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!

The Left.... (Hagerstown, MD 1983-84)

You're So

There were a few smallish towns just south of the Mason-Dixon Line like Frederick and Hagerstown that spawned music that traveled up the DC/Harrisburg punk rock axis. This local scene passed just west of my hometown Lancaster and competed for hegemony over the central PA sticks with the NY and Philly scenes. York, PA's Bona Fide Records provided the medium, but The Left remained pretty rural, and as far as I know, never really penetrated the urban hardcore scenes.

Innervoid: What gigs do you have planned?
Jim Swope: ...A possibility of another "farm" gig is always there. This has been our biggest setback trying to get gigs. If anyone feels sorry for us, you can hire us for a small, exceedingly small, unbelievably small, small fee. In fact, we might consider paying you to let us play.... bales of hay, sacks of beans, or empty beer bottles!

In mid-sized Lancaster, I was a few years behind the times, just discovering '77 era punk rock and the Stooges in the early 80s, but I grew up watching Monkees reruns, so The Left were a solid outfit with Jim Swope playing some of the best 60's psych punk guitar ever.

I still love 'em, I do... and these are some of my favorites:

HELL - It's the World
Hell
Youngster on the Force
Stop
Fuck It
5:00 AM






 

Last Train to Hagerstown

TV Eye

Redneck 7-11

Band members went on to form The Dusters, Monster Rock, and the Voodoo Love Gods and had tracks on Bona Fide's The Deadly Spawn compilation.

Buy THIS from Bona Fide Records: Jesus Loves The Left. It includes their complete discography plus 4 unreleased tracks.

The Left on Facebook

Their first album cranked loudly in the pickup is the exact duration of a run to my local neighborhood 7-11. Hit it!

Artwork by Fat Pat and John Hornick

"Your So" is from Bona Fide's Train to Disaster compilation.

I'm on a hunt for info and recordings by the proto-Left Embryonic Magnetos.

Jimmy Swope has released a new solo album Wages of Sin on Farmageddon Records. It's country music with a death toll.

Boy With A Dream (and some scissors and glue) .... The Real Joey Welz (Baltimore 1950s-70s / Lancaster 1980s-present)

Lititz, Pennsylvania, 5 minutes up the road from where I grew up in Lancaster County, home to the Victor mousetrap factory and a leading contender for World's Oldest Teenager......  Joey Welz.

So... this Joey Welz character, back in the 80s, played a regular boogie-woogie piano gig he called "Retro-Rock" at a hotel out on Route 30 amidst the Amish Country tourist traps. He released modern "hits" like Rockin' in America and a rap version of Rock Around the Clock. Joey self-released cassette box sets of his music and claimed to be an original member of "Bill Haley's Comets," Uh-huh... sure he is. And like, he was "the first rock'n'roll piano player"... and he "played with the Beatles in Hamburg." This guy can't be for real. Or can he?


For years, Joey has promoted his act out of his house and has his own rock'n'roll museum. He cuts and pastes his face into photos of famous musicians including the Comets and the Beatles for his press kits. Many of his original songs from the 50s and 60s have his more recent Roland keyboard and drum machine inexplicably overdubbed, so it's really hard to know what to make of the "Joey Welz Legend."

But then I found his name on the back of a Link Wray record. Link Wray!!! Could it all be true? So I wrote Joey and asked which records I should buy to learn about the "real" Joey Welz and how he got his start back on Baltimore.

He made me a deal on 4 CDs and I've been digging through them and a few other downloads ever since trying to make sense of it all. I wrote down some "tough questions" for The Welz and sent them off by email.  He responded (in all-caps) without any hesitation at all. I've included here the parts of Joey's story that have at least some concrete, if sometimes tampered with*, photo or audio evidence. I left out some claims, that while they could be true, are too vague or have only circumstantial evidence to back them. You be the judge.

Welcome to WELZ WORLD:

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

HERE YOU GO PAL.....ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.....

THE REAL JOEY WELZ,,, THEY DON'T COME ANY MORE REAL THAN THE WELZZZZZZZ

You claim to be the inventor of your piano style, before Jerry Lee. What do you base that claim on?

IN THE JAY ROCKERS, WE HAD NO BASS PLAYER, SO I BECAME VERY GOOD AT INVENTING BASS RUNS ON MY LEFT HAND AND LEARNED HOW TO CUT THE BOOGIE WOOGIE PIE UPWARDS, BACKWARDS AND HALF UP AND HALF BACK, AND FULL LEFT HANDED OCTIVE RUNS. THIS WAS BEFORE LITTLE RICHARD AND JERRY LEE LEWIS.

The Jay Rockers - Jitterbug Rock 1955

WHEN I STARTED DOING SESSIONS IN 1955, I ALWAYS USED THIS BOOGIE STYLE AND IT WAS JUST RIGHT FOR BILL HALEY'S MUSIC BECAUSE THE BULL FIDDLE BASS DIDN'T MAKE THE NOTES AUDIBLE, ONLY THE SLAPPING. THAT'S WHY I GOT THE JOB AS BILL'S SECOND PIANO MAN, AND WHY THEY CALL ME THE BOOGIE WOOGIE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL.

I LAID DOWN THE BLUEPRINT FOR PIANO PLAYERS IN THE 50S.... IN 1954 I RECORDED THE JITTERBUG ROCK B/W BLUE ROCK, WRITTEN BY JOEY WELZ, ON BERMAN RECORDS. ONLY 10 ACETATES WERE MADE IN 1955. THE JAY ROCKERS WERE JIMMY STAGGS ON GUITAR AND SAM CATALDIE ON DRUMS AND JOEY WELZ ON PIANO. THIS WAS MY FIRST RECORD AND IT WAS ON 78....

The Rockabillies - Twangy 1957
The Rockabillies - Come On Baby 1957
The Rockabillies - Shore Party 1959
The Hi Lees - All Nite Party 1959

The Cold War is another interest of mine. What was it like for you at AFN Berlin (a US military radio station) at that time?

I WAS THE RECORDING ENGINEER FOR AMERICAN FORCES NETWORK IN BERLIN, AND RECORDED AND CO-PRODUCED RADIO PROGRAMS LIKE FROLIC AT FIVE (TOP 40/POP HITS), AND STICK BUDDY JAMBOREE (Country Music).

AT THIS TIME-1960-1963, I WROTE AND RECORDED MANY SONGS LATE AT NIGHT WHEN THE STUDIO WAS FREE. THAT'S WHEN MANY TRACKS WERE RECORDED ON MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS ALBUM AND THE YOUNG JOEY WELZ CD. I ALSO RECORDED GROUPS FOR AIRING AND TWO OF THEM WERE THE BATS AND THE NITE RYDERS FROM ENGLAND ON WHICH I PLAYED PIANO.

Santo & Johnny - A Soldier's Story 1960
The Jokers - Boy With a Dream 1961
The Nite Ryders - Moment Baby 1961
The Nite Ryders - Whistlin' Man's Boogie 1961
The Shimmer Trio - Telestar Tell My Love 1962

I ALSO CO-PRODUCED AND RECORDED BILL HALEY AND THE COMETS LIVE SHOW ON AFN FRANKFURT. DURING THAT TIME,I LAID THE GROUNDWORK OF JOINING THE COMETS AS FEATURED PIANIST WHEN I GOT OUT OF THE ARMY, (replacing Johnny Grande. Johnny and I were the only pianists in the history of the Comets).

I ALSO FIRST RECORDED WITH THE COMETS AT THAT SESSION PLAYING ON HONKY TONK AND SINGING BACK-UP ON SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL. YEARS LATER, I LICENSED THE AFN MASTER TAPES TO HYDRA RECORDS IN GERMANY AND THEY RELEASED BILL HALEY LIVE ON AFN CD.

Bill Haley & his Comets on AFN Frankfurt 1962 

Rock Around the Clock
Honky Tonk (featuring Joey Welz on Piano)
See You Later Alligator (listen for Joe Welzant in the credits)

AT THE FRIAR'S CLUB IN TORONTO: RUDY POMPELLI ON THE SIDE (HE WAS OUR SAX),AND AL RAPPA ON BASS, AND JOHNNY KEY ON GUITAR AND BILL HALEY IN THE BACK MIDDLE

WE WERE SOLDIERS FIRST. ONE NIGHT I WAS ON THE AIR ALONE AND GOT THE CALL THAT THE WALL WAS GOING UP. I WAS THE FIRST TO CALL EVERYBODY IN. WE GOT OUR HELMETS ON AND ALL WENT DOWN TO THE BRANDENBURG GATE AND STOOD AT PARADE REST FACING THE EAST GERMANS AND RUSSIANS WHO BROUGHT THEIR TANKS DOWN. WE WERE ALL WAITING FOR WHO WAS GOING TO FIRE THE FIRST SHOT. NO ONE DID, THANK GOD, BUT THE WALL WENT UP. 

I WAS ALSO AT THE RADIO STATION WHEN WE BROKE THE NEWS ABOUT THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, BUT KENNEDY HANDLED IT WELL AND THEY BACKED DOWN. PRETTY EXCITING TIMES FOR A PIANO MAN LIKE ME....

On some of the recordings of you with famous artists, you overdubbed your electric piano much later. This seems misleading and maybe even fraudulent to many people.  Can you explain why you do that?

I SOMETIMES OVERDUBBED MY PIANO FOR RE-RELEASING SOME OF MY CLASSIC SONGS BECAUSE, ON THE ORIGINAL RECORDING, THE PIANO WAS BURIED IN THE MIX. I ALSO OVERDUBBED DRUMS IF THEY WERE NOT LOUD ENOUGH WHEN I ORIGINALLY RECORDED IT. I ALWAYS WANTED TO IMPROVE THE SOUND WHEN I REISSUED THEM AND WANTED THE DRUMS TO BE MORE POWERFUL TO DRIVE THE BAND....

ON THE LEGENDARY FRIENDS ALBUM, IT'S A COLLECTION OF ALL THE RECORDINGS I DID WITH MY MUSICIAN FRIENDS IN ROCK AND ROLL. MOST OF THE SESSIONS I PLAYED ON WITH THE EXCEPTION OF FLOYD CRAMER/DUANE EDDY/THE VENTURES, IN WHICH CASE I ADDED MY PIANO TO THE ORIGINAL TRACKS. I WROTE ALL THE SONGS AND STILL FEEL THIS IS MY MOST HISTORIC ALBUM.

The Ventures - Save Your Love, Save Your Kisses 1963*
The Cruisinaires - I Ain't Got a Thing 1963

The Comets - You Changed 1964*

PHOTO TAKEN AT A RADIO STATION IN TEXAS TO PROMOTE OUR NEW SINGLE IN 65 ENTITLED TOUNGE-TIED TONY

The Upsetters - Maybe You're the Girl 1964
The Kidd Brothers - Wooly Bully Rides Again 1966

Joey & the Time Machine - Big City 1967
Joey & the Time Machine - Caught By Love 1967
Joey & the Time Machine - Psychedelic Happening 1967


I'll Do Anything For You WAS A HIT IN NORFOLK, VA. IN 1969 AND THAT'S ME ON DISCOTEN TV RUN BY GENE LOVING FROM WGH RADIO WHO JUST CAME OFF MY LAST HIT OF I WILL SING A RHAPSODY FOR A SUMMER NIGHT.  DICK LAMB WAS THE HOST ON THAT TV SHOW WHERE I LIP SYNCED MY VOCALS


I was excited to find your name on the back of my Link Wray album!

Link Wray and I became good friends in the early 60s and I was a silent WRAY MAN on some of his records playing piano and organ. He and I made a few albums together where he backed me up, as well as did Roy Buchannan.



Link Wray & the Wray Men - Week End 1963
Link Wray & the Wray Men - Run Chicken Run 1963
Link Wray & the Wray Men - Blue Eyes Don't Run Away 1968*
Link Wray & the Wray Men - Turn You On to Sunshine 1968
LinkWray & the Wray Men - I'm a Wheel 1969
Link Wray & Joey Welz - Rippin' "Em Off in the Name of Love 1970*
Link Wray & Joey Welz - Jesus, Be My Friend 1970*
Link Wray & Joey Welz - Rumble '69 1970

*Keyboards and/or drums overdubbed later

Were you really a Yo-Yo Champion? 

I practiced yo yo from the 7th grade in grammar school to the last year in high school. I was really gone on the yo yo. I worked for the Filipino Champions, holding contests and demonstrating in dept. stores on the weekends in downtown Baltimore.

In 1957, after winning many contests, I entered into a contest between the 3 company champions; ROYAL, CHEEREO AND DUNCAN. The best man was BOB ROLA from DUNCAN YO YOS and I finally beat him in the last contest for world champion. I RECEIVED THE HIGHEST AWARD, THE DUNCAN SILVER EAGLE PATCH WHICH I STILL HAVE IN MY YO YO COLLECTION.

How did you come to settle in Pennsylvania?

I came to Lancaster in the 80s to play gigs and liked it, I opened CAPRICE RECORDING STUDIOS in Lititz in 1990 and became the owner of CAPRICE INTERNATIONAL AND CANADIAN AMERICAN RECORDS and produced many other national and local acts including JIMMY JONES, DANNY AND THE JUNIORS, FREDDY CANNON AND THE 4 TOPS....

My new album is DANCING WITH THE STARS featuring TEN YEARS LATER a memorial for the 10th anniversary of 9-11. THERE WERE 2 RELEASES OF JAY ROCKER RECORDS. AND 4 OF THE ROCKABILLIES WITH ME BACK IN THE 50S on Bat Records.

FANS AND MUSICIANS WHO REALIZED WHO I REALLY WAS WERE STARTING TO CALL ME THE LEGEND AND THE BOOGIE WOOGIE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL. WHEN I STARTED MY ROCK AND ROLL DANCE SHOW I CALLED RETRO ROCK, I CAME OUT FROM BEHIND MY EQUIPMENT AND SANG LIVE OVER MY RECORDS AND ALSO PLAYED LIVE KEYBOARDS OVER THE CLASSIC ROCK RECORDS OF MY FAVORITE BANDS. THIS WAS BEFORE KARAOKE SO I GUESS YOU COULD SAY I INVENTED IT. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE WAS, WHEN I WAS SINGING TO MY RECORDS, THEY WERE REALLY MY RECORDS AND SONGS. I WAS NOT SINGING OTHER PEOPLE'S SONGS WITH THE EXCEPTION OF WHEN I DID THE HALEY NUMBERS, WHICH I ALSO PLAYED ON....

You must have had a day job, right? What career(s) have you had outside of music (and yo-yo)?

MY OTHER JOBS WERE ALL IN MUSIC WITH THE EXCEPTION OF 6 MONTHS WHEN I WAS A PRISON GUARD IN BALTIMORE AT THE STATE PENN. I WORKED IN SALES AND DISTRIBUTION AND HAD THE TERRITORY OF DEL. MARYLAND, WASHINGTON, VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA FOR THE HANDLEMAN COMPANY, JOSEPH ZAMOISKI CO AND D&H DISTRIBUTORS. I ALSO WAS A JUKE BOX MAN FOR JACHAM MUSIC IN BALTIMORE, AND A RECORDING ENGINEER FOR MONUMENT STUDIOS IN BALTIMORE, AND A&R DIRECTOR FOR WEDGE, DOME, MONUMENTAL, MUSIC CITY, AND PALMER RECORDS IN DETROIT.

I WAS THE PRESIDENT AND OWNER OF BAT RECORDS, CAPRICE INTERNATIONAL AND CANADIAN AMERICAN RECORDS.... I RAN MY BUSINESS OUT OF MY HOME IN LITITZ UNTIL IT GREW OUT OF THE HOME AND NEEDED MORE SPACE IN THE 80S. SO I OPENED CAPRICE INTERNATIONAL RECORDS AND STUDIO AND MY MUSEUM IN THE LITTLE RED BRICK BUILDING BEHIND THE GENERAL SUTTER INN IN THE ALLEY.

You've been on the edges of stardom your entire career and recorded great music with great people, but you never quite made it to the Big-Time yourself (yet). How do you feel about that? 

Bill Haley's Comets - Shake Rattle and Roll 1981

MY MUSIC, LIKE ALL ARTISTS HAVE HAD ITS GOOD RECORDS AND ITS BAD. WHEN I HAD A COUPLE OF GREAT POP RECORDS, HEY LITTLE MOONBEAM, RHAPSODY FOR A SUMMER NIGHT. HEY RATTLE SNAKE, IN MY CAR, ROCKIN'IN AMERICA, I NEVER HAD THE DISTRIBUTION OR PUSH FROM A MAJOR LABEL. AS YOU KNOW THEY HAD THE MONEY AND POWER TO BUY A RADIO HIT. I WAS NEVER PUT THROUGH THE MAJOR PUBLICITY MACHINE. I HAD TO RECORD, MANUFACTURE AND PROMOTE MY OWN RECORDS. ACTUALLY, WHEN YOU STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT, THAT MEANT I WAS MORE TALENTED THAN MANY OF THE POP STARS LIKE FABIAN AND FRANKIE AVALON WHO DIDN'T EVEN WRITE THEIR OWN SONGS.

ANYWAY, I AM THE ONLY ARTIST LIVING TODAY, THAT HAS MADE NEW MUSIC AND RELEASED NEW RECORDS EVEY YEAR SINCE 1955 TO 2013. I HAVE OVER 90 ALBUMS, MADE 75 45s AND WRITTEN OVER 1000 SONGS AND STILL ROCKIN' AROUND THE CLOCK TODAY AND SINGING ALL OF BILL HALEY'S HITS TODAY WHEN I PLAY WITH MY LONG TIME COMET FRIEND, AL RAPPA. THATS MY LEGACY AND I'LL STAND ON IT.

I GUESS IT'S BETTER TO BECOME A LIVING LEGEND THAN A DEAD POP STAR. I WILL NEVER STOP MAKING MUSIC. IT'S MY REASON FOR LIVING, AND LIVING IS THE KEY TO BECOMING A LIVING ROCK AND ROLL LEGEND.

WHEN THE ROLLING STONES DIE, I'LL BE THE ONLY ONE LEFT. OF THE 5 STAND UP 50s PIANO/SINGERS, I AM NOW THE ONLY ONE STILL PERFORMING....JERRY LEE LEWIS, AND LITTLE RICHARD AND FATS DOMINO HAVE ALL RETIRED AND RAY CHARLES UNFORTUNATELY PASSED AWAY, SO THAT LEAVES ONLY JOEY WELZ STILL DOING CONCERTS....THAT'S MY LEGACY.

BY THE GRACE OF GOD, I'M STILL ROCKIN' AROUND THE CLOCK. I STILL CAN HAVE THAT ONE BIG HIT BEFORE I DROP.......

ROCK ON---- the welz man

Joey Welz - The Ballad of Link Wray 2009


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

The songs in this post represent a small fraction of the musical genres and albums that Joey has put out over the years. You can purchase them all directly from Joey Welz's expansive CD Baby site:
First Impressions
Top 12 Radio Hits of the 50s
Top 15 Radio Hits of the 60s
Legendary Rock & Roll Friends
Brothers and Legends: Link Wray and Joey Welz

A Joey Welz and the Time Machine 45 was reissued by Frog and Rabbit Records by Billy Synth who also did his own versions of You Changed and Rockin' in America.

More about Joey Welz:
JoeyWelz.com
Canadian American / Caprice International Records
The Bill Haley Who's Who

I Am The Dootz and I've Got Acne....

Straight outta Maryland came The Dootz onto The Train To Disaster compilation.... He wrote a song rhyming bus and pus..... But that's all I know. Read Robert Hull's Pop Krazy post and learn:

...This radical sound, born in the early '80s, was downright psychotic to the point of being transcendental. It was the creation of one David Frey Johns, who had spent most of his life singing to records in his room and wailing in friends' showers, hoping one day to be heard in a social context.  

As a child David Johns was called "Duke" by his father, a nickname that eventually evolved into "Dootz." "My dad and I used to sing together when we went to church," the Dootz once told me, "but we had our own version of 'Onward Christian Soldiers.' Everybody else was singing it the right way....

...In the '80s, the Dootz began making tapes at the Sonny Huckle Studio in Falls Church, Virginia.... Those underground recordings (not available online, but only on broken cassettes)* still bear witness to the Dootz's commitment to the tradition of getting gone. Included are uncontrolled, battered versions of Bill Parsons' "The All American Boy," Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "Monster Mash," the Troggs' "Wild Thing," Doctor Ross's "The Boogie Disease," and the Standells' "Dirty Water." Further, as if defying the ever-impending Apocalypse, the Dootz performs the craziest cover of "Train Kept A-Rollin'" ever conceived by any mortal. 

Two songs were eventually culled from these landmark sessions and released as a single on the Sky label.... "A.C.N.E. (I've Got Acne)" and "I'm the Dootz," both original tunes recorded in one take and composed on the spot. On both songs, the Dootz shouts and howls from the pit of his soul, revealing a naked hysteria and an unrehearsed moment of being.... The Dootz told me back then that he hoped "A.C.N.E." would become a million-seller--but he would gladly settle for a regional hit....  - Robert Hull, Pop Krazy

*Hey pizzaface! Tapewrecks will continue to seek the salvage of any of those cassettes from the analog deep!

"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)

The Skeptics........Worry Beads (1985)

The Skeptics were/are out of Frederick, Maryland along with a small herd of bands that found a place on York, PA's Bona Fide Records' Deadly Spawn compilation. Worry Beads was a great little tape that made it around the tristate area (we really called it that before Dr. Doofenschmirtz).

Idle Time
The Holstein Saga
Expanding and Contracting

Their later Snallygaster LP was released in Europe, but never saw the light of day in the USA.

In their own words:

The Skeptics write, record, and perform songs about dairy cows, serial killers, quantum mechanics, flooded limestone cavities, specters of U.S. presidents, decapitated surfers, and girls, girls, girls.

Andy McCutcheon and Dennis Crolley are still making music and Stephen Blickenstaff is making some fine monster art.

The Skeptics: In a World of Their Own documentary by Keith Chester
Bona Fide Records Blog review of the documentary and history of The Skeptics' Snallygaster LP.
This has been another fine selection from Rustle Noonetwisting's magic box (of tapes).

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