The Mal Thursday Show #53: Mass Pike Memory Lane

Mal Thursday takes a trip in time and space to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for "Mass Pike Memory Lane," an episode featuring 30+ Bay State bands 1964 to now. Dedicated to the Rodney Sinclair Defense Fund, raising money to help pay the legal fees in a case where an old friend of Mal's finds himself in the crosshairs of America's misguided war on drugs, on trial for his freedom. There will be a benefit concert on October 4, 2013 at J.J.'s in Florence, Massachusetts, featuring a reunion show by the Unband, with special guests Playtopia, The Nice Try, and Unagi/Jack Falcon. The PayPal address to donate to the cause is middlefinger@comcast.net.

Presented in Living Monophonic Sound.

Playlist:
THE REAL KIDS: Better Be Good
THE REMAINS: Once Before
THE BUGS: Slide
THE BARBARIANS: Hey Little Bird
THE BOLD: Gotta Get Some
COBRAS: I Wanna Be Your Love
THE ROCKIN' RAMRODS: She Lied
THE MODERN LOVERS: Roadrunner
BARRENCE WHITFIELD & THE SAVAGES: Ramblin' Rose
THE NEIGHBORHOODS: The Prettiest Girl
THE HOPELESSLY OBSCURE: She's My Best Bette
THE BROOD: In and Out
THE FLIES: In the Dark
THE ODDS: I'll Make You Sorry
THE PRIME MOVERS: 1-2-5
THE TIME BEINGS: Why Don't You Love Me
CLASSIC RUINS: Geraldine (I Need Money)
LYRES: Tear You Up
KENNE HIGHLAND CLAN: Everybody's a Lyre
PRESTON WAYNE FOUR: Kumbaya (bed)
RICHIE'S RENEGADES: You're in the Pepsi Genration
DMZ: The First Time (Is the Best Time)
THE MALARIANS: Good Times
THE VOODOO DOLLS: Bad Feeling
THE UNBAND: We Like to Drink, We Like to Play Rock n' Roll
TAG SALE: Why You Smilin' (Live at the Pulaski Club)
SCUD MOUNTAIN BOYS: Midnight Cowboy (bed)
MISSION OF BURMA: That's When I Reach for My Revolver
SEBADOH: Skull
NEW RADIANT STORM KING: I Am a Scientist
BUFFALO TOM: Going Underground
THE PIXIES: Ed Is Dead
MORPHINE: Cure for Pain
MUCK AND THE MIRES: Gone, Gone, Gone

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The Mal Thursday Show #24: Texas Tyme Machine, Vol. 2

The Mal Thursday Show #24: Texas Tyme Machine, Vol. 2

Mal Thursday sets the controls for the heart of the Lone Star State, as he takes y'all on another trip in a Texas Tyme Machine. The second volume in the series features tracks from Norton Records' essential Fort Worth Teen Scene series, killer cuts from bands out of Austin, Tyler, Sherman, and San Antonio, and a set of songs by Texas artists reinterpreted by bands hailing from Boston, Pittsburgh, the UK and elsewhere.

Presented in Living Monophonic Sound.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD NOW




Tracklist:
THE BOTUMLESS PIT: 13 Stories High
THE BOURBONS: Of Old Approximately
THE FIVE CANADIANS: Writing on the Wall
SIR DOUGLAS QUINTET: It’s a Man Down There
THE GRAVEN IMAGE: Take a Bite of Life
ZAKARY THAKS: Won’t Come Back
THE WIG: DRIVE IT HOME
THE PASSIONS: Lively One
THE SENSORS: Rumble (bed)

LARRY & THE BLUE NOTES: In & Out
MARK V: Night of the Phantom
THE BARONS: Live and Die
THE CHOCOLATE MOOSE: Chocolate Moose Theme
THE ROOTS: It’s a Long Journey
THE BARDS: Alibis
THE CHOCOLATE MOOSE: Half-Peeled Banana (bed)

13th FLOOR ELEVATORS: I’m Gonna Love You Too
DMZ: You’re Gonna Miss Me
THE HIGHER STATE: My Time
THE BROOD: I Need You There
THE CYNICS: I’m in Pittsburgh (And It’s Raining)
THE CHESTERFIELD KINGS: 99th Floor
AMPLIFIED HEAT: Neighbor, Neighbor

THE UGLY BEATS: Take a Stand
THE FREDDIE STEADY 5: Cavestomp 2001
THE SONS OF HERCULES: Brain Dead
THE JUNGLE ROCKERS: Shake it
THE TEXREYS: Cave Girl
THE HICKOIDS: The Talking Hot Pants Blues

Classic Rerun: The Mal Thursday Show #4

Classic Rerun: The Mal Thursday Show #4:
Songs the Lyres Taught Us

A collection of vintage ’60s nuggets covered by Boston’s longest-running garage band, (The) Lyres, led by Jeff “Monoman” Conolly. A couple of these date back to Jeff’s days in the legendary DMZ, but all of ‘em have been heard at one time or another at various Lyres shows dating back to 1979.

Presented in mono, of course. Originally posted April 14, 2008.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW!

LYRES: Baby (I Still Want Your Lovin')
TOMMY TUCKER & THE ESQUIRES: Don't Tell Me No Lies
THE YO-YOS: Gonna Find a New Love
THE TEDDY BOYS: Jezebel
THE JESTERS OF NEWPORT: Stormy
THE HANGMEN OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY: Stacey
DRUSALEE & THE DEAD: Lily
THE LIVING ENDS: Self-Centered Girl
RICHIE'S RENEGANDES: Baby It's Me
THE ROADRUNNERS: I'll Make It Up to You
THE SCAVENGERS: But If You're Happy
DALE & THE DEVONAIRES: Never Be Free
THE SYN: Grounded
THE OUTSIDERS: Sun Going Down
THE ZEPHYRS: I Can Tell
THE ALARM CLOCKS: No Reason to Complain
THE SONICS: Cinderella
THE HANGMEN: What a Girl Can't Do
LYRES: The Way I Feel About You (Live WERS-FM '83)

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And don't miss these rockin' trilogies from the GaragePunk Podcast Network (Click on show title to launch):

FLORIDA ROCKS AGAIN! #35: Mal's Florida Favorites, Vol. 1

FLORIDA ROCKS AGAIN! #36: Mal's Florida Favorites, Vol. 2

FLORIDA ROCKS AGAIN! #37: Mal's Florida Favorites, Vol. 3

THE MAL THURSDAY SHOW #13: The Ballad of Mal Thursday, Pt. 1

THE MAL THURSDAY SHOW #14: The Ballad of Mal Thursday, Pt. 2

THE MAL THURSDAY SHOW #15: The Ballad of Mal Thursday, Pt. 3


FLORIDA ROCKS AGAIN! #13: Coverama!

FLORIDA ROCKS AGAIN! #28: Coverama! 2

FLORIDA ROCKS AGAIN! #38: Coverama! 3-D

The Chunk Records Story: The Complete Saga

"The Chunk Records Story" remains the BLOG!'s finest hour. It tells the true tale of the rise and fall of the label that delivered "Obscure but Rewarding" recordings promising "Medium Fidelity, Extreme Quality." To mark the tenth anniversary of its demise, here is the Complete Saga:

Part One
Chunk Records Is Born

Part Two
Salad Days

Part Three
The Beginning of the End

Part Four
The Decline and Fall of Chunk Records

Jeff Conolly Interview, Pt. 1

I stumbled across this 2001 interview with Jeff "Monoman" Conolly of Lyres and DMZ fame, conducted by Dutch garage maniac "King" Koen Goossens for his website, "A Peek Inside Jeff Conolly's Record Collection." I decided to republish it here on the BLOG! for the following reasons: first, I love pretty much everything Jeff's bands have ever recorded; second, this is one of the few in-depth interviews I've seen with the elusive Mr. Conolly; and third, it was originally done in ALL CAPS and trying to read it gave me a headache. As a former newspaper editor, I couldn't resist giving the interview what Terry Southern liked to call "a little of the good ol' tightening and brightening," making it much easier to read than the one on APIJCRC.

For optimum enjoyment, please tune in The Mal Thursday Show #4: Songs the Lyres Taught Us.

Here's Part One:

KOEN GOOSSENS: How did you first become interested in music? What music did you grow up with? When did you start playing the organ?

JEFF CONOLLY: I remember being four years old and the day we moved away from Albany, New York....We said goodbye, visited some family who had an electronic piano/organ, but it looked just like a regular piano. Also, I used to bang away at my grandma’s baby grand when we stayed with them in New Hampshire. There was a Sears Silvertone record player that my parents owned and they had a few LPs, not much. I think I really liked Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf,” that got heavy play, and also “76 Trombones”…That was kinda the “96 Tears” of its day.

KOEN GOOSSENS: What was the music scene like in Boston when you joined DMZ?

JEFF CONOLLY: Very local, not much, the real rock ‘n’ roll groups were very underground. Then in the spring of 1976, it just kinda appeared all of the sudden everybody wanted in on this thing and it turned into a scene, almost overnight. Remember, this was the 200-year Bicentennial Anniversary of the USA, and people in Boston were very energized already.

KOEN GOOSSENS: It’s a widespread rumor that almost every musician in Boston joined your ranks at one time or another. I checked the DMZ/Lyres Family Tree and the list is pretty impressive indeed. How come DMZ and Lyres have had so many different line-ups?

JEFF CONOLLY: That’s an exaggerated rumor, of course. The music that DMZ and Lyres were perpetrating was not the kind that lent itself to great success on a commercial scale. People left to go back to University, to better-paying bands, like what became the Cars. DMZ and Lyres have musical leanings that make stability of the line-ups nearly impossible. I get along with almost everybody who’s been involved.

KOEN GOOSSENS: The list of songs that DMZ and Lyres did cover versions of is quite impressive as well. Where did you find all these nuggets? Are you a big record collector? When did you start collecting records?

JEFF CONOLLY: My favorite and first band were the Searchers and they were the role model for me as far as searching out undervalued songs and ideas. That pretty much underscores 99.9% of all my activity. There’s that intoxicating rush of “hearing” a song that’s been there all along, that makes you say, “Where was I? How come it took me so long to find this?”

KOEN GOOSSENS: Some of the original versions appeared on ’60s garage comps long after you decided to cover them. Did you get any credit for that? After all, it was you who re-discovered them in the first place.

JEFF CONOLLY: I’ve gotten a tiny amount of recognition, but I’m not fooled by that – it’s the songs and recordings that are the real payoff. Another huge payoff for me has been the chance to actually meet some of these great people who are the real creators. I’m talking guys like Vladimir Tax [the Outsiders], Kenny Daniels [Kenny & the Kasuals], Rudy Martinez and Frankie Rodriguez [Question Mark & the Mysterians]…I don’t consider that “name-dropping,” but I could do that, too…It’s just not that important, although you do get a certain rush…

KOEN GOOSSENS: Is it important to you that a song/band is obscure before you do a cover?

JEFF CONOLLY: I think it matters in the sense that it makes you feel like an explorer who’s made a discovery and you shout “Eureka!” then of course, later on, you find out that Billy Childish already did a re-recording of it ten years ago…

KOEN GOOSSENS: I got lots of feedback from people that were amazed that so many songs they thought were Lyres originals are in fact covers. You have the gift to totally make cover songs your own when you record them. Maybe that’s why people think they’re original Lyres tunes. When you listen to On Fyre, for instance, you don’t get the impression that there’s five covers on the album at all. They all have the unmistakable Lyres touch.

JEFF CONOLLY: That’s a nice compliment for the band and myself, thanks. I can’t really comment on that, because it’s something I’m trying to deal with all the time…

KOEN GOOSSENS: When DMZ started doing songs by Northwest bands the Sonics (“He’s Waiting,” “Shot Down,” and “Strychnine”) and the Wailers (“Out of Our Tree”), they were completely unknown to most of us. I had to wait until their stuff was re-released before I had a chance to hear the original versions.

JEFF CONOLLY: Well, you could accuse us of exploiting the originals. That’s fair, too.

KOEN GOOSSENS: Obviously, the Stooges were a major influence on DMZ, weren’t they? I think that you are one of the few people that can really handle a Stooges cover…I’ve heard dozens of bad Stooges covers, more than I care to remember. Why do you think it took so long for the Stooges to get the credit they deserved?

JEFF CONOLLY: I think the Stooges were totally, totally misunderstood by the rock audience when their first album came out in 1969. But I don’t think that the group “Open Mind” did very well that year, either. There were lots of bands that were so far ahead of the ’60s, even back as far as 1966, that there was simply no chance of any real sort of recognition. And that’s probably the way it was supposed to be. It probably made that music all the more angry and counter to everything else that was accepted back then. By the time of the Stooges’ second album, even people in my school were aware that something very, very strange was coming…There were only a few people back then who had ever listened to the second Velvet Underground LP, let alone understood it.

The one guy who slipped through this net was Jim Morrison. A total disturbing freak. A lot of people liked the Doors’ recordings, but got turned off by the live “performance.” It was simply too advanced for a lot of people. Of course, across the ocean, it was easier for people to “hear” what was going on in the USA. There were plenty of advanced, ahead of their time recordings produced in the UK and the Continent as well. It took a newer, younger crop of creepy like Johnny Lydon, et cetera, kids that were born in the ’50s, to make it acceptable, finally, for lots and lots more people to finally come around and say, “Yeah, aren’t the Stooges great?” – only ten years later! That’s the way it is in music sometimes: you need that distance to really something…However, I don’t see myself enjoying Britney Spears or ‘N’ Sync ever! Not ten years from now, not ever!!!!!

KOEN GOOSSENS: The Outsiders are undoubtedly big faves of yours. Lyres have covered no less than four Outsiders songs [“I Love Her Still, I Always Will,” “Sun’s Going Down,” “Teach Me to Forget You,” and “Touch] and one more by their lead singer Wally Tax [“You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me”]. What, in your opinion makes them so unique?

JEFF CONOLLY: They did their own stuff. Period. They are unique, very, very artistic, but at the same time, very brutal and frank.

KOEN GOOSSENS: You must have been very proud when you did the VPRO show together with Wally Tax. Was that the first time you guys met? Whose idea was it to team Wally Tax and Lyres?

JEFF CONOLLY: The promoter, Wim, said he had a “surprise” for me. That’s all I remember. I was very nervous and very freaked out that day, but I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything in the world. For me, it was a hallucinatory, magical day. It sounds conceited, but I’m proud of some of the things I accomplished during that period. I’m allowed to be proud of that! Right now, I’m trying to get together with Dave Aguilar, the singer of the Chocolate Watchband. He works right up the road from where I live, at Harvard University. We’ve been friends for a few years now…

KOEN GOOSSENS: Was Wally Tax aware that you guys were covering his tunes halfway around the world?

JEFF CONOLLY: He’s got his finger on a lot of pulses – he’s very aware and a great person to hang out with, even when he’s down, he’s still very witty, and often quite hilarious. [Tax died in 2005.]

KOEN GOOSSENS: Let’s talk about the Kinks. Collecting Kinks covers is one of my passions, and you’ve done no less than five Kinks covers! “Tired of Waiting,” is especially cool. I reckon it to be the best Kinks cover ever. It’s so different, you kinda took it to anther level. I never really liked the original Kinks version – although the newly released BBC version really smokes! – but Lyres made me notice what a great song it truly is. Where did you get the idea to give it that slow, menacing approach?

JEFF CONOLLY: Kenny and the Kasuals meets Ray Davies…Back then it seemed an OK mutation.

KOEN GOOSSENS: DMZ did cover versions of songs by other British groups like the Pretty Things, the Troggs, the Beatles, the Stones, Them – How did the Boston audience respond to this, way back in the mid-’70s? Were there any other bands from Boston that played this material?

JEFF CONOLLY: Some of these rock tunes translate better than others. DMZ and Lyres always had a bit og the “think tank” streak in it. All the other bands did it to some extent, but we were the ones that “painted ourselves into a ’60s corner,” according to one big guy…

TO BE CONTINUED...

Jeff Conolly Interview, Pt. 2

In Part One of Koen Goossens's 2001 interview of Jeff Conolly of Lyres and DMZ, originally published on the "A Peek Inside Jeff Conolly's Record Collection" website, the artist formerly known as "Pokemonojeff" gave the skinny on the roots of Lyres and DMZ, and his fondness for the Searchers. Here he discusses the Fugs, Pete Best, and other, even more arcane cover versions. To enhance your enjoyment, please tune in The Mal Thursday Show #4: Songs the Lyres Taught Us.

And now...Part Two:


KOEN GOOSSENS: On the Matador CD version of the On Fyre album, there’s a Kinks cover [“Never Met a Girl Like you Before”] that wasn’t on the original LP. Were you initially thinking of putting three Kinks covers on that record? The whole LP has that distint Kinks feel – “I’m Telling You Girl” also has those chunky Kinks-styled guitar chords.
JEFF CONOLLY: When we recorded the stuff for On Fyre, we weren’t thinking at all!

KOEN GOOSSENS: There’s also two Pete Best covers from that period [“I’ll Try Anyway,” “The Way I Feel About You”]. Isn’t it sad that he’s always referred to as “The Beatle That’s Best Forgotten” or something like that? Was there any special reason – other than the fact that they’re utterly great – to record two Pete Best songs?

JEFF CONOLLY: I’m obsessed with the “underdogs” of the pop world. They’ve experienced so much hustle and disappointment. Right now, I’m totally strung out on Tony Jackson, but that’s OK, because he’s where I started out in rock ‘n’ roll in the first place. My first LP was the Searchers’ Live at the Star Club.

KOEN GOOSSENS: You’ve also done three songs by the late, great Otis Redding, and it seems like they were tailor-made to suit your vocal range. Any comments on that? When you did the second version of “She Pays the Rent” on the Lyres Lyres album, you gave it the unmistakable Otis approach, much different than the first version. It’s like a completely new song.

JEFF CONOLLY: I wanted to distance myself from the Nomads at that moment [The Nomads had recently covered “She Pays the Rent” in the style of the original, faster version]. Now, I’m happy to be their friend, if they’ll have me!

KOEN GOOSSENS: What the Nomads were doing in the mid-’80s was basically just exactly what DMZ had been doing all along, seven or eight years before that. It’s like a full circle, isn’t it?
JEFF CONOLLY: I had a blast playing our first Continental shows with those guys in 1984 and we got to do it again in 1997 with Question Mark and the Mysterians. They were as great as ever. I miss Tony Carlson, the bass player, but he got married or something like that.

KOEN GOOSSENS: You also covered three songs that originally released as 45s on the IGL label [“But If You’re Happy” by the Scavengers, “”Don’t Tell Me Lies” by the Esquires, and “Never Be Free” by Dale and the Devonaires]. And once again, the Lyres’ versions got released before Get Hip and Arf! Arf! released their IGL compilations. IGL issued a plethora of great singles. Are you a collector of IGL 45s?

JEFF CONOLLY: I love “wimp rock”…It’s hard to sing well that way, you really have to be 14 or 15 years old to do it right.

KOEN GOOSSENS: Let’s move on to the really obscure stuff now. Where on earth did you dig up the unbelievably great version of Sandy Sarjeant’s “Can’t Stop the Want”? It took me ages to find that one! And long after Lyres did their version, a demo version by an unknown British band appeared on the Purple Heart Surgery comp, and it’s just as ravishing as your version. And I’m sure you’d never heard the version by the unknown band when you did yours.

JEFF CONOLLY: I have that Beat Club ’67 LP, and that’s how I “learned” that song…As soon as I heard that version, I knew it was a masterpiece, so I “constructed” my own mod arrangement for Lyres. I think I did some pretty good “sleuthing” that time. Later on, there’s a freakbeat reissue with the demo version of “Can’t Stop the Want,” and guess what? Boy, did that make me feel good!!!...I’d never heard that version, so that tended to confirm my “instincts” about the tune! Man, I was psyched, proud, it gave me a rush, because it said, “You heard the song for what it was,” a great freakbeat rocker.

KOEN GOOSSENS: It seems like you collect garage stuff from other European countries as well: “Seven” by the Sevens, from Switzerland, “Give Me Your Love” by Les Copains, from Germany. Any other European garage obscurities that you’d like to give a go?

JEFF CONOLLY: Same story, if I think that I can “do something” with a recording that I get turned on to, or maybe “get something” out of taking it apart, seeing what makes it work. It’s still that boorish think-tank shit again…

KOEN GOOSSENS: Lyres’ Live at Cantone’s LP featured two songs by related bands, the Customs and Classic Ruins. Did Frank Rowe write “Geraldine I Need Money (More Than I Need You)” especially for Lyres? The Classic Ruins’ version was released in 1986, years after the Lyres version.

JEFF CONOLLY: No, he’d been doing it for a few years. I was pretty whacked out on that one…I think I heard an organ part and decided to give it a try, plus we split a single with them that didn’t exactly ever come out where they did an incredible “How Do You Know.” Unbelievable singing from Frank Rowe.

KOEN GOOSSENS: What version of “Busy Body” inspired you to cover it? Rot Lee Johnson’s original or later versions by the Jolly Green Giants or Jimmy Hanna and the Dynamics?

JEFF CONOLLY: I can’t remember…That was a big rule: no original copy of the 45, no re-recording.

KOEN GOOSSENS: You covered quite a few songs that were originally written during the 1950s that are more familiar in later, 1960s versions. Who, for example, inspired you to do a version of Frankie Laine’s “Jezebel”?

JEFF CONOLLY: The Teddy Boys’ recording is unbeatable and I was hooked on trying to recapture that wimp-rock singing style in a gig setting…at the time.

KOEN GOOSSENS: Same thing with Jimmy Reed’s “Ain’t That Loving You Baby,” a la the Beau Brummels? And what about Chris Kenner’s “Sick and Tired” or Bill Haley’s “Skinny Minnie”? Lee Curtis and the All-Stars’ version is really wild!

JEFF CONOLLY: More of the same, just trying to find songs that “fit” and make people feel rocked-out at the gigs, really…”Sick and Tired” is through the Searchers’ Live at the Star Club with Tony Jackson, again. That’s such an inspiring record – it really captures that sickening feeling of playing a rock date in Hamburg.

KOEN GOOSSENS: Have you ever heard Perry Como’s original version of “Glendora”? I ask you this question because I’m sure you took the Downliners Sect’s version as your inspiration and not Perry Como’s. I was pretty amazed to learn that Como ever recorded such a sick song!

JEFF CONOLLY: It’s sickening…Greg Shaw sent us a demo tape in 1976 and that help start a pattern of learning “underappreciated classics” for DMZ and later in the Lyres…That’s just what happened. None of this was planned, it just evolved into this learning curve…

KOEN GOOSSENS: Not too many people noticed it, but didn’t Roky Erickson copy the Lyres sound – complete with tremolo guitar – for his song “Don’t Slander Me”?

JEFF CONOLLY: Roky Erickson never copied anyone!!!

KOEN GOOSSENS: The Chesterfield Kings/Lyres split single where you covered each other’s tunes was a nice surprise. Whose cool idea was that?

JEFF CONOLLY: Andy Babyuk is a real nice person, and he suggested it to me. It took a long time to get that out. It came out twice, you know, with different Lyres tunes by the Kings.

KOEN GOOSSENS: “Frenzy” by the Fugs was another great choice for a DMZ cover. Such a great song that is.

JEFF CONOLLY: That second Fugs LP was total revolutionary mind-blower back in 1966. We used to have to hide it from our parents! What’s the big deal about Lou Reed? “Frenzy” is just as rockin’ as anything he’s ever done. “Cycle Annie”? Nah, not as brutal, too scholarly…

KOEN GOOSSENS: When can we expect a new record of yours?

JEFF CONOLLY: The new DMZ Live at the Rat came out really nice on Bomp [the five remixed 1976 recordings were originally issued as two 45s on the Chunk label in 1995]…And Lyres records are ready for release right now, but nobody has any money! All the record labels are broke!!!

KOEN GOOSSENS: One last question: please let it be known to the world just exactly who did the original version of “What’s a Girl Like You (Doing in a Place Like This)” because I haven’t got a clue.

JEFF CONOLLY: That’s a group from Cincinnati, Ohio called “Them” on James Brown’s King label. They later changed their name to “It’s Them” because Van Morrison got pissed!

The Chunk Records Story, Part Three

Part One and Part Two of "The Chunk Records Story" traced the evolution of the indie imprint from vanity label to trademark of quality (and quantity) with releases featuring New Radiant Storm King, Sebadoh, Silver Jews, and Lyres, among others. With the 1994 compilation Hotel Massachusetts, Chunk moved beyond vinyl into the realm of CDs.

Chapter Four: The Beginning of the End

Hotel Massachusetts had sold well for a comp, and proved that Chunk was more than just a boutique label dealing in the hipper-than-thou 7-inch vinyl format. I wanted to find a band to groom for development into a major label act, that was as yet undiscovered, but who would be ready when the majors came calling. Like Sub Pop had done with the money they made when Nirvana signed with the David Geffen Company, Chunk could then further develop its roster of bands, and be a legitimate, profitable independent label.

One night, I was having a pint at the Northampton Brewery when it hit me that the little group playing the open mic was just the band I'd been looking for. The Scud Mountain Boys weren't your garden variety indie rock band. Far from it. They didn't even have a drummer. But they had a genius songwriter and a haunting, lonesome sound that was truly unique.

I decided to make them an offer they couldn't refuse. They didn't refuse, but they would later renege.

No less an authority than Robert Evans once said that "there are three sides to every story: yours, mine...and the truth."

Here's mine.

CH4511: STEVE WESTFIELD & THE SLOW BAND/

SCUD MOUNTAIN BOYS Split 7-Inch

Steve Westfield was a local singer-songwriter who had been around since the early '80s heyday of the Western Mass Hardcore scene. He was best known from his days with the Pajama Slave Dancers, a joke-punk act with several LPs to their credit, featuring titles like "Train Wreck on Prom Night" and "Full Metal Underpants." He later went solo, and made a series of records, of which "Sittting on the Bottom of the World," his side of this split 7-inch, is fairly representative. The thing that helped garner sales, reviews, and airplay of this otherwise unremarkable performance was the presence of Sebadoh's Lou Barlow on the track. It also attracted the attention of Lou's new label Sub Pop, but they weren't interested in Steve Westfield. They were interested in a Slow Band all right, but not Steve's. It was the Scud Mountain Boys they wanted.

The Scud Mountain Boys - Joe Pernice, Bruce Tull, and Steven DeSaulniers - were the band on which I had chosen to focus my efforts to take Chunk to the next level. They had great material, a cool stage gimmick wherein they performed seated around a table, and a unique sound: confessional country rock on heavy downers. They put the depression back into "No Depression." Their half of the record, "Television," captured their slow acoustic aesthetic perfectly, but was just a warm-up for the one-two punch that was to follow.

CH4512: TIZZY: "New Jersey"/"Betty vs. Veronica"

Tizzy was a band that was two-thirds female, full of quirky energy and poppy, punky songs. They were one of the bands featured on Hotel Massachusetts, and their 7-inch reflected the DIY

ethos of Chunk by its painstakingly hand-painted sleeve. The band members added the paint as fast as I could sell the records, which wasn't all that fast, but it sold respectably enough.

CH1007:

SCUD MOUNTAIN BOYS: Dance the Night Away CD

Track List: Freight of Fire/One Hand/Peter Graves' Anatomy/Letter to Bread/Television/(She Took His) Picture/Where's the Playground Susie?/Combine/Silo/Reservoir/ Sangré de Cristo/ Sweet Sally/Closing Time/Kneeling/Helen

Whereas the Scud Mountain Boys' split 7-inch with Steve Westfield was intended as an appetizer, Dance the Night Away was meant to be the main course, a tour-de-force displaying everything the band did well. As the bigtime beckoned, the Boys had added former Hoolapopper frontman Tom Shea on drums and mandolin, and he appears on several cuts.

A couple of the tracks dated back to their days as the Scuds, an earlier, electric incarnation I had witnessed playing at Sheehan's, and later booked on one of the first Bay State Cabaret shows. I remember my foremost first impression of the Scuds had to do with Joe's girlfriend, who was quite lovely (the phrase "cupid's bow mouth" comes to mind). Some of Joe's best songs ("Grudge Fuck" comes to mind) were directly inspired by her.

The Scuds were OK, but the Scud Mountain Boys were great, and had indie cred. They were a band's band, a critic's wet dream.

Anyhoo, when I made my offer to sign the band to Chunk, the Scud Mountain Boys were still a fairly well-kept secret, and completely unknown outside of the Valley. We had a sit-down at the Bay State, with their producer and designated consigliere, Thom Monahan, sitting in. I offered them a deal that would include the split7-inch, the CD release of Dance the Night Away, a vinyl pressing of their previously cassette-only Pine Box (and also on 8-track cartridge, if possible), plus the all-important option for a third full-length, that would necessitate a buyout should they sign with a bigger label, as per my master plan.

We shook hands like honorable men, and I arranged to have our agreement drawn up by a local attorney who shall remain nameless, although I will say that she was the sibling of one of the Mamas and Papas. Unfortunately, by the time she actually drew up the contract, the records were already released, and the feeding frenzy had begun.

CH1008: MISS REED: Corn CD

Anyway, this was another band-financed effort that hoped to exploit the indie cred of the mighty Chunk label, but failed to sell for various reasons. It was too pop for a lot of the indie rock types, and too metal for the shoegazers. Also, it's best track was already on Hotel Massachusetts.

Miss Reed was a band that was less than the sum of its parts. Leader Ray Neades was a talented songwriter and excellent guitarist who I'd played with in the Cheetahs and who would later be part of the plus-size AC/DC tribute band Beefy DC. Bassist Frank Padellaro, who I also played with in the Cheetahs, would go on to replace Stephen Desaulniers in the Scud Mountain Boys, and front his own band, the genius King Radio. Dave Trenholm, another once and future Cheetah, is a skilled arranger and guitarist who would also be part of King Radio. Drummer Paul

Pelis was a heavy hitter who would go on to play with several top combos.

Ray passed away in December of 2009.

CH4513 & CH4519: DMZ: Live at the Rat '76 Volumes 1 & 2

Vol. 1:

First Time is the Best Time/Boy from Nowhere/Go to School

Vol. 2:

Ball Me Out/Lift Up Your Hood

These records came about as the result of another advance paid to Jeff "Monoman" Conolly of the Lyres, and were originally intended to be teasers for a full-length release that would also include a 1993 DMZ reunion show. Though that CD eventually came out a couple of years later, it was on another label, not mine.
These tracks are the very best recordings ever made of DMZ at the peak of their punk power. While their Sire LP suffers from overproduction and a bad mix, courtesy of Flo & Eddie, the Live at the Rat songs sound absolutely killer, having been remixed from the original multi-tracks and lovingly mastered by Erik Lindgren.

"First Time is the Best Time" was DMZ's first 45, and features an incredible vocal performance by Conolly that is an unholy marriage of Joey Ramone and Bryan Ferry. Studio recordings of three of the tracks wound up on Bomp's Relics LP, but those versions pale in comparison with these. "Go to School" was previously unissued in any form, and helped Volume One sell out faster than almost any other Chunk release.

CH4515: PUSH KINGS:

Slow Down, This Is Not Monte Carlo

The Push Kings were nice, Ivy League boys who were seduced by the lure of indie rock obscurity. They sent me a demo that my girlfriend fished out of the pile of unlistened-to cassettes in my office, and popped in the tape deck. "They sound just like your beloved Pavement," she said, and damn if the songs didn't sound just like outtakes from Slanted and Enchanted. I played the Push Kings demo for Pavement aficionado Zeke Fiddler, who gave it a bemused thumbs-up.

Through David Berman, we arranged for Pavement's Stephen Malkmus to write liner notes for the resultant 7-inch EP, SlowDown, This is Monte Carlo. They were suitably dry and ironic:

"The all-around sound of this group reminds me of many things. The heritage is all-apparent: tense-chordal future sound, indeed! The orthodontist straightens my teeth, the PUSH KINGS rearrange them in a way only a god could design. Their sound is incisor rock, and if we are lucky, all bands will sound like this one day."

Chapter Five: The Big Gundown

1995 was our best year yet, at least the first half of it. I was on a roll, as every new release increased the buzz about the label. I even got a raise at the Bay State. I now had interns to help me with the day-to-day business of running the label. I had guitarist/accountant Frank Padellaro, formerly of Miss Reed, to help with the bookkeeping. I had a publicist to handle press and radio for the Scud Mountain Boys CD and the label as a whole.

I had made the right choice as to which band to focus my resources and energies upon, as the Scud Mountain Boys scored one great review after another, their CD was selling briskly, and they were now being courted by the likes of Sub Pop and Warner Brothers. Joyce Linehan at Sub Pop, somebody I had worked with since her days booking Green Street Station in Jamaica Plain (or was it T.T. the Bear's in Cambridge?), wanted the Scud Boys wicked bad, to use the vernacular. She arranged for them to be flown out to Seattle, to meet the head of the label, Jonathan Poneman.

I got left on the tarmac, so to speak.

CH1009: SCUD MOUNTAIN BOYS: Pine Box LP

"This time of year the light comes through the pines in flat beams and spark points, glancing off the frost that decorates the grounds of the light-studded medical cities. For a six-sided second I feel like I'm back in the haunted Piedmonts, a decorated major in the Japanese Inner Space Program, renewing my vow to bear down on the truth even if there is none for the hundredth time.

After the exodus of the Calm Reflectors I had started seeing the Scud Mountain Boys around town with their Baltimore haircuts, the guitarist's guitarist carrying his 1873 'trapdoor' Springfield rifle, the progeny of the muzzle-loading French Charleville muskets that had whacked so many Redcoats around these hills. I had heard it was the band's tradition to lay dinner on the table uncooked and then set the table on fire.

I was out for a walk with Mr. Fiddler the other night, when he turned to me and said, 'this is the time of year when the region is at peace with itself.' I turned to laugh in his face when the impulse subsided. He had been right of course. I'd already seen it happen in the slide projector's cone of lit dust: the November sky hovering over lives of dark employment like a televised clay bank, breech-loaders replacing muzzle-loaders, crows wired to the sky like marred pixels, portraits cubed into accordioned life while every single object of perception waited for us in the air conditioning. Yes, tennis crested in the seventies, killing Eddie Money and the last of the Holmby Hills Rat Pack, but how many times did we have to witness the L.A. fireplaces reflected in L.A. wineglasses before it ended?

You meet these suburban kids with Biblical names, but there are walls behind their eyes, strange mathematical mountains at whose base we sit playing our native keyboards and rinsing our teeth with digital snow. I'm starting to believe that the inscription above the portal describes this side, not the next.

Few people know that George Washington's favorite song was 'The Darby Ram,' or stop to think that before he was a statue he scratched his weld, got the hiccups, and danced alone in his room. All the 'human things.' He must have been scared when he fought in the woods, hiding in the dormant Christmas trees, his hand gripping the black walnut musket stock.

In those times and these we turn to the pacifics of a Gamelan orchestra for transport and release. We stand by the hind legs of a K car, listening to the new city cassettes, searching for some sign of human residence here beneath the justifiably uncelebrated Massachusetts sky.

This treasured early work brought calm forecasts and sad peace to our house. I hope you take it with you when you go."

- D.C. Berman

Original Liner Notes to Pine Box LP

As promised, the LP reissue of the Pine Box cassette was delivered on time to coincide with a series of showcase gigs in New York and Boston. I even had an old-timey circus-type showprint poster made to commemorate the releases. As I mentioned earlier, the attorney I'd hired had taken several months to complete the contract that had been agreed to by the band when had our sitdown in late '94. By the time she'd had it drafted, the band were no longer willing to sign it.

As they began to receive offers from bigger labels, they hired an entertainment lawyer named Josh Green, who counted R.E.M. among his clients. He told them in no uncertain terms that they didn't need to pay me anything. So one night I was summoned to the Scud mansion to discuss our deal. It was an ambush. The knives were out, and they would find their mark.

The band informed me that not only would they refuse to sign the contract to which they'd already agreed, but also that I would not be receiving a buyout, as they figured I had already recouped the money I'd spent to produce their records. Besides, they reasoned that any buyout I received would come out of their end of whatever deal they signed. Stephen D was particularly vehement that the original agreement wasn't "fair." Turned out that he had been nursing a grudge since the Scuds were left off the Hotel Massachusetts CD. Hey, if he'd bothered to give me a copy of the Pine Box cassette, I'd have gladly bumped Squeek or the Dots in favor of the SMB.

Joe demonstrated great balls by paraphrasing Sally Tessio from The Godfather: "It's nothing personal, Mal, it's just business."

Anyway, I walked away from the meeting completely shattered, enraged at the band's betrayal, and especially at myself, for not having gotten it in writing. I had counted on the friendship I'd forged with the guys in the band to somehow overcome their ambition.

How naive can you get?

I guess they figured I would take it lying down, turn the other cheek, and go away. Instead, I got on the phone to New York.

So they had R.E.M.'s lawyer, and he was telling them to blow me off? So I hired the guy who'd represented Scat Records when Guided By Voices signed with Matador, and he assured me that I'd get paid. Maybe not the $50,000 I might have made had I done the paperwork beforehand, but probably about half of that. Cool, I figured, that's enough to keep us going in the right direction.

A couple of days later, Stephen D approached me, obviously very pissed off. "What are you trying to do to us?" he asked.

"All I want is what you agreed to."

"The Sub Pop deal might not happen now. I hope you're happy."

"No," I told him, "I'm not happy at all. This whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth."

He walked away. A few days later, I sat down with Joe Pernice at Rooster's, a diner in Sunderland, Mass., to try to come to a resolution of the dilemma.

He started by offering ten grand. I turned it down.

He asked what I'd be willing to accept. I told him.

I should've asked higher, but I liked and respected the guy, especially his talent. The guy's a fucking genius. And an excellent negotiator.

He said we should meet in the middle. I stupidly accepted.

We shook hands, for the last time.

My lawyer ended up taking almost a third of the payout, leaving me with enough money to make a couple of full-lengths and a 7-inch or two. Unfortunately, back when I was expecting 50 grand, I committed to a some records that ended up selling less than zero, so that money was already lost, so to speak.

CH1006: SPORE/QUEER: Phuko & Flanista Split LP

This split LP took a while to actually come out, so despite the matrix number, it actually was released months after CH1007 and CH1008, by which time both Spore and Queer were in their decline phase, or already broken up, and past their peak as commercially viable indie rock bands.

Or so the dismal sales of this record would indicate.

Not that there wasn't some good stuff to be found on it, including Queer's cover of "Hot Child in the City" and the two bands covering each other's songs, but I was stuck with boxes and boxes of unsold Phuko & Flanista LPs that ended up in the local landfill after the label went under. But I'm getting way ahead of myself.

In Part Four of The Chunk Records Story, Mal gets married, gets fired, and goes broke. Featuring a bold last volley of releases by Guided by Voices, New Radiant Storm King, The Figgs, Drunk Stuntmen, Tag Sale, The Veronica Cartwrights, Ray Mason Band, The Coopers, Hamlet Idiot and Flycatcher.