04.16.11 Record Store Day Toledo 2011: Forty Sad Portraits Of Closed Record Stores

Sad, I've been in at least ten of these forty stores over the years. On the bright side, Steve Jobs can finally make the last lay-away payment on that sweet Kenmore washer/dryer combo his wife's been hinting at. I hear that little minx is quite the homemaker.

347 Yonge St. without the iconic "Sam the Record Man" neon signage? 
How will tourists navigate Toronto? 

It's not the commerce I miss so much, it's the hang.
Luckily, we've still got a few places worthy of your time and money right here in Toledo:
Culture Clash Records
Rama Lama Records
Shakin Street Records
And in Ann Arbor:
Wazoo Records

It just wouldn't be right to conclude this pity-party without shedding at least a few tears in honor of some personal favorite fallen temples of vinyl worship: Sounds, NYC; The original School Kids, Ann Arbor; Purple Phrogg, North Lima; Boogie, Toledo, Zed, Long Beach/O.C., and many, many, more.

Thanks to J.Yuenger for the heads up on this list.

03.30.68 Jimi Hendrix Experience at The TU (aka University of Toledo) Fieldhouse

Sunday Special: Roast Beef OR Fried Chicken Only 99¢!

From the Toledo Blade, March 30, 1968

Honestly, do you think anyone is gonna' come out to that stinky-old fieldhouse and lay down $1.50 to see some equally smelly hippie with a Fender guitar jumping around onstage, stroking his ego and making suggestive (really, is there any other kind?) sex-faces at the young ladies in attendance with all these tasty and nutritious dining options available for the same coin?  Likewise, if Mr. Hendrix had a sensible bone in his body, he'd put down that mid-performance guitar tartare he's so fond of and instead sink his teeth into one of Harold's tantalizing specials ASAP.

 A side note to Mr. Promoter: 
Look, all of us in the biz know hyperbole is part and parcel with concert promotion. From the xeroxed flyers stapled to telephone poles by excited teenagers to Grand Funk's legendary, sixty-foot high, city block-long Time Square Billboard, the goal is to "get the message out!" at any cost. But I honestly believe you've gone overboard here; some of that lettering is nearly one-half an inch tall! We don't need your kind tarnishing the otherwise sterling reputations of rock promoters.

GPOYW

Photo: Daniel Byrne

Here's a (rare)early A.M. shot of toke! and four-time AHMRA British European and American Racing Series National Champion Kenny Cummings preparing to unleash the sonic fury of his Vintage Norton Commando race bike on the still-slumbering citizens of the West Village.
Rise and shine people!

Necros T-shirts: Get 'Em While They're Tepid!

6/14/11: HEY! They can be found HERE.

  Necros 
"So Uncool"

Maumee Gym (kinda) T-shirt   

• Straight from the source: The fellas printed these up last summer for the Why Be Something You're Not book release party/concert in Detroit, where three of the guys performed as Sorcen-Get it?   S-O-R-C-E-N. Clever, no? 
• Scholars of Midwest Hardcore History will undoubtedly find these shirts as witty as they are stylish; Do you know which barely-released (original pressing of only 100 copies, but bootlegged ad nauseam) Necros song the quote is from?
• Get 'em while you can, when these are gone, there won't be no more
• Size M measures 17" pit to pit and 23" collar to bottom hem, they increase dimensionally from there.  
• Gildan 50/50 cotton blend T
• Maumee provenance: Actually printed by Jimmy from next-generation Maumee rockers Henry and June, 1/2 half of which would later become the Soledad Brothers, the half with Jimmy becoming Boogaloosa Prayer, whose drummer happens to be original Necros drummer Todd Swalla. Patchwork threads of integrity woven here, no waiting   
• No stains, pit or otherwise, but we're happy to entertain any requests regardless of perversion
  
  Get Yours Here: Maumee City Madhouse.

Why Did Glenn Frey Roll The Rationals Van?

Was it:

1. Because the Detroit Native suffered a momentary, hallucinogenic-induced glimpse of a future world gone mad some forty-years hence, where, even after writing dozens of criminally-mellow top ten money-making hits for the Eagles and guest-starring on Miami Vice, his seemingly incoherent, booze-addled band-mate Joe Walsh would still be considered "the cool one," by non-dicks everywhere? 
2. Because he was hurrying to meet Cher at a Bally Total Fitness Center to engage in a shiny, satin/spandex-clad and poofy-coiffed workout of such crass intent that even fellow wealth enthusiast and Eagles band-mate Don Henley would hang his head in shame?
3. Or was it simply a case of the heat, in fact, being on? 

Like all good modern-day folklore, the story accompanying the above photograph evolved fast and furiously on the lips of those farthest from the facts, speculation and hearsay eventually evolving into climatic local legend, truth be damned:

"Frey rode along with The Rationals to the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, and upon arrival immediately encountered the MC5, who were wasting no time leaving Chi-town and suggested The Rationals do the same, post-haste. And, due to the chaos, rioting, and confusion in the streets, the van went greasy-side up during a high-speed evasive maneuver required to guarantee the band and their gear safe passage from the streets of Chicago." A romantic story, but bogus nonetheless. 

The Truth Comes Out:
Years later, Frey came clean while being interviewed about gigging at Traverse City, Michigan's 1960's teen hangout, The Tanz Haus:

“Yeah I remember the place,” laughed Frey. “One time I borrowed The Rationals van to get up there and I was flying through a small town (Manton) and lost control of the van on the curve and totaled the van and trashed the equipment I borrowed as well.”

Club employee Sue Sivek also remembers that night:

“It was May 13, 1967 and I noted in my diary that his band, The Mushrooms, were not very good, they were mediocre at best. But I also noted that the singer (Glenn) was good and had talent. You could tell he was better than the rest. Though most of us were shocked when he made it big.”

FUN FACT: Glenn sings backup and strums acoustic guitar on the awesome original version of Bob Seger's "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man."

Although The Rationals' legacy may not shine with the same intensity as their rust-belt rock'n'roll brethren, they stood shoulder to shoulder with the likes of the MC5, The Frost, and The Stooges while hammering their own R&B influenced sound out of the indigenous hard Michigan rock. So much so, John Sinclair named his book Guitar Army: Rock and Revolution with The MC5 and the White Panther Party after the Rationals song of the same name.

NIPTDWTT (Nuthin' In Particular To Do With Toledo Thursday) Post

Although many Toledoeans may find it to be of particular interest.

Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World from Joey Tosi on Vimeo.

NTDWTT (Nuthin' To Do With Toledo Thursday) Post

Social Media in the Workplace: A Cautionary Tale

"P.S. Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me."

3.5.71 TU Field House
First date on Badfinger's second US tour. 

02.11.75 Queen and Kansas at University of Toledo Student Union Auditorium

PDGB can only imagine the backstage interaction between a hot-panted and purse-lipped Freddie Mercury and the burly, bearded -yet curiously progressive- heartland rockers of Kansas.

Mercury, seated before a personalized tea service whilst clutching his velvet-draped scepter: "Hmmmn, hmm, hello boys. Join me in a cup of tea?" 

 Kansas members, replying in satin tour-jacketed unison: "Helmet laws suck motherf#*%er!"

Faintly, from a Kansas roadie in the distance: "Peavey Ruuuuules!"

Within a year or so of this gig, I read a quote (a bold pull-quote, no less) in Creem Magazine from a member of Kansas regarding the artistic integrity of the then chart topping media darling, Bruce Springsteen: "That's not talent, it's just two chords going back and forth." Suddenly, the phrase "Comparisons are odius" made complete sense. I like to think that somewhere, the narrow chest of my seventh-grade English teacher* swelled ever-so slightly against the constraint of his cable knit sweater vest. If they can't see something in it's own light, so be it; I'm not going to try and change any minds. But that didn't mean I had to give a shit about any of them.

Later that week I picked up the Ramones first Album.

*Mr. Kratzman was my seventh-grade English teacher at Gateway Middle School In Maumee, Ohio. In addition to banging his head against the wall in response to our generally knuckled-headed juvenile existence,  dropping the occasional Lydgate, Cervantes and (attention pecksniffs: feel free to argue the spelling/origin of odius here, I haven't the time or concern) Shakespeare reference, he could bang out show tunes night and day on the old Gateway upright piano, often accompanied by Mrs. Uhause(sp?) on vocals. He was truly the son my mother wished for. If only the Maumee curriculum specified for a yearly visit from TRCKAK(The Rock Combo Known As Kansas), we'd all be editing the Westminster Review by now.

Reunited and it Feels So Good, Reunited to Kick the Jams Born in the Maumee Hood...

To celebrate all the freshly minted audio excitement, it's only fitting the guys reconvene not only to rescale the sonic summits of their formative years, but ultimately to try and eclipse them. As the sage in-between Maumee rocker (i.e., he's older than H & J, but younger than the Necros) and guitar wunderkind Kelley Cimney once profoundly inquired from high atop his post-party throne of beer-soaked Ramen noodles: "Are you high? Well I wanna' take you higher!" Cimney, who generally chose to voice this query in an aneurysm-inducing falsetto shriek that could shame Rob Halford  into a taking work as a telaflora phone representative, clearly liked to get to the point and stay there.

Likewise, after Henry & June members Jimmy Danger, Dooley Wilson, Ben Swank and Johnny Walker stood up together for the last time, each moved on to various bigger and debatably better things without disowning their collective past:  Danger and Wilson to Boogaloosa Prayer; Swank and Walker to the now-defunct Soledad Brothers. When the band took the stage for a one-off reunion gig in April 2010, someone had either the foresight or folly to hit the REC button and commit the performance to tape, the results of which were apparently impressive enough to warrant an official release. To provide the proper context for the 2010 live recordings, a selection of choice cuts culled from the classic "rehearsal tapes" familiar to close friends of the band make up the remainder of the two-disc set.

Henry and June, 1993

  


  
WHERE AND WHEN: 

THURS. FEBRUARY 10TH-COVINGTON MASONIC BALLROOM COVINGTON, KY 
FRI. FEBRUARY 11TH- MAGIC STICK DETROIT, MI

SAT. FEBRUARY 12TH- OTTAWA TAVERN TOLEDO, OH
FRI. FEBRUARY 18TH- BAYPORT BBQ BAYPORT, MN
SAT. FEBRUARY 19TH- CACTUS CLUB MILWAUKEE, WI

DANGER LIMITED

01.27.97 Legendary Detroit Televison Movie/Trivia Show Host Bill Kennedy Goes to the Big TV Studio in the Sky.

Faking sick and staying home from school hasn't been the same since.
More
More Yet

01.12.74 New York Dolls, Toledo Sports Arena

UPDATE 01/20/11:

Try as we might, PDGB can't find a single Toledoen who both attended this gig and retains enough unpolluted gray matter to produce an even remotely-lucid recollection. Lucky for us, we found this nearly decade-old interview with Sub Pop Records founder and Toledo Native Jonathan Poneman floating around on the interwebs: 

"The New York Dolls played in the Sports Arena, not in the main arena, but in the little exhibition center right off to the side of it, and there weren't very many people there. It was really funny. I remember everybody sitting down and kind of like... I didn't get it. I was like a Creem magazine reader, and I remember buying the first [New York Dolls'] record and going "Wow!" I was into Todd Rundgren, and Todd produced that record. I was going, "What the fuck's up with this?" There's no (Poneman proceeds to imitate an insanely fast guitar solo). I didn't really get it. This is before The Ramones; it was even before [The Stooges'] Raw Power came out, as far as I can remember. And, so, that's the thing about my earliest experience with punk rock is I thought it sucked, because there weren't enough notes. I was much more [a fan] of like Skynyrd and Allman Brothers and even barfier than that."

You can find the entire interview here:

And if you were there, let us know. A little street cred is a good thing. 

01.07.83 Misfits, Henry Ford Community College, Dearborn Michigan

photo:  Mark Wakabayashi

Doyle, romancing the .016's while sweating out his 20-piece McNugget and McRib sandwich pre-gig appetizer. Wait! Is he wearing Pajama Jeans?!

In the crowd: Foxy Greg Boker, John Gumpf, toke!, and, directly in front of the D-man's strumming hand, Anna, sister of Larissa Strickland(Stolarchuk) of L-Seven and Laughing Hyenas.

Second on the bill were one of toke!'s all time faves, Big Boys from Austin,Texas, with Toledo's own Radical Left in the opening slot. Featuring long-time Glass-City scenesters Joe Testa on nicotine-stained screams and cries of social injustice and all-around good guy Mark Podany bashing the skins, the short-lived and virtually forgotten Rad Left remained unapologetically themselves and did what they needed to do regardless of trends or criticism. And that is about as punk as you can get. Except for maybe a big honkin' semi fully-laden with reproduction punk ephemera destined for Hot Topic mall stores crashing headlong into a Broadway theater auditorium during a command  performance of Green Day's American Idiot. That would really fuck society up.
 
If only Henry1 was around to see his namesake institution of higher learning finally actualize his dreams. But history indicates he was more into the D.K.'s anyhow.

Flyer source