Billy Synth............ Mama Don't Allow No Technopop Playin' Around Here..... (Harrisburg 1970s, 80s and beyond)

Billy Synth calls for a new Tapewrecks category: "Beat of His/Her Own Drum."  Critics might turn their nose up at technical skills or unorthodox style, but the band plays on, either oblivious or not giving a shit, with a small number of devoted friends and fans who appreciate what they do.  The rest of us only catch on much later.

Billy has his own original style embracing the synthesizer as an implement of mayhem in Harrisburg a few years before the great proliferation of PA punk began around 1980 and most other synthesizer bands were playing crappy MTV pop. Mama don't allow no technopop playin' around here. Nooo way.

Billy has established his garage punk cred as the creator of the Psychedelic Unknowns series of 60s garage compilations, and the mysterious force behind Frog and Rabbit Records and the Pennsylvania Rock Archives, so his own bizarre sounds come from the deepest recesses of mid-state vinyl junkiedom.

I hadn't heard from Billy Synth for years until a few months ago, while sifting through the Frog and Rabbit catalog, I was jolted once more by that unmistakable voice. Some vocalists sing from the throat and others from the chest.  But Billy seems to sing from the large intestine.  I knew this had to be the same fellow.  Sure enough.  He was 16 when Billy and the Starjets recorded You Changed in the early 70s.

Then he changed. What came over Billy?

...when I bought my Arp Odyssey synthesizer. We first had a group called Blue Ice... we began as an early '70s "classic" rock band, because we were hippies and that's what we grew up with....

Blue Ice (1977)
Power Play

...Then, when "new wave" came along, I liked it and left Blue Ice to form a more punk-like band, the Janitors....  I hooked up with Bernie, the original "punk rock janitor" (yes, he was in another punk group AND a janitor!)....  That didn't last long, really, even though we did release a few EPs... After a year or so, I got back together with Blue Ice (with new drummer Joe Gear). They had already "gone punk" themselves and changed their name to the Turn Ups, so it was all-cool again. When we recorded our first LP, it was like Stevinyl-guitar, Billy-synth, etc., and that's how I got the name....

Billy might have started one of central PA's first punk rock bands around 1978 with The Janitors. They released a couple of EPs around 1978 but I haven't been able to find any of the tracks. [Update: Billy sent me the Rock & Roll Casualty EP. Check out the Billy Synth & the Janitors post here.]

...There were actually quite a few "new wave/punk"-type bands around here then.  We played shows with groups such as the Sharks, the Late Teens, Reesa & the Rooters (Philly) and the Slickee Boys (DC).  There were a few nice venues to play, such as the Metron, Rumpelstiltskins, the Landing...  Also, an annual pig roast! ...I can't remember how we first connected, but Bernie & I from the Janitors went down to see Half Japanese with our instruments, and when we got there, we just started playing.  I mean, it was 1, 2, 3, 4, and we all started playing ANYTHING.  No rehearsal, no NOTHING! That's how it came out.  Sooo strange!

The Janitors and Half Japanese Hartzdale Drive Destruction

I first heard The TurnUps on Bona Fide Records Train To Disaster comp, and then I found Billy Synth & the Turnups Disorderly Conduct (1983) at a record swap in York County.

I'm So Sick of It
Music Is Forever
Madison Shuffle
Pushin' Too Hard

Billy's later bands included the Traces of Thyme (early 90s)
Oh Jane
and the Windowpaynes
Sweet Pea/Hooray for Hazel
And finally, Billy Starboy and The Tyme Machine's homage to the beat of different drum entirely - a cover of Lancaster's Joey Welz doozy: Rockin' In America

More from Billy Synth & Many Friends!

And even more: Alien X 117 Good stuff!  Stay tuned for more wreckage!

The Turnups on The Deadly Spawn Compilation

Billy Synth & the Janitors... ........ ...Punk Rock Janitors (Harrisburg 1978-80)

The great central Pennsylvania musical oddball Billy Synth sent me this 1978 EP after posting the last tapewrecks retrospective of his music. The Janitors were started by Billy and Bernie, the Capital City Mall custodian, who apparently lost his job for wearing spandex pants to work, or so the story goes.... Billy seems to have been the singer early on, with Bernie taking over as they turned into the Punk Rock Janitors. Please correct me if I'm wrong and send me details if you have them.

Everytime You Give Me a Call
Rock & Roll Casualty
Captain Groovy
Misty Lane Fadeout

Billy Synth: When I bought my Arp Odyssey synthesizer.  We first had a group called Blue Ice, and we recorded one 45....

I eventually left Blue Ice because I liked the new wave scene and wanted a strictly punk-oriented band.  I hooked up with Bernie, the original "punk rock janitor" (yes, he was in another punk group AND a janitor!), another friend, Mikearama, and Dave Tritt on drums.... [Attacking the Beat]

At some point the Janitors got together with Half Japanese and played a set of outright insanity that was released as an EP:

Hartzdale Drive Destruction

Billy: I can't remember how we first connected, but Bernie & I from the Janitors went down to see Half Japanese with our instruments, and when we got there, we just started playing.  I mean, it was 1, 2, 3, 4, and we all started playing ANYTHING.  No rehearsal, no NOTHING!  That's how it came out.  Sooo strange!  [Attacking the Beat]

After Billy moved on to play with the Turn-Ups, Bernie took over on vocals and they re-dubbed themselves The Punk Rock Janitors. Harrisburg's Tina Peel (later known as The Fuzztones) had them as an opening act for many shows.

Work to Live
Just Once

Rob Doorack (Fuzztones roadie): The zenith of the Janitors' career came when the Fuzztones secured the audition gig at CBGB for them and a couple of hours of time in a small recording studio the same day....

That night the Janitors played to a nearly empty CBGB. The audience consisted of a half dozen Japanese tourists, the Fuzztones, their crew, and a few friends. The Janitors didn't care, they were completely awestruck by standing on the same stage where their heroes the Ramones had played. You'd have thought they were playing before 50,000 people. Danny was so nervous that he threw up before going on.

...The band played like they were possessed, careening around the stage madly, jumping in the air, completely uninhibited. At one point Bernie leaped off the front of the stage and crashed down onto the club's concrete floor on his knees without missing a note. Danny played a solo lying on his back with his head in a kick drum. When the Janitors had blasted through every song they knew they just stopped. Those of us in the audience were too stunned by what we'd seen to even applaud. For a moment we just stood there like sheep, mouths agape in astonishment and wonder.

The Janitors went back to Harrisburg the next day and broke up shortly after.... [Audio Asylum]

The complete Punk Rock Janitors CD is available on Sin Records.
Thanks to Pat Phos Martin and the Bands of Central PA page for the links and info.

Sept 2015 ADDENDUM: Mind Cure Records just released a mindcuring compilation of Billy Synth recordings 1977 to 1982 and the 1980 "Off the Deep End" LP that are beyond description. If you like what's on this post, you won't be disappointed.

The Train to Disaster............... .......Bona Fide Mid-Atlantic Oddity

From the jacket:

Hi Folks! There's a new sound rising up angry in the sky. There's new voices crying they're not afraid to try! These bands won't shut up and won't be ignored. They believe in music--but not the type that James Watt likes. The music is loud, harsh, and maybe even crude. But it's real! here are 13 mirrors of reality--worlds that most people would rather not acknowledge. The world is not all jelly beans, Ivory soap, and two car garages. Neither is this record!

This is one of those weird records that comes out of some guy's mid-state living room with the back stock sitting next to the TV set in boxes ready to mail out to the rest of the fanzine-reading world. Rick Noll tells the story best on the Bona Fide Records blog:

Hey, does anybody remember the early 80s?? I sure do. Fresh from my success as a bargain bin diver which got me into selling old vinyl, I soon turned to local PA garage bands, and influenced by Nuggets, Pebbles, and my pal Billy Synth's Psychedelic Unknown comps, I got the brainy idea to start a little label that would send some light on deserving local bands. Bona Fide Records was born and in 1982 our first LP, a 60s comp, The Return of the Young Pennsylvanians was released. Although mostly unknown at the time, now bands like the Centurys, Loose Enz, Shaynes and the Flowerz are known to garage collectors around the world. Even though I was a heavy collector, the modern scene also intrigued me and I was a fan of the many punk, new wave, garage and experimental bands of the time. Especially I was impressed by the Harrisburg scene in which Billy Synth and the Turnups deservedly reigned as kings--though they weren't always treated as such. Billy and his pals the Turnups released their own swell records on the band's Cracked Records and I was hooked!

I was also impressed by the growing DC scene and in particular the sonic mayhem of the Slickee Boys with their psychedelic outfits and their frantic adrenaline filled live shows. So I got another brainy idea! Why not put out a comp of current bands who could actually benefit from such a release? So "The Train to Disaster" was hatched and naturally I asked my pals Billy and Kim Kane of the Slickees for help....

Normally, I'd just post my favorites, and I surely like some more than others here, but what I really love about Train to Disaster is the disjointedness: mostly 80s, one 70s, one from Austria, mostly guitars, some synthesizer, a few drum machines, amateur psych, but not all retro -- that you can only get from the whole record. So here it is!

The Lone Ketamine Millipede - Frogs in "Our" Town (Harrisburg, PA)
Billy Synth & the Turnups - The Mask (Harrisburg, PA)
Ben Wah - Gnats Ahoy! (York, PA)
mystery track
The Beatnik Flies - Fantastic Light Show (Bethesda, MD)
The Slickee Boys - Nagasaki Neuter (Bethesda, MD)
The Velvet Monkeys - World Of (Washington, DC)

The Dootz - I'm the Dootz (Hyattsville, MD)
The Left - You're So (Hagerstown, MD)
George Brigman & Split - My Cherie (Baltimore, MD)
Yard Trauma - The Little Girl Who Left (Tucson, AZ)
Ronnie Urini & the Last Poets - Alice in Wunderland (Austria)
The Mad Violets - Acceleration (New York, NY)
Donovan's Brain - Derailment (York, PA)

More:
Bona Fide Records
Billy Synth
The Slickee Boys
The Velvet Monkeys
The Dootz
Return of the Young Pennsylvanians 
James Watt
The Deadly Spawn

Frog and Rabbit Records ................ Pennsylvania Rock Archives

My search for hometown wreckage brought me to the mysterious Frog and Rabbit Records from Dellville, PA (pop. 8,703).  They reissued 45s in tiny runs of some pretty whacked-out Pennsylvania psychedelic recordings from the 60s and 70s.  Some are Frog records, and some are Rabbit records.  I haven't figured out the band/species relationship.  Nor am I sure who the humans are behind the label, although there is significant evidence pointing toward Billy Synth from the Turnups and the curator of Psychedelic Unknowns series (It's all out of the Harrisburg area, cut and paste artwork, Billy and the Star Jets, and there are only a few people as steeped in twisted, rare psych as Billy).  But this has yet to be confirmed or denied.   For now the label seems to only exist as a ReverbNation page "We're just here posting past Penna rock for the ages...." was the only reply I got, but thanks for the salvage operation!

I'm telling you, you have never, ever been kissed
'Till you've gazed into polka dotted eyes

The Snaps from the Philly area have a song catchy enough to make WFILs 1966 top-ten but I never heard it until now.  I love the hair-flipping beat and the faintly Captain Beefhearty timbre of the singer's voice.  Creation's Disciple put out two really unusual sounding sides with interesting bass lines.  The double-timed Psychedelic Retraction has a fabulous title, but the lyrics are pretty standard, rabidly girl-hating 60s punk fare, made up for on the flip side with the longing I'll Remember and just the sweetest little guitar break.   Ognir and the Night People gives us a prototypical punker done really, really well.  Then Frog and Rabbit hop right on into the 70s with a lot of bad acid psych and prog rock, but The Reflection stands out among the rest. I'd be curious to know the date on this record.  Sounds like either they were channeling The Stooges I'm Sick of You, or Ron Asheton caught a show by the Lebanon Community Theatre at some point prior to 1973.

The Snaps - Polka Dotted Eyes (Philadelphia)
Creation's Disciple - Psychedelic Retraction b/w I'll Remember* (Northwestern PA or New York?)
Ognir and the Night People - I Found a New Love (Coal Region)
The Reflection - Into the Sun (Lebanon)




Stay tuned for more Frog and Rabbit wreckage by Joey Welz, Billy Synth, and The Magic Mushrooms!

*I'll Remember downloaded from Spin the Groove

Reesa & the Rooters .............. .......................Suburban Wives Club (Philly & South Jersey 1979-83)

[pronounced: rootahs] When the 70s and the 80s collided in mid-air.  Reesa and the Rooters came walking out of the wreckage in primary colors.

In 1978, my younger brother, Larry Laskey, and I would often jam on acoustic guitars to create moody songs with lyrics inspired by the news. When friends Bob Jay and Donny Buckley joined on electric guitar and bass, I booked us in a South Jersey tavern as Reesa and the Rooters, a blues-pop, semi-acoustic group.

We added a drummer and continued to gig around Philadelphia and Jersey. I hand-lettered and cut and pasted graphics on all our literature, as well as putting up hundreds of posters and sending out mailing list postcards.

After Larry switched to electric guitar and I started playing a Farfisa organ, the local media dubbed me “the queen of the new wave scene.” Cherie Rumbol, a cohort who played in South Jersey club bands, came in to replace the original bass player and to add another voice to the mix.

The band and its music fit perfectly into the blossoming new wave scene in 1979. Except for some suburban clubs where people just didn’t get it, our audiences dressed up with skinny ties or spiked hair and came ready to pogo or slam dance.

In October 1980, a new version of the mythological jerk appeared on the Rooters’ first and only record release, Ultraman in Surf Villa,

backed by the punk-rock anthem TMI. I was always a natural on stage, but it was my natural knack for promoting that helped push the single into a college radio hit.... You make me cold like TMI... Melt my heart like TMI....

[I was 10-years old when TMI had its little accident and our moms packed my cousins and us in the car and headed for the hills. We stayed in a cabin in the Poconos and picked blueberries that week. 30 years later it's great to find a love song based on a TMI simile!]

My performances were a reflection of my hippie past that included running offstage into the crowd, as well as tumbling around while singing and playing organ or guitar, or checking my makeup in a compact mirror.

Cherie exuded a quieter, more demure sexiness as she sang lead on such songs as “Ultraman in Surf Villa” and “Pierre.” The latter was Larry's vision of Marie Curie, whose husband discovered radium.

After nearly three years with the Rooters, and frequent artistic differences between me and my brother, I started writing songs on my own. “Guru Eye,” based on an article about Mao Tse-tung’s wife, was the first original tune we performed that had been written sans Larry.

That summer, Cherie and I jammed in Philly with drummer Ann Frances at an outdoor concert. We clicked immediately, and decided to put together Suburban Wives Club as a Rooter side project. But almost as quickly, the Rooters broke up.

SWC performed some of the Rooters songs, although in a more minimalist fashion. I set aside the Farfisa and concentrated on guitar to record Guru Eye as our quick-and-dirty single, b/w Casual Cat at a Laundromat.  Since we were a trio, I couldn't go out into the crowd much but I still did crazy stage routines, even getting Cherie involved in musical calisthenics during "Fat Thighs."  -from Reesa Marchetti's website.

Reesa and the Rooters put out a brand new 4-song CD in 2008 and is recording a new release.  Look for live performances and more info at the Reesa and the Rooters website and Reesa's Relive the 80s Philly band website.

Thanks to Billy Synth for telling me about The Rooters!  

A Tapewrecked Lancaster Playlist

The upcoming "Jack Lord's Hair Revue" show brought on some questions from youngsters about the original music scene in Lancaster in the olden days, so I ran it through the Tapewrecks filter and out came this playlist....

[Click on play buttons for songs, and band names for stories.]

The Crystalaires

1960's The local Lancaster scene was stopped short in 1959 when four members of the Crystalaires were killed in a car crash coming home from a gig in Reading. Their only single was released by Stan Selfon of Stan’s Record Bar as a benefit for their families. By 1966 there were several original garage bands with a few recorded singles played on WLAN and other AM stations. They played shows at the Moose Hall and the Hullabaloo Club (owned by Ed Ruoff. His son, Rich Ruoff would later open the original Chameleon Club in the 1980s). The Centurys were from Lebanon and were included along with the Shaynes on Bona Fide Records 1983 Return of the Young Pennsylvanians compilation. 

The Shaynes

The Crystalaires - Nobody Nowhere (1959)
The Baker Street Irregulars - I’m A Man (1965)
The Shaynes - You Tell Me Girl (c1966)
The Centurys - Hard Times (1966)
The Couriers - Feelings (1966)

 

1980s - Shows were mostly DIY affairs put on by high school kids in fire halls, American Legions, and the Moose Lodge, basements, and barns as well as Tom Paine’s Back Room/Chameleon, the only club that featured original music. WIXQ and WFMU played a lot of local bands and State of Confusion became the hangout for punks and a wide array of misfits. Stan’s Record Bar was joined by Web of Sound, BBC Records in downtown Lancaster, and a little flea market stand in the basement of Park City Mall called the Record Connection. The Bona Fide Records label put out a steady stream of 60s and 80s punk, garage, and oddball releases from across the river in York.
The Blame - Little Girls in Hollywood (1979)
The Bodies - Anarchy in the USA (1981)
Helsinki 5 - Computer Failure (1982)
Last Knight - Silent Scream (1984)
The Sinister Lampshades - Twisted Feelings (1984)
The Red Roosters - Mr. Moto/Psycho Macho (1984)  
The Real Gone - Bells Are Ringing (1985)
The Combat Hamsters - Khadafy’s No Worse Than Reagan (1985)
Briggs Beall - Soldier of Fortune (1984)
Nobody’s Fools - Emergency (1985)
Kirk & the Jerks - Hang On To the Dream (1986)
Substitute - Chains (1986)
Penal Code - Wax Museum (1886)
Jack Lord’s Hair I - War of the Monster Trucks (1987)
Jack Lord’s Hair II - Brain (1988)
Jet Silver & the Dolls of Venus - Venutian Rock (1988)
The OOgies - Love It To Death (1992)

Other Bands from the region influenced the 1980’s original music scene in Lancaster, mostly along the I-83 north-south axis between Three Mile Island/Demi Club and Maryland/DC, with York’s Bona Fide Records as the common hub. A 1984 Circle of Shit show was canceled by the YWCA because of their name on the flyer and an angry editorial in the newspaper. Hasil Adkins played an astounding show at Moose Lodge in Lancaster in 1986.
The Left - 5 am (Hagerstown, MD)
The Velvet Monkeys - Any Day Now (DC)
The Stump Wizards - I Don’t Want You Anymore (Camp Hill)
Billy Synth & the Turnups - The Mask (Harrisburg)
The Impossible Years - Attraction Gear - (Philadelphia)
Circle of Shit - The Punks Are Out Tonight (Philadelphia)
The Skeptics - Idle Time (Frederick, MD)
The Dusters - Everytime (Hagerstown)
Joey Welz - Psychedelic Happening (Baltimore/Lititz)
James “Rebel” O’Leary - Rebel Star (York)
Hasil Adkins - Hunky Wunky Wicky Wacky Woo (West Virginia) 

2017 Bands still at it....
Trio Agave
Mud Pie Sun
Dillweed 
The Dying Elk Herd

Thanks to Kevin Stairiker from Fly After 5 for the questions that inspired this post!

"A Steamin' Stew of Mutant Spew" - The Deadly Spawn Compilation

  

Somewhere outside you here a cry

A new commotion in the sky

A new generation's shouting out loud

I'm born in the USA and that makes me proud

Well skip the flag and all that

Cause being a fungus is where it's at

We'll be glad to ruin your perfect lawn
With the fungus from our spawn

The Velvet Monkeys

In 1985 we were getting fed a healthy diet of neogarage and psych from the grownups (Bill & Carl) over at the Web of Sound record store. ...The Scientists, The Nomads, The Lime Spiders, The Chesterfield Kings, The Hoodoo Gurus.... The Real Gone was slurping it up and recorded a live demo for Bill and Carl that found its way into the hands of Rick Noll, creator of York, PA's Bona Fide Records. Rick apparently liked it enough to include us on his followup to The Train To Disaster compilation if we re-recorded a song or two. So we borrowed a 4-track machine from friend and local punker Ray Rhythm, and laid down Bells Are Ringing, one of Dave's post-Vietnam era social protest songs.

Many of the bands, including ours, had already broken up and/or were playing with some combination of The Left and The Skeptics before the record even came out in 1986, but it sure caught a moment in time. The A-side had all the big(ger)-name acts, or at least the bands that made an appearance on another compilation by that time. We made it onto the flunky B-side, but we were in dang-good company nonetheless. Where The Train to Disaster was a strange disjointed mess, in the best way possible, The Deadly Spawn was a solid batch of songs from some not-so-solid bands.


A-Side

The Brood

The Velvet Monkeys - Rock Party (Washington DC) All we want is your girlfriend's love!
Monster Rock - She Lied (Frederick, MD) - members of The Left and The Skeptics.
The Brood - Writing on the Wall (Portland, Me)

Thee Fourgiven

The Creeping Pumpkins - Better Off Without You (Pompton Lakes, NJ)
Thee Fourgiven - The Wrong Side Of Your Mind (Hollywood, CA)
Liquid Generation - I Love You (Seattle, WA)

The Dusters

The Dusters - Everytime (Frederick/Hagerstown, MD) Another Left/Skeptics project. They opened the Hasil Adkins show in Lancaster that year.

The Skeptics

The Skeptics - Legend of the Headless Surfer (Frederick, MD) from the Worry Beads cassette. Drummer Stephen Blickenstaff also did the monstrous cover art and the cover of the Cramps Bad Music for Bad People.

The Real Gone

B-Side
The Subterraneans - Hammer of Love (Frederick, MD)
The Real Gone - Bells Are Ringing (Lancaster, PA)
Mutant Drone - Harvest Time (Richmond, VA)
Scattered Limbs - Walk Without Me (York, PA) made their only public appearance with James "Rebel" O'Leary at his birthday party at the local Goodwill.
No King - Restless Soul (Washington DC/Hoboken, NJ) featuring Rudi Protrudi of Tina Peel and The Fuzztones on harp.
The Turnups - Egypto-Tek (Harrisburg, PA) One of Central PA's first punk bands, circa 1980, with and without Billy Synth.

FlexiDisc
The Voodoo Love Gods - Bad Seed (Hagerstown, MD) Another Left spinoff featuring one of the Subterraneans
The Stump Wizards - I Don't Want You Anymore (Camp Hill, PA) Hear their first cassette here.

Added to the Dutch/German pressing on Resonance Records:
The Broken Jug - Son of a Gun (West Germany)

Exploding Heads in Abbottstown... Scanner... ...(York/Gettysburg, PA 1979-82)

Joe, Dave, Junnie, & Frank

There were a few isolated outbreaks of punk rock in late-70s central Pennsylvania mostly around Harrisburg: Billy Synth & the Janitors, The Turn-Ups, The Abjects, and The Late Teens. By the early 80's, Lancaster had a few offerings with RAW, Helsinki 5, and The Bodies. Scanner was from York and Gettysburg on other side of the Susquehanna, that had more of a connection via the I-83 axis to the Harrisburg/Baltimore/DC scenes, or what there was of them at that point, than anything happening to their east in Philly or NYC. And they had two bass players!

Live in Abbottstown, 1981
It's a War
Out of School
What Love Is

Bassist Joe Brady gives some history:

Scanner was formed by me and Junnie Fortney 
after playing with various lineups during 1977-78. Later, we had Frank playing a second bass, and Reed on rhythm guitar for a short time. We went through a couple of name changes before settling on Scanner in 1981, when the movie “Scanners” came out. I liked the imagery of heads exploding, and imagined it being the effect of hearing Scanner music!

Playing punk rock in Central PA during the 70s and early 80s was a risky venture. When playing out, we often had stuff thrown at us, and we were simply shut down by some clubs. We played covers of punk bands, such as The Dead Boys, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, Circle Jerks, etc. Additionally, by the end of 1979, the band had a handful of original tunes thrown in, and we were slowly changing over our playlist to consist of about 75 percent original punk tunes.

Scanner reunited in 2012, and released an album: One Foot in the Grave, and More Pissed Than Ever,
available here: www.scanner1979.com
Scanner Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Scanner1979

NUCLEAR Platters ................... ....The Unofficial CONELRAD Sequel

When the folks at CONELRAD put together Atomic Platters collecting the songs from the early Cold War up to about 1965, I was already hankering for a sequel that went up through my childhood and high school years to the end of the Cold War. Atomic Platters includes over 100 novelty numbers, and radio spots, as well as serious religious and secular warnings about the end of the world. There was a kooky euphoria about the Bomb, at least for the few years the US was alone with it. Atomic war fell out of fashion in the early 70s, but came back in a darker way in punk and new wave. The tone of the music changed along with popular attitudes toward nuclear power, losing much of it's lightheartedness (but not all) after Three Mile Island, Reagan, and Chernobyl scared the Breznev out of people. My family evacuated when TMI started melting in 1979 and I grew up with the lingering feeling that a nuclear war was imminent. I wasn't alone.

Atomic Platters covers music of the "Golden Age" of the cold war, that is, before the kids who grew up with the Bomb started writing the music and driving the counterculture. Jeff Nuttall, in his 1968 book Bomb Culture, describes this shift in attitude and the "generation gap," which continued to widen and reach its musical crescendo in the 1980s as the Doomsday Clock ticked closer to Midnight.

What way we made in 1945 and in the following years depended largely on our age, for right at that point, at the point of the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the generations became divided in a very crucial way. 

The people who had passed puberty at the time of the bomb found that they were incapable of conceiving of life without a future. Their patterns of habit had formed, the steady job, the pension, the mortgage, the insurance policy, personal savings, support and respect for the protection of the law, all the paraphernalia of constructive, secure family life. ...To look the danger in the eye might wreck the chances of that ultimate total security their deepest selves had contrived, death by H-bomb. 

The people who had not yet reached puberty at the time of the bomb were incapable of conceiving of life with a future. They might not have had any direct preoccupation with the bomb. This depended largely on their sophistication. But they never knew a sense of future. 

...Dad was a liar. He lied about the war and he lied about sex. He lied about the bomb and he lied about the future. He lived his life on an elaborate system of pretence that had been going on for hun­dreds of years. The so-called 'generation gap' started then and has been increasing ever since.

In Apocalypse Jukebox, David Janssen and Edward Whitelock mark Eve of Destruction as the song that

sucked out any sense of humor--or hope for that matter ... In twenty short years, the popular mood regarding the atom bomb had changed radically. By August 1965, Barry McGuire's song erased both God and hope from the atomic equation. The treatment of atomic power and nuclear weapons in American popular music would hereafter be characterized by mistrust, dread, and fatalism. 

The horrid zombie dancers in McGuire's Hullabaloo video (see below) alone could have inspired a torrent of punk violence. The songs that follow certainly have loads of that mistrust and dread. But many of them bring that old sense of humor back in a blacker, more subtle way. Or, like the Dickies, Eve of De-Ster-Uction, just spoof the whole god-awful mess.

My Nuclear Platters sequel is run through the Tapewrecks filter omitting a many of the big commercial hits and sappier protest songs (and a shitload of metal). The audio tracks included are some of my favorites, out of print, and bands from around my hometown downwind from Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, and others that are rare, weird, or particularly stupid.

[TMI] denotes a song about or inspired by the Three Mile Island accident. [I've since found hundreds of TMI songs and documented them on Radioactive Releases.]

1963-1967: IT IS 12 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall / Talkin' World War III Blues - Bob Dylan (1963)
Fidel Castro - Skatalites (Jamaica 1964)
Eve of Destruction - Barry McGuire (1965)
Kill for Peace - The Fugs
The Russian Spy and I - The Regents (1966)

Commie Lies - Janet Greene 

So the Prophets Say - The Centurys (Lebanon, PA)

That's the Bag I'm In - Fred Neil 

Monk Time - The Monks
I Come and Stand at Every Door - The Byrds
My Little Red Book / Mushroom Clouds - Love
7 and 7 Is - Love
Transparent Radiation - The Red Crayola (1967)
That's the Bag I'm In - The Fabs
War Sucks - The Red Crayola

1968: IT IS 7 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

Last Day on Earth - The Velvet Haze (1968)
Draft Morning - The Byrds

1969-1971: IT IS 10 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

Running Gun Blues - David Bowie (1970)
Apeman - The Kinks
O Apocalipse - The Pop's (Brazil 1971)

1972-1973: IT IS 12 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

Political Science - Randy Neuman (1972)
Search and Destroy - Iggy & the Stooges (1973)

1974-1980: IT IS 9 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

Final Solution / 30 Seconds Over Tokyo / Search and Destroy - Rocket from the Tombs (1974)
Cyclotron - The Electric Eels (1975)
Geiger Counter / Radio-Activity - Kraftwerk
Final Solution / 30 Seconds Over Tokyo - Pere Ubu (1976)
Rocket U.S.A. - Suicide

Holidays in the Sun - Sex Pistols 

Chinese Radiation - Pere Ubu (1977)
Havana Affair/Commando - Ramones
Cold Wars - The Rezillos
Eve of Destruction - The Feelies
Contact in Red Square - Blondie 

Hiroshima Mon Amour - Ultravox
Flamethrower Love - The Dead Boys
Love and Peace (H-Bomb) - Eater
We Got the Neutron Bomb - The Weirdos (1978)
No Nuclear War - Peter Tosh
Bomb Scare - The H-Bombs
Armagideon Time - Willi Williams
Eve of Destruction - The Dickies

Your Love Is Like A Nuclear Waste - Tuff Darts
I Wanna Start a War - The Warm Jets (Philadelphia)

The Dead Dreams of a Cold War Kid - Hawklords
War Zone - The Dead Boys
Panic in the World - Be-Bop Deluxe
'A' Bomb in Wardour Street - The Jam
The A-Bomb Woke Me Up - The Swimming Pool Q's (1979)
I Found That Essence Rare - Gang of Four
Atomic - Blondie
Kill the Poor - Dead Kennedys 

Nuclear Device - The Stranglers
Yellowcake uf6 - The Stranglers
Secret Agent Man - Devo
Atom Age - Bill Nelson's Red Noise

Top Secret Man / Peace - Plastics (Japan)

Life During Wartime - Talking Heads
Save For the Sky - The Dead Milkmen
(Potter County Was Made By the Hand of God, But the Devil Made) Three Mile Island - Al Shade (Potter Co., PA)TMI
Three Mile Island - Joseph Aronesty TMI
Three Mile Island - The Tyme-Aires (Etters, PA)TMI
Radiation - Richie Gerber TMI
Three Mile Island - Fred Small TMI
Radiation Funk - Maxwell (PA)TMI
Face the Fire - Dan Fogelberg TMI
Three Mile Smile - Aerosmith TMI
Three Mile Island Blues - Alan Fox TMI
Goodbye T.M.I. - Gary Punch & the Outriders (York Co., PA)TMI
No More Nukes - Roger Matura & the Niss Puk Band (Germany)TMI
London Calling / Clampdown - The Clash TMI
Shut 'Em Down - Gil Scott Heron TMI
The Meltdown - Root Boy Slim & the Sex Change Band TMI

1980: IT IS 7 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

World War III - Root Boy Slim & the Sex Change Band (DC)
Atomic Love - The Late Teens (Carlisle, PA)TMI
Three Mile Island / Call to Arms - Arcade (central PA)TMI
Who Will Close Pandora's Box - Fred & the Jupiter Gypsies TMI
Critical Mass / System Failure - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission TMI
Three Mile Island - Jorge Santana TMI
TMI - Reesa & the Rooters (Philadelphia)TMI
Who's Gonna Win the War? b/w Nuclear Toy - Hawkwind TMI
Paranoid Chant / Joe MacArthy's Ghost - Minutemen 

Generals and Majors / Living Through Another Cuba - XTC
Man at C&A - The Specials

Stop the World - The Clash
Armagideon Time - The Clash
Nagasaki Nightmare - Crass 

Cold War - Devo
Ivan Meets GI Joe / Washington Bullets / Charlie Don't Surf - The Clash
Enola Gay - OMD

1981-1983: IT IS 4 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

If the World is Coming to an End - The Dead Milkmen (1981)
She's a Bomb - The Dead Milkmen
A Minute Closer to Death - The Dead Milkmen
What Future? - The Proteens
Susquehanna Meltdown - Fly By Night TMI
Beautiful World - Devo
Los fusilitos - Los Torogoces de Morazan (El Salvador Libre)
Some Other Time - X
Radio Free Europe - REM
The Third World War / Nuclear Spy - S.I.B. (Italy)
World War 9 - Billy Synth (Harrisburg, PA)
Nuclear War - Sun Ra (1982)
European War - The Cleaners from Venus
Radioactive Kid - The Meteors
Sleeping Snakes - Translator
Der Kommissar - Falco
Straight To Hell / Atom Tan  - The Clash
Kill a Commie - Gang Green
Nuclear War - The Bodies (Lancaster PA)

Radioactive Chocolate - MDC (1983)TMI
Radioactive Baby - The Turn Ups (Harrisburg, PA)TMI
Deadly Skies - Husker Du
Dream Told By Moto - Minutemen
Radio Activity - Royal Cash
Central Nuclear - Vulpes
Before You Push the Button - Joe Jack Talcum (Philadelphia)

Nagasaki Neuter - Slickee Boys 

A Sense of Belonging - Television Personalities
Two Tribes - Frankie Goes to Hollywood 

You'll Never Know - Primitons

1984-1987: IT IS 3 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

Dancing With Tears In My Eyes - Ultravox (1984)
Three Mile Island - Pinkard and Bowden TMI
This World Over - XTC
I Hope You Get Drafted - The Dicks
Hopeless - Briggs Beall (Lancaster, PA)
Doomsday - Discharge
Vietnam / West Germany / Untitled Song for Latin America - Minutemen
Eve of Destruction - Johnny Thunders
Hallowed Ground - The Violent Femmes
Kinky Sex Makes the World Go Round - Dead Kennedys
100 Million People Dead - Butthole Surfers
World War III - Grandmaster Melle Mel
Nucular Rat - Kenny Gross (Lancaster, PA)
Hammer to Fall - Queen

Headin' for Armageddon - Joey Welz (Lancaster, PA)
Two Minutes to Midnight - Iron Maiden
Uranium Rock - The Cramps

World Destruction - Time Zone
Caustic Future / Khadafy's No Worse Than Reagan - Combat Hamsters (Lancaster, PA 1985)
Reagan Blues - Hasil Adkins
Song No. 15 - Ornamental Wigwam (Philadelphia)
Party at Ground Zero - Fishbone
Violence Is Golden / Bells Are Ringing - The Real Gone (Lancaster, PA)
Right Wing Pigeons - The Dead Milkmen (Philadelphia)
The Viet Cong Live Next Door - The Left
Emergency - Nobody's Fools (Lancaster, PA)
Nuclear War / Radiation Sickness / Mr. Softee Theme - Nuclear Assault (1986)
Christmas at Ground Zero - Weird Al Yankovic
MAD - Tons of Nuns (Philadelphia)

Flamethrower Love - Kirk & the Jerks (Lancaster, PA)
Bombs Aren't Cool - Li'l Rodney C and KK Rockwell
The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades - Timbuk 3 

Atom Bomb Baby - The Scientists
How I Learned to Love the Bomb - Television Personalities
Binded World Radiation - Hellsent (Lancaster, PA)
It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine) - REM (1987)

1988-1990: IT IS 6 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

Geiger Counter - The Legendary Stardust Cowboy (1989)
End of the World - The Original Sins
Sweathearts - Camper Van Beethoven

1991-1994: IT IS 6 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

Atomic Power - Uncle Tupelo (1992)

...

Thanks to contributions from Tom Casetta, Ed Whitelock, Scott Lubic, Bryan Rutt, Mic Rage, Christian Dayton Osgood, and Rustle Noonetwisting

Tom Casetta's Listen Up! radio program on G-Town Radio. Tom's interview with Ed Whitelock is essential, as is Janssen and Whitelock's book, Apocalypse Jukebox: The End of the World in American Popular Music.

CONELRAD
NUCLEAR WAR and Lancaster County - Tapewrecks
Radioactive Releases...The Music of Three Mile Island - Tapewrecks
Garage Hangover
Freedom Has No Bounds
Vinyl Meltdown on York, PA's Bona Fide Records
On Jeff Nuttall's Bomb Culture - The Generalist
In the 80's: Songs About Nuclear War
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: Doomsday Clock timeline

2012-2014: IT IS 5 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT