Songs & Stories of the Justice League of America

My little brother had this record when we were growing up.  For some reason I put it on in high school and was treated with these great cornball pop superhero theme songs.  The record was on Power Records from 1975, so I was always puzzled about why the songs sounded so retro. But it made the campy interludes on quite a few of the tape compilations I made for friends through college.

I held on to it all these years and gave it to my daughters along with a cool classroom phonograph, believing as I do that children should be taught early to handle their records by the edge and to gently cue the needle. 

Just last week, my fave DJ, Dave the Spazz played the Justice League Theme on WFMU, so I went upstairs and pulled it out of the girls' record collection (still in pretty good shape). According to the mighty Internet, the record was originally released in the mid-60s by Tilton Records and contained three additional songs that I never heard.  There are no credits on the sleeve, but apparently the whole thing was written and produced by Arthur Korb.  No idea if he's playing, singing, or doing any of the voices. So here are the complete songs from the Tilton release:

The Theme of the Justice League of America
The Wonder Woman Song
The Plastic Man Song
Metamorpho The Element Man Song
The Aquaman Song
The Flash Song






Thanks to the Power Records blog and  Way Out Junk for the tracks.  Get the complete songs and stories there.

That's the Bag I'm In...... ...............Back from the Mass Grave

Out on assignment, our own pith helmeted Rustle Noonetwisting dug up the following on one of my favorite songs.  The Fabs' That's the Bag I'm In first grazed my ears in 1984 with its rerelease on Volume I of the Back from the Grave compilations, and it's one of the key songs that sparked our interest in 60s garage punk. As Dr. Noonetwisting discovered, in surrounding strata there were a few more treasures in that grave!

Mr. Tomsun,
Here is my report:

Greenwich Village songwriter and folksinger Fred Neil wrote "That's the Bag I'm In" early in the 1960s but apparently didn't release his own version until his second album in 1966. But, I just discovered today that another Greenwich Village folksinger Casey Anderson was apparently the first to put it to record in 1962.

Fred Neil 1966.

Billy Lee Riley 1966

Richie Havens 1966

Our pals The Fabs 1967 with National Safety Council video (I wanna shake rortydog's hand for thinking of this).

HP Lovecraft 1967 - Moving into the heavy psychedelic Jeff Airplane direction.

Kin Vassy 1969 - Moving a bit too close to Blood Sweat and Tears territory for comfort. He also played in Kenny Rogers and the First Edition!

Buzzy Linhart  1969 - The video feedback here reminds me of playing around with a Pixelvision camera , but we never ended up in the Season of the Witch. Buzzy Linhart 1971 - Now we're getting heavy, man. 

Thankfully the covers seem to have stopped after this because I don't think I could handle a Uriah Heep cover of this song.

Uriah Heep did not cover "That's the Bag I'm In."

The Fuzztones 1984 reenactment of The Fabs' take, with big hair and chicken bones.

July 2012 Addendum: Ty Segall does his version in the Fabs vein, but maxed-out on FUZZ and SCREAMING.

The Swamp Rats......... ...............Blasting the Garage Canon

¡¡¡When I posted the Crude PA comps and read that The Creations' 1965 cover of Love is Tuff was by Pittsburgh's Fantastic Dee-Jays who changed their name to The Swamp Rats in 1966, it didn't occur to me that that sedate tune would be by THE Swamp Rats who did the absolutely psycho version of The Sonics' Psycho featured on the first Back from the Grave compilation that inspired my love of obscure garage bands back around 1984!!!

[breathe]

Yep, that's them. And that's not all. They managed to do violence to a whole set of the best rock and roll tunes out there, most of them familiar covers but with a few obscurities I remember from the garage revival of the 80's.

Love Is Tuff is one of their few originals by the early bassless trio, The Fantastic Dee-Jays. Fight Fire is by The Golliwogs before they went and changed their name to Creedence Clearwater Revival (what were they thinking?).

The Swamp Rats added a bassist and a heavy dose of nastiness to The Sparkles' No Friend of Mine. The Kinks' 'Till the End of the Day has a particularly mean sound too, like it was played with bass chords or a seriously down-tuned guitar. And She's Got Everything, which may prove mathematically to be the best pop song ever (more about that later), sounds like it was sung with gobstopper in mouth. Hey Joe is just hilariously frantic and had me dancing around the kitchen. The beautiful original I'm Going Home is followed up by what may be their most protopunk song of all, another original worthy of Stooges worship, Hey Freak. Last of all is a song I usually can't stand because it's been so overdone. But this might be the best massacre of Louie Louie ever. That screeeammm after the guitar solo shreds my ears, and warms my heart.

By 1967 they were history, but not before setting a standard for the likes of The Chesterfield Kings, The Fuzztones, and their hometown fellows The Cynics in the 80's when these songs all came back faster and fuzzier.

The Swamp Rats 2003 reissue 

on Get Hip Records

The Blame ... Who Gets It? ..................(Lancaster 1979)

-->So, who really brought punk rock to little Lancaster, PA?  A couple of years before The Bodies sparked the local scene, there was a band in town that seemed to be playing a mix of punk, new wave, and whitey reggae at Tom Paine's Back Room and even CBGB(!).  The Blame had a lone B-side called Little Girls (in Hollywood) that hints at that punk influence, so they just might deserve the name!

Guitarist Jeff Coleman tells the whole story:

The late 1970's was an exciting time. In Lancaster, we were just hearing the music that had been coming out of NYC and London for the past several years- what they called punk and New Wave. The basic idea was- do what you wanna do, make the music you wanna make, anything is possible.



Glenn Redcay had been playing some terrific guitar in Big Red, but it was time for something new. Glenn gave up the guitar and picked up a cheesy red bass- time to start over.

 Steve Patton [drums] heard London calling too. He was more involved in the politics than the rest of us- for Steve it was a revolution, man! Guy Debris had been playing blues guitar, but some of the guitar players in the New Wave scene really impressed him and the nastyness of punk was fun. I was excited by the different ways to write and the new sounds to play and the idea that we could do this ourselves. We all got together to change the world.
 And maybe we did.

We did covers of the Clash, the Police, the B-52's, the Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, the Ramones, the Cars, Gang of Four and even the A's "Parasite". By the end we were doing around 16 original songs a night.

The single was recorded by the original lineup early in 1980 at Atlantic Sound Productions in Marietta. It was one of those "500 records for $595" deals, which included 8 hours for recording and mixing both sides — generous!

One highlight of our career was playing CBGB twice — on Sundays, when they would have a dozen bands or so file through. Still, it was a thrill, even though we drove home that night in sub-zero weather in my panel truck without any heat (Kept warm for a while with blintzes).

Late in 1980 Steve bailed and was replaced by Blair King on drums and vocals.  Normally we played a place in Lancaster called the Back Room, which we "owned" for a couple of years. We did play the Village once or twice, one time following a "male review" show, which was about the strangest gig ever. Played the Silo in Reading, which was a disaster — it was too early there for new wave/punk. We shared the bill with the Sharks once or twice. There was friendly competition between us in Lancaster, but of course, the Sharks went on to rule central Pa. for a while. They had a hit with a song I wrote called "You Make Me." It earned me about $50 from airplay around here. The Blame never made the jump into the club circuit due to lack of a PA and lack of management skills. But we did sell all our records, and were the punks in town for a while.

Jeff was later in The Fender Twinns, and has recorded hundreds of local musicians in his homegrown Steam Powered Studio. Steve went on to play rockabilly with The Red Roosters. And Blair continued to book original bands at Tom Paine's Back Room and formed the new wave band Color Code.

You can hear The Blame doing Bob Marley's Kaya and a live new wave track called World of Our Own on the Steam Powered Studio website.

Thanks to Reesa Rooter Marchetti and her Relive the 80s site for the audio track and quotes.

The Jags.....Lost and Found Record .....(Philadelphia 1978-79)

As a Lancaster teen, one of the pretty-local bands that I really liked was Philadelphia's The Impossible Years.  I was too young to see them at the Back Room, but they had a few tracks loaded on NAB Cartridges at WIXQ (those shitty sounding one-song 8-track tape type things that radio stations used for their jingles) so they got a good bit of college-radio airplay well into the mid-80s.

Tapewrecks roving reporter, Rustle Noonetwisting, (who was one of the college DJs playing the IYs back then) discovered a batch of YouTube videos titled "The Jags (1978-79)" by Impossible Years' singer/gutarist Todd Shuster.  Says Rustle, "...This guy was hitting 'em out of the park from day one. I didn't even know the Jags had any recordings prior to becoming the IYs until yesterday...."

Neither did I. But that's probably because they didn't, aside from live tapes.  Todd recreated these lost tracks in his home studio in 2010 and 2011. But dang they sound good!  Great melodies and smart lyrics that became the hallmarks of The Impossible Years, but true to the stripped-down sound of The Jags and other pop/punk bands of the time. Had The Jags made it into the studio in the late-70s we would have had an indisputable classic record, but these tracks are such a fresh blast I can hardly complain.

A lost record found:

Adults Only  
3-Minute World  
Denise 
Don't Tell Me  
Has Been
Look 'Em In the Eye
Legal Matter  
I Agree  


And while I was still listening to Abba on my parents' hi-fi about an hour west, says Todd:

We started playing in March of 1978 as The Jags. It was the classic story of hearing the New York and English bands of 1977 and being inspired to play music again. We played local clubs opening for a lot of the bands that passed through Philadelphia....

The Jags, sadly, didn't play much outside Philly. At the time, there weren't many people or clubs that would even be associated with this kind of music. We did play a very odd show with the Plasmatics at Irving Plaza in NY, Xmas week of 78. ...Our set went well, right up until the end when Charly, our bass player, told the audience that "soon they would see Wendy and her wonderful tits." Their manager, who was a pretty scary fellow, looked like he was going to have us killed and told us to get out of town fast.

We also played a show at the 9:30 Club in DC with our friends The Shades, a band we played with at our first gig (July 4th, 1978 at Artemis, 20th and Sansom).  The Shades became good friends who also shared an incredible bill with The Jags at the Hot Club with The Cramps, another band we played with a few times and with whom we were very friendly. A truly great band! All three bands were really great that night.   

We were slated to open for Sid Vicious at Artemis. The week before was when the story broke about Sid killing Nancy.  We were told that the show was still on, but the story became so hot that the club owner received death and bomb threats. Unfortunately, it was the gig we never got to play. We did get to play with X, the Mumps, and the Outcasts, which featured Jerry Nolan and Arthur Kane [ex-New York Dolls]. 

...A year later, when we heard a single by an English band also called The Jags, we decided on the name The Impossible Years.

I have fond memories of the very early days, when the bands from both NY and the UK seemed inspiring and exciting.  That's what drove me to make proper recordings of songs that are still very special to me. 

Thanks to Todd Shuster for the audio tracks and for dredging his memories.  Still images from Todd's Jags videos.  If anyone has photos, flyers, or any other artifacts of The Jags, we'd like to add them here!
More about The Impossible Years at the ModPopPunk Archives.

.....................More wreckage from The Impossible Years and Todd Shuster!

La Música Callejera Pt. 8 ...Guatemala

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995

Read the series introduction here.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

GUATEMALA

...28) A marimba band of two boys, their father, and grandfather in the Parque Central of Quetzaltenango on market day. 29) A school marching band.  The bass drummers swinging the sticks on ropes around their wrists in fancy style. 30) A song at the Fiesta of San Miguel for masked dancers dressed as conquistadors and toros. 31) Quiche music at the shrine of San Miguel....

La Música Callejera - Guatemala

Próxima estación: El Salvador

The Warm Jets ................... ..................(Philadelphia 1978)

I was only nine years old and oblivious in 1978 when The Warm Jets recorded I Love It about squooshing cockroaches and were playing in the legendary Hot Club in Philly.  But about an hour west of there, I was committing suburban bugocide with my friends collecting hundreds of Japanese beetles in a bucket and gleefully dumping them into the central air-conditioning fan on the side of the house, sending iridescent beetle-bits 15 feet into the air raining down all over us.  There was hours of hilarity and fun in this carnage.  So on one level at least, I was right there with them, but I was still a few years from dancing the pogo. Go Go With Me

Originally a punk rock duo in much the fashion of Philadelphia’s very own Flys, The Warm Jets consisted of two young musicians eager to play and be heard. (E.Gadz on electric guitar; Hugo Crust on acoustic guitar and vocals). In the summer of ’78, with the help of Lee and Roid, along with their now sounds program as WXPN radio station, the duo sent in a tape of a song called "I Love It". Although a crude recording, (allegedly manufactured in Mr. Crust’s bedroom), the song received much support and at one point reached 6 on "The Now Sounds Top Ten", proving that there was indeed an audience for this type of minimalistic music. -Russ Goetz, drummer, from The Warm Jets MySpace page

Here Come The Warm Jets
 
Russ plays in Kamakaze with ex-members of another Philly punk band, Pure Hell.
Their complete live and studio recordings are available from Italy's Rave Up Records.

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!  

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

The Red Roosters ..... (Lancaster 1987)

At the DeLux Diner...Chrysler Imperial courtesy of Bill and Carl, Web of Sound Records

The Red Roosters were Lancaster's rockabilly revampers featuring saxophonist Lars Espensen who went from the US Marine Corps, to the Roosters, to playing with the fabulous A-Bones.  He's the only Rooster I knew, but he wasn't the main singer, and I remember the bulk of their songs being pretty clean-cut rockabilly with some Johnny Cash here and there. They were the opening act for the historic Hasil Adkins show at the Moose Lodge right after he was rediscovered by Norton Records et al. The two songs I have on tape are from the Punk's Not Dead show on WFNM.  Lars and and local punk goofballs Jack Lord's Hair were in the studio offending the morals of a few Lancastrians that evening. Unfortunately, that's all I have on The Red Roosters, so if you have any wreckage to share, please chicken-walk it over our way!

John Augustine with Lars, March 1987:
Mr. Moto / Psycho Macho / interview

Steve Patton-Drums
John Harlan-Bass
Phil Risser-Guitar
Lars Espensen-Sax



Thanks to Sophy DiPinto for her photos!

Lars went on to playing honky tonk in Brooklyn with The Gowanus Canal Boys and is currently in Tuscaloosa with The Original Snake Charmers.

La Música Callejera Pt. 7 ... Oaxaca

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995

Read the series introduction here.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

OAXACA
...Oaxaca was a special part of this trip to say the least.  People, culture, food, music, landscape and all were wonderful of course, but I missed this girl in San Francisco that I left on uncertain terms. After two-months corresponding via fax machine and finding letters waiting for me lista de correos in every town I stopped, we reunited at the Oaxaca airport and spent two weeks together that left me all starry-eyed.  ...23) El año se la va by a guitarist in a restaurant on the zocalo in the capital. 24) Two guitarists outside a museum. 25) Trumpet and drum players in the market. 26) A Catholic funeral procession outside the Zapotec ruins in Mitla. 27) Back in the capital, mariachis in full charro regalia play a song for and me and my girl....

...A year and a half later, we had our wedding in SF....  and Solamente una vez was our song.

La Música Callejera - Oaxaca

Próxima estación: Guatemala

The Baker Street Irregulars......... (Lancaster 1966)

Dick Brubaker-bass, Jim Hohenstein-rhythm guitar & vocals, Miles Harriger-drums & vocals, Steve Thornburg-lead guitar; Don Rhoads-keyboards (not pictured)

Original Post, June 2011: 
The Irregulars might have been the bad kids in town that WLAN wouldn't play.  I can't find anything about Largo Records or the band except they had a really trippy sound for little-old Lancaster. If the date is correct they were pretty happenin' with that first big wave of psychedelic music. It Don't Mean Nothin' comes complete with space sounds, and their nearly 5-minute version of Bo Diddley's I'm A Man is just bananas.

I'm A Man
It Don't Mean Nothing 

(Largo 5002)

Thanks to Spin the Groove and The Rock and Roll Cellar for hipping me.

...........................................................

Addendum from the Depths, September 2011:
Man, this band barely escaped deep analog obscurity.   The tracks survived, thanks to a single and couple of compilations and blog posts, but there was nothing else to go on until Steve of The Baker Street Irregulars happened upon this Tapewrecks post and answered a few questions about the band and the mid-60s Lancaster music scene:

To say I was surprised is a vast understatement. Where on Earth did you ever find a copy of the one and only 45 ever recorded by the Baker Street Irregulars?? 

I am one of the 3 members that formed the BSI back in '65.  I was living on Stonemill Road in Lancaster at the time. The other two members were from Landisville, bassist/singer Jim Hohenstein and drummer/singer Miles Harriger. We were high school kids at the time. I worked part time at the Colonial House of Music.  That's where I met the guys. 

It was a different world back then, in so many ways.  

Oddly, Jim, Miles and myself all had different favorites. Jim was into bands like the Mamas & Papas, and the Association. Miles was strictly British, Rolling Stones and the Beatles in particular.  I was more into oddball groups like the Illinois Speed Press, Paul Butterfield, and the Yardbirds, and was also into flamenco and jazz. Howard Roberts was probably my biggest influence at the time, though you'd never guess it based on the licks on the BSI record. But I had spent some time in Greenwich Village, and in San Francisco, so the psychedelic sound was no stranger to me.  

I remember the Couriers, and I believe there was some affiliation with Mariani's Music. There was a music spot called the Hullabaloo. Lots of local groups played there, often opening for bigger-name acts.  We opened for The Fantastic Johnny C once. 

[Interestingly, for Lancastrians anyway, The Hullabaloo was a franchise affiliated with the TV program, located in Manheim Township and was owned and operated by Ed Ruoff and his wife, parents of Rich Ruoff, founder of Chameleon Club, the main venue for original bands from the 1980s to to the present day. Thanks to reader Brett of Noise Addiction II for the ad above from the Reading Hullabaloo.]

Largo Records was owned and operated by a guy named Wilhelm Hess. Miles's dad was a doctor, and knew Wilhelm from his college days. He hooked us up.  The "studio" was in a barn, halfway to Willow Street. He had a Revox 4-track, and a single Neumann microphone. The additional guitar tracks were added afterward because Wilhelm was not satisfied with the 3-piece sound. The effects were "high tech" for the time (hard to believe!!).... I had an Echoplex, a Vox Wah-Wah, and a Gibson Maestro Fuzztone, a 1961 Telecaster, and a Fender Super Reverb amp. What I wouldn't give to have my old Tele back again!

The bastardization of "I'm a Man" was two-fold: the song was way too long, but Wilhelm insisted he could edit it easily. Instead, he sped it up to shorten it! 

We played Franklin & Marshall frat parties often, and other local venues. There was a place out on Route 30 called The Host that we played often. But the band was short-lived.  After high school, Miles and Jim went off to different colleges, and I was headed to Nam.

[The Baker Street Irregulars were featured on both the Pebbles (1998) and Gravel (2007) garage band compilations.] 

I wonder where they even found the record. I had a few copies, and much other music memorabilia, but all was lost in a fire in the late 60s.  A single Polaroid picture of the 45 survived.... my only real evidence that the band ever existed.  

Miles drowned himself over a broken heart in a lake near Charlottesville Virgina, autumn of 1973. What a waste. Despite my best efforts, I've had no luck finding Jim. Upon news of Miles' death, I tried to contact him, but his family had moved. I even traveled back to Pennsylvania to see if maybe one of his neighbors knew where they went.  One told me "maybe Texas", and another said "maybe Maine", but for me it was a dead end search. No Google in those days.

[Jim did, in fact, move to Maine, where he is active as a church leader.]

Thanks to Steve for sharing his memories!
If you remember The Baker Street Irregulars, the Hullabaloo, or any of the happenin' Lancaster music scene from those days, please help salvage the history!


Addendum 2 from Janet Harriger, August 2013:

The sister of the late Miles Harriger graciously sent in the band photo added above and a great article about the band that really describes their live show and reveals much about the Lancaster music scene in 1966.

Musical Group Affects Psychedelic Happening
     "Memphis, New Orleans and London each boast of a Baker Street but the sounds emanating from the instruments of Lancaster County's Baker Street Irregulars are native solely to that ungeographical 'in city,' home of today's 'now generation.'...
     While many parents would probably turn away in anguish at the first beat of psychedelic sound let alone allow their offspring to manufacture same, Mrs Harriger has taken quite another stand.
     "I have encouraged the boys' playing," she said, adding somewhat defensively, "It's certainly not my type of music, but it IS theirs," and that's important. ...
     Miles cites Steve's "psychedelic guitar" playing as the chief asset to the group's new sound, saying "We couldn't exist without it," Besides, he added, Steve owns most of the equipment.
     The equipment is in itself unique, consisting of lighting gear and devices which produce special sound effects such as the echo which, shades of old, once served to make Miss Patti Page (who?) the Singing Rage. Other strange sounds which the lads interject to hypo their performances include "flying saucer, locomotive, jet" and various and sundry other "weird sounds."
     Armed with this gear, it goes unchallenged that the youths definitely provide auditory stimulation but, as any observer of their live performance could attest, a considerable visual attraction as well.
     Perhaps cashing in on the Liberace following, Dick has, on occasion, taken to the bandstand with lighted candles stemming from his guitar. Jim goes the Judy Garland route, wielding a hand mike up and down stage, straining his 'lifeline' to the limits to bring his vocals smack dab onto the dancefloor where he goes Miss Garland one better by matching the dancers' maneuvers with his own terpsichorean offerings.
     Steve, who whips his guitar behind his head in more inspired moments, once became so engrossed (or as Miles was wont to put it, "psyched out") during a performance that he brought the intrument down from above his head, creating a resounding crescendo upon Miles $50 cymbal. Just what effect this had upon the audience is debatable but the cymbal was certainly 'impressed.'
     The group delightedly reports a growing following within the county, adding more and more "psyche' enthusiasts to the throng through their engagements at such spots as the "Web," Landisville Fire Hall, YWCA Hangout dances, private parties and various county pools.
     Just what the future holds for the group is dependent upon the success of their first recording venture, "I'm A Man," which was recently waxed on the Largo label with an original composition, "It Don't Mean Nothing" by Miles and Jim, on the flip side.
     Although two of the boys will enter college in the fall, they are hoping the disc will make it necessary for recording 'reunions' in the near future. Nevertheless, they intend to commute regularly so that they can continue to perform together.
     Meanwhile, until September, the show goes on -- and up -- and away!

The Embarrassment............ ...........Retrospective (1984 cassette)

1992 - Deep in post-college wandering mode; somewhere between Guatemala and the coast of California; in a Subaru that needed a new CV joint, I took up an invitation to visit my friends, Peter and Tracey, in Lawrence, Kansas.  With small bits of my fingers and half the engine sitting in Peter's driveway, I had only a Chilton manual to guide me back. So with good friends, and good music, I stayed most of the summer and got a job to pay rent. At some point, between nightshifts at the junkmail factory sorting crap by zip-code, I picked up this swell red tape of horny pop-punk. I had ventured far into Embarrassment territory. 

Sex Drive
Sexy Singer Girl
Woods of Love
Time Has Come Today
Casual Man

Once I got the CV joint in and most of the Subaru back together I Traveled West playing that tape the rest of the way to San Francisco.

The car got towed by the city that fall, and I ended up staying there for 11 years, 3 occupations, 1 wife, and 1 daughter. And the tape made it back to Philly with us.

The other songs were rereleased on Heyday.

CRUDE PA. ......... Volumes 1 and 2

These two PA comps from Distortions Records come loaded with great garage rockers and wild wreckage.  Fantastic organ on the girl-knocking Pat Farrell track.  My hometown Lancaster scene-stars The Couriers and Philly's The Snaps have been covered before on this blog, and The Nomads deserve induction into the Tapewrecks Hall of Fame for a could-be teenage Johnny Thunders singing some great vitriolic loser lyrics. 

He's taken you down way past low.
And I can hear him laughing
     from up above.
And I hate him!

And who can argue with Thee New Generation?

Well girl you don't know what you do to me
Even when we're holding hands
Now we're alone for eternity
And I want to hold more than your hand!
So come come along with me
See how much fun it can be
Everybody watch me doing the stupidity!

The Starfyres also really knock me out with their simple guitar jing jing running through the whole song dropping into a lovely if your ever down by the sea, take a look for me....

Crude PA Volume 1 (1990)
Side 1

Pat Farrell and the Believers - Brand New Baby (Hamburg)

The Conductors - She Said So (Williamsport)

The Soul Generation - I Can't See You

The Couriers - Feelings (Lancaster)

The Changing Tymes - You Make It Hard (Philadelphia)

The Sands Of Time - Come Back Little Girl (Philadelphia)  
The Scholars - I'm Gonna Make It (Philadelphia)

The Effects - I've Been Told (Philadelphia radio ad)

The Bitter End - If You Want Somebody

Side 2

The Snaps - Polka Dotted Eyes (Philadelphia)

J.C. and The New Tones - Love: Human Emotion

The Nomads - Point Five (Philadelphia)

The Nomads - I Need Your Energy

Facts Of Life - I've Seen Darker Nights (Philadelphia)

The Iron Gate - Feelin' Bad (Philadelphia)

Thee Young Generation - Ruby Tuesday (Ohio?)

Thee Young Generation - Stupidity

The Starfyres - Captain Dueseldorph (Lansford)


Some solid wrecks on Volume 2 too. Love is Tuff is a mopey cover of Pittsburgh's The Fantastic Dee-Jays, aka The Swamp Rats.  The MW Lads ad came on a cardboard record in cereal boxes!


Crude PA Volume 2 (1996)

Side 1

The Wilde Things - Can't See The Sun

The Wilde Things - My Life Is Black

The Undertakers - Little Girl

The Bats - How Could You Have Known (Narberth)

Glas Managerie - Natasha (Coatesville)

The Creations - Love Is Tuff

The Effects/The Gass Co. - MW Lads Records on WFIL (Philadelphia radio ad)

Side 2

The Savoys - Only So Much (Camden, NJ)

The Savoys - Got To Say Goodbye

The Loose Enz - A World Outside (York)

The Rising Tydes - Artificial Peace

The Rising Tydes - Don't Want You Around

The Chosen Few - Staircases, Places And Time

Strawberry Tuesday - Return Of The Walrus (Reading) 
Mysterious Clown - Mysterious Clown

And if it's the last thing you do - get the Walrus!

Distortions Records of Bala Cynwd, PA is now affiliated with Funkadelphia Records and is still reissuing extremely rare garage and soul on classy-looking vinyl.

The Crude PA records are out of print, but I got my tracks from Paradise of Garage Comps. I hear the original liner notes are excellent.  I'd love to see a scan or if you have any other info about the bands send it my way.

For more Pennsylvania garage band wreckage, check out The Return of the Young Pennsylvanians, Frog and Rabbit Records, and Barclay Records Eastern PA Rock.

The Effects scans are from Garage Punk Forums.