The Explosives - Come Clean EP

A1. Come Clean


A2. Summertime Come


B1. I Won't Go Back To Work


B2. I'm An Explosive


THE EXPLOSIVES (Austin, TX)
Come Clean EP
Black Hole (BH 6171), 1979

Freddie "Steady" Krc (pronounced kirch) started playing in bands when he was just 10 years old after seeing the Beatles on TV in 1965. Growing up in La Porte, TX, the first live show he ever saw was the Sir Douglas Quintet. He eventually became a hired side man, picking up gigs drumming with many legendary country artists including Jerry Jeff Walker and BW Stevenson.

Waller Collie, who was a few years older than Freddie, joined on as Stevenson's bass player. He and Freddie made a strong rhythm section. Meanwhile, Cam King and Freddie met and realized they shared a love of pop songs. Some of their favorite bands from the time were Blondie, Generation X, Sex Pistols, Boomtown Rats and Tuff Darts. So the three got together to start their own pop band. The name The Explosives came from the back of a bowling shirt that Freddie picked up at a vintage clothing store.

It was late 1978 when the band started rehearsing. The original line-up also included Reese Wynans (who later played with Stevie Ray Vaughn) on Hammond organ, and they also had Tom McMahon (formerly of The Bodysnatchers) on guitar for a little while, but decided they worked best as a three piece. Freddie, Cam and Waller not only sang and wrote songs, they were completely in tune with one another. They possessed a natural knack for being able to play anything off the cuff.

By June of '79 they really started progressing as a band. They recorded their first four song EP (featured above) at Loma Ranch in Fredericksburg and released it on their own Black Hole Records. Two pressings were made, the first with black and red sleeve, the second with purple and orange. They received local airplay and got distribution which helped the record sell well. At the end of June they played their first gig at popular punk club, Raul's. When they performed live, Freddie would set his drums at the front of the stage so all three were positioned along side each other.

Around this time, The Nervebreakers manager Tom Ordon, brought Roky Erickson of 13th Floor Elevators fame to play Dallas with the Nervebreakers backing him. Roky's manager mentioned to Tom that he was wanting to bring Roky back to Austin to play shows and he needed a permanent backing band. The Nervebreakers were unable to make the commitment. After one gig with The Re*Cords backing Roky, Tom suggested they hook up with The Explosives and a deal was struck. They played their first show together at Raul's in late August. Typically the Explosives would play their full set and then another set with Roky.

The band started gigging multiple times a week in Austin and played throughout Texas with regular stops in Houston, Dallas, Lubbock and Nacogdoches. Because the members were all seasoned musicians and could play really well, they started doing gigs outside of the normal punk arenas to expand their audience so they could make a real living out of their music. This caused a bit of a backlash with the local punk scene, where the band would be ostracized for being "too professional." Nevertheless, they worked hard and earned themselves slots opening for bands like the Ramones, Joan Jett, Nick Lowe, Flamin' Groovies, B-52s, Psychedelic Furs, The Records, and even surf legends, The Ventures.

The Explosives went on to self release two more 7"s, the Push The Button EP in February of 1980 and the power pop classic "A Girl Like You" single the following year. They were on the cusp of signing a large record deal after that, but declined due to lack of a central figure to make wise decisions for them. Unfortunately by the time they finally secured proper management, they were running out of steam.

The band soldiered on a little while longer and recorded an album after touring the west coast. Half of the Restless Natives LP was recorded in San Diego while the rest was done when they got back to Austin. CCR bassist Stu Cook produced the album. By this time the endless time spent together on the road, playing shows constantly, doing radio interviews and photo shoots was taking its toll. Then Freddie's father died in July of 1982, shortly before the album was released. They decided to part ways after that.

Cam moved out to LA and played with Chris D and the Divine Horsemen, then moved out to Nashville for a long time before returning to Austin. Freddie took a break from writing songs for a few years, putting his focus on being a session man. He eventually got the motivation to start writing again and would always fly Cam in to play on his records. They now both play in the Freddie Steady Five.

The Delinquents - Alien Beach Party EP

A. Alien Beach Party


B1. Do You Have A Job For A Girl Like Me?


B2. Motivation Complex


THE DELINQUENTS (Austin, TX)
Alien Beach Party EP
Live Wire (LW-1), 1979

Brian Curley and Andy Fuertsch learned to play guitar together as young teens living in Albuquerque. They both moved out to Austin, though at different times, and eventually reconnected in 1978. After watching some of the first wave punk bands play at Raul's, they decided to get a band going. With Brian on bass and Andy on guitar, they then got Brian's wife Mindy to play Farfisa organ. An advertisement for a singer brought them Layna Pogue, who was hired after auditioning a Tammy Wynette song in the Raul's parking lot. A short-lived drummer named Willie Alleman had the Delinquents up and running. Their first real show was at Raul's on October 2nd with the Re*Cords.

Tim Loughran eventually took over on drums and recorded three songs with the band in their garage on his TEAC 4-track reel to reel. They released them as the Alien Beach Party 7" on Brian and Mindy's Live Wire label. It is recollected that 500 copies of the single were pressed. They sent it off to a lot of magazines for review and were picked Single Of The Week in NME.

The band was ready to tour after that, however, Layna didn't want to travel. So she stepped down and they enlisted Melissa Cobb on vocals in her place. In May of 1980, the band drove out to tour the east coast. But while on the road, Melissa left the band. Putting out another ad for a lead singer, they landed their third and final front lady, Becky Bickham. Not only could she sing, but she also played guitar.

Following a constantly rotating stream of borrowed drummers, they finally secured Cary Brock, who would stick with them until the end. In early 1981, they released their Self Titled full length LP in a run of 1,000 copies. A release party followed at Inner Sanctum, a popular record store near UT campus.

In the fall of that year, Lester Bangs came to Austin and wanted to put a band together. So he put out a call to musicians to jam with him at Raul's. Starting with a 15 person ensemble, it eventually dwindled down to just Brian and Andy, so Lester decided the Delinquents should become his back-up band.

While Lester only stayed in town for a few months, he and the Delinquents managed to write a batch of new songs and play some gigs, including an opening slot for the Talking Heads at the Armadillo. After a very quick recording session at Earth & Sky Studios, they released the Jook Savages On The Brazos LP on Live Wire.

Lester coined The Delinquents "the band that everyone loved to hate." Whatever the case may have been, the band played their final gig shortly thereafter on 10/16/81. Ultimately, their demise derived from a combination of personality clashes, drugs, and a variety of other factors including the fact it simply wasn't fun anymore. However, many of the former band members have regrouped to perform in the various Raul’s Reunions and Biscuitfest shows over the years.

The Haskells - Pop Art

A. Pop Art


B. Magazine Girls


THE HASKELLS (Houston, TX)
Pop Art b/w Magazine Girls
Spotless (39152), 1981

Kat Osborne started playing rhythm guitar at the age of 14 in her brother’s band, The After Effects. But having been a dancer since the age of three, she loved tap rhythms and was drawn to percussion. So she bought a Rogers 5-piece drum set and taught herself to play. Her first drumming stint was in a British rock cover group called Nasty Habits. When musical tastes began to differ, she wanted to start her own band.

So she placed an ad in a local Houston paper and a bass player named George Reiff was the first to respond. They started auditioning guitar players and soon enlisted John Leaf. They came up with the name the Haskells in reference to Eddie Haskell of the TV show Leave It To Beaver.

John, who was from the UK, started writing originals that had an English flavor to them. During their first few shows, the band even played covers of songs by Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, the Jam, Clash, Elvis Costello and other popular British songwriters. But they wanted to put more emphasis on originals, so George started writing as well.

“Magazine Girls” and “Pop Art" were amongst the first songs they wrote, so they quickly made their way out to Loma Ranch in Fredericksburg to record the two tracks. 500 copies of the 7” were pressed, though very few came with picture sleeve due to the cost of printing. The single was put in all the local record stores and sold well.

They still felt something was missing in their music, so John brought in his friend Andy Feehan on keyboards to add depth to their sound. Andy had previously played with John in Herschel Berry’s band, as well as in the Lords with Ronnie Bond and Kelly Younger (who later went on to form Really Red).

By this time John and George became a solid songwriting duo and the rest of the band would put their own spin on each song, creating music that was unique in Houston. They played with local stalwarts like the Judys and Really Red (who they shared a practice space with in a former mortician’s school). Then they started venturing to Austin about once a month where they’d share the stage with bands like Standing Waves, Rattlecats, Explosives and Joe "King" Carrasco, usually at Club Foot.

About six months after their first recording sessions, they went back in the studio and laid down five more tracks for their Fatter And More Modern EP. Overall the band was displeased with the outcome of the record, mainly due to the lack of a producer. They printed 500 copies, but again couldn’t come up with the money for the album art, so generic rubber-stamped sleeves housed the 12” records.

Slash Records took interest in the band at one point, but nothing came to fruition. Then in 1983 George ended up going out to England and playing with the Jags for a short stint before coming back to Texas and playing with the Rattlecats and then Joe "King" Carrasco. During this time, the Haskells tried out another bass player, but Kat and John were no longer having fun and decided to call it quits.

"Pop Art" was bootlegged on a volume of Powerpearls and for mysterious reasons pitched way down, taking a lot of the charm out of the song. The song was given proper representation on 2013's Texas power pop compilation album, Radio Ready that was released on Cheap Rewards Records. 

Nervebreakers - Hijack The Radio

NERVEBREAKERS (Irving, TX)
Hijack The Radio b/w Why Am I So Flipped
Wild Child (WC 1003), 1979

A. Hijack The Radio


B. Why Am I So Flipped?


Inspired by the sound of the Stones, Yardbirds, Kinks, and other staples of the time, Mike Haskins started playing guitar in the mid-60s. He formed several short lived garage bands and then on one fateful day during a performance, his drummer walked off stage and Barry Kooda jump behind the kit in his place. The two continued on in various groups after that until the Army shipped Barry off to Korea in '71.

Around this time, Thom "Tex" Edwards was starting his first bands. All the while, Haskins sauntered on, playing a myriad of different styles in numerous groups. By the summer of '72, drummer Carl Giesecke hooked up with Haskins and they played in a series of bands together before finally connecting with Tex in a new project called Diamonds Forever. Picking up gigs wherever they could get 'em (YMCA's, VFW halls, church-sponsored dances, skating rinks, etc), the band didn't fit into any mold and were outside the confines of mainstream rock.

By early 1975, a new group evolved consisting of Carl, Mike, Tex, Pierre Thompson and Walter Ray Brock. They called it Mr. Nervous Breakdown and they were heavily laced in the style of the Kinks and Troggs. Brock, who played the Farfisa, left soon after the formation. Then Barry, now back from his stint in the Army, came in on guitar. During a night of brainstorming, Mike and Tex came up with the name Nervebreakers as a take on the Troggs lyric "You got me so that my nerves are breaking," as well as a response to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers.

They had a joke about having played every club in town once, mainly cuz it wouldn't go over too well and most places wouldn't ask them back. But they continued to tread on and eventually developed their own crowd. A big catalyst for that was getting to open up for the Ramones when they played the Electric Ballroom in mid-77, and then six months later they got the opening slot for the Sex Pistols at the Longhorn Ballroom during their landmark US tour. Both of those gigs were secured by a new bass player named Clarke Blacker who had taken over for Pierre after he departed due frustration with the band not achieving greater success. Following the Pistols gig, Clarke decided to leave the band and take on more managerial duties and in stepped Bob Childress.

Bands like Dot Vaeth Group, Vomit Pigs, Infants, Bobby Soxx, Skuds and others started coming together and building a scene. Meanwhile, The Nervebreakers started gearing their sound in a more punk direction, though they still had more of a polished style than most of the newcomers since they had been playing together for so much longer.

In March 1978, a guy named Tom Ordon came out to see the band play at what was billed as their farewell gig. He instantly took to them and came on board as their new manager, eventually releasing three Nervebreakers 7"s on his newly christened Wild Child label. The first record, the "Politics" EP, came out that July. It contains four tracks including "My Girlfriend Is A Rock," a comedic tale of love with an inanimate object that later appeared on Bloodstains Across Texas.

1979 was an eventful year for the Nervebreakers. They released their second 7", "Hijack The Radio" b/w "Why Am I So Flipped?" Both this record and their previous one received some airplay on the west coast as well as in Boston and other markets with college stations. So Ordon booked the Nervebreakers a tour out to the west coast that September where they played up and down California. Then in October, they received great exposure opening up for the Clash at the Palladium in Dallas, a venue at which they had previously opened up for the Police.

Also that year, ESR (Electric Slum Records), which was a studio and label run by Bryce Parker, released a collection of songs from Dallas-area bands that recorded in his studio. The Are We Too Late For The Trend compilation LP features songs by bands like the Vomit Pigs, Superman's Girlfriend, The Infants, Telefones, and more. The Nervebreakers recorded three songs at ESR and since each band was only allotted one song for the album, their contribution was "I Love Your Neurosis," while their song "So Sorry" was snuck on by crediting it to the Barry Kooda Combo.

In May of 1980, the Nervebreakers recorded an entire album, which took quite a toll on some of the members. Bob and Mike left the band, then reinforcements were brought in so they could play their planned northeast tour which took them through Boston, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York. The album sat on the shelf and then at the end of the year the band won studio time from a battle of the bands competition.

In March of 1981 they used that studio time to record the songs "Girls Girls Girls Girls Girls" and "I'd Much Rather Be With The Boys," which were released as a single that May. But by that time Barry had decided to move on as well and the band officially broke up. The records, which never fully got distributed, were pressed on blue vinyl and never had a picture sleeve. They were simply housed in a clear plastic sleeve to show the vinyl color. Much of the pressing had stayed in one place until they recently started surfacing. Unfortunately almost all copies have a slight storage warp and the plastic casing proved not prudent for long term storage as it developed a film on the vinyl.

The Nervebreakers LP, titled We Want Everything, finally saw the light of day in 1994 when Existential Vacuum officially released it. Get Hip has now re-released the first two Nervebreakers 7"s and will be releasing the third one with a newly designed picture sleeve soon. They also have planned to release a series of unheard demos and other material including a remastered version of We Want Everything, and an album of newly recorded material.

Amatones - Plastic Surgeon

A. Plastic Surgeon


Party Favors (from Boys Of The Universe tape)


Right To Be (from Boys Of The Universe tape)


THE AMATONES (Amarillo, TX)
Plastic Surgeon b/w Atomic Gears In Motion
Urban Doughboy, 1983

The Amatones formed in Amarillo in 1980 in response to the lack of new wave bands in the area. The five-piece group, which had two vocalists (Mark Jones and John Jacobs), quickly built a steady regional following and earned their way onto gigs opening for the likes of Bow Wow Wow, Joe "King" Carrasco, and others.

They went to the Audio Refinery in 1982 to lay down two tracks for a single which was released early the next year on their own Urban Doughboy Records. They received praise locally and the record sold very well which prompted another recording session. A six song cassette titled Boys Of The Universe was released the following year on Urban Doughboy. They intended it to have a vinyl release as well, though it never did materialize.

After about five years playing together, the band had a repertoire of about 60 songs, though very few of them ever got recorded. Mark Jones, along with guitarist Mark Sorrels, bassist Paul Baker (aka Paul Reagan), and drummer Phil Marquis then morphed into New Congress, a band that released an LP and a couple cassettes. Then around 1989, the four changed monikers once again to the Blue Johnnies, their most successful act, producing 3 CDs. All in all, they spent about 20 years playing together.

"Plastic Surgeon" was featured on 2013's Texas power pop compilation album, Radio Ready that was released on Cheap Rewards Records. "Party Favors" from their long lost cassette, which can be heard above, will make its vinyl debit on the second volume of the Texas power pop series.

D-Day - Too Young To Date

-


A. Too Young To Date


B. Every Time I Ask You Out


Right To Know (From their second 7")


D-DAY (Austin, TX)
Too Young To Date b/w Every Time I Ask You Out
Moment, 1979

De Lewellen had first started singing in bands while attending college in Missouri. When she moved to Austin, she joined the original vaudeville troupe at Esther's Follies. By 1979, she noticed the burgeoning Raul's punk scene and wanted to get involved.

Having become friends with David Fore through her time at Esther's, she asked if he would be interested in starting an alternative band, to which he happily obliged. David had previously played drums in iconic TX psychedelic band, Bubble Puppy. He lined up Stuart Hillyer on guitar and a bassist named John Keller.

They started jamming together and the songs immediately poured out. They played their first gig at Esther's before graduating to Raul's and other more appropriate spots. They'd often venture out to Dallas, Ft. Worth and Houston as well.

They agreed to let a fan named Anne Goetzmann become their manager. She, along with a wealthy lady from Houston named Alisa O'Leary started a label called Moment Productions. Their first release was D-Day's "Too Young To Date" single (later releases on the label include the Big Boys, Standing Waves, etc). The partners went out to Los Angeles to promote D-Day and their new record. Stopping at KROQ, they convinced Rodney Bingenheimer to play the song on the air. Shortly thereafter, it hit number 1.

College stations started to pick it up as well, but before long, mothers started picketing the stations, trying to get the song banned because of the lyric, "He just wants to pop my cherry." The song received airplay in Austin as well, on the local KLBJ. In fact, Lady Bird Johnson was listening one time and called the station demanding they never play the song again. Eventually they went in the studio to record over the one line to make it more suitable for radio, though the censored version was never released as a single.

The band gained even more notoriety when an article was written in Penthouse Magazine about the fiasco. So they went out to LA to take advantage of the situation and got to open for the Go-Go's at the Whisky. Continuous west coast touring prevailed as a second single, "Right To Know," became a hit on KROQ as well. By this time Stuart had left the band and was first replaced by keyboardist Glover Gill, followed by Will Fiveash on guitar.

The band was very well received on their road shows and earned slots opening for the Vapors, Nick Lowe, Romeovoid, Psychedelic Furs, Talking heads, English Beat and others. While playing in Los Angeles, an A&M rep saw their set and signed them soon after.

The producer they wanted was booked up, so the band was flown out England to work with Bob Sargeant. He listened to them rehearse and didn't like their "hooligan music," so he pushed them in a much more pop direction. They spent three months in Europe recording the album, but by the time the record came out, they didn't have a management company behind them and they ultimately slipped through the cracks. By early 1984, the band broke up as De and Glover were very unhappy with the new direction and quit.

D-Day could be heard on the Texas compilation "Tales From The Edge" as well as Rhino's "New Wave Hits Of The 80's."

The Take - Tonight

A. Tonight


B. Four Dollar Date


THE TAKE (Austin, TX)
Tonight b/w Four Dollar Date
Take (0023), 1982

Growing up in Ft Worth, Greg Thelen started playing guitar in sixth grade after seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Taking only a few lessons, he quickly realized he had a knack for picking things up and started his first band called Apartment 5D with some neighborhood friends. They won a talent show and played school functions, but things eventually fizzled after a couple years.

Greg later moved to Austin to attend school at UT, studying sociology and psychology. He joined a prog rock band called Stranger who started playing the then-scarce Austin club circuit including the newly turned punk hot spot, Raul's. By 1981, he decided to take the music in a more new wave direction, so he made a demo recording of some new material he'd written to shop around. After posting an ad at Strait Music that he was looking for a singer and other musicians, he quickly recruited Clark Sykes on bass, David Weaver on drums and Robert Rasberry on lead vocals. Greg and David would provide the back-up vocals.

The Take primarily played at Club Foot thanks to the fact that Robert worked there running spot lights for touring bands. They'd occasionally venture out of town for gigs in Waco, Dallas and Houston as well. After about a year they decided to record two songs for a single. At the time, they shared a rehearsal space with a reggae band called Pressure. The room was an old concrete fur vault (appropriately coined The Vault) and that's where they recorded "Tonight" and "Four Dollar Date." The two songs became the band's sole output. 500 copies of the single were pressed but only around half of them were housed in self-made, foldover sleeves.

David started having health problems and had to leave the band. He was replaced by Kevin Pearson. Around the same time Clark was tired and also left the band, being replaced by Frank Raymond III. The band continued on for just a short while longer.

Another thing of note is that the band made a music video for the song "Four Dollar Date" but the one known copy of the tape has since been misplaced. Also, the Take single made the number three pick in the 1982 Austin Chronicle Music Poll.

"Tonight" was featured on 2013's Texas power pop compilation album, Radio Ready that was released on Cheap Rewards Records.