One of the nice things about being comfortably in my 40s is that I get to look back with no regrets. I also get to look at kids today and bitch! LOL The kids today just seem to NOT GET rock & roll. The occasional young bands I see pretty much suck (oh sure, there ARE exceptions) and the crowds just don't know how to party. Its not just me saying that, I know a lot of bartenders, club owners, etc., who share in that same thought. Seems most of the kids today want to be in bed at a reasonable hour. WTF???
All of this brings me to thinking about the regional music scene. 25 years ago, it was HOPPING! 15 years ago, it was HOPPING! In the past 5-10 years, its been a serious downhill slide. Whats WRONG with the kids today????
Hey, we didn't have money but we still managed to create some great music. Did we have the greatest gear known to man? No! But we used what we had and used our own creativity to make it happen.
While I've always loved all kinds of music; punk, blues, country, rockabilly, jazz, funk, ska...heck, I even used to dig reggae back in the day...but its admittedly a bit slow for my tastes these days; I'll stick with the rootsy/rockabilly stuff for this post.
Back in the early 80s, there was a short-lived rockabilly revival. It seemed that half the bands were the _____ Cats. Ya had your Stray Cats, Rockcats, This Cats, That Cats, everywhere a CAT CAT! LOL And alot of the bands were cool. Regionally, there were 2 that come to mind. The 8Balls from Pittsburgh, PA and The Swingin' Caddilacs from Ohio (originally based in Steubenville but later moved to the NE Ohio area). These bands were balls out rockabilly! The 8 Balls were probably the better band but the Caddies just never stopped. I should know, I played in that band for the better part of 8 years! LOL Sure there were other bands like The Walking Clampetts (one of the finest combos EVER) and I remember seeing other bands pop up and disappear but the 8 Balls and Caddies kept it rolling. On lead guitar for the 8 Balls was Mark Anderson. You'll see in a bit where this is going. Like I said, I was in the Swingin' Caddilacs.
Come the 1990s, the Caddies and 8Balls were long gone daddios...but the rock had to keep on rolling! I'd moved to Pittsburgh and was half looking to gig and half trying to leave music. I met James Morrow one night at The Upstage and after noticing the pompadour and the almost frightening fact that we were both sporting the SAME SHOES (Berlin Wall Western style black leather creepers; buckled not laced), we discovered musical kindred spirits. This meeting led to the band Pittsburgh and the east coast came to know as The Rowdy Bovines.
For 4-5 loooooong years, we went through almost every bassist & drummer in town and gigged relentlessly. We always had a gig and most importantly, we always made money! The local music scene at the time was mostly acts like The Clarks (rumor has it that their song "Cigarette" was written for the Bovines) and Rusted Root (aka Dirty Scummy Hippy Fucks or Crusted Fruit). The Bovines kept it loud, drunk and nasty...the way REAL rock & roll is SUPPOSED to be! We were NEVER a pretty band. Probably why the record companies avoided us like the plague! LOL But looming in the darkest shadows was an even cooler, nastier, more rockin' band....THE LUG NUTS!
The Bovines and The Lug Nuts often shared bills. For something that probably shouldn't have worked, it did. While the Bovines were more "rockabillyish", the Lug Nuts were their own thing. The closest comparison I could give would be The Cramps...but less camp and a helluva lot scarier! These guys drank more, did more drugs, and were just generally more out there than anyone else. It was always a gamble whether or not they'd even show up, let alone be sober enough to play. But play they did and with a mighty thunder!
The Lug Nuts weren't the best musicians but they played with a raw passion that any band should be envious of. Fronted by Tim Frank on vocals and the maniac stylings of (the late, great) John Motto on guitar, these cats thumped, pumped and oozed! They had a chick pounding drums (Marsha) and either had Jamie Saunders or Berkely (this crazy black guy who told everyone he was from Australia but was really from N. Carolina! LOL) on bass. They released one cassette with 7 songs and it to this day remains, in my not-so-humble opinion, the greatest slice of R&R to ever come out of the steel city!
But all bands (with the exception of the Rolling Stone and The Numbers Band) eventually break up. By the mid 90s, The 8Balls were gone. The Swingin' Caddilacs were gone. The Rowdy Bovines were gone. The Lug Nuts were way long gone! But here's where it gets interesting...
From these 4 bands came a whole new crop of bands. James from the Bovines started a side band called The Udder CATS (theres that damned cat name again!) with Mark Anderson of The 8Balls on guitar. Sean Chambers (of the Bovines) and I took turns as bassist. I started The Tremblers (later know as Memphis Mike and the Legendary Tremblers). Sean Chambers, Blair Powell, and Jim Bleyer, all former Rowdy Bovines, along with Scotty Quay and Woody Bond started Highway 13. And John Motto of The Lugnuts, went about starting band after band...the 2 best being Monkey On A Stick and the alt country band, The Polish Hillbillies. James and Mark, some years after The Udder Cats, formed The Bessemers and are keeping their neo-billy sound going. Jimmy Robinson (ne Vegas) of the Swingin' Caddilacs started Psycho Rodeo and later Vegas 66. These bands kept the rock-a-rolling into the 21st century!
What started out 25+ years ago as a collection of young kids playing real rock & roll for shits & giggles, in bands that no one ever thought would last more than 6 months, has over the years become the regional dynasty that is The Rust Belt Rockabilly sound. No, we're not the only ones and there may have even been others...but none left the mark that these bands did.
There are a few younger bands that pop up now & then...but they just don't seem to get it. When the hell did Motorhead begin to be considered a rockabilly staple? (I know...The Twistin' Tarantulas from Deeeeeeetroit started that mess LOL) Hey now, I dig psychobilly as much as the next guy...but it seems the younger generation has run out of ideas. Sure, there will probably always be rockabilly/roots bands but lately, I've noticed the local/regional scene drying up a good bit. Us older cats & kittens...well, a lot of us are parents now and can't necessarily go out 7 nights a week. Hell, I'm kid-free and I still don't go out that often! LOL There's just not much going on. The few clubs left that have LIVE MUSIC, aren't booking the old school R&R as much...simply because it doesn't pay the bills. Why pay 1-2 good rockabilly bands who might attract 30 people when you can book 5 crappy bands who will bring in 100 people? But it's funny, these young kids look up to us. They know about the bands (at least some do) and I've had lots of them come up to me at shows and want to ask about the old days. I'm proud of my legacy and I hope that my fellow musicians are as well. We created something that has lasted over a quarter of a century...and thats nothing to take lightly. I just hope that its a long time before it completely fades away. And I really hope that some young punk out there will want to grab a guitar, learn some old licks and then put his/her own spin on it, find a bunch of likeminded idiots and start the next great band. I'm waiting to see them. And waiting...and waiting...
-MM
post script:
This isn't meant to be any kind of definitive history, its merely the ramblings of a proud musician. If you remember these bands, or have memories of your own, make some noise! And please, feel free to click the links in this post. I've added links to mp3s of the bands mentioned and I hope you'll enjoy them!
All of this brings me to thinking about the regional music scene. 25 years ago, it was HOPPING! 15 years ago, it was HOPPING! In the past 5-10 years, its been a serious downhill slide. Whats WRONG with the kids today????
Hey, we didn't have money but we still managed to create some great music. Did we have the greatest gear known to man? No! But we used what we had and used our own creativity to make it happen.
While I've always loved all kinds of music; punk, blues, country, rockabilly, jazz, funk, ska...heck, I even used to dig reggae back in the day...but its admittedly a bit slow for my tastes these days; I'll stick with the rootsy/rockabilly stuff for this post.
Back in the early 80s, there was a short-lived rockabilly revival. It seemed that half the bands were the _____ Cats. Ya had your Stray Cats, Rockcats, This Cats, That Cats, everywhere a CAT CAT! LOL And alot of the bands were cool. Regionally, there were 2 that come to mind. The 8Balls from Pittsburgh, PA and The Swingin' Caddilacs from Ohio (originally based in Steubenville but later moved to the NE Ohio area). These bands were balls out rockabilly! The 8 Balls were probably the better band but the Caddies just never stopped. I should know, I played in that band for the better part of 8 years! LOL Sure there were other bands like The Walking Clampetts (one of the finest combos EVER) and I remember seeing other bands pop up and disappear but the 8 Balls and Caddies kept it rolling. On lead guitar for the 8 Balls was Mark Anderson. You'll see in a bit where this is going. Like I said, I was in the Swingin' Caddilacs.
Come the 1990s, the Caddies and 8Balls were long gone daddios...but the rock had to keep on rolling! I'd moved to Pittsburgh and was half looking to gig and half trying to leave music. I met James Morrow one night at The Upstage and after noticing the pompadour and the almost frightening fact that we were both sporting the SAME SHOES (Berlin Wall Western style black leather creepers; buckled not laced), we discovered musical kindred spirits. This meeting led to the band Pittsburgh and the east coast came to know as The Rowdy Bovines.
For 4-5 loooooong years, we went through almost every bassist & drummer in town and gigged relentlessly. We always had a gig and most importantly, we always made money! The local music scene at the time was mostly acts like The Clarks (rumor has it that their song "Cigarette" was written for the Bovines) and Rusted Root (aka Dirty Scummy Hippy Fucks or Crusted Fruit). The Bovines kept it loud, drunk and nasty...the way REAL rock & roll is SUPPOSED to be! We were NEVER a pretty band. Probably why the record companies avoided us like the plague! LOL But looming in the darkest shadows was an even cooler, nastier, more rockin' band....THE LUG NUTS!
The Bovines and The Lug Nuts often shared bills. For something that probably shouldn't have worked, it did. While the Bovines were more "rockabillyish", the Lug Nuts were their own thing. The closest comparison I could give would be The Cramps...but less camp and a helluva lot scarier! These guys drank more, did more drugs, and were just generally more out there than anyone else. It was always a gamble whether or not they'd even show up, let alone be sober enough to play. But play they did and with a mighty thunder!
The Lug Nuts weren't the best musicians but they played with a raw passion that any band should be envious of. Fronted by Tim Frank on vocals and the maniac stylings of (the late, great) John Motto on guitar, these cats thumped, pumped and oozed! They had a chick pounding drums (Marsha) and either had Jamie Saunders or Berkely (this crazy black guy who told everyone he was from Australia but was really from N. Carolina! LOL) on bass. They released one cassette with 7 songs and it to this day remains, in my not-so-humble opinion, the greatest slice of R&R to ever come out of the steel city!
But all bands (with the exception of the Rolling Stone and The Numbers Band) eventually break up. By the mid 90s, The 8Balls were gone. The Swingin' Caddilacs were gone. The Rowdy Bovines were gone. The Lug Nuts were way long gone! But here's where it gets interesting...
From these 4 bands came a whole new crop of bands. James from the Bovines started a side band called The Udder CATS (theres that damned cat name again!) with Mark Anderson of The 8Balls on guitar. Sean Chambers (of the Bovines) and I took turns as bassist. I started The Tremblers (later know as Memphis Mike and the Legendary Tremblers). Sean Chambers, Blair Powell, and Jim Bleyer, all former Rowdy Bovines, along with Scotty Quay and Woody Bond started Highway 13. And John Motto of The Lugnuts, went about starting band after band...the 2 best being Monkey On A Stick and the alt country band, The Polish Hillbillies. James and Mark, some years after The Udder Cats, formed The Bessemers and are keeping their neo-billy sound going. Jimmy Robinson (ne Vegas) of the Swingin' Caddilacs started Psycho Rodeo and later Vegas 66. These bands kept the rock-a-rolling into the 21st century!
What started out 25+ years ago as a collection of young kids playing real rock & roll for shits & giggles, in bands that no one ever thought would last more than 6 months, has over the years become the regional dynasty that is The Rust Belt Rockabilly sound. No, we're not the only ones and there may have even been others...but none left the mark that these bands did.
There are a few younger bands that pop up now & then...but they just don't seem to get it. When the hell did Motorhead begin to be considered a rockabilly staple? (I know...The Twistin' Tarantulas from Deeeeeeetroit started that mess LOL) Hey now, I dig psychobilly as much as the next guy...but it seems the younger generation has run out of ideas. Sure, there will probably always be rockabilly/roots bands but lately, I've noticed the local/regional scene drying up a good bit. Us older cats & kittens...well, a lot of us are parents now and can't necessarily go out 7 nights a week. Hell, I'm kid-free and I still don't go out that often! LOL There's just not much going on. The few clubs left that have LIVE MUSIC, aren't booking the old school R&R as much...simply because it doesn't pay the bills. Why pay 1-2 good rockabilly bands who might attract 30 people when you can book 5 crappy bands who will bring in 100 people? But it's funny, these young kids look up to us. They know about the bands (at least some do) and I've had lots of them come up to me at shows and want to ask about the old days. I'm proud of my legacy and I hope that my fellow musicians are as well. We created something that has lasted over a quarter of a century...and thats nothing to take lightly. I just hope that its a long time before it completely fades away. And I really hope that some young punk out there will want to grab a guitar, learn some old licks and then put his/her own spin on it, find a bunch of likeminded idiots and start the next great band. I'm waiting to see them. And waiting...and waiting...
-MM
post script:
This isn't meant to be any kind of definitive history, its merely the ramblings of a proud musician. If you remember these bands, or have memories of your own, make some noise! And please, feel free to click the links in this post. I've added links to mp3s of the bands mentioned and I hope you'll enjoy them!
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