by Gregor MacKenziePART TWO
". . .a new kind of rock and roll, some called it punk rock, some called it new wave. I prefer to call it rock'n'roll and leave it at that."
Oar Folk/Old 45s/New 45s
I went down to Oar Folkjokeopus (commonly referred to as Oar Folk), a record store in south Minneapolis and bought The Commandos’ two 45s, Emission Control / Cliché Ole / Monster Au-Go-Go (1976) and Match/Mismatch / Mark He's A Terror (1977). Not many local bands had put out 45s in the 1970s and I thought this was great, that a local band was putting out records on their own independent label. It was a direct connection to the local 60s rock scene, as bands from that era put out a large number of 45s on independent labels also. The garage bands dominated the local music scene in the 60s and I thought (and hoped) that perhaps a new group of garage bands would once again dominate the local music scene. The difference was in the sound. The Commandos had sped up the garage sound and eliminated the keyboards, maintaining the same spirit of rebellion of the 60s garage rock’n’rollers. Some people called The Commandos' sound minimalist but for a three-piece band they put out a maximum blast of sound. From their records you got a pretty good idea of what the band sounded like, but to really appreciate the band you needed to see them live. I would say their first two 45s were the best records as far as capturing the bands true sound on vinyl. Oar Folk had a wide variety of records, both new and old and many imports from England as well. The Longhorn had a disc jockey play records while the bands were on break and they always played the latest releases by The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Clash and other bands that rarely got any airplay on the local radio stations. If you heard a cool record at Jay's Longhorn, you could usually go find it at Oar Folk.
Flamingo
Flamingo (who turned into The Flamin' Ohs) was the other band that played The Longhorn on a regular basis during that time period. Flamingo was from the "old wave" bar band era, but they fell under the "new wave" banner also and they had some original songs that were quite catchy, my favorite song of theirs was I Remember Romance. I am A Medical Mess and Smart Girl were a couple more of their originals. They would generally end the night with a rowdy cover version of Jumpin' Jack Flash.
From an Observer to a Participant
It was fun to be an observer of the Longhorn scene, but I wanted more, I wanted to be a participant. I got together with Tad Pensive, a long time friend and we started to put a band together. Mainly, I wanted to get some records out and I wanted to play at The Longhorn. The Commando's appeared to be having fun. I wanted to have fun also. Tad knew Frank and Barc; two musicians from Northfield and the four of us got together and started practicing in my basement.
Soon, we were in the Tracks On Fifth recording studio located in downtown St. Paul, recording our first 45, Torture That Girl backed with Contact Overdose. The engineer/owners were Mike McKern and Chris Hinding. It was an 8-track studio with a Tascam board and tape machine. I think we were in there for about 4 hours to record the two songs and then we went back in a bit later to do the mix. McKern was a drummer and Hinding played guitar and they seemed to know how to get a pretty good sound out of their studio. Tad and I set up a company called Break’er Records and soon we had our very first 45 out. We pressed up 300 copies as I recall. We went down to Oar Folk and talked to Peter Jespersen, who was in charge there, he took 10 or 20 records on consignment. I think he agreed to pay us fifty cents or maybe a buck for each record they sold. The only other local record store that sold our records was the Wax Museum on West Lake Street.
Greg Shaw / Bomp Magazine / Pebbles
A really big influence at this time was Bomp Magazine, published by Greg Shaw, a big supporter of local bands all around the country. Bomp Magazine started way back in 1970 and featured in-depth articles about obscure 60s garage bands and also covered the newer rock bands as well. Bomp had a record store out in the Los Angeles area and they also released records of the newer bands on their own label. One of their early releases Destroy All Music by a Los Angeles group called The Wierdos, is one of my favorite records from that era. We mailed off a copy of our first 45 to Bomp and got a letter back from Greg Shaw and they ordered some records, again on a consignment basis. Greg Shaw also was involved with the Pebbles series, compilation albums of obscure garage bands from the 1960s. The first volume was released in 1979 and the series consisted of 28 albums total. Several Minnesota bands were included in the Pebbles series: The Litter; TC Atlantic; and The Calico Wall. I played those albums over and over and was amazed to hear the numerous obscure/unknown/forgotten gems that Greg Shaw had come up with. The whole Pebbles series was a big inspiration to me. I realized that the current new wave bands had a direct connection with the garage bands of the 60s.
The Misanthropes Live
The Misanthropes played their first live gig sometime in 1978, at The Suburbs practice space, the basement of an office furniture store on East Lake Street at 27th Avenue South. We were the first band up, about five or six bands played that night including The X-Offs and The Suicide Commandos. My opening words to the crowd there were "Hello, we are The Misanthropes. This is our first and probably our last gig." I was very nervous that night. I could not eat any food that day, prior to the show. We played about 7 or 8 songs and seemed to get a good response. I was relieved when our set was over. A couple guys came up to me and said they enjoyed our set. I was happy to hear that. I had no idea how we would go over. It felt good to now be a participant in the local music scene and not just an observer. (the story continues)
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