The Go - Don't Take Her Away

THE GO (Yonkers, NY)
Instant Reaction EP
Titlewave (TW-1001), 1980

A1. Don't Take Her Away


A2. She Gives A Color To Me


B1. Instant Reaction


B2. Tomorrow Night


Tom Conte, Kenny Dutch, George Peters and Joe Brya grew up in Yonkers, NY and began playing in bands together while in their teens. Tom had started on piano while still in elementary school and graduated to guitar by the time he was 13. Kenny, who was a couple years older, picked up a guitar at the same time as Tom. George didn’t begin playing bass until he was 16, while Joe, who had been pounding the drums from an early age ended up in the school band.

In the early through mid-seventies, the four boys would get together in Kenny’s garage and work on covers of the day. They were influenced by a wide variety of rock music from the 50s onward, but it was the Beatles and the British Invasion bands that were their initial driving force. By the time punk was exploding in New York a few years later, the band had progressed with Tom and Kenny writing the majority of the band’s original material. Calling themselves The Go, the group started playing gigs in Yonkers and the surrounding cities.

One fateful Monday night in 1979, the Go passed an audition at CBGB which led to several return performances at the seminal punk club. The band started playing other venues around New York City as well, including the famous Max’s Kansas City. The group also ventured down to Jersey for shows as they began building a following.

By this time, groups like the Ramones, Blondie, and Talking Heads had all signed record deals and were becoming household names across the country. The Go hoped to travel the same route but had no management or representation to take them to the next level. Nevertheless, they were able to book themselves plenty of shows and even made two appearances on the Uncle Floyd Show that appeared on UHF.

In 1980 they met Rob Freeman through a mutual friend. Rob had recorded the debut albums for the Ramones, Blondie, Richard Hell and many others. He listened to a demo tape the band made and heard their potential. Soon after that they all went into Penny Lane Studios in New York City and Rob produced four songs for the band in a few quick sessions. They scraped enough money together to finance the project and released the songs as a 7” EP in an edition of 1,000 copies. A small portion of the pressing was mistakenly made on green vinyl.

The record initially garnered the band some attention with radio stations and local DJs giving “Instant Reaction” some spins. But as the early 80s progressed, a record contract never came their way and the music industry headed in a different direction. The MTV generation was kicking off, bands were adding synthesizers to their music and success became more about style over substance.

Joe decided to leave the group in 1982, so Tom Carlucci took his spot on the drummer’s throne and then George ended up splitting shortly after that. The two Toms and Ken are still playing the NYC circuit today as the Tender Mercies. George still records songs and Joe can now be found playing in a few “classic rock” bar bands in Westchester.

The Go's song "Don't Take Her Away" was featured on the second volume of the Powerpearls series. In 2005, Japanese label Wizzard-In-Vinyl released a 24-track retrospective CD called Instant Reaction which was soon followed by a condensed vinyl version on the Rave-Up label out of Italy. The newfound popularity of the Go earned them a spot on 2007’s Radio Heartbeat Power Pop Festival and subsequent gigs on the Manhattan wing of David Bash’s International Pop Overthrow concert series.

The Rabies - (My Girl's A) Hologram

A. (My Girl's A) Hologram


B. Criminal


THE RABIES (Larchmont, NY)
(My Girl's A) Hologram b/w Criminal
Presidential (ITR-5205), 1982

George Faulkner and twin brothers Kevin and Torin Alter grew up together in the suburbs outside of New York City. Having known each other since Elementary school, they decided to form a band when they were attending Mamaroneck High. The school was a hotbed of creativity, churning out many well known artists, actors, writers, and musicians. It was after seeing school mates the Student Teachers who had records produced by Blondie's Jimmy Destri and who were scoring gigs opening for Iggy, the Cramps and others, that they got inspired to get something going themselves.

John Dorf was their original drummer, but it soon became obvious that other than owning a drum set he had little sense of how to play. John Gramaglia, who was a few years younger, was soon recruited at Torin's request in the fall of 1981. Torin had played in an earlier band with John's brother Michael called The Unemployed in which John would sit in occasionally. With the line-up now complete and Torin at the helm writing songs, The Rabies scored their first gig at CBGB's. John was only 15 at the time and had to finagle his way into the gig.

They became very popular in their region and put out a single on their own Presidential Records in early 1982. The run of 500 copies was financed with help from their family and features a cover designed by David Hughes, which is reminiscent of the logo on the Clash's first record. The 7" showcases their most popular song "Hologram," which contains hand claps and a poppier sound than they intended. Sounding like a long lost Ramones cut, "Hologram" still holds up strong today, while the flip has more of a post-punk feel and is more representative of the bands developing sound.

Rumor has it that they scored a VHS bootleg copy of Star Wars which they would often play during breaks in their rehearsals. And it was a scene where R2-D2 was projecting a hologram of Leia that the song was inspired and written on the spot. Regardless of how it came about, the single sold out quickly and was even featured in the jukebox at the Larchmont Diner and was often checked out at the local library.

The band released a 4-song EP later in the year which is not held in very high regard by any of its members. The sound was more new wave and by this time they had added an additional guitar player. They continued to play together on a part time basis for nearly two decades, reinventing themselves and changing their name every several years from Intrynsics to Caroline No to Junkstar.

George has an audio engineering degree and still plays music. He currently works in IBM Corporate Communications and runs a podcast called A Pop Diary, where John also contributes episodes. Kevin and Torin are both professors, teaching architecture and philosophy, respectively. John continues to play music in bands and works as a film editor. He helped his brother Michael with the 2003 Ramones documentary, "End Of The Century."

The Colors - Rave It Up EP

A1. Jealousy


A2. Growing Up American


B1. Have You Seen Her?


B2. West End


B3. Rave It Up


THE COLORS (New York, NY)
Rave It Up EP
Infinite (001), 1980

The Colors were formed in 1979 by Paul Sass on guitar and Tommy Cookman on lead vocals. Robert Vickers joined the group on bass almost immediately after arriving in NY from Australia. After some sloppy rehearsals with their original drummer, Ed East took over on skin duties.

Paul and Robert were the band's songwriters and derived a formula of melody-driven two minute pop songs. Taking notes from the Ramones, the band played short and fast sets. The main difference being their emphasis on appearance and wearing colorful attire. Robert and Tommy would find cloth samples in dumpsters in Soho and make ties from them to match their outfits.

The band quickly earned their stripes, impressing CBGB owner Hilly Kristal so much that he signed on as their manager and booked them regularly. One of the owners of Infinite Records on Mercer Street, where Tommy worked, liked them so much that he decided to start a record label and put out the band's "Rave It Up" EP. Clem Burke of Blondie saw the band's potential as well and agreed to produce the record. In fact, in preparation for recording, Ed left the band and Clem filled in on drums. Clem also brought in a friend of his, Charly Pip, to play second guitar. On top of doing excellent back-ups, Charly assisted in making the band tighter and fuller than ever.

It is believed that 3,000 copies of the single were pressed on five different colors of vinyl. A portion were sold in Manhattan record stores while the rest went to a Long Island distributor. Three videos were made off the EP, but only "Jealousy" and "Growing Up American" were ever edited and sent to broadcast. The band received some college airplay, mentions in teen magazines, and appeared on the Uncle Floyd show. They mainly played New York and Jersey, but did venture to Philly, Boston, Baltimore, DC, and even once flew out to play Chicago. With Clem's other obligations, he usually wasn't able to play road shows, so they enlisted the help of The Elf who did his best to fill those awfully large shoes.

The band recorded a full length album, but began to dissolve by the time of it's completion. As the energy was slipping, Paul left the band and Robert was losing interest. Infinite was supposed to release the album but disappeared. The owner of the Dirt Club agreed to put it out, but by the time it surfaced in 1983 it was too late. Robert was in London playing with fellow Aussie mates the Go-Betweens and Tommy ended up moving to Buenos Aires.

Rave-Up Records out of Italy has issued an LP called "Teenage Furniture" which collects the bands full length and EP tracks.

Cheese - Kids Don't Mind

Kids Don't Mind


She Said


CHEESE (New York City NY)
Kids Don't Mind b/w She Said
B-B-Baby (36157), 1979


Jim Maresca placed an ad in a NY/NJ pop culture rag called The Aquarian in 1978. As a singer and guitarist he was looking for people to start a band with. He found bassist Andy Bale, drummer Dennis Miniero and a lead guitar player named Vic Harrison. They called the band Cheese and over the next two years they gigged regularly around New York's hot spots, made an appearance on the Uncle Floyd show and self-released a single.

It is believed that 750 copies of the record were made between two pressings which could be differentiated by either tan or pink center labels. The single earned favorable reviews but the band was still unable to build a large local following. They did receive a fair amount of airplay in other states, however. Unfortunately they never ventured out to play those areas before calling it quits in 1981.

Vic, Jim, and Andy had a side project called The Young Shriners, which played minute-long songs with titles of iconic rock standards like "Born To Run" and "Stairway To Heaven," but with new lyrics and completely unique music. Jim and Andy later went on to play in the Sic F*cks with Snooky and Tish of Manic Panic notoriety. Andy is now an accomplished radio DJ. Jim is still playing music and Vic is the executive director of the VA Horse Racing Commission and still plays music. His sister Nina sang back-up vocals on the song "She Said" on the single. Dennis still plays drums as well as other instruments. He ran an importing company and spent some time in Hong Kong but is now living back in NY selling Mini Coopers under the name Dennis MINIero. Get it?

Speedies - Let Me Take Your Foto

A. Let Me Take Your Foto


B. No Substitute


SPEEDIES (Brooklyn, NY)
Let Me Take Your Foto b/w No Substitute
Golden Disc (GDR-1003), 1979

Eric, Greg and Allen started playing together at the tail end of 1978. They shared a strong love for breakfast cereal, cartoon theme songs, 60's pop, 70's glam and the new British wave of cutting edge acts such as the Buzzcocks, Generation X, and the Jam (who they'd eventually open for). At the tender age of 16 they were determined to make a mark playing catchy pop tunes about girls, school, and pop perfection. After enlisting vivacious singer John Marino, the group began gigging (sans bass player) and making their mark in pop history. Quickly building a loyal following with their wild stage shows, they eventually realized they needed a bass player. In stepped John Carlucci and the band was unstoppable. Their first single, "Let Me Take Your Foto" sold out instantly.

With many shows, some touring, a second single, and numerous rave reviews under their belt, the band called it quits in 1981 to pursue further education. Though we'll never know what the Speedies could have become had they persevered a few years longer, schooling seemed a wise route as members went on to become Supreme Court judges, professors at Yale, inevators at Apple Computer, etc.

Renewed interest in the band came in 2005 when they were featured on a Numero Group comp called "Yellow Pills: Prefill." Later in the year, the song "Let Me Take Your Foto" was featured in a highly acclaimed Hewlett Packard ad campaign. This led to the band's eventual LP release on the Radio Heartbeat label which featured the songs from their two singles and early unreleased gems, as well as a reunion performance in New York at the Radio Heartbeat Festival.

The video below is for the song "Time" which is from their second single and was also featured on Powerpearls #3.

Nastyfacts - Drive My Car

A. Drive My Car


B1. Gotta Get To You


B2. Crazy 'Bout You


NASTYFACTS (Brooklyn, NY)
Drive My Car b/w Get To You/Crazy 'Bout You
Jimboco (UBIK-3), 1981

The story of Nastyfacts begins at St Ann's School in Brooklyn, where a few teenage kids who excelled at their instruments got together to form a band. Originally known as Pandemonium, the group contained the four core members of Nastyfacts (Cherl, Brad, Genji and Jeff) plus a keyboard player named Val. After about a year of playing mostly covers, the band was forced to change their name after discovering a signed band was already using Pandemonium.

The newly coined Nastyfacts, now without keyboards, quickly built a NY following playing amateur nights at CBGB's and earned themselves regular spots at Max's Kansas City and other hot spots while not only astonishing crowds with their incredible musicianship, but also by how young they were.

When most of the members were around 14 or 15 years old, they went in the studio to record this EP. Although the band had a solid 45 minutes of original material by that point, these were the only songs that ever got recorded.

It is unknown how many copies of the record were pressed, but it's probably in the neighborhood of a few thousand between this US press and the French pressing on 5th Column, although many of the copies went seemingly undistributed as the band had broken up by the time the record was released. Where did they all go? Well a shop in New York is said to have turned up an entire box full. At any rate, it still remains a difficult record to find, but it's a damn good one.