The Rat-Taled Dream

 Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2022
Images from the Internet unless indicated

A Rat-Taled Dream
In the dream, it is the present time, and despite the fact that the club The Rathskeller (aka The Rat) in Boston is long gone, I went to see a show with Kandy Kabot, who lived in the city for a number of years. I had been to the club numerous times between 1980 and 1985, so I was a bit familiar with it. However, the map does not match the territory in my dream.

As we approached the club, the front of it was lined with people waiting to get in, and there were windows on the front that went longer than the club’s entrance could fit in reality. We looked inside and there was a big room with marble floors, as people lined up.

Inside, at the head of the line, was a fortune teller reading tarots, who had to be paid in order to get into the club, above the cost to get in. I am not a believer in mysticism, especially having dated the assistant of a professional psychic during the early 1980s, so I was trying to figure another way into the club. When I got back to the glass doors, Kandy was gone, I looked in and she was on line to the fortune teller.

The Secret Service
(ffoto by Robert Barry Francos)

Somehow, I got into the place in a roundabout way, avoiding the seer and, for the moment, since the doorman was not there, I got in without paying. I went backstage and ran into the opening group (didn’t catch the name), which were a bunch of young guys who were in good spirits and friendly, and I hung out with them for a while, getting along well. They reminded me of the Long Island band The Secret Service, who I had seen at The Dive Bar in New York City in real life in the 1990s.

Naturally, I had my camera with me, but questioned whether it would work since I have not used it in a long time, and was unsure of the batteries.

I heard someone speaking behind me, and it was well known Boston musician Al Quint who I do not know personally, but with whom I am Facebook friends. In dream logic, however, I had seen him play before, in the 1980s. I turned around and said hello, and he said, “I know you! You took that picture of me onstage that I really liked.” I was impressed he remembered me.

The Dogmatics at The Rat
(ffoto by Robert Barry Francos)

We walked down a long corridor together and talked generally, until we got to the main room, where he took off to get ready. And instead of the lovely dive bar that the Rat actually was, in the midst of the dream, it was a large room with rows of folding chairs with a dais in front with four or five tables. The place was crowded, and in about the fourth row sat the opening band, who called me, saying they had saved me a seat. As I shuffled through the row to their enthusiastic waving me over, I woke up.

An Interview with JOE VIGLIONE: A BANG! Magazine #7 Reprint [Late-1980s]

Text by Robert Barry Francos / BANG! Magazine

Intro and photos by RBF / FFanzeen, 2020

BANG! cover from the Internet © Rocco Cipollone

During the first half of the 1980s, twice a year on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, I would take a sojourn up to a Boston suburb known as Woburn (Dragon Ct., specifically), to visit Joe Viglione and he would generously let me stay on his couch. While it was great hanging out with Joe and talking music, life, etc., I also took a number of solo trips out to Boston to see bands play at such venues as the Rat, Chet’s Last Call, and the Paradise, and hang out with other Boston-local personalities, such as Kenne Highland, Donna Lethal, and the publisher of BANG!, photographer Rocco Cipollone. Through Joe, I got to meet the likes of Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller [d. 1994], Willie Alexander, Jon Macey, and JoJo Laine [d. 2006], among others.

During that time, Joe had an alter ego, or a pen name at least, by the name of Janis Reed, mixing the names Janis Joplin and Lou Reed, two musicians close to Joe’s heart. As Janis, he wrote a gossipy-news back-page column for the glossy Musician magazine.

We have remained friends over the decades, as Joe has dipped his fingers into local politics, cable television (both in front of the camera and behind) with his interview program “Visual Radio,” as well as keeping involved in music, most notably lately with his “Demo That Got the Deal” compilations.

Sometime after 1985, I interviewed Joe for Rocco Cipollone’s fanzine, BANG!, which is reprinted below. – RBF, 2020

* * *

Back in 1977, when I first joined the fanzine scene, there was a fraternity of editors, among them Mike McDowell of (Ballroom) Blitz, Nancy Foster of New Age, Joe Viglione of Varulven, and myself, of FFanzeen.

Through the years, I am still in contact with many of the editors, including all of the above, and am lucky enough to call them friends. Of all of the above, the one who has been around the longest and probably the most successful in his field as far as a career and influence goes, is Boston’s own self-titled aristocrat, the Count, Joe Viglione.

There’s no phase of “the biz” that Joe Viglione doesn’t or hasn’t had his hand in. His magazine is but a memory, but his music expertise is very much alive and active.

First, there’s the performance end. There have been many versions of his band, from the first recordings as Auguste Phenomenon, through is band’s last recording as The Count.

Then there is the producer, putting out a prolific number of records by his and other bands on his label, originally named Varulven (yes, same as his magazine), evolving into VAR Records, and finally VAR International. Most of note are the series of compilations by local bands.

He also produces records of bands other than on his label.

There are also his caps as production director, record distributor, club booking agent, etc.

Interviewing friends is never easy, but here goes:

* * *

BANG!: Before you got involved in music, you published a magazine called Varulven.

Joe Viglione: When I was sixteen, we decided to get together a fan magazine for fantasy and science-fiction. I was a big fan of Castle of Frankenstein and Famous Monsters of Filmland. Then, of course, there were the BosCon Convention and the NorEastCon.  It went to those, but we had already established the magazine then. It was just the thing to do. It was something I had to do. It’s just a calling. You don’t know why you’re doing it, you just know you have to do it.

BANG!: And slowly but surely it included music, like the last issue had an interview with Jonathan Richman.

Joe: Yeah, the last issue did have an interview with Jonathan Richman. We were doing science fiction, fantasy and rock’n’roll, and that was something. Castle of Frankenstein was very interested in pick up, so the whole premise of our magazine was to go beyond what a fanzine was, and to start picking up writers that would be picked up by major magazines, such as Famous Monsters. So, I wanted to develop people, but I was always into music, so I made that my focal point.

BANG!: Is that why you stopped putting the magazine out?

Joe: Yeah, it was just too costly and it became too diverse.

BANG!: You write for other magazines now.

Joe: Yeah, I write for The Beat. I was writing for Preview (which closed), and I’ll write for FFanzeen when I have nothing better to do. [Laughs] Not true!

BANG!: When did Janis Reed come into the picture?

Joe: Janis Reed had produced a Willie Alexander album called Sperm Bank Babies. It took a lot of production expertise. She sat at home with her Advent recording deck and taped it off WEBS. It had Barb Kitson [d. 2006 – RBF, 2020] of Thrills as the MC, who was just a DJ at that point in time. I had let her write for the Auguste Pages, which is our house fanzine for the record company and the band. And then Janis went from the Auguste Pages to Musician magazine, which hired me to do a local Boston column. I did one column and gave it up, and gave it to Janis. From then on Janis Reed wrote it. That’s where Janis came from.

BANG!: You’ve had the title “The Count” since high school, I think it was.

Joe: Yeah, it went way back and it was fun, but it was kinda dumb to keep tagging it along.

BANG!: But won’t you ever miss it?

Joe: Nope.

BANG!: What is your new image?

Joe: My new image is my old image, Joe Viglione. I consider The Count thing something like Myra Breckinridge. When Myron woke up and found out he was Myron, he said, “My  God, I was Myra?”

BANG!: When he woke up back as Myron, in the book, what he actually said was, “My tits. Somebody stole my tits!”

Joe: My cape. Somebody stole my cape! [Laughs]

BANG!: Your new release, “Oh Love, Frustrating Love,” on the last anthology album (Boston Rock and Roll Anthology, Volume 4) has a (writing) collaboration with Nancy Foster from North Carolina. How did you get together with her?

Joe: First, Nancy and I started having long distance sex. We were the originators of phone sex. She started writing me some lyrics and sent them up to me. She sent me 10-15 poems, and I thought they were all great. And two of them – “Oh Love, Frustrating Love” and “Run Wild with Me” – were really super. I put them both to music and I was happier with the music I wrote for “Oh Love, Frustrating Love,” so that’s become a staple of the band, just as “Guitarmaster” has been. It was also The Count’s MOR trip. While all the bands in turn were doing techno-pop and this-and-that-pop, we were fusing punk and rock and roll with MOR music. And people did not like it, but we were being original and we kept doing it.

BANG!: Is this when you were doing “Lejandemi”?

Joe: Yeah, “Lejandemi,” “Oh Love, Frustrating Love,” “Of Yesterday,” and “I Thought You’d Be Mine,” and that pop stuff that you could definitely hear.

BANG!: Why did you release “Oh Love…” now, since you recorded it a few years ago?

Joe: I really loved it, and I still love it. I’m aware that it wasn’t a wise move to put it on Anthology Vol. 4, ‘cause it’s gonna kill any chance of airplay. In fact, it hasn’t gotten one spin and the album’s been getting a lot of airplay up here. The reviews on it so far by the critics have been the best. It’s one of the best cuts on the record. I think the people in Europe will think so too, because Europe’s back into pop.

BANG!: Don’t you think it’s harder to sell a million-unit album if it’s a compilation?

Joe: A compilation won’t sell a million. I mean, it could – you should never limit yourself – but with compilation albums, I don’t use them for that purpose. The reasons I’m using these compilations first is to develop my relationship with the bands, beyond just the club scene, and beyond promoting their records and reviewing them. I wanna get to know what it’s like getting into a contract with the bands for one song, seeing if they’ve got the attitude that I have toward marketing and promoting something. You’d be surprised the gung-ho attitudes you get from certain bands, and then, when they actually realize how much work is in it, they drop out. And then the band breaks up because they don’t want to do all the work. We’re just gonna find the cream of the crop, the real hard workers who are really talented, because those are the bands I think I can bank on.

 

 Dimension 10: Jeff Hill is squatting in front

BANG!: Who’s in your new band, Dimension 10?

Joe: Well, my band right now is my drummer Jeff (Hill), and what I think we’re gonna do is have a revolving door of guitar players, and maybe even a revolving door of bass players, who work on different aspects of Dimension 10.

BANG!: Doesn’t that make it a little confusing for touring?

Joe. No, because we’re going to be going out with people that have the sound – the real sound – that we want!

* * *

Reproduction of the original article on Joe’s blog HERE.

A Royal Look at Boston R’n’R: Parts I and II [1977-1978]

Text by Count Joseph Allen Salvatore Viglione / FFanzeen 1977-1978

Introduction by Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2020

Images from the Internet, unless indicated

These articles were originally published in FFanzeen, issues 2 and 3, dated October 1977 and Winter-Spring 1977-1978, repectively. It was written by Joe Viglione, a Boston-based musician, band and record promoter, and scenester. His bands have included the Count, Auguste Phenomenon and Dimension 10. Currently, Joe still manages a bunch of bands/musicians, books clubs such as the Cantab, and has a podcast called “Visual Radio” where he interviews some pretty big named acts that is worth checking out.

For a few years, mainly in the early 1980s, I would go stay at Joe’s house on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, and tour around Boston, seeing multiple bands at the Ratskeller (aka, the Rat), the Paradise, Chet’s Last Call, etc. In this way, I got to meet so many great people, like Kenneth Highland, Donna Lethal, Rocco Cippilone, JoJo Laine, and one weekend even Stones’ producer and fellow Brooklynite, Jimmy Miller. However, I got to befriend Joe earlier thanks to my ‘zine and his, Varulven. We had a pen-pal correspondence going until I drove up there…I believe it was 1980.

A lot of the bands mentioned in this piece are still amazing when one looks back on their catalog. When these articles came out, I wasn’t familiar with many of them, but would do so, over time. – RBF, 2020

 

Photo by RBF

PART I: Issue 2 (October 1977)

Boston: 8-15-77

Contrary to popular belief, Boston is more than just an album and group on Epic Records. Boston is also a city. The capital of a state! Massachusetts, in fact. Boston also churns out a great deal of real good Rock & Roll. There’s lots of people here and these people like to rock out! This is a vampire’s eye view of the Rock and Roll Universe…

There are three good ways of hearing your favorite bands in this town, or finding out about new ones. One is “clubbing”: hitting the local nightspots which house rock music, or the parties where a band is at, or a boat cruise featuring a decent band. I put these under the heading of clubbing obviously erroneously ‘cause what I mean is live music, but who cares. I’m the Count and royalty can do whatever it wants.

Willie Loco Alexander at the Paradise
(photo by RBF)

We used to have only the Rat and the Club to frequent with occasional good bands at K-K-Katy’s (across the street from the Rat) ‘till it went disco; and dynamite bands (like Third Rail, Willie Loco, myself, the Bonjour Aviators, etc.) at a place called Dummy’s, which was an incredibly large club with wax museum figures for décor and plenty of breathing space, and a beautiful stage and a beautiful sound system, and it only lasted about 3 months. That’s life in the big city, so they say, but now a new club has opened its door to R&R, so things are looking up again. Cantones, in the Financial District, hosts the Real Kids, Willie Loco, La Peste, Baby’s Arm and many more really special people, and the Rock & Roll audience is responding very well to this new venue.

The Rat still reigns as the place to go even though no one really likes it all that much. It is a dive; one would think an excellent place for the Count to hang out, but I do consider myself a bit sophisticated and would really rather hear rock within the antiseptic confines of something like the Playboy Club. The Rat is a cellar: smoke and bad air is as plentiful down there as fish in the sea, so why does everyone go, you ask?? Despite the atmosphere, people still flock to this demonic camber so there is the friends aspect of it, and the music is good, for the most part.

This weekend we caught the Cars at Rat City. The Cars are one of the very best bands in Boston. They have taken the place which once belonged to Susan (since Susan split to New York) as the best band who plays in tune, sings on key, got a lot of great songs and excellent musicians, not to mention management which wants to get them to the top. The Cars feature Ric and Elliot on guitars, Ben on the bass, Dave on the drums, and Greg working on various assortments of instruments from synthesizer to saxophone and rhythm guitar. Songs like “Just What I Needed,” “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight,” “Come Back Down,” and so many more, are becoming big underground hits via live performances and the studio tapes floating around local radio stations.

Baby’s Arm is another new band which is causing some excitement. Frank Rowe writes the songs and plays a nice lead guitar with some very original work. Richee Johnson is the undisputed star of the band and slams away at the drums (he’s known as Sam Slam in certain circles of Boston rock); Billy Cole plays rhythm and sings the Lesley Gore tunes; and John Schriver rounds out the band on bass guitar. John is the third bass player to join this young band, replacing McGregor McGee (bassist on Peter Vallis’ single, “Marrying for Money”) who replaced Randall (ex-Auguste Phenomenon 4, which lasted all of 2 months). He also played bass on the record Randall sang on, “The Fury in Your Eyes” b/w “Boston City Limits” by the Bonjour Aviators, being a member of that band from its inception. Randall is now in a new band called Rawk.

John Felice of the Real Kids at the Rat
(photo by RBF)

Easy Action features KC Lindstrom on guitar, Mike Johnson on drums, Bob Papalado on bass, and Chas on lead vocals. They’re busy gigging around town, having just completed four songs in the studio, may do more studio work, and like Baby’s Arm, have a record in the offing.

Third Rail features the great Richard Nolan on vocals. Richard is one of the most original front men of all Rock. He can mesmerize by just standing and staring. His voice is soft, deep and distinct. Chilling may better describe it. It’s no coincidence that they played with the film Night of the Living Dead last Sunday (8-8-77) at the Rat. Fred Pineau (from the Count and Bonjour Aviators’ records) does the lead guitar along with Gary Soprano (now engineer on the Count’s upcoming LP). Rick rocks out on the drums, and TB Pleyer is the bass player.

Willie Loco is, along with the Cars, the best band in Boston at the moment. Willie is a true Rock & Roll genius. Period. His performances are striking, always entertaining, and abundant in Rock & Roll revelations. His records are treasures, and the tapes of studio work current circulating prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this man encompasses everything that is Rock & Roll. There is a bootleg album of a performance recorded in December of 1976 about to be released on Varulven Records. This is the ultimate Rock & Roll concert. Willie & the Boom Boom Band (Billy, Dave and Sev) go through nine of their big numbers, including a super triple medley of “Hit Her Wid de Axe,” “You Looks So Pretty When,” and “Hair.” It’s called The Sperm Bank Babies, featuring Al Lorenzo Drake, and will be available as soon as the money is got together... All proceeds go to Willie and the band after pressing and mailing costs. There will only be 300 of the first pressing released [yes, I still have mine – RBF, 2020] so act now!!!

A guest appearance on this LP is made by Thundertrain. They do an old Chuck Berry number called “Around and Around,” and you can hear Mach Bell, infuriated by the injustices of the industry in Boston overheating to the maximum. Mach Bell is one of the best front men in all of Rock and Roll. Really. Thundertrain is a superb live band; one of the few bands around that can crank up and get everyone excited. Their performances are events with Steven Silva blasting the walls apart with frantic leads, and Mach swinging from the ceiling like a Rock & Roll Tarzan.

PART II: Issue 3 (Winter/Spring 1977-1978)

Reddy Teddy, along with Thundertrain, is my fave live band. They create an excitement few other bands can ever hope to achieve. Their performances are superior excursions into Rock & Roll, which don’t quite carry over onto their records (like Thundertrain). We need these guys on a 3-D film. Till then, make it a point to catch them in concert!!! When Matt & John Rose start doing their simultaneous leaps, watch out!

Fox Pass has just re-emerged and is also up there with the elite “best” bands. Jon Macey, Mike Roy and John Jules, along with new members Steve Couch and Max Camfield create some of the best Pop Rock songs this side of the Hollies if they were infected by a severe case of Rolling Stones and Velvet Underground. Their record is a classic.

The Count, at the Rat
(photo by RBF)

There are many more bands, also superb, some not as suburb, some actually awful, but you find that everywhere. If I missed a good band, sorry ‘bout that. It’s about 3:30 AM, so you can see why it’s getting hard to think.

I was talking about ways of hearing your fave bands. The second method employed by Rock and Rollers in the ‘70s is the homemade record. After slamming my music against empty walls for too many years I got the inspiration to put out an EP and viola, instant infamy. My fave local records are Pastiche’s “Flash of the Moment,” Fox Pass, Willie Loco, Thundertrain, Marc Thor, Reddy Teddy, some stuff on the  Live at the Rat EP (Susan, Willie, Marc Thor and Thundertrain, to be specific), the Avatars, and you can be sure there will be many more soon. Inside info tells me Lord Manuel got a great EP due very shortly, and comedian Paul Lovell got Blowfish in the New Wave (EP) due shortly on Varulven Records.

The third formula for getting underground music into your head is via the Rock & Roll radio show. The best underground station in the Boston Rock Nation now is WCUW-FM in Worchester. These guys play underground stuff like it’s the only music in the word (well, it is, isn’t it??). Main New Wave DJ Brian Goslow is the guy to send your records and tapes to. The Count does a half hour radio show called “Auguste Hour of Destruction” for WCUW each week, as does Paul Lovell with his “Boston Groupie News Report.” Brian’s show is called “My Generation PSV (Patti Smith Version)” and is incredible.

[This paragraph redacted]

Leslie got the Boston Beat on WCOZ, Boston’s best rocker. Her show leans more towards the folk side of things, but on good nights you’ll hear the Atlantics, Fox Pass, the Cars, the Count, Piper and what more could now ask for? Debbie Frost has a great show on WHRB during the school year, and Peter’s got a very fine program on WBRS. WERS (not to be confused with WBRS) has recently begun playing New Wave and are publishing their Top 10 New Waves on a chart.

A good way for out-of-towners to keep up on the Rockin’ side of Boston is via the publications produced by many devoted people [aka fanzines – RBF, 1977].

Got to run. Rock on. Love yas…

Welcome to THE NEIGHBORHOODS [1986]

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 1986

Introduction © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2016

Images by Rocco Cippilone

This interview was originally published in FFanzeen, issue #14, dated 1986.

Dave Minehan is a powerhouse and a Boston legend. While the Neighborhoods unfortunately never broke through the barrier into the A-list, they still managed to make it into the Boston Music Awards Hall of Fame in 2005. Considering the sheer number of bands from that city, and the volume of sales that they all generate, this is pretty astounding. But also, it is rightfully so.

I had quite a nice conversation with Dave when I first met him at a Salem 66 gig in Boston (Cambridge, actually, if I remember correctly) in the -mid 1980s. Of course, we talked music in the form of bands we liked. One band we both obviously liked was Salem 66. Honestly, I had forgotten about this conversation (more about my age and distance in time than the content or Dave, himself) until I retyped this interview.

When I look back at the article now, I realize I spelled Dave’s last name wrong, and for that I am sorry. Putting the story in the ‘zine, though, was certainly the right thing to do. Nowadays, Dave is the “owner, producer, engineer, session musician, songwriter, arranger” (as it states on his LinkedIn page) of Woolly Mammoth Sound/Productions, in Arlington, MA. He is also the touring guitarist for the Replacements since 1993. Lee Harrington went on to be both a music producer and a powerhouse lawyer with the firm Nixon Peabody. Oh, and yes, Dave he and Lee still tour as the Neighborhoods, currently with Johnny “Rock” Lynch on drums.

Check out the documentary which discusses their career (among others), Boys From Nowhere: The Story of Boston’s Garage Punk Uprising (2016), reviewed by me HERE: – RBF, 2016 http://ffanzeen.blogspot.ca/2016/05/documentary-review-boys-from-nowhere.html

  

The Neighborhoods. A good rock’n’roll trio from Boston. They have a bunch of records out on Ace of Hearts Records.

Springtime at the now-defunct Peppermint Lounge, I had a chance to talk to two of the three. Plain, simple, and to the point, like their hard-driving music. Check it out. Check them out. ‘Nuff said.

FFanzeen: The Neighborhoods usta play with Willie Alexander, didn’t they?

Dave Minehan (vox/guitar): Yeah.

FFanzeen: Was that when the Neighborhoods was formed?

Dave: Very shortly prior to. We pretty much jumped in after Willie’s band, probably after six months of playing.

FFanzeen: After the Boom Boom Band, right?

Dave: Yeah, after those guys just dissolved. They still had a lot of gigs to do, as far as I was led to believe, and that’s what first actually brought us down here to New York. And our long-time friendship with Jim Fouratt [who founded Danceteria – RBF, 2016] started then. It’s been going ever since. That’s why we’re here tonight, once again.

FFanzeen: When you played with Willie, it was at Hurrahs, right?

Dave: Uh-hunh. At Hurrahs, and that was about ’79, or something. Or ’78.

FFanzeen: It was when the [Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band] album came out in ’78.

Dave: The second one [Meanwhile…Back in the States – RBF, 1986]

FFanzeen: Do you ever still team with him?

Dave: Last time has been a while.

Lee Harrington (bass): My sister has a band, and every once in a while he’ll come down and sing with them. For a while I was playing bass.

FFanzeen: What band?

Lee: It’s called Barry Marshall and the Rockin’ Robins. It’s like a big soul review, kinda. But Willie just comes down and sings once in a while, so I’ve played with him a few times. He’s doin’ all right. He’s playin’ again. He’s writing a lot still, too. I saw his set the last time he was on stage. We were playing the night after he played.

FFanzeen: The type of music you play doesn’t seem to be played too much. It’s just sort of a straight ahead rock’n’roll.

Dave: Yeah. Well, at this point of the game, I don’t care or worry too much about anything because I finally see good rock’n’roll finally getting listened to, in terms of independent bands doing okay. So, as long as we keep behaving ourselves, keep writing, keep working hard, keep meeting people and doing all the things we’re supposed to do, our day should come. Hopefully. I mean, we’ve stuck it out this long, and we’ve been stuck it out during periods when the direction wasn’t as solid as it’s been in the last couple of years. So with all that working for us now, I hope it’s just a matter of time.

FFanzeen: How did Rick Harte of Ace of Hearts Records get in touch with you?

Dave: Rick was just starting and we did a single for him [“No Place Like Home” b/w “Prettiest Girl” – RBF, 1986]. It was his second single ever and it helped put us on the map, and it helped put Rick on the map, also. It was quite the New England hit. It probably carried us. [I show them my copy of the single – RBF, 1986]. And you know what’s great, now the place on the cover, Paragon Park, was just torn down this winter. So this is a really classic item. This was Revere Beach.

FFanzeen: When it came out, you were being, like, touted as the rock’n’roll band in Boston. There’s a lot of press that said that.

Dave: Oh, yeah, and there’s the Battle of the Bands that we won [1979 WBCN Rock’n’Roll Rumble – RBF, 2016], and that single did take off without too much hype behind it at all, in New England and the surrounding areas, as an AOR hit. So, a lot of people had a lot of reasons to be saying such things, but press can come and go. And it did.

Lee: Plus there was so much press at one point that I think people just got sick of hearing about it.

Dave: Yeah, and they were considered Neighborhoods fans.

Lee: The people were so quick to say the band was gonna break, that when it didn’t break immediately, people thought that the band must be washed up.

FFanzeen: Also, it was a long time between that record and when the next one came out.

Dave: That’s partly the band’s fault, partly managerial fault. ‘Cause everything was so animated at that point in time, and we had every kind of lip service available speaking at all sides. The band just really sat in things for a long time and let a lot of good things pass. We had a chance to do something else with Rick Harte, but we felt the execution of the songs at that point was not very developed, and not as rocking as we’d hoped, so we were reluctant to move on that, and time passed. And before you know it, two years-three-years-four years down the line, you’re kinda starting over.

FFanzeen: Do you see any major signings upcoming?

Dave and Lee: No.

Dave: We’re recording now on our own. We’re in the studio in the middle of doing something. We’ll shop around. We shopped the last record around and got some fairly positive response, but not positive enough to give us any money. So, we’ll do it again and see what happens.

FFanzeen: I’m must afraid that what’ll happen to you is what happened to the Stompers. They were a decent pop band, but then I heard their album and said, “I paid for this?!”[The Stompers’ “Coast to Coast” indie single is amazing; the LP version not so much – RBF, 2016]

Dave: That’s rough. I feel bad for those guys.

FFanzeen: And DMZ. Sire really screwed them over with their album.

Dave: Yeah, but both those bands you’re talking about didn’t really have any real idea of what they wanted to do, or at least one strong enough to grasp the situation and take control. They both just let someone tell them what to do and they made bad records.

Lee: And also, still, it was the first wax from both bands, and DMZ didn’t know what the –

Dave: Yeah, that’s definitely part of it, too.

Lee: We had our sniff of that stuff. We’ve dealt with major companies in the past, in the time period we were just talking about, that were paying for studio time and these were all fairly major labels and stuff. We’ve seen the inner workings of that whole scene. We’re very comfortable working on the independent level right now. Hopefully this next album will do something to get us released to another step up there, touring more. The record we released a year ago is now allowing us across the country. So hopefully this next one will be on an even broader scale.

Dave: Plus we’re never gonna make a record we don’t want to make, anymore. There’s no way it’ll happen.

FFanzeen: What record did you make that you didn’t want to make.

Dave: We haven’t yet. That’s what I’m saying. We’re not gonna put ourselves in that position where we make somebody else’s record.

Lee: The Ace of Hearts thing was our fault; that we just didn’t know what we wanted.

Dave: The second one.

Lee: Right. We just didn’t want it out, really.

FFanzeen: What’s the name of that one, ‘cause I don’t have it.

Lee: No one has that.

Dave: It’s never been released.

FFanzeen: Well, what would it have been the name of it?

Dave: It’s just The Neighborhoods. It’s a four-song EP on Ace of Hearts. It didn’t even get to the drawing board in terms of names. It was just, like, no one was groovin’ to it.

FFanzeen: Your taste in music is a little different at times from the music you play; it’s a lot heavier. You play very straight rock’n’roll, and I know for a fact that you, Dave, like early Slade, Sweet [we had discussed this mutual affliction when we met at a Salem 66 gig at a club in Boston – RBF, 1986].

Dave: We all have our heavy metal backgrounds.

Lee: We all grew up in the same time frame and we all listened to the same radio. It’s suburban America.

FFanzeen: It surprises me, happily, that you didn’t turn out to be just another bar band.

Dave: Well, punk and New Wave, once we were all exposed to it, showed us that whole other angle thing, and I think somewhere in the middle we found a fine medium.

FFanzeen: The scene in Boston is, like, a couple of years ago in ’82-’83, [in New York] you heard most of the bands in Boston and they were real popular, but in the last couple of years or so you don’t really hear about Boston bands too much.

Dave: Couple of years?

Lee: See, I think it’s, like, the other way around. It had slowed down and now it’s kinda like – I don’t know, I have a different perception. Maybe we’re just seeing bands that haven’t broken nationally yet.

Dave: I see a lot of records coming out of town right now.

FFanzeen: I’m talking press-wise. I remember when your first single came out –

Dave: That’s true.

FFanzeen: – There was this influx of Boston bands everywhere.

Dave: Well, now there’s the Lyres, Del Fuegos, Salem 66, Lifeboat, Dumptruck. I mean, they’re all bands from Boston who, like, tour to some degree and, like, I see a lot of press and stuff.

Lee: I guess there’s not a collective scene so much anymore.

Dave: Maybe people just realize that they have to go out to do it. There’s a lot of guitar bands to be had in Boston, and a lot of the press has paid attention to guitar bands from Boston, it seems. I know there’s a very different scene in Boston that hasn’t really let itself be known, but I know it exists ‘cause I see it here and there, and it’s, like, the Cure type of scene where there are lots of synthesizers and dirgey-type music. And these people are very, very sincere about their music, and very serious about it. But because a lot of the press doesn’t pay attention to that sort of music they’re not really collective about it in any kind of scene. Maybe we’ll see some of that in the future, I don’t know. I’d like to see a little of both… Maybe we’re just inbetween scenes again.

FFanzeen: Like the [mid-]’70s.

Dave: It seems like we’re not in Boston so much anymore. We’re on the road a lot more, like down South and stuff, and hopefully on the West Coast before too long. So maybe we’re not playing our part so much over there. Maybe we don’t quite know either, ‘cause we are busy. I go out enough – we all go out enough – we all have our favorite bands we go see and stuff, but to truly be a part of a scene takes a lot of effort. You gotta be out a lot, and because you’re working in a nightclub a lot, the last thing you wanna do is go out to a nightclub.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6-Xvu7OS3E