Off-Site: GREGG SPENCE, "Nineteen" on Miami Valley Cable TV (1991?)

I can only guess at the date on this one -- most likely 1991 or 1992, maybe? Andy Valeri's Big Beef entry on Gregg Spence benefit shows might have more information on where you could order this whole special (which, as I vaguely remember, features almost every Dayton band I ever loved -- maybe I should order a copy myself some time).

This one might be my favorite Gregg Spence song ever. I've covered it in bands of my own and posted the studio version on this blog.  Thought you might enjoy seeing Gregg play it himself.

take care,

---Jones()

DATAPANIK Records, Ubu Dance Party, A Tribute to Pere Ubu (CD, 1997)

Not all Dayton bands on this one, but there are several represented.  And the rest are still from Ohio.

I think this is our first CD offering on this blog.  It is undoubtedly the biggest so far.  I have shied away from posting CDs unless I know for a fact that it's out of print and there are no plans to revive it.  In the case of Ubu Dance Party, I can't say for sure, but every search I've done to find some distributor still selling it has turned up empty.  And even though I played on this record, I never got a copy and so bought one used for a dollar through some Amazon seller.  Now I can't even find second hand copies listed anywhere.  So I think we're safe, but if somebody comes out of the woodwork with the rights to this thing and wants it taken down, I'll comply.

That's doubtful though.  If I remember correctly, our contribution to this record was sort of a "right of first publication only" kind of license.  Assuming everybody else had a similar deal, then the rights to this one are controlled by at least 38 different people.

But enough legal speculation.  About this comp in general, I can't say much.  But Chad Van Wagner, who spent at least three years of his life putting it together, can and does have something to say in the liner notes:

Another tribute?  Yes, I know, but there's a bit more to it than that.  The problem with tributes is they too often lapse into straight covers, "maybe we can have a hit with this" remakes, and little else.  When I set out to start this thing (oh so long ago) I was determined to do what I could to do Pere Ubu, one of the few truly creative and original bands of the past couple decades, justice.  This meant, of course, altering their catalog in the most severe way imaginable: "Cloud 149," in the hands of One Riot One Ranger, goes from bubblegum meandering to a sinister dustbowl tale.  "Petrified" goes from a paranoid babble to Brainiac's nuclear meltdown.  Also, keeping in the spirit with the Ubu catalog, where the importance of studio polish ran a poor second to performance strength (as it SHOULD, dagnabbit) the tracks on this here CD go from the lushness of Cage's "Goodnight Irene" to the RC Mob's boombox-in-a-corner "My Dark Ages."  Beyond these two guidelines, I kept my hands off the creative process, letting the bands do what they will.  Ubu is about (at least to me) stealing pieces of your memory and giving them back in an almost unrecognizable package, one that blew your mind and caught your ear at the same time.  We tried to do the same with these tracks.  Hope you like 'em.

Obviously, this compilation was a labor of love for Chad, and I suspect the same was true for most of the bands.  I don't mean to say everyone who contributed to this was a big PERE UBU fan.  I, in fact, have never owned a single one of their albums (although I did see them at the Newport in the early '90s, and it was a pretty good show).  But there were certainly UBU fans involved, and the fact that Chad went out of his way to make sure only Ohio bands appeared on it made having a track on it kind of special.

I remember being pretty happy when this finally came out (three years after OXYMORONS broke up) to find that our cover of "Honeymoon" was chosen as the very first track.  I'm about 90% that song was one of three or four songs we recorded the very last time we were in the studio together.  And I remember being especially pleased with how we reworked the original song.  Everyone sort of did their part.  The processed voice saying "Honeymoon" at the beginning is Ben speaking through some kind of plastic, toy megaphone he got at the dollar store.  He, Nick, and Grog basically figured out the whole arrangement and dynamics.  I added the squealy riff at the beginning and end by tripling up the guitar part.  I remember Ben and I particularly liking that effect, and I was looking forward to using it more on other OXYMORONS stuff in the future.  But that never happened, of course.  We had gone into the studio knowing our days were numbered as a band, but I don't remember thinking of this as the last time we would ever record anything -- not at the time.

In addition to being a pretty good comp, this is also a pretty good slice of the statewide indie rawk scene in the '90s.  Not every good band is represented, but a lot of them are.  Other Dayton bands (that I recognize) on this are CAGE and BRAINIAC.  There might be others that I don't recognize.  Notable Columbus bands represented here are SCRAWL, NEW BOMB TURKS (of course!), and PET UFO (who have actually made 4 songs from their 1994 album available for listening on PET UFO's Myspace page).  You'll also find the rare, late '90s appearance of RC MOB on this one.  And then there's ASS PONYS who enjoyed some moderate (and deserved) success in the '90s representing Cincinnati.

Not much else to say.  Overall, yeah it's spotty in parts, like most compilations.  But there are some really great tracks.  It's been my pleasure to share the plastic on these discs with every one of these bands.

Track listing, Disc 1:

• 1. sample - the original songs... (0:08)
• 2. The Oxymorons - Honeymoon (2:22)
• 3. Gary Lou Pico - We Have The Technology (2:52)
• 4. Puff Tube - I Will Wait (2:06)
• 5. The Revellers - Heaven (4:39)
• 6. Blue - 30 Seconds Over Tokyo (4:37)
• 7. Cobra Verde - Chinese Radiation (3:25)
• 8. The Haynes Boys - Kathleen (3:34)
• 9. Syrup - On The Surface (3:11)
• 10. Code-X - Vivians (5:28)
• 11. Clay - George Had A Hat (3:45)
• 12. Muzzle - Bus Called Happiness (3:05)
• 13. Campfire Walkers - Modern Dance (3:02)
• 14. Steamshovel - Caligari's Mirror (4:44)
• 15. Sosumi - Humor Me (3:53)
• 16. Flaming Telepaths - Non-Alignment Pact (4:20)
• 17. Laughing - Dock Ellis (5:28)
• 18. Jones - Supie T (3:25)
• 19. Lord Burger - Final Solution (Slight Return) (0:15)

Track listing, Disc 2:

• 1. Cage - Goodnight Irene (3:56)
• 2. Wax Tadpole - Turpentine (2:36)
• 3. Scrawl - Go (3:41)
• 4. Rainy Day Saints - Heart Of Darkness (4:23)
• 5. Brainiac - Petrified (2:23)
• 6. Skullbank - Streetwaves (3:52)
• 7. Quazimodo - Non-Alignment Pact (1:48)
• 8. New Bomb Turks - Life Stinks (3:36)
• 9. G Spot Tornado - Come Home (5:01)
• 10. Kaj Mi Nuka - New Broom (3:54)
• 11. Creature - Heaven (2:33)
• 12. Satellites - Real World (4:29)
• 13. Ass Ponys - Not Happy (3:25)
• 14. RC Mob - My Dark Ages (4:37)
• 15. Pet UFO - Race The Sun (2:33)
• 16. One Riot Ranger - Cloud 149 (3:35)
• 17. Girly Machine - Misery Goats (3:20)
• 18. Honk, Wail And Moan - Thoughts Go By Steam (5:33)
• 19. Gem - Blow Daddy-O (6:05)
• 20. Gaunt - "..." (1:53)

Download it!  (205 MB)

take care,

---Jones()

CAGE / TIGERLILIES split 7" (vinyl, 1994)

Nick Kizirnis put CAGE together not too long after THE RAGING MANTRAS (a.k.a. THE KILLJOYS) broke up. Whether playing as KILLJOYS or MANTRAS, that band had been a Dayton staple for five or six years before drummer Jim MacPherson joined THE BREEDERS in 1992.

I want to pause here just a second and put in my own two-cents to the effect that Jim's leaving the MANTRAS for THE BREEDERS was the pivotal event in the old Dayton music timeline. That one thing, in my opinion, really shifted the landscape here. Before it happened, the general thinking around here seemed to be that if you were in Dayton and you wanted to be successful playing music, you had to move somewhere else. BIG BROWN HOUSE did it. AFGHAN WHIGS did it. GUIDED BY VOICES did it. It just seemed that nobody in the tri-state area started a band without also deciding where they were going to move to at some point.

That seemed to change a little when THE BREEDERS drafted Jim and then had a top ten hit with "Cannonball." Suddenly (and briefly), Dayton was the cool place to be.

I doubt Nick had any of that in mind when CAGE got together, but along with BRAINIAC, I think of CAGE as one of the first bands to sport that indie-rawk sound around these parts. You know what I mean: tuneful pop stylings with a healthy dose of feedback, noise, squelched vocals, and lyrics full of ironic self-deprecation and vague pop-culture references (lots of hyphens too -- let's not forget how much we indie rawkers love our hyphens). Others followed, of course -- OXYMORONATRON, CIGARHEAD, MY LATEX BRAIN. Some of them still exist today. But I think of CAGE and BRAINIAC as the first. And when I think of the time when CAGE got started, I also think of the time when most people stopped looking to move somewhere else in order to "make it." But I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. For whatever reason, I still think of Dayton as a place that people should strive to get away from -- or at least not a place where one should be comfortable.

In any case, we here present CAGE's split 7" with Cincinnati's THE TIGERLILIES. As you might notice, the CAGE lineup draws heavily from THE RAGING MANTRAS' (only Rob Schaefer and Jim are absent). The only different member is Matt Espy (on drums) who came to CAGE from WALLAROO SOUTH. Finally, although Nick Kizirnis would perform most of the vocal duties in this band, here Gregg Spence (also of THE UNDERDOGS) gives us the lead vocal.

Download it! (13 MB) (link re-upped 2-4-2013)

take care

---Jones()

UPDATE (4/18/2011): Andy Valeri tells me that Big Beef still has copies of this available for sale. Go to the Big Beef site to get one for your very own (lots of information about CAGE there too).

REAL LULU, Underground Sessions (unreleased, cassette, 1995(?))

Let's rock:

To celebrate my invective return to the blogosphere (veni, vidi, vexavi!), I Remember Dayton presents you, the fortunate few, with these gems of Gem City rock lore. Yes, dear reader, long forgotten by most and dismissed as mere fairytale by those who remember, these coveted tracks come to you courtesy of the faithful stewardship of Mr. Mike Kilbourne (a.k.a. Mite, he of GLEE & BEAK preservation fame).

Formerly a WWSU jock, Mite went on to host an underground rock music show on WYSO 91.3 for a couple of years in the mid-'90s (see the flyer at the top of this post and the newspaper article a little further down -- click on the article to get a readable version). It usually aired from 10-12 p.m. on Friday nights following the legendary Rev. Cool's Around the Fringe show (which still airs today on the same station every Friday from 8 p.m. to midnight -- tune in). Being a good supporter of local music, Mite played a lot of local recordings and often had local acts in to play a few live songs in the studio. And being a man of foresight, he recorded most of them for posterity.

Even Mite isn't sure what the entire list of bands he recorded encompasses, but he told me it includes, inter alia, CAGE, HIP SHAKIN' DADDIES, AUNT BEANIE'S FIRST PRIZE BEATS (recorded during his stint on the Afternoon Excursions program), PASTURES GREEN, JAYNE SACHS, PUZZLE OF LIGHT, CRAIG HOUSTON, TEX, and HEIKE (a band featuring yours truly, although I had forgotten completely that we had played his radio show until he mentioned it). That's right, Mite's got what are probably one-of-a-kind recordings of each one of these titans of Dayton indie rock (and roots) music live in the WYSO studios. And barring a few obsessive individuals who might've taped them, nobody's heard any of this stuff in about twelve years, which makes them just ripe for posting here.

Some things Mite recorded he doesn't have access to right now (by the way, Dennis, Mite wants his DAT back!), but he does have five tracks from REAL LULU playing acoustically.

At the time of this recording, REAL LULU was:

Kattie Dougherty - guitar, voice
Sharon Gavlick - bass, voice
Gregg Spence - drums

According to Mite, REAL LULU appeared on his show twice. The first three tracks in the download package are from their first visit to the studio and feature Kattie and Sharon but no Gregg. But Gregg did come along for the second visit and played on the last two tracks offered here today. As Mite tells it, Gregg's kit for these recordings was a cymbal, bass drum,(either a bucket or trash can) and a coffee can played with pieces of molding.

Mite's best guess places these recordings in 1995. As already documented on this blog (though only in photographs) REAL LULU made at least one other visit to WYSO on Jason Branzina's show in February 1997.

I know I listened to at least one of those shows, and I used to have a recording of it. But although I've torn the house apart looking for it, I can't find it anywhere. However, on the show I taped, I distinctly remember Kattie announcing "Smoking You Away" as a brand new song during the interview segment of the program. So if this is the same show I recorded, then you might be listening to the first public performance of that tune.

Track List:

1. Smoking You Away
2. Nightly
3. You
4. You (with Gregg Spence)
5. Let Me (with Gregg Spence)

Download It! (16 MB) (link re-upped 2-1-2013)

Electrified versions of all these songs would later appear on REAL LULU's debut CD, We Love Nick in 1996.

The version of "Let Me" from that album appeared on the soundtrack of the movie Angel Eyes, starring Jennifer "Gigli" Lopez and Jim "Jesus" Caviezel (2001). And although it doesn't play over the credits, a notable chunk of the song is featured prominently in the film. I don't remember exactly where (I've never watched the entire movie), but there's a scene in which someone opens the door of an apartment and you can hear it blaring from the stereo within. About five years ago, I was working on the computer down in the basement, and I suddenly heard "Let Me" coming through my TV speakers. It took me a moment to place the tune, and when I did, I laughed out loud.

For those who don't know, the "Nick" in We Love Nick is, of course, Nick Kizirnis (THE OBVIOUS, THE KILLJOYS/RAGING MANTRAS, CAGE, THE JET AGE, NICKY KAY AND HIS FABULOUS KAY-TONES, and solo artist too).

There's just one little bit of bad news with this one: Mite's tape cut out just a couple of seconds before the end of "Let Me." It's kind of a downer, but there's enough of the song there for die-hard REAL LULU fans to enjoy.

Two more things before we go. First, thanks to all who wrote through my ongoing stupid crisis. I had some interesting discussions and appreciate all the support. Second, WWSU alum Matt DeWald presented me last week with two amazing finds: (1) a reel-to-reel tape containing either the original or remixed version of "Das Boot" (see this blog entry if you don't know what that is) and (2) a cassette full of old DEMENTIA PRECOX stuff with an additional song each by MOM and BAD ELVIS IMPERSONATORS -- will post soon.

take care

---Jones()

THE KILLJOYS (a.k.a. THE RAGING MANTRAS), Will (promo cassette, 1989)

NICK KIZIRNIS (who played guitar in THE KILLJOYS/RAGING MANTRAS) is playing a solo gig tomorrow night at Therapy. Show starts at 9 p.m.

Okay, if you want to skip my rant about snow, weather, and stupid people, just scroll down until you see the list of band members.

Let me guess: it's snowing like a motherfucker and you're stuck inside desperately browsing the web for something to keep your mind off the fact that you won't be able to go anywhere tonight or, if you're at work, that you still have to drive home in this shit?

Maybe I'm wrong about all that, but I, for one, am getting a little tired of this snow bullshit. Maybe it's global warming as Al Gore would have us believe (and I agree) or maybe it's god deciding to fuck with Ohio (and who could blame him?) or maybe it's the all-pervasive aura of crap and bad times that has always seemed to saturate this area, but whatever the reason, the weather around here is totally fucking off and has been for years now. Three days ago we had a monsoon -- today, a blizzard.

And I'm not going to be able to drive up to school tonight for Business Associations class. Oh yeah, did I mention that law schools never ever close for weather? Seriously. I mean, they do close sometimes, but in the last two and a half years, I remember Capital closing for weather exactly once -- and that was under far worse conditions than this. Maybe it's the bar's way of thinning the glut of lawyers that law schools produce -- I mean, 35% of the people who started with me have already dropped out, and apparently that's only a little more than typical (I think the national average is 25% or thereabouts). For the 60% remaining, maybe the bar figures they can cut that down if we have to make repeated death-defying journeys through mountains of snow all the time. Who knows?

But it's not really the weather or the driving or the shovelling that really crimps my dick, it's the way Daytonians react to the possibility of a few flakes of snow as if they are heralds of the apocalypse. No shit, people around here go absolutely insane with fear right before we get snow. The news today advised people to pick up ten gallons of water per day per person in the house! I went to the grocery store this morning to pick up some cat food, and as usual I found it jam packed with people grabbing snow shovels and filling up carts with groceries. I don't quite understand that. I mean, we've had some bad snow in the past, but at its worst, I don't remember being stuck in the house for more than a day, maybe two at most.

Yet people are stocking enough groceries for a week. I don't understand why they do that. Do they think we'll all be trapped in our houses for that long, even though it's meteorogically impossible for Ohio to get that much snow? Do they just not keep enough groceries on hand to last more than half a day? Is there something about snow that commands Americans to consume 200% more than the oversized portion of the world's resources that they consumer already? Fuck.

But what the hell? It's for exactly times like this that I save up the best treats to be found among our (meaning Grog's, Gail's, and my) collections of Gem City Arcana. This one comes from my bag of tricks. Let's do it:

THE KILLJOYS were:

Rob Schaefer - bass, vocals
Jim MacPherson - drums
Ed Lacy - keyboards
Nick Kizirnis - guitars, vocals
Gregg Spence - guitars, vocals

Gregg is not credited on any of the materials included on this tape (because he didn't usually play live with these guys), but I know he at least played some guitar on it (listen for the clean Rickenbacker -- all distorted guitars and all leads are by Nick), and I'm pretty sure he supplied some backing vocals.

The cassette is a Maxell UR 60 that Nick Kizirnis gave me long ago. The info sheet says the tape contains an "advance excerpt" from a planned full-length release called Will, but I'm pretty sure this is more than just an excerpt. Although Nick wrote the titles of only five songs on the insert, the tape actually contains eight. I'm pretty sure that's everything they recorded for Will.

Here's what the band has to say on the info sheet that came with this cassette:

Formed early in 1987, the Killjoys have been playing in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas and plan to release an all original cassette, entitled Will, early in 1990. The band has been called alternative/progressive rock, and are known for their strong live shows.

The Killjoys play original songs, though they will torture songs by the Jet Black Berries and True West, as well as pieces by other alternative/college oriented (whatever that means) bands.

The Killjoys are Rob Schaefer (bass and vocals), Jim MacPherson (drums), Ed Lacy (keyboards), and Nick Kizirnis (guitars and vocals). All four have been previously involved in other musical projects in the Dayton area. They are now playing in the midwest and promoting their upcoming cassette. The enclosed cassette is an advance excerpt from Will.

I've never seen a production copy of Will. THE KILLJOYS circulated tapes like this among radio stations, clubs, and friends for promotional purposes before Will was released. As I said, the tape is consumer branded, and came with an information sheet folded in a way so as to be slipped into the cassette case displaying part of a picture of the band (taken at Canal Street Tavern) through the front of the box. A scan of the sheet containing the full picture is included in the download package. Sorry about the fold lines, but it had been sitting in the cassette case folded up like that for fifteen years before I scanned it.

After changing their name to THE RAGING MANTRAS, this band released another cassette in 1991 called Fish Head Test Monkey Music (which may have been the first official release on Big Beef Records, but only Andy Valeri would know for sure).

I must've seen THE KILLJOYS dozens of times between 1988 and 1992, before and after they changed their name to THE RAGING MANTRAS (because, according to Ed, there were already too many other things named "Killjoy" at the time). Both THE OXYMORONS and PLANET ED played with them many times, and all of us got be fairly good friends. They were the only band that ever got me to dance (that includes DEMENTIA PRECOX -- much as I love 'em). Long before Nick gave me this cassette, all these tunes were pretty well burned into my brain just through seeing them live.

Rob Schaefer was a very tall guy with long hair, glasses, and huge hands for bass playing (Gail used to say he looked like a Teddy Graham from far away if you squinted right). As I remember, he was more or less the dominant creative force behind most of what THE KILLJOYS did. My impression is that Nick, Rob, Ed, and Jim contributed pretty much equally to the music and the whole theatrical thing that came with this band, but Rob had the most input overall and seemed to write most of the lyrics (if one of the band members would like to correct me on that, they should feel free). His day job at the time was as a manager at the famous Rock'n'Roll Kinko's on Brown Street (so called because pretty much every band in Dayton went there to get flyers done -- usually while Rob was working). After THE RAGING MANTRAS broke up, I believe he pursued that career full time. The last time I saw him was in 1994. Jen Cook and I came to Kinko's to get COLAVISION flyers copied. We talked for a while, and I never saw him again. I don't know where he is today.

Chances are you already know as much as I could tell you about Jim MacPherson, but for clarity's sake, here are the basics: he played drums in this band and, at that time, had a bigger kit (eight or nine pieces, I think) than he would later use in THE BREEDERS. Jim wrote the lyrics for "Spaceman Jack" and maybe others. He had been in one or two bands prior to THE KILLJOYS. This interview with Jim MacPherson briefly discusses (among other things) how Jim came to leave THE RAGING MANTRAS and join THE BREEDERS. He played drums for a number of bands later, including REAL LULU and GUIDED BY VOICES. Find out more at his Wikipedia entry.

Ed Lacy is in my top five most intelligent people I've ever known (specifically, he's number three -- edged out of the top spots only by my genius older brother and my super-genius high school buddy Kris Pleis). He can talk politics, music, art, literature, and science in a genuinely engaging way (a rare talent among the super intelligent). He can appreciate the complexities of life's big abstractions as well as the significance of the seemingly mundane. Ed was entering his thirties at the time of THE KILLJOYS' heyday (if they had a heyday), so he already had a bit more history to speak of among the punk and alt-rock subcultures than the rest of us. Apparently, in his youth, Ed was fond of pulling public theater type pranks like showing up to greet Ronald Reagan while he was on the campaign trail in 1980: dressed in a Nazi SS uniform and just standing their silently the entire time with one arm outstretched in Zeig-Heil style. In my entire life, I don't think I've ever done anything that cool -- Ed was doing stuff like that as a teenager.

After THE RAGING MANTRAS, Ed played in CAGE (with Nick Kizirnis), THE LAWN JOCKEYS, and a number of others. I remember several occasions over the years in which he and I would talk about playing some music together (most recently, in 2003 when I wanted him to play piano for a cover of "Christmastime Is Here" at THE VECTORS CD-giveaway Christmas show), but we never got around to doing it.

Throughout his time playing in Dayton bands, Ed was also a substitute and later a full-time teacher for Dayton Public Schools, but he got out of that a few years ago. Until 2005, when he finally shook the dust of Dayton off his feet and moved to Florida, he worked with a former friend (and Angelle Gullet) at Mazer. I'm not sure what Ed is doing musically or professionally now.

One last thing on Ed: for those who don't know, yes, he is the "Ed" after which my old band PLANET ED was named.

I'll have more to say about Nick Kizirnis when I post on THE OBVIOUS (his first band), but for now, I'll just say he's an all around great guy with a distinguished history playing music around these parts. After THE RAGING MANTRAS, he formed CAGE (indie rock combo which also included Ed Lacy, Matt Espy, and Gregg Spence) and THE MULCHMEN (surf-rock, with Gregg Spence and Brian Hogarth), both of which broke up in the mid-'90s. More recently, he played with THE JET AGE (which included former members of OO OO WA, among others) but quit that band in 2004 (I think). Later that year, he released a solo album called Into the Loud, which is available from Atom Records and through Nick's web site. Today, his band NICKY KAY AND HIS FABULOUS KAY-TONES is currently on hiatus, but here's hoping they get back together soon. Most recently, I saw him play with a kids music band (the man can play anything) at the Greene around Halloween 2007. You can catch him solo tomorrow night (Saturday, March 7, 2008) at Therapy on Third Street here in town.

If I could play in a band with any Dayton musician right now, it would be Nick Kizirnis.

Big Beef Records produced a two hour RAGING MANTRAS live video available at this link (it's near the bottom of the page, so you'll have to scroll down a ways). The video pretty much captures the full-blown RAGING MANTRAS multi-media stage show (accurately described in the write up on the video).

Will Dalgard roadied for these guys extensively, so I think he should get a little credit for making this music possible.

Okay, this post has become a monster, and I want to save a few things to say for when I post THE RAGING MANTRAS other cassette, Fish Head Test Monkey Music. So just a few track notes before we get to the download:

• The music is actually better classed as prog-rock, rather than indie rock (I always thought of these guys as kind of like a slicker-sounding PERE UBU or CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN with longer and more complex arrangements). This was before the big local music explosion of 1994, and at that time Dayton had a far smaller number of bands than it does today. So out of necessity, bands of widely varying genres would end up on the same bill. It wasn't uncommon to see punk from THE OXYMORONS or THE OBVIOUS on the same bill as R&B from TOOBA BLOOZE, new wave from THE PLEASURES PALE, dance-pop from DEMENTIA PRECOX, or prog-rock from THE KILLJOYS.
• I believe "Spaceman Jack" is about a hunting accident Jim had once.
• The dialogue in the middle of "Nightstick" is spoken by Nick Kizirnis (as the cop) and Ed Lacy (as the motorist). This was always my favorite KILLJOYS song, and I'm pretty sure it was a favorite with Ben, Nick, and Grog too. THE OXYMORONS used to make a habit of spontaneously launching into a mangled rendition of the last few bars of "Nightstick" whenever we felt like it.
• Gail has lent me a tape that includes DOBIE WILLIS covering "I Pledge" at a Musician's Co-Op show that is simply priceless (the same tape also contains a solo set by Nick Kizirnis -- will post the whole thing soon).
• My only complaint about this tape is that "Dance of the Thundergods" does not include the spoken-word "Hermaphrodite Story" that Rob used to tell as an intro when THE KILLJOYS played it live. Although I have no recording of Rob telling that story, I do have a recording of Ben doing a hilarious parody of it at an OXYMORONS practice.
• For gee-tar geeks, I'm pretty sure Nick was using a Les Paul with a Rat Pedal and a Roland Jazz Chorus for most of this (Nick, correct me if I'm wrong -- I've played guitar for twenty-four years, but I'm still pretty clueless about guitar equipment).
• All these songs were recorded at the Cro-Magnon studios in its original location on the opposite side of the Front Street Warehouse from where it later moved in the early '90s. At that time Cro-Mag was 8 tracks.
• All these songs were engineered by Joe Buben.

Track List:

1. Spaceman Jack
2. Raging Heart
3. Nightstick
4. I Pledge
5. When Will It Come?
6. Dance of the Thundergods
7. Diseases of the Tongue
8. Nothing New

Download It! (52 MB) (link re-upped 2-1-2013)

For some reason, I mis-titled "Diseases of the Tongue" as "Throb" in the download package -- don't know why I did that.

Anyway, download, listen, enjoy (and go see Nick tomorrow night at Therapy, 9 p.m.).

So now I see that they have, in fact, closed the law school. Happy Snow Day!

take care

---Jones()

GREGG SPENCE, 3 songs (cassette, unofficial, 1989)

There's little I can say about Gregg that I didn't already say in THE UNDERDOGS post, or that you can't read in these articles at the Big Beef Records site. So I'll just give you some background on the three songs here.

The songs were recorded some time in 1989 at Cro-Magnon studios, engineered by Joe Buben. Gregg did these for submission to Bob Moore's Breathe on the Living LP project. This was a double-LP (with an extra LP of outtakes that contributors received) of music, spoken word, poetry, noise, etc. that Bob compiled and released as the Spring Quarter '89 issue of Wright State University's literary magazine Nexus. Also representing Dayton on that record were THE OXYMORONS, CHRIS POSPISIL, and LAURA AND LARRY ALBRECHT. When I get a better turntable, I'll rip all three discs I have and post it.

Gregg is playing his trusty blue Rickenbacker semi-hollow, which is the only guitar I ever saw him play except for one time at PJ's underground when he played my guitar for an impromptu performance of "Righteous Tune" with Ian and Ben at an OXYMORONS show. That's where the photos came from (I don't have any photos of Gregg playing his Rickenbacker). In the one at the top, that's Gregg in the foreground and Ian Uppstrom in the background (Ian's playing Grog's bass); Ben must be behind the drums. In the other one, Gregg is on the left while Ben (foreground) and Grog (background) are on the right. OXYMORONS used to cover "One of the Boys" by Mott the Hoople, which was a favorite of Gregg's, so I'm guessing that's what we're playing in that photo. These photos were most likely taken in the fall of 1989 (NOTE: I scanned these at 300 dpi, so they'll get a lot bigger if you click on them).

"Dribble Glass" is the one Bob chose for the LP. The lyrics to this song had been published as a poem in the Fall 1988 issue of Nexus.

"Rich Kid Avenue" later appeared on a CD comp called Hydroponic Mascara, vol. 2. I once asked Gregg what he meant by "my tires are painting the pavement blue." He said he had no idea.

"Nineteen" was an UNDERDOGS' song. As far as I know, this version was never released anywhere. This has always been my favorite Gregg Spence song. About a year before Gregg's death, Andy Valeri organized a benefit show for him at the downtown 1470. My old band HEIKE played a set and closed with this song. I believe there's a video tape of that show floating around somewhere.

Speaking of which, I know that Andy, Grog, and especially Tom Carter have tons of video relevant to this period in Dayton music history. Hey guys, ever heard of YouTube? What the fuck?

When Gregg gave Bob the tape of these songs to listen to, I made a copy for myself down at WSU's secondary studio. So I believe this would be second generation from the original reels. I put them on the same cassette that had my master copy of the first OXYMORONS tape, and they've been sitting there ever since.

Track List:

1. Dribble Glass
2. Rich Kid Avenue
3. Nineteen

Download It! (10 MB) (link re-upped 2-1-2013)

Gregg, of course, had dozens (if not hundreds) of other songs he did when he played solo shows around town. Of the few covers he used to do at those shows, I specifically recollect "A New England" by Billy Bragg and "Watching the Detectives" by Elvis Costello (and I'm sure there was some Richard Thompson in there too). No doubt somebody somewhere has at least one of those shows on tape. If it's you, please come forward. I'd love to post it.

You can find an in-progress Gregg Spence discography here.

You can read about the various Gregg Spence benefit shows that took place over the course of 1999 here.

You can view video of Gregg performing "Nineteen" and "Head Above Water" here (RealPlayer required).

You can buy your own Rickenbacker guitar here. No doubt they still carry them in blue...

In 1990, when Chris Rue and I were editing Nexus, we published another Gregg Spence poem entitled "Beat Poetry for Beginners," which is less a poem than an excuse to poke fun at Allen Ginsberg wannabes. Jen Cook (of COLAVISION) and some other characters later took the title of this poem as the name of their band (which never recorded anything and played, as far as I know, only one show -- but I was there, and Gail still has their sticker in her diary). I still have Gregg's typed and signed manuscript of this poem -- will post some time.

take care

---Jones

THE UNDERDOGS, Essential U-Dogs Poop (unofficial, cassette, 1988)

More of the damn finest pop punk to come out of Dayton... ever. Best comparisons include THE RAMONES, THE REPLACEMENTS, THE DAMNED. If you liked the SOURBELLY and OXYMORONS stuff (or even if you didn't), you'll love the U-DOGS.

I don't know how Gregg Spence and Ian Uppstrom got together and decided to form a band, but shortly thereafter they placed an ad and started auditioning drummers. After going through a seemingly endless run of Neil Peart and John Bonham clones, they ran across Ben. Gregg hated him. Although Ben chose a better role model (Keith Moon) than the others, his playing was way too loud and uneven, and he rode the cymbals like a madman. To top it off, Ben interrupted the first practice at one point and said he'd like the band to sound like a mix of The Who and U-2. Gregg was ready to leave, but Ian took him aside, explaining "This is the LAST drummer in Dayton! It's this guy, or nobody!" So they practiced more, and eventually, everything clicked (though after the first U-DOGS show, some nameless listener snidely told Gregg, "You guys'd be great if somebody took your drummer's cymbals away.").

Over the next year, the U-DOGS played various places around Dayton, including the old Building Lounge, Canal Street Tavern, and once at a mental hospital (I think Ben's mom got them that gig). But after a year or so, Gregg's chronic ill-health made the demands of a band difficult to meet, and the U-DOGS broke up.

A couple of years later, Gregg briefly fronted a similar combo called MEAN MELISSA. In the '90s, he played guitar or drums in a string of bands including THE KILLJOYS, CAGE, SOURBELLY, THE MULCHMEN and REAL LULU. Throughout this time, he also played several solo gigs (I'll be sharing a few of his solo recordings in a future episode of this blog). Toward the end of the decade, Gregg's health deteriorated markedly. He died in January 2000.

Ben Schelker went from the U-DOGS to form THE OXYMORONS and later CANDYASS (from both of which I'll be sharing). He died in 1997.

I lost track of Ian Uppstrom a long time ago. If he's still alive, he's the last surviving member of this band.

The archive for download isn't an official release (to my knowledge, the U-DOGS never had an official release). It's a compilation of studio recordings, 4-track demos, and live stuff dubbed by Ben for Grog shortly after THE OXYMORONS got together in 1989. Somebody somewhere probably has better sounding recordings (Nick Kizirnis, I'm looking in your direction...), but this is what I have. The songs are in the same order as they were on that tape. For some inexplicable reason, the track listing in Ben's handwriting on the cover bears little relationship to the tracks as they appear on the cassette. Thus I don't know the titles of all these songs (if you do, let me know).

Even without an official release, "Righteous Tune" became a local hit a year or so after the U-DOGS broke up and received much airplay on my show and others on college radio station WWSU. Gregg told me the song was actually inspired by THE OBVIOUS, another Dayton band at the time that was getting some attention "on the college charts." Although there's a certain amount of spite in the lyrics toward THE OBVIOUS' upper middle class origins in Centerville ("call it a feeling, something in your soul, but it's a little green card that takes you where you wanna go/your mom and dad always wanted the best for you..."), there's also some grudging admiration. The "Righteous Tune" that the song is about is, after all, the title track of "Home," the first release by THE OBVIOUS. According to Gregg, he wrote this song after hearing "Home" on the radio while driving to a U-DOGS gig.

"Volare Ride to Hell" is about Gregg's shitty car.

"She" is the first song Ben ever wrote. Greg told me that Ben had bugged him for songwriting advice throughout the U-DOGS' existence, but this was the closest he ever came to writing anything that wasn't absolute shit. Fortunately, by the time he started OXYMORONS, Ben's songwriting had improved somewhat.

I can't say much else about the individual tracks, except that the live stuff was recorded at The Building Lounge, the 4-track demos were recorded in Ben's parents' basement, and the studio tracks were recorded at Cro-Magnon -- all in 1988.

As I mentioned above, Gregg and Ben (and maybe Ian) would go on to other bands, and in their own way, those bands were better than the U-DOGS. But there's something in these recordings that none of their other efforts ever reproduced. Gregg's heartfelt songwriting, so influenced by Elvis Costello and Paul Westerberg, gets an incredible dose of exuberance from Ian and Ben's frantic, driving rhythm section. It's a somewhat rare mix of talent, creativity, and energy.

The UNDERDOGS were:

Gregg Spence - guitar, voice
Ian Uppstrom - bass, backing voice
Ben Shelcker - drums, backing voice

Track list:

1. unknown
2. Righteous Tune
3. unknown
4. Nineteen
5. Soft Spot (4-track)
6. Prayers
7. Volare Ride to Hell (4-track)
8. Volare Ride to Hell
9. Count One Out
10. unknown
11. She
12. 3 Bucks 'til Pay Day
13. C.I.D.
14. Climbing the Walls
15. Signal 30
16. Neat, Neat, Neat
17. unknown instrumental
18. unknown instrumental

Download It! (48 MB) (link re-upped on 2-1-2013)

take care

---Jones

NEXT EPISODE: LIQUID DRAINO!