by Gregor MacKenziePART THREE
"Hello. We are The Misanthropes. This is our first and probably our last gig."
The Reality of Record Sales and Air Play
I would stop in at Oar Folk every so often to look for cool 45s (both old and new) and also check on our record sales. It gradually became apparent to me that Torture That Girl was not exactly flying off the shelves. I was pretty naive about the record business and I didn't do a whole lot to promote the record. A few copies were mailed out to various radio stations across the country, usually college stations or very small alternative type stations. The band didn't really want to play live all that often; we preferred being in the studio. Tim Holmes, a local writer and also a musician, panned the record and the band in The New York Rocker. We were more than happy to get any kind of a review and decided to print it up on a t-shirt. I think we made about a dozen t-shirts with that review printed on the front.
Another Misanthrope 45
Soon, than band was back at Tracks On Fifth to record another 45. The second Break’er 45 consisted of Judy's Wimp, Concealed Weapon and Window Peeper. I have no idea why the record label listed the band as Gregor MacKenzie and The Human Sandwich. It must have seemed like a funny idea at the time. Tad and I took the record down to Oar Folk and told Peter Jesperson (the manager) we had a new 45. "Is it like the first one," he asked us. "No," I replied. "It's worse." Tad and I looked at each other and laughed. Again, I think he took ten, maybe twenty records on consignment. In order to save money on the record sleeve, we used the same photo of the band (on the front of the sleeve) that we used for the first 45, this time using a maroon color. The first sleeve was black and white. A different photo (Frank and Tad) was used for the back of the sleeve on this 45. Once again, we pressed up 300 records. Once again, the record did not fly off the shelves. We were learning as we went, caught up in the fun of making our own 45s. Naturally we hoped to make some money with the record company, but so far, after two attempts, the expenses vastly exceeded any income from the records. This record was B.R. 45-103, 1 decided to skip B.R. 45-102, always trying to do things a little bit different.
Back to Tracks on Fifth
Soon, the band was once again back in the studio and we recorded Baby Sitter, When Havoc Struck, Debby Is Electro-Cute and Andrea Teen. After that session, Tad and I went back into the studio by ourselves and recorded some real short "off the wall" songs, just for the fun of it, including, Oedipus Blues, Winged Bat Anthem and Gertrude Is The Guitar Queen among others. Those eight songs turned up on our next project, a double 45. Once again, we used the same photo of the band for the picture sleeve, this time with a blue color. Andrea Teen and Debby Is Electro-Cute were both inspired by real people. One night at Jay's Longhorn, The Commandos were playing and Dave Ahl announced a gal named Andrea Tienen (not sure of the spelling) was going to join the band to sing Run, Joey, Run a hit song by David Geddes. She did a really good job on the vocals and her name stuck in my mind, so I wrote some lyrics about her, changing her name to Andrea Teen and then Tad came up with the music. Debby was a regular at Jay's Longhorn and was the girlfriend of the lead singer of Flamingo. We were always trying to think of ways to be different, so we liked the idea of a double 45. I am not sure if any other band has ever released a double 45. One weird thing we did with the records, whenever we sent a batch of 45s out to Bomp Records in California, we would write strange messages on the picture sleeves and stuff things into the records, like copies of bios of teen stars from old 16 Magazines. One again, I decided to skip a number in the record sequence, so the Andrea Teen 45 was B.R. 45-105 and 106.
The Longhorn Rocks. More Bands. More Records
Throughout 1978, more bands were playing at Jay's Longhorn, along with The Commandos and Flamingo. These bands included The Suburbs, Fingerprints, Spooks, NNB and The Hypstrz. Also in 1978, Twin Tone Records released three EP's (The Suburbs, Spooks and Fingerprints). NNB put out a 45 (Slack) on their own label, which they recorded at Tracks On Fifth. Big name acts were also playing at Jay's Longhorn, including The B-52s, Elvis Costello and The Talking Heads. One concert I remember quite well was The Stranglers and The Tuff Darts with Falmingo opening up. I kept yelling for Flamingo after they finished their set and I lost my voice that night. The Suburbs were a fun band with many off the walls songs (I Tape My Wife To The Ceiling), led by two eccentric front men, Beej Chaney and Chan Pohling. Fingerprints created an intense wall of sound and were led by charismatic singer (and horn player) Mark Throne. The band did some obscure Iggy Pop covers (Some Weird Sin and The Neighborhood Threat) and had a number of original tunes, including my favorite, Space Girl. Spooks, led by Curtis A. had an eclectic sound. I liked their tune Science Fiction World.
The Hysptrz dug up some cool 1960s cover songs including Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White (The Standells), Little Girl (The Syndicate of Sound), Talk Talk (The Music Machine), Shake (Shadows of Knight) and The Witch (The Sonics). In addition to these American bands, The Hysptrz also did 1960s covers of British bands including All or Nothing and Tin Soldier (Small Faces), I Need Love (The Dave Clark Five), Midnight To Six Man, Don't Bring Me Down and Come See Me (The Pretty Tings), I Can't Explain, My Generation, Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere (The Who) and All Day and All of The Night (The Kinks). The Hypstrz also did original material, including Official Music and The Runner. In Official Music Bill Batson blasted the tight play lists at radio stations, "the jocks lay it on like they got a choice and they like what they play, what a joke, it's all piped in from coast to coast."
NNB had sort of a dark sound and were labeled as “prophets of imaginary doom” by some local writer. They had a 45 (recorded at Tracks on Fifth) with Slack and New World that is sought after today by collectors. I enjoyed these bands as well as the lesser know bands that played Jay's Longhorn at that time. It seemed like just about every band I saw there had at least one or two good songs. (the story continues)
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