THE VIPERS Interview: The Pure Sound of Marac’n’Roll (1985)

© Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 1985/2023
Images from the Internet unless indicated
https://www.facebook.com/The-Vipers-59760180529/

During the early 1980s, The Vipers were among the garage revival elite from New York, including the likes of The Mosquitoes, The Chesterfield Kings, The A-Bones, The Fuzztones, and The Tryfles. The each had their own niche, be it rockabilly, voodoobilly, or fandom. The Vipers leaned mor towards the pop spectrum of the garage sound.

This was originally published in FFanzeen No. 13, dated 1985. – RBF, 2023

The Vipers: The Pure Sound of Marac’n’Roll (1985)

Vipers. A name that sticks terror in your heart? Nah, not if you’re involved with the local revival of the ‘60s sound here in New York.

And what’s a better place to see and meet a Viper than in a cave? A CaveStomp! that is. For those uninformed, the Dive is a club where the psychedelic crowd meet, and every once in a while, Thursdays belong to the Vipers in what has become known as the CaveStomp!, where the elite get to their feet.

The Vipers are Jon Weiss (lead vox/saxophone/percussion), Paul Martin (lead guitar/vox), Graham May  (bass/vox), Pat Brown (drummer and possibly ex-governor of California), and David Mann (guitar/keyboard/harmonica/vox).

I had been trying to interview the band for a while now, but we never seemed to be at a convenient spot. Well, the first Thursday in September, before their return to the CaveStomp! at the Dive, I connected with Jon, Paul, and Graham.

(ffoto by Robert Barry Francos)

FFanzeen: The Dive gave you back your Thursday night.
Jon Weiss: They forced it back on us – by popular demand.
Paul  Martin: This time it’s only going to be four weeks. Every Thursday in August. In September, the album will be released. We produced the album, and Nadroj Wolrat helped us produce it.

FFanzeen: What’s the name of the album?
Jon: It’s called Outta the Nest!

FFanzeen: “Outta” is a popular –
Graham May: – Eastern drawl.
Jon: The Nest is the name of our studio where we rehearse and we do our four-tracks, so most things are conceived there.
Graham: That’s where we recorded our single [“Never Alone” b/w “Left Your Hold on Me,” on Midnight Records – RBF, 1985].
Paul: We also recorded “Nothing’s From Today” out on Bomp!’s Battle of the Garages, Vol. II there.

FFanzeen: Where do your recordings go from here, after Outta the Nest?
Jon: We have a  lot of new tunes we gotta do.
Paul: We want to do a second album right away. We already got the first song in the band and we will be on the road by October or November.
Jon: We’ll be on the road, playing other dives.

FFanzeen: Why doesn’t any of your recordings sound like you do live?
Paul: We use chintzy recording equipment. It doesn’t sound much like anything.

FFanzeen: It sound a lot pop-ier.
Jon: I think it’s because the conditions are a little more ideal in the studio. Also, live, we rip it up. We go a little too nutty; we get a little manic. Things get a little rougher than in the studio.
Paul: There’s more time for contemplation in the studio.
Graham: You can go over any part you don’t like in the studio.
Jon: They’ve yet to make a tape that can capture the true Vipers sound. It’ll always come out sounding a little more pop-ier until we do a live album. ‘Til then, it cannot be captured!

FFanzeen: You’ve sort of been lumped together with the psychedelic scene, but  I really don’t think you’re psychedelic at all.
Jon: I agree.
Graham: And garage, too.
Jon: I think we’re a garage band. I would like to be termed as a garage band. I think that’s truer.
Paul: More than a psych band.

FFanzeen: Think you’ll make it on a Nuggets 1995?
Jon: I think when we evolve, maybe we’ll end up a psychedelic band. [Laughs]

FFanzeen: The first time I saw you, I thought you sounded more like you were leaning towards a Dick Dale (d. 2019)  and the Del-Tones sound, than to, say, the Standells or Chocolate Watchband.
Paul: We do have a couple of Dick Dale-esque type numbers. We’re probably going to whip them out on the public after the album comes out.
Graham: We’re thinking of using a bit more saxophone-oriented instrumental-type songs, along with the hot numbers we’re doing.
Paul: Do you think we have those leanings?

FFanzeen: Not so much the surf sound, but towards that pop sound.
Jon: What kind of pop would you compare it to?

FFanzeen: I would say more toward (Paul Revere and) the Raiders, or the Monkees.
Jon: We put an emphasis on melody. That’s something that we do do. And yet, it’s very guitar-oriented.

FFanzeen: Not keyboard up front, like most psych bands.
Jon: That’s true. We’re a guitar band, professionally.
Paul: But some of our new stuff is gritty, and not just strictly pop. It’s getting a lot grittier now. Some of our older recordings – we did “Medication” and a couple of other tracks – they were more poppy sounding than what we’re doing now.
Jon: We’re all taking hormone shots. We have put up some pretty wimpy stuff, but as we’ve been around longer, we start to get more confident, and we actually start sacrificing melody for more emotion. A lot of times you can hide behind some pretty nice sounds, and they just sort of gloss over what you’re trying to say.
Paul: Or you try so hard getting it to perfection you never get to lash out.
Jon: That’s something Paul is really against. Like in rehearsal, I’ll say, “Let’s do it again and again,” and he’ll flip, ‘cause it can make it just too sterile; too nice. And now, as we get more confident, we do things on a much rougher scale.
Paul: It’s more comfortable getting hell-bend and going over the edge with it. Having a lot of fun and raunching it up. And it does have that real impact. If you know it well enough to pull it off well, but at the same time not having refined it by going over it note by note – it’s kind of neat to just get up on stage and just raunch out a few numbers.

FFanzeen: Yeah, I think you’re in that period of music that most people forget, between the Dick Dale guitar and the psychedelic Farfisa, which is still garage sounding. I call it maracas music. Most of the garage sound seems to lie in this period.
Jon: Marac’n’roll.
Graham: Like Davy Jones of the Monkees (d. 2012).
Jon: I think why that exists is that a lot of lead singers are front men and can’t play anything, and they need something up there. Like with Davy Jones, well that doesn’t need an explanation.

(ffoto by Robert Barry Francos)

FFanzeen: Well, he always had the tambourine for back-up!
Jon: You need something to play with.
Paul: It’s cute, anyway, seeing this furry little creature playing a tambourine on stage.
Jon: You see, when we stop doing these songs, they’re going to continue. It’s really good, because there are so many bands now, springing up in New York, that have no place to play. This place (the Dive) is cool; this place is real. It’s a place to work out your stuff. Look, here comes Pat Brown, or drummer! Sit down, Pat!

FFanzeen: I’m doing an interview of the band, of which you’re now part.
Jon: Pat’s different than most drummers.
Pat Brown: You might call me a team drummer.
Jon: He’s a primitive stick-and-stone man.

FFanzeen: What’s the most obscure song you guys do?
Pat: “Surprise Surprise” by the Loved Ones. 

FFanzeen: That’s with Gary Pig Gold, one of our occasional columnists.
Jon: Do you have the record?

FFanzeen: No, I don’t have that one. How about something easy now, like how did the band get started?
Paul: Pretty much out of apathy for anything else that’s going on. We wrote half a dozen songs and decided to put it together.
Jon: The fact is that all of us disliked all this music. We said, “Shit, someone’s got to do what we like.” We were all friends in the beginning anyhow; we all shared the same likings. It was the only way to go, since we all played music.

FFanzeen: Do you ever get any negative press because you do so many originals?
Paul: We get very little negative press.
Jon: Most of our press has been pretty good, the small  amount we’ve received. A lot of people seem to take our strong point as the fact that we’re songwriters. That’s the thing that sets us apart, that we do originals. That we write some pretty good ones.
Graham: We love to play old songs, though, too, so we generally give people who really want those old tunes a lot of that, too; so, it’s not that much of a negative response coming back to us.
Jon: But we’d be cheating ourselves out of a blast if we didn’t play our songs.

FFanzeen: There seems to be a contingent of people who belie that garage bands should be playing these more and more obscure songs.
Paul: If you’re not really into it that much, it’s hard to really get a hold of these things, and to research all of the material that does exist.

FFanzeen: That mentality –
Jon: I understand what you are saying. “First of all, there are very strict rules to be a garage band. Do not make innovations. Do not change the sound.  Go out of your way to get the right fuzz Vox and the right fuzz note setting. Go out of your way to get it no matter how much it costs.” The reason this gets so much bad press is because you have to have the money for the clothes, you have to have the money for the records, and for the instruments. But I think those boundaries are open enough to write just as good a song and to cover those songs, because they’re great, so there’s nothing wrong with it.
Graham: We wouldn’t be able to write them if we didn’t play them. We wouldn’t dare take an original song or an idea for a song and use it to our extremes without having been able to play so many covers exactly the way they were played.
Jon: You might say it’s almost fanatical, to really like something to that point, and a lot of the people who like the sound are  collectors. It’s the last thing that they own. This is the last sound that we own that hasn’t been screwed over by disco. It’s the last thing that has not been screwed up by the guy wearing a dress telling us to dance [Boy George – RBF, 2023]. This is something you can’t let go. We just won’t let it go. The people who like this sound, they get really pissed, and I don’t blame them, if the sound gets too blah. It’s not an exercise. It’s not difficult for us at all, what we do. Other bands seem contrived or seem to work too hard at being a ‘60s band, and that’s not true. It’s the most second-nature, natural thing to do. I do not think anyone who listens to this music resents original tunes. I think they resent tunes that are complete rip-offs, or else they just don’t compare. The only songs they know are the really good ones. And only the really, really good ones make it on the compilations, not the bad ones.

FFanzeen: It seems a lot of people play this game of” Let’s see who can play the most obscure tune.” Sort of like a competition.
Jon: That’s true. We don’t like that. But it’s not done with any malice.  It’s not done, like, “We’re in this club and you can’t join.” They just go in these, like, warehouses and search; and it’s a gas when you finally find something. Some of our best times on the road and stuff is to hit the local record shop, beat the guy silly, and go down to the basement and go through all their records.

FFanzeen: I like to go out on weekends to the suburbs and hit –
Paul: – Tag sales.
Jon: You get little old ladies with stacks that have been sitting in closets for years. Records and clothes. right, Pat? Looking for the perfect shirt?

FFanzeen: And you play music to support your habit, right?
Jon: And a few others.

FFanzeen: As far as collectors go, I’ve been, like, snubbed by a few of these people because, say, I didn’t know every Yardbirds song ever done. “You’re not worth talking to –“
Jon: Oh, man! That’s part of the whole  underlying attitude of this scene going on. People are, “What’s that?” “What’s that?” Passing cassettes around and stuff, but there’s  so much being resurfaced, there’s even less emphasis on that now. I think. Except for the hardcore people; the collectors.
Paul: With us, it’s a matter of sharing, ‘cause we can get up there and do it. DJs are like that, too. They like playing their collections for people.

FFanzeen: To me, collecting records is not paying $35 for an obscure single, it’s going to a garage sale and finding it for a dime. If  someone comes up to me and says, “I’ve got so-and-so by the Hurd,” and I ask “How much did you pay for it?” and he says “$35,” I say, who gives a  shit. Anyone can get it for that money.
Paul: Well, there’s different levels of being a collector, too. You go through that phase of practically having everything, and then you make a list of things you don’t have. Or if you have a double in your collection, you might trade it for something else. But that’s the upper echelon collector.

FFanzeen: But that’s business-like. I do it for fun.
Graham: It’s like, to be able to turn people on to a sound, of when there was a naivete in rock’n’roll, and stuff like that.
Jon: Yeah! Every once in a while, someone will send us a tape of good music. We don’t care if it’s on tape.

FFanzeen: I prefer vinyl because it melts down better to be shot straight into the arm of a true vinyl junkie!
Jon: We’re just enthusiasts.

(ffoto by Robert Barry Francos)

Jon continued to be an enthusiast. He took the CaveStomp! into the new century (I saw one at CBGBs with ? and the Mysterians, the Lyres, etc.), that brought out the newer garage bands, as well as those classic performers. Little Steven (of the E Street Band and now has a podcast) picked up the financial slack and put a large part of himself into the movement that, hopefully, will not die. And while the second Vipers album did not come out, and the band is gone into the ether, what they were striving for, hopefully survives.

THE CHESTERFIELD KINGS Interview: The House of Garage (1985)

© Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 1985/2022
mages from the Internet unless indicated
Facebook page is HERE

A few times a year, weather permitting, I would fly up from New York to visit Buffalo Musicians’ Hall of Famer and friend since high school Bernie Kugel, and would pile into the car of record collector extraordinaire, Mad Louie, the Vinyl Junkie’s car, and head over to Irondequoit, a suburb of Rochester, to make a pilgrimage to the House of Guitars. Besides the obvious front room of instruments, given the name of the place, the back also had a very disorganized yet quite eclectic new and used recording section. But the main reason to head over was to visit the two members of the Chesterfield Kings, who worked there. Andy Babiuk, who took care of the front with all the instruments (and has written books on the gear used by the Beatles and the Stones, and Kings leader and voice/harp Greg Prevost (he also co-wrote the Stones’ book with Babiuk), who skillfully manages the mess in the back.

Greg is a very interesting and charismatic character, with his omnipresent eyeliner and 2-liter bottle of soda (Tab). He’s also a well-recognized collector of hopelessly obscure garage recordings and old television shows.

When we got there, he would be running all over the store at a customer’s request to fetch a recording, or answering the phone. Between, he’s smiles and laughs, and a bit of gossip. He had been there a long time, and eventually retired some years after this interview took place.

This was originally published in FFanzeen No. 13, dated 1985.

The Chesterfield Kings: The House of Garage (1985)

Without a doubt, the leaders of the new garage/psychedelic scene are the Chesterfield Kings. With their self-titled album and single, “She Told Me Lies” b/w “I’ve Gotta Way With Girls,” on Mirror Records, they’ve shown the world exactly how they think music should be a la mid-‘60s raunch’n’roll.

It is clear who they model their live shows after: the likes of the Rolling Stones and the Chocolate Watchband, circa Riot on Sunset Strip (1967), but their music goes beyond that, into an area of relatively unknown classic cult groups that have been cropping up in dozens of compilation albums on labels such as Voxx/Bomp! and Moxie. The more obscure, the better.

The Kings consist of Doug Meech (drums), Andy Babiuk (bass), Orest Guran (organ/rhythm guitar), Cedrick Cona (lead guitar), and as front man, Greg Prevost (vocals/hot harmonica). The Kings is a band who has opened a whole new chapter in how rock’n’roll could and should be played – no holds barred.

Last summer (1984), while vacationing in Buffalo, I headed over to the House of Guitars (the HOG to friends) in Irondequoit, NY, which is a suburb of Rochester. In this humble record and musical instrument store, run by showman Armand Schoenbroeck, who has a few cult albums under his own belt, works Andy and Greg. I didn’t have much of a chance to say much to Andy, as he works in the business front part of the store, but I did get a chance to talk somewhat with Greg.

On this trek, I dragged along two willing cohorts and record collectors, Bernie Kugel, of the band Mystic Eyes, and Mad Louie, the Vinyl Junkie.

What follows is a brief part of the conversation. Actually, I just turned on the cassette recorder and let Greg, Bernie, and Louie do most of the talking. In between constant phone calls by customers asking about purchasing Bruce Springsteen tickets and great music playing on the PA (supplied by Greg), there was a lot of harmless kidding around at the expense of many (myself included), all in the fun of conversation and admiration. Note that “[laughs]” indicates that we were all laughing at that point.

This is technically not an interview in the true sense of the word, but I like to feel it’s informative enough to hold the reader’s interest, and give some insight to at least a fifth of the band.

FFanzeen: Why don’t you have Armand (Schoenbroeck, Mirror Records) help you produce a (garage) compilation album?
Greg Prevost: I could do it, but –
Bernie Kugel: It must cost a whole lot.
Greg: Not a whole lot. Just make up a thousand.
Bernie: You can save it.
Mad Louie: Yeah, since you just blew $400 on singles a month ago. Plus, you took me out to lunch Saturday, so you’re broke for the next 10 years.

FFanzeen: What would you put on it?
Greg: Mostly Upstate (New York) stuff that nobody’s got.

[Phone interruption]

FFanzeen: Looks like you only have about 5 of these CDs [in the store].
Greg: I know. Now it’s like the big thing.
Bernie: The Index album on CD [laughs].
Louie: Rhino put the Turtles Greatest Hits on CD. It’s got an extra song that isn’t on the album.
Greg: Did you get the thing?
Louie: I don’t want a CD player. I heard the thing and I hate it. It sounds too clear.
Greg: I like those scratches.
Bernie: Yeah, you need them on old records. That’s why when we plug in, we don’t plug in all the way. That’s why there’s so much distortion [laughs]. Makes it sound like a ventilator or a fan, like that Jades of Fort Worth album. It sounds like someone has a radio playing through the amp, or something.
Voice over PA: Got any Springsteen tickets left?
Greg: That’s all I’ve been hearing. I think it’s time for some sounds [puts tape on PA].
Bernie: Is this the Phinx re-issue album, or the original?
Greg: This is the 45 [“My Baby Don’t Care”]. I didn’t get the album.
Bernie: Miriam (Linna) and Billy (Miller, d. 2016) keep writing about them in the magazine (Kicks).
Greg: Oh, that’s pretty good, isn’t it? I like that.
Bernie: “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” We were going through this whole thing – I think I was with you, Robert – all these crappy record in the Salvation Army. There were hundreds, and “Sid Herring! They let him make records after the Gants?” I almost spit up my Coke.
Greg: Somebody should find him. I tried, but no luck.
Louie: Probably in a fishbowl.
Greg: JD (Martignon, of Midnight Records in New York; d. 2016) told me he was puttin’ out a book.
Bernie: Robert saw it. It’s out already.

FFanzeen: It’s all [about garage] compilations. It lists every song on every album.
Greg: That’s not bad.

FFanzeen: But with all the albums being released, it’s outdated as soon as it comes out.
Greg: He’ll probably have to update it every week. “A new issue each week!”
Bernie: Back from the Grave, Vol. 300 this week. [Laughs] High in the Mid-Sixties, Vol. 16: Lake Placid, New York, 1963.
Louie: Vol. 18: Dumbfuck, Iowa. Boy, Greg (Shaw, Bomp! Records; d. 2004) is really putting out those High in the Mid-Sixties stuff.
Greg: I know. Why don’t they just call them Pebbles records anymore?
Louie: I think he wants to be more regional. Like Greg (Shaw) always says, “We have the Northeast, the Mid-East –
Greg: South. I really like “The South.” That was pretty – vague.
Louie: “16 Degrees West of the East.”
Bernie: “New York City, from Fifth Avenue to 125 Street.” [Laughs] Who’s this (on the PA)?
Greg: You don’t know who this is? It’s the Wild Things. “From Santa Claus, Indiana.” [Laughs]
Bernie: The Wild Things. Oh yeah, from the 19th Santa Claus: Early ’63 to January ’64. [Laughs]
Greg: That was good, Bernie. Santa Claus punk records. I’m surprised they don’t do something like that. There’s a lot of punk Christmas songs. ”
Bernie: Christmas Pebbles. [Picking up Hot Ones by theStandells, from the stacks] You get down to this stuff here; you get “99-1/2 Percent Won’t Do,” “Eleanor Rigby,” followed by Soul Drippin’.”
Greg: Then you know you don’t want to buy it.
Bernie: Primo stuff here. [Laughs] I like this Michael (Taylor, Bad Seeds) stuff.
Greg: [Laughs] You really like that?
Louie: Awful. I told you he likes it.
Bernie: “Zilch, Pt. II.” Aw, that’s a great one. [Laughs]
Greg: Oh, it is good. [Laughs]

[Phone interruption]

Bernie: [Holding up a Chocolate Watchband album from Eva Records, whose liner notes Greg wrote.] Oh, good liner notes. How much did you get for this one?
Greg: A free copy of the record.
Bernie: Did they actually do it?
Greg: They actually sent me a copy. It was bent in half, but they sent me one.

FFanzeen: I’m so ignorant on so much of this stuff.
Bernie: Well, Greg’s gonna be opening up a school. He’s gonna have a punk summer camp.
Louie: All you have to do is sit there, eat shit, drink Tab, and watch videos.
Bernie: “This is a bottle of Tab I have from ’66. One of the test bottles. Let’s see how it tastes.” Have you seen the Richard and the Young Lions video yet? 
Greg: Naw. I heard there’s one out.

[Phone interruption]

FFanzeen: I hear you’re out touring a lot right now.
Greg: I wouldn’t exactly call it a tour. We just do weekend-type things. It’s not worth playing the middle of the week anywhere, ‘cause nobody goes out. Who wants to play for $300 in some hick town?

FFanzeen: It could be worse. Could be like when the Gizmos played at Max’s on a Tuesday and there was no one there. Except for a couple of drunks and me.
Greg: Really? Outrageous.

[Phone interruption]

FFanzeen: Who did this song (on the PA)?
Greg: “The World Ain’t Round It’s Square,” by the Savages. 

FFanzeen: Have you heard the Tryfles do it? 
Greg: The Tryfles? Yeah.

FFanzeen: They’re a fun band.
Greg: Yeah, I saw them once. At the Dive.

FFanzeen: Didn’t I see them open for you at Irving Plaza?
Greg: Was it that night? No, I don’t think so. I think it was the Lyres, the Vipers, Outta Place, then us, then Green on Red. I remember, I was real sick that night. It was horrible. It was the worst night I ever had. We had to cut the set short ‘cause my throat went out. All the way down (to NY) I had this sore throat, or somethin’ like that. All the way down, I’m drinking like two gallons of orange juice. “Maybe my throat’ll get better.” And by the time we got there, it was, like, three in the morning, and my voice was shot. I kept coughin’. It was horrible.

FFanzeen: Everyone there had a good time, though.
Greg: It was okay, but I don’t know. Then that guy was, like, somebody threw somethin’. Then he got beat up by some guy in the front.

FFanzeen: I remember once seeing Iggy (Pop) at the Brooklyn Zoo (club), and right in the middle of the first song, someone thew some ice at him. He stopped the song and said, “Don’t throw that fuckin’ shit at me, man. That ain’t a request, that’s a command.”
Greg: Really?

FFanzeen: Then he started the song from scratch. He was pissed off.
Greg: This (on the PA) is Monoman’s (Jeff Conolly, of the Lyres) favorite record (“What a Girl Can’t Do”).

FFanzeen: Who is it?
Greg: The Hangmen.
Bernie: This is like an oldie to me. It was one of my first records.
Louie: What about this (next song on the PA)?
Bernie: The Swamp Rats? Alright. 
Greg: “Hey Joe,” on CD.
Louie: Know how many versus they could put on one CD? About 30.
Bernie: What’s that ‘70s thing that the Swamp Rats were on?
Greg: Disco Sucks?
Bernie: Not Galacticus [post-Swamp Rats]. No, the other one.
Louie: Yeah, I remember that.
Bernie: Where he does, like, “Somebody Real Famous.” They put, like, some of the songs on an album. It says, “Everything on this album was recorded in a one-track studio in a radio station.”
Greg: They’re real mad about that [fantastic] DJ’s album [pre-Swamp Rat] that Eva (Records) put out. Their manager’s a DJ still, right , and he’s on the radio saying, “Any stores out there carrying this record, we’re gonna smash them all if we come find ‘em,” They’re really mad.
Bernie: What did you think of that Battle of the Garages, Vol. II album?
Greg: There’s some good stuff and some bad stuff.

FFanzeen: I liked it a lot.
Bernie: What did you hate the most about it, besides my song [a cover of the Stoics’ “Enough of What I Need”]?
Greg: I don’t remember. There’s this group called Mystic Eyes on there… 
Bernie: What did you think about that psycho-crap on side two?
Greg: I couldn’t hack some of that stuff. Side one’s pretty good, and side two, there was some stuff...

[Phone interruption]

Louie: Did you sell any copies of this?
Greg: The Lyres album (on Ace of Hearts Records)? Yeah, check your Lyres album. Hold it up to the light. Monoman says if you can see through it, like this purple color, it’s real rare. Mine’s like that.

[Phone interruption]

Greg: Know what I found out? Did you ever hear of the Storytellers? “Cry With Me.” It’s this great snotty-fuzz record. They’re from Jersey. And all the guys or most of them are Asbury Park, in Springsteen’s group.
Louie: Really?
Greg: Yeah. Rick Noll was tellin’ me.
Bernie: [Singing like Bruce:] “Baby, I was pushin’ too hard.”
Greg: This is the best version of “Maggie’s Farm.” The guitar player is great.
Bernie: Who’s this (on the PA)?
Greg: Defiants.” I like the guitar playing. He plays two notes the whole song. Except it does change. I was a bit disappointed when he did the change. Right here. Then he goes right back into the two notes. Oh, up a step.
Bernie: Do you find that there are a lot more independent records still undiscovered out there?
Greg: Yeah, never ending, really. I keep thinkin’ I heard them all but they’re there. Real great stuff.
Bernie: And you thought you could stop with Nuggets. [Laughs]
Louie: It’s getting to the point where you find stuff repeating on albums.
Greg: Yeah, it’s real bad.
Bernie: It seems the guys putting out the records are getting real desperate.
Greg: Yeah, they are.
Bernie: That’s why you’ve got to get into it here.
Greg: Yeah, I’ll put out 30 volumes to start. [Laughs] Box sets. 10 album boxes.
Bernie: Unreleased Independent Punk…January ’65 through March ’65.

FFanzeen: That’s the first box set. [Laughs]
Bernie: “From Bernie’s basement recording studio. We use just a plastic recorder in the corner.”

FFanzeen: “July 7^th, 7:30 to 9:30.” [Laughs]
Bernie: Yeah, that’s it. [Laughs]
Greg: “Three-hour live tape.”
Bernie: “Rising Storm arriving for rehearsal.” 
Greg: “Hear them drive up in a car.”
Bernie: “You guys ready to play?” Record goes on, that’s it. “Next month, Rising Storm, Vol. II.

FFanzeen: They oughta release a record of the guy in Bill Haley’s band who stands there during the applause at the end, just saying, “Bill Haley” over and over. It’s always the same guy.
Greg: Yeah.

FFanzeen: Probably his brother.
Bernie: Yeah, Alex Haley! [Laughs]

FFanzeen: Why do you think they call it the “Roots of Rock’n’roll”? Sorry, ‘couldn’t resist.
Bernie: Heavy metal [on the PA]?
Greg: The Merlyn Tree. “Look in Your Mirror.” 
Bernie: Where can I find more Stoics records?
Greg: I got a whole lot of them in my basement.
Bernie: Acetates? All unreleased stuff?
Louie: He’s got the master tapes, to hell with the acetates.
Bernie: “Bill Ash [of the Stoics] is in my closet.” And the guy, Rich Marachalla, whoever they put on the record [“Enough of What I Need,” as co-writer]. [Laughs] 
Greg: That Stoics record is pretty rare.

[Phone interruption]

Bernie: What about this record [picks up 45 of Alvin Cash and the Registers, “Twine Time”? 
Bernie: What does it sound like?
Greg: It’s soul, but it’s good. It’s like James Brown. It’s Doug’s favorite album, our drummer -

[Phone interruption]

All things must pass to others, so at this point, so did we.

Greg Prevost and Kings in-store performance,
Virgin Records, Times Square, NY, with Nancy Neon
(ffoto by Robert Barry Francos

The conversation, you may notice, is quite dated. The timeframe was obviously before CDs became the standard, and it was discovered that CDs were actually cheaper to put out than vinyl. Now we all have large CD collections of the even rarer cuts that could not be afforded to put out on LP form. And while we all agree that the feel and sound of vinyl is something we all still cherish, the material available on more cold and harsh CDs and now digital has become more of a boon and less of a curse. This especially became true among rarity collectors with the advent of CD-Rs.

As a side story, after this interview was published in FFanzeen, a friend of Greg, Bernie and Louie’s was riding the subway in Manhattan late one night after a long squawk. Asleep across the seats, he woke up and saw a newspaper on the floor in front of him. “Is that Bernie, Greg and Louie? What they hell are they doing in the paper?” Obviously, he was looking at a discarded copy of FFanzeen. Freaked him right out.

During the summer of 2001, on the way back from a photographic road trip, I made a stop off to see Greg at the HOG. It was the first time I’d been there in a least a decade. The phones were just as busy and the customers just as questioning for material (this time, for rap), but shooting the shit with Greg was as light and fun as always. And I made sure to assure him that there was, indeed, no tape recorder. And the Chesterfield Kings are no more. Greg has gone solo and now goes by Greg “Stackhouse” Prevost, singing Americana blues, and is still releasing music. On CDs.