guitarist Rick Levinson told me that this was recorded after he’d departed the Spirits in June 1966 so that would leave us a guess at this acetate having been recorded in later 1966, most likely with the line-up of Little Cliffie Stone (real surname Siegel) as singer, Dave Rivkin (later to join the Stillroven) or Bob Cohen ripping out that amazing lead guitar break, Owen Husney on rhythm guitar, Doug Ahrens on drums, Jay Luttio on organ, and Rick Beresford on bass.

Back From The Grave | Volume 9 (Part One) | (Crypt) 2014

THE WARLOCKS – “Beware” (no label, number 4548) june 1966, Joplin, Missouri
Seriously DEMENTED organ-crowded caveteen hoot that actually goes out to STATE “You’re gonna DIE!!!”, so this’s a First in Hateful to the Point of Homicidal garage punk!

Released with the flipside of an equally lo-fi take of “Secret Agent Man”, this four piece were formed by 17-year old (jazzbo bearded) organist Red Terzo in January 1966, adding on local schoolmate football hero Brian Lake on guitar (17), drummer Peter Schick (16) and occasional accompaniment by saxist Pedro Xavier (16).

Red’s keyboard skills made it unnecessary to hire a bass player, nor did their wee van have the space to lug along any additional gear or bassist, as Red’s massive organ took up most of the storage space. The organ proved to be the Warlocks demise, as Brian failed to show up on time for their trek to the recording studio, so Red and Pete were stuck with the misery of lugging the 300-pound organ from their garage rehearsal space into the van, then out of the van and into the studio, almost receiving hernias.

So then Brian rolls up to the studio in his car and does not notice the stewed expressions on his bandmates’ faces and plugs in and they go about the recording, unaware that Red and Pete had informed the engineer to not mic up Brian’s amp.

In any case, the record is pressed up, Brian hears that his guitar is missing, gets pissed off and drives his car over the box of 45s, leaving a measly few copies that Red and Pete had set aside for themselves. And so ended the Warlocks’ short career in R & R. And that, my friends, is the making of a 2-copy-in-existence rare-assed record.

THE EMERALDS – “Like Father Like Son” (NE Honey Records 1103) March 1966, Greenwood, Indiana
Ben Olins: “It’s a safe assumption that these Indiana teens had more than a passing familiarity with Messrs Burdon, Price, Chandler, Valentine and Steel. ‘Like Father Like Son’ reeks of Animals influence both in its “I’m Crying” style chorus and its general atmosphere of chip-on-the-shoulder fatalism.”

Thanks to Monster Mike Umholz for unearthing this truly CRYPTIC, organ-slithering-thru-the-graveyard-at-mid-night beast! The Emeralds borrow liberally from Dickens’ “A Tale Of Two Cities”, basing this song on the character Jerry Cruncher, porter by day and grave robber by night, and even include Dickens’ diss on the church in the lyric “my son goes to the church where they have the black capes, where you’re taught not to have your fun.”

Band members were Pat Gwynn on drums, Dale Young on organ, Dave Church on rhythm guitar, Roger Craig on bass guitar, and Don Weaver on lead guitar.

The Emeralds placed 1st in the Johnson County Fair competition, 1st in the Greenwood Battle of the Bands, and 10th in the Yong America band battle at the State fair and even appeared on local TV showing their chops.

Dale Young left and was replaced by Dave Wilson and the Emeralds then became the Boroughed Tymes, who can be seen in the photo loading their car to head to Chicago to play the Teen-Age World’s Fair and a recording session at Recordings Unlimited.

THE WHY-NOTS – “Tamborine” (Nola Recording Studios NY acetate) unknown date, unknown origin

Primitive, inept brilliance in the form of a tribute to the singer’s tambourine. The punkness of naming your band the Why-Nots is extra genius. And to misspell Tambourine: an additional Hep Point.

THE TURNCOATS – “Something Better” (LRS 3394) unknown date, Burbank, California area
Whilst th’ bulk o’ these comps are made up of 45rpm large centre-holed 2.5 minute singles, this is a real oddity: a 33rpm, small centre-hole 7″, AND it clocks in at a whopping three minutes 45 seconds, practically PROG-ROCK.

This ‘un simply credits Nat, Steve, Wick, Dave and Nick, leaving us absolutely nowhere as far as band-tracking info goes. In any case this is a great chunk of post-Surf, almost New England-sounding lopeyness (just made that word up so forget the thesaurus), with a ripping, absolutely Dave Davies solo!

I drove to the recording studio’s address but the current business there had absolutely no idea as to the studio’s existence or prior tenants. I’d venture that the studio realized that there was a more profitable biz with which to pay the rent.

THE CLASSICS – “I’m Hurtin’” – (Amway 4955) Spring 1966, Paintsville, Kentucky
Th’uttermost in crude clunk! I’ve often described this as “imagine the Barking Spyders cover the Stones’ take of ‘Not Fade Away’ — and I’ll stick by that and not clutter things. I’d actually tracked, interviewed and paid the Classics back in 2003 in the hope of banging together a new Grave so it feels great to finally get this out, 11 years later.

This five-piece teen combo was formed by a crew of 14 to 16 year olds in their wee village of Paintsville (population approximately 4,000 in the mid-60s), Kentucky in December 1963 when Richard Titlow (bassist/lead singer) offered his services to a bass-less band playing a high school dance. They then asked him “Can you sing?” and boom, Richard was anointed singer.

Back From The Grave | Volume 9 (Part One) | (Crypt) 2014

Original keyboardist Billy Preston was soon replaced by Billy Garland on red Fiesta Farfisa organ. Richard knew that Bill Garland’s sister played piano, but Mom Garland said, “No, use her little brother”, so Bill stepped in. The other cats were Frank Hughes (drums), Bill Osbourne (lead guit), and then Pat Donohoe took over on bass, so Richard was now singer/guitarist.

Bill’s dad became their manager, bought them two speakers to use as a PA, bought them camel tan blazers and dubbed them The Classics (“to make them a CLASS act”), and then funded the pressing of the 45.

In 1965, Paintsville city elders created a local teen rec centre, Teen Town, to keep kids entertained and out of trouble. Teen Town was the site for many a Classics show (as well as the backdrop in the B&W photo of the band). Another hotspot for shows was the Paintsville Pool and the Prestonburg VFW.

Other local combos included The Midnighters, The Shadows Of Infinity, Johnny Reb And The Rebels, XLs, Chessmen, the Crabs, the Invaders (from Prestonburg), the Mag Seven (from Lexington), and the Saxons (from Pikesville) who released one 45, “She’s All Wrong/I’ll Go Wandering” on REM.

The Classics made a few treks to play several larger Battle Of The Bands in Louisville, a West Virginia TV show on Channel 13 called ‘Let’s Dance’, a local version of American Bandstand, and came in 2nd in a rigged TV contest, Talent Hunt with Soupy Sales as MC.

A few wild memories (that the village elders certainly did not envision when thinking Music would Soothe the Savage Beast) were: the night three of the lads hooked up with three black gals from another band; the night Pat got whiskey at a Country Club show and jumped off the 12′ balcony and almost rolled off a 40′ cliff; the night Bill wanted to cut Pat out of 25% of his earnings for arriving 15 minutes late, so they ended up rumbling (Pat was pissed cos he had a bass guitar payment that was due) and Frank the drummer (a big football player) ended the rumble by grabbing Bill and sent him flying across the floor.

The great colour photo is from November 1965 at a Dick Clark ‘Caravan Of Stars’ show in Louisville, where the Classics blasted forth as fill-in opening band for another act that couldn’t make it.

Two days later the band cut their 45 at a studio in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The flipside, “Trisha”, was written by drummer Frank, as he’d just busted up with his gal Patricia. That’s Frank’s brother Eddie on tambourine throughout “I’m Hurtin’”. That crazed guitar solo was the idea of Bill, as he felt restrained by the rather lifeless strumming on “Trisha”. Richard recalls: “‘I’m Hurtin’ was inspired by hearing the Animals’ “I’m Crying”; the Animals were Crying, so us Classics were Hurting.” The band called in quits in November 1966.

THE RAEVINS – “The Edge Of Time” (Big 0 8114) 1966, Chicago, Illinois
Monstrous reverb-guit-led Chi-town chugger with a whopping FOUR searing fuzz breaks! Complete Mystery 45, as there is no author credit nor address on the label. Mike Markesich snagged the only extant copy via eBay, and the seller only remembered that a gal had brought it into his St Louis record shop back in 1979.

A false lead of a google search for Big 0 led us to believe it was produced by radio Farm Report host Orion Samuelson, so we therefore placed it of a Wisconsin/Illinois origin, til bingo: The 1968 LP on Mainstream by The Growing Concern has a re-recorded version (complete with psych “wood-nymph” vocal intro, and then Ace Records’ Alec Palao hepped us to Growing Concern guit/vocal man peter Guerin, and ZAP!

Here’s the scoop:
Peter Guerin, born October 7 1950, grew up in the Franklin park area of Chicago, was knocked out seeing elvis on the tube at age 7 in 1957, started singing at age 8, started playing guitar soon after that, then formed his first band, The Roustabouts at age 13 in 8th grade.

Another band at his high school was the Continentals, including John Pedly (bass) and Ralph Toms (guitar), and in 1965 the Roustabouts and Continentals merged together and formed The Raevins, adding on Ralph Williams (drums) and Dan Passaglia (keyboards) and a 6th member, Jeff on sax and tambourine.

The band name came about by naming themselves after the Buddy Holly tune “Rave On.” The Raevins had a friend/road manager that had a night club in Franklin Park, The Idle Hour, where the band were able to rehearse for their gigs (high schools, teen rec centres, The Green Gorilla bar, band battles in McCormick Park, etc).

For a bigger show at Smokey Joe’s, The Raevins splurged and bought matching engineer pants and powder blue jackets — and their jaws dropped when the New Colony Six showed up in EXACTLY the same garb!

Dan was a few years older than the mostly 15-16 year old Raevins and wrote “The Edge Of Time”, and the lads decided to record it, plus a cover of Monsieur Berry’s “Around And Around” in the basement of The Idle Hour, as it had excellent acoustics, and pressed up a miniscule amount of copies, just as a DEMO, on their own Big 0 label (the ‘0’ standing for Orgasm!), receiving 1 copy each of the 45.

In 1967 a DJ on WEEE, Chuck Taylor, stepped in as manager and took a copy of the 45 to New York City to play for Bob Shad of Mainstream Records, Bob liked what he heard and soon enough the Raevins became The Growing Concern (as they frequently heard the radio weathermen referring to the arrival of a brutal Winter 1967 snowstorm as “the growing concern”), adding on female vocalist; first Ellen Kerrigsberg, then Bonnie MacDonald and Mary Garstki.

The Growing Concern’s album and a 45 were released on Mainstream, they did local Chicago shows (including one at Peter’s high school opening for The Cryan Shames, who asked Peter to join, as one of the Cryan Shames had to enter the Army Reserve) and national tours, then called it quits after Ralph Toms and Ralph Williams were drafted off to Vietnam. Peter later formed Mad Rush in late-1969 while in college and became the first Elvis tribute act.

LORD CHARLES & THE PROPHETS “Ask Me No Questions” (R.N. Review 1/2) January 1966, California
Storming, low-end-throbbing whomping punk R&B from this CA combo, possible a dual-drummer as this just packs such insane punch. Could these cats be the same Lord Charles & The Prophets that cut the cool soul/r&b Rosco Gordon cover of “No More Doggin’” (b/w “Cherry Pie”) on L.A.’s Modern Records #1016?

This was a Dick Michaels (therefore Richard Michaels/R.M. Revue record label) production via an address a few blocks from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. Dick Michaels also has producer credit on the two tracks by post-AI’s Untouchables THE ORPHANS, who you can and must hear on “Back From The Grave Volume 10”.

Liner notes taken from Volume 9. Read more Graves here.