New York

I really like both sides of this 45. Subterranean Edible Fungus is indescribable early psych inspired in equal parts by nursery rhymes and Dylan. The flip starts out like the Animals It's My Life but quickly becomes something completely original.

Production is credited to Thorn Creatives, and the songwriting credits to Shelley, Randell and Thorn. Otherwise nothing else seems to be known about them.

Speaking of Portchester, anyone remember the Beat? It was by far the best place to see good live bands in that wasteland known as Westchester from the late '80s until about the mid '90s when it shut down.

While recording "I'm A Nothing", Finn met Lookofsky's son, Michael Brown, also just 16, who was working as an assistant at the studio. They started composing songs with Finn's friends drummer George Cameron and singer Steve Martin. Together they became the Left Banke, managed and produced by Harry Lookofsky.

John Abbott, who arranged this 45, also arranged and played bass and guitar on several early Left Banke recordings done within a couple months of the Magic Plants record. This leads me to believe there's a good chance that he played bass on "I'm a Nothing", maybe with Hugh McCracken (another local studio pro) on guitar.

The b-side here, "I Know She's Waiting There", hints at something of the future Left Banke sound, and also has a beautiful fuzz guitar solo. Harry Lookofsky, by the way, also recorded interesting jazz discs and provided backing for doo-wop groups under the name Hash Brown and His Orchestra. John Abbott was involved in some of these as well.

This was my only real record find at ModChicago - I was too busy having fun and then recovering to concentrate on digging. A fantastic weekend, and I want to thank Eric for inviting me to DJ there.

The Magic Plants - I'm a Nothing
The Magic Plants - I Know She's Waiting There

The Maneaters on public access! From left: Tara McMunn, Linda Lutz, Shari Mirojnik, Andrea Kusten, and Ellen O'Neill

Here's a group I didn't know personally, but a friend designed a gig flyer for one of my DJ nights using the image above. I asked him about the band and he kindly transferred a demo tape with four songs and a live tape at the Southern Funk Cafe.

Four song demo tape:

The Maneaters - If You Want Me
The Maneaters - High Temperature
The Maneaters - One Mans Trash
The Maneaters - It Wasn't Me

Live at the Southern Funk Cafe, October 12, 1986:

The Maneaters - Rollin' and Tumblin'
The Maneaters - I Just Want to Make Love to You
The Maneaters - I Ain't Superstitious
The Maneaters - High Temperature

These are four of the best from that show. The live tape is eleven songs, with all the tuning and between-song chatter. If you want to hear the whole show email me for a link for the zip file.

In addition, former WFMU DJ the Hound hosted an acoustic in-studio session with the band on October 4, 1986, link here.

from left: Tara, Andrea, Linda, Shari and Ellen

NY photographer Jeff Cuyubamba writes:

They got their name from a Hershell Gordon Lewis movie about biker chicks that isn't really that good but its main claim to fame is that it showed a decapitation (fake) in like '67 or so. Which was pretty wild for a drive-in flick. The main gang in the movie was called The Maneaters.

The lead singer was Shari from The Outta Place. The bass guitarist was Tara who also played bass in this NYC psych/garage band called The Ultra V. The drummer was Ellen O'Neill who was formerly the drummer for the Tryfles. She was really nice and also ended up in a short lived NYC garage band called The Shambles. Eventually Ellen quit music, married and moved away. Unfortunately I had heard she passed away a few years ago. On lead guitar was Linda Lutz. Except for another spinoff NYC garage band called The Pods, this was the only other band I recall seeing Linda in.

The Maneaters played only for about a year or so. Often on bills that Gary Balaban promoted at The Southern Funk Cafe (now a pharmacy I think in the Port Authority), The Strip on 14th or The New Theater on 4th St. In fact he made a dupe of their demo for me which I still have on cassette. He used to get tons of cassette demos from touring garage bands at the time. After I first heard the Maneaters play I asked Gary to make me a copy as they didn't have any singles or LPs out. In fact, that cassette turned out to be the only thing that ever came out from them. Unless there's some tapes somewhere which one of the band members might know about.

I listened to the demo tape recently. You can hear the potential for an awesome live show but in the sterile environs of a studio, it didn't translate very well. They had this really grinding, sleazy approach to covering blues classics which made them very unique at the time. Shame nothing ever came out of it.

Southern Funk Cafe:

The person who does the intro [to the first song, "I'm Ready"] is Deb Parker who at that time was partnering with Gary as Endsville Enterprises. The impresarios behind the Strip shows. Later on she went to great success and fame opening Beauty Bar, Barmacy, No-Tell Motel and I think Babyland.

Besides the members Jeff lists there was also Andrea Matthews (Andrea Kusten), the group's rhythm and slide guitarist, formerly of the Outta Place and Blacklight Chameleons and later the Fuzztones.

From the Dreamdate show, from left: Shari, Tara, Linda, Andrea and Ellen

From the Dreamdate show, from left: Andrea, Ellen, Shari, Linda and Tara

Peter Holsapple wrote to me about producing the demo:

We recorded four songs, including "High Temperature" by Little Walter, at Coyote Studios in the Music Building in Manhattan (8th Avenue between 38th and 39th Streets), with Albert Caiati engineering; his brother is Manny Caiati from the Del Lords, whose rehearsal room doubled as the studio's space. The dB's space was across the hall from the Del Lords. I was paid my production 'fee' in pot!

The girls were inspired amateurs; Shari Mirojnik played harmonica, and tried to do the hand/vibrato thing, but ended up looking more like she was waving at it. She's also responsible for having noted, on a funny trip to Boston we all made, that she had to sit in front because she was "allergic" to the back of the van. The Boston trip was was the only time in my life I've run live sound for a band (they played at TT the Bear's). Afterward, we went to Fort Apache studio and tried to do some recording with Joe Harvard, but the ingested psychedelic substances took their toll and we just ended up bagging it.

Thanks to Jeff for the transfers of the demo and live tapes and the Dream Date flyer. Check out his site ShakeSomeAction.

Thanks to Donna for the b&w photos from Dreamdate and additional background. Donna writes about Linda Lutz on her blog, Lethal Dose.

Also thanks to Tara McMunn for all the photos except the b&w Dream Date shots. Dream Date and candid photos taken by Tony Gliozzo. Studio shots by Martin.

Updated Nov. 2009 and Jan. 2010.

Argot Meyer founded the group, singing and managing it. He first found Mike Saglimberi (Mike Henderson) to sing and play rhythm guitar. Mike brought in his good friend from Junior High (PS 98), Manny Colon on drums. Louis Bonilla (bass) and Ron Lupi (lead guitar) joined last.

They began rehearsing in Argot's basement, then met Phil Rosano, owner of Dawn Records at Music Makers Record shop on Fordham Road, who released two of their records.

The first has both "Gone Gone Gone" with its ripping guitar solo and their most original work, "Don't Play with Me". Mike Henderson is given song writing credit on both of these, and R. Miller is credited with A&R.

The second 45 has the weird slow version of "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" which I still find pretty cool.

"Don't Play With Me" made the local radio charts of WLOF 950.0 AM in Orlando, Florida in 1966. The Third Evolution played at the World's Fair, and there's talk of these guys opening for Jay and the Americans.

Their first 45 was one of the first garage 45s I ever bought, for $10.

The 3rd Evolution - Don't Play with Me
The 3rd Evolution - Gone Gone Gone
The 3rd Evolution - Everybody Needs Somebody

Source: Mike Henderson's notes in Psychedelic States: New York vol. 1

The Pazant Brothers - Juicy Lucy
The Pazant Brothers - The Work Song

Here are a few tracks you might not have come across before, from their 60's tribute album Acideaters, released in 1994. They cover the Jefferson Airplane, Love and the Troggs, all done Ramones-style. I think their version of Somebody to Love is truly excellent.

The Ramones - Somebody to Love
The Ramones - 7 and 7 Is
The Ramones - I Can't Control Myself