Category Archives: Massachusetts

Categories: Andover, Continental Recordings, Framingham MA, Cori, Insegrievious, Massachusetts

The End “Bad Night” on Insegrievious

April 1, 2008 Chris Bishop 5 Comments

The End band at Andover — The End at Andover, photo courtesy of Tony Curtiss

The End came out of Philips Academy in Andover, a private boarding school. In 1966, the band traveled forty miles south to Continental Recordings in Framingham to make their only record. Continental’s label Cori pressed their 45 for them with the End’s custom Insegrievious label.

Many Andover bands recorded during the sixties, including the Invictas in 1961, the Satans’ Raising Hell LP from ’62, the Torques in ’63, the Apostles with two albums in 1964-65, and the Group with a four song EP in 1967. The Ha’pennys recorded their album Love Is Not the Same at Continental about the same time as The End made their 45.

A year later another Philips Academy band, the Rising Storm would also travel to Framingham to make their LP, Calm Before…, by far the most famous of all these releases.

The End only recorded one 45 while the rest of these bands (with the exception of the Group) recorded entire LPs. In any case they do well with their two original songs, especially the catchy “Bad Night”. The flip, “Make Our Love Come Through” is a fine ballad.

As for the label name, that apparently comes from the Batman TV series, hugely popular that year: “Catwoman, I find you to be odious, abhorrent, and insegrievious.” It’s not as bad as it sounds – a slang dictionary defines insegrievious as expressing anything and nothing at the same time in an impressive sounding way.

Tony Curtiss wrote to me about the band:

It was my cheesy organ solo in “Bad Night.” Here is the band’s lineup:
John Leone: The lead singer and writer of “Bad Night” and co-writer of “Make Our Love Come Through.”
Jeff Lemkin: Lead guitar
Chris Moore: Backup singer
Cai Underwood: Drums. Cai had earlier been drummer for the Apostles at Andover.
Bruce Curran: Rhythm guitar
Mel Kendrick: Bass
Tony Curtiss: Organ and co-writer of “Make Our Love Come Through.”
The band only made this one record in the Spring of 1966 as all but Mel Kendrick graduated from Andover in June of 1966 (Mel in June of 1967). We soon scattered to the winds. John Leone was off to Harvard, Chris Moore headed to Princeton, I went out west to Stanford etc. Thanks for remembering us, Tony Curtiss

Thank you to Tony for sharing these photos of the band.

The End at Continental Recording Studio, Framingham, MA, “during the recording of ‘Bad Night.’ From left to right is me (Tony Curtiss), Jeff Lemkin’s dad who drove us, Bruce Curran, Chris Moore and John Leone (in glasses).

Categories: Decca custom 200,000 series, Ipswich, Massachusetts, RFT Music Productions

The Shames “My World Is Upside Down” / “The Special Ones”

November 7, 2007 Chris Bishop 4 Comments

Cryin' Shames aka the Shames — The Shames aka the Cryin’ Shames of Ipswich, MA
from left: James Amero, Gerard Trudel, Patty Germoni, Denis Trudel, and Joey Amerault.

The Shames RFT 45 My World Is Upside Down The Shames crank out both songs on this single like it’s the only shot they’d ever get. There’s no weak playing here, just guitars overloading the studios inputs, a drummer slamming out the beat and a vocalist cutting loose. On “The Special Ones” he complains about getting grief for having long hair! “My World Is Upside Down” may be the most distinctive of the two, if one had to choose a top side.

This 45 was released twice with different RFT labels – someone forgot to put the band’s name on the first one! The second version is yellow with a different logo up top.

“My World Is Upside Down” was written by James Amero and Robert Beaulier. “The Special Ones” by Denis Trudel. In copyright listings, both songs are arranged by Jacques Trudel.

US Copyright Office publications list an unreleased song “One More Chance” written by James Amero and Robert Beaulier. All three songs have a copyright date of November 30, 1966, though release of the single may not have come until April, 1967.

As it turns out the band’s full name was the Cryin’ Shames. Alan Lowell sent in the photo business card, above, and writes, “They were a great local band from Ipswich MA and often played at the Sillouette Club in Beverly. They were a big user of Magnatone amps which had a great sound back then.”

Their manager was Charles Larrivee.

More information came from Denis Trudel, who commented below and listed the members at the time of the photo at top:

Denis Trudel – lead singer
James “JB “ Amero – lead guitar
Patty “Beetle” Germoni- keyboards
Gerard Trudel – bass
Joey Amerault – drums

Denis reports that his brother Gerard passed away in 2005.

Thanks to Alan for the photo and info on the band and to Denis for his comment below that filled in many gaps.

Update: I’m sorry to report that Denis Trudel passed away on May 27, 2021.

The Shames RFT 45 The Special Ones

Categories: Citation, Massachusetts, Webster

The Distant Sounds “It Reminds Me”

October 25, 2007 Chris Bishop 3 Comments

Distant Sounds photo — The Distant Sounds at Killdeer Island Club, Webster, MA. From left: Jimmy Duszlak, Ben Bembenek, Billy Meagher, Dennis Casaubon, and Bob Stockdale.

The Distant Sounds came out of Bartlett High School in Webster, Massachusetts, about 15 miles south of Worcester.

“It Reminds Me”, written by drummer Dennis Casaubon, is a fine example of New England garage. The band’s name is appropriate given the somewhat murky recording quality, but I think it all adds up to a great record. The guitarist picking notes off chords combines well with the keyboards in the background. The vocal harmonies are great and I like the crude guitar solo.

The flip is a slow surf instrumental called “Dreamin'”, written by Ben Bembenek. The record was pressed at the Rite plant in Cincinnati, Ohio, a low-cost plant used by many bands at the time, and released on the Citation label.

Rhythm guitarist Bob Stockdale wrote to me about the Distant Sounds:

Billy Meagher was the lead singer and Jimmy Duszlak played bass guitar. I played rhythm guitar and Ben Benbebek played lead guitar. Ed Catteau later joined the group on keyboard. I think Ed was from Charlton MA.
We played a lot of dances at the Killdeer Island Club in Webster Ma. We also played at many places in the surrounding towns. It was nice money for school kids. On some weekends we made $50 plus each, if we had 2 gigs. We once played in Connecticut as an opening act to the Turtles. Dennis Casaubon’s dad set us up to play in New York City. His brother was a priest and provided a place to sleep a couple nights in the Big Apple.
Ben, Jimmy and I graduated from Bartlett High School in the ’60s in Webster MA. Dennis was a summer resident of Webster but went to High School in Southbridge MA, his hometown. Billy went to St.Louis High in Webster and was tragically hit by a car and killed in the late sixties … early ’70s?
Ben went to Berkley School of Music and still plays. I actually saw Ben a few months ago. I believe Dennis stuck with music as well. I never continued with the guitar playing and found other interests.

I’ve seen a signed copy of the record that has Denis Casaubon’s first name spelled with one “n” in Denis.

Thank you to Bob Stockdale for adding information about the group, and for the photo and business card.

Categories: Massachusetts, Reed, Winchester

The Landlords

March 14, 2007 Chris Bishop 22 Comments

The Landlords from Winchester, MA released one 45 on the Reed label before disappearing.

Erik Lindgren provided the lineup of the band in a comment below:

Roger Millen – lead vocals and harmonica
John Buzzotta – lead guitar
Bill Brusseau – rhythm guitar
Bobby Mouradian – drums
Jimmy Mouradian – bass

Michael Kelley wrote a comment that I’ll reproduce in part here because it’s informative:

The Landlords were from Winchester, MA. Their one single, pictured above, was released by Jolar/Reed Record owner John J. Sullivan in 1967. The Landlords did back up labelmate Jonna Jaye on some live peformances, but not in the studio. However, she did come with her father to the Landlord’s recording session in New York. Jonna’s last release “Detour On A Dead End Street” was backed by the Maine garage band The Barracudas who recorded on Critique, Flair, and Jolar.

“I’ll Return” is a well-crafted love song, lyrically interesting, with tasty guitar reverb. The quality recording lets you hear an experienced, cohesive band that was probably gigging regularly. “I’ll Return” was written by Richard R. Errico. My copy is inscribed “To Pvt. Rossi – Good Luck – Dick Essio”, poignant given the escalation in the Vietnam War going on in 1967 when this was released.

“I’m Through With You” is as weepy as they get, and I wish I could have made a less noisy transfer of it. This side was written by John Buzzottu and Bid Woods.

Anyone have a photo of the group?

Categories: Brooklyn, Cambridge, Decca, Massachusetts, New York, New York City

Groundspeed

September 1, 2006 Chris Bishop 4 Comments

A fine psych 45 with early touches of prog. I wondered if more of their work is hidden away on tape somewhere as they were obviously a talented band.

I knew almost nothing about Groundspeed until hearing from organ player and songwriter Bob Telson recently. I’ll let him tell their story in his own words:

I grew up in Brooklyn (born 1949) and had my 1st band, The Bristols, in ’65-6. We played about 6 gigs a month, school, church, temple dances, etc. (that being long before DJs), playing lots of Beatles, Stones, etc., and some of my tunes too. Our drummer, Mike Jacobs, was already playing sessions at 14- his father, Dick Jacobs, produced Jackie Wilson, Buddy Holly and many others. He got the Bristols in the Decca studios a few times, but wasn’t able to get us a contract.
I went away to Harvard, and put a band together at the end of freshman year, and Mike (who was still in high school in Brooklyn) and his dad arranged for us to cut a demo of 2 new tunes of mine, which with their psychedelic/Jefferson Airplane influence, were a far cry from the tuneful Beatles/Stones kinda tunes I wrote for the Bristols.
Mike played drums, Jesse Miller, who had the longest hair at Harvard, played guitar, Rick Scheuer, bass, and Ken Kyle sang. I played organ. We cut the sides the summer of ’67, got the record deal to record a 45 of those tunes, but never got it better than the original demos we had done, so that’s what they released. Unfortunately, we never got to play live as a band, as Jesse, my best friend, left school for a year to join VISTA in Appalachia.
The record finally came out in summer ’68, got some nice airplay locally, and that was the end of that. They edited out some more weird spacy sections for the record (I guess that was before Light My Fire made longer singles feasible). My next band at Harvard was the Revolutionary Music Collective, in which my sometimes Cliffie girlfriend Bonnie Raitt sang lead vocals. We played SDS parties, and did guerilla rave-ups.
Anyway, in brief, I moved to Manhattan, played with Phillip Glass from ’72-4, then played and wrote salsa (Tito Puente, Machito), gospel (5 Blind Boys), and R&B until I began working with theater director Lee Breuer, with whom I wrote The Gospel at Colonus for BAM in 1983, my 1st opportunity to get my music out into the world. Which led to other possibilities in theater and film (Bagdad Cafe being the most known). I’ve been living in Buenos Aires with my Argentine wife the last 4 years, and we just finished our 1st CD together (Isabel de Sebastian & Bob Telson; “TRIP”).

Categories: Boston, Continental Recordings, Framingham MA, Cori, Massachusetts

C.C. & the Chasers

January 5, 2006 Chris Bishop 30 Comments

CC and the Chasers Photo — C.C. and the Chasers, from left: Charles Currie Wicker, Ted Demos, Joe Castagno, Jack Bruno and Richard Barnaby

C.C. & the Chasers have just this one 45 on the Cori label from 1967, “Hey, Put the Clock Back on the Wall” / “Two and Twenty”

C.C. was Charles Currie Wicker, lead vocalist for this group from Boston. Both songs are by Gary Bonner. “Put the Clock Back on the Wall” is more famously done by the E-Types. The flip, “Two and Twenty” is well-turned twee pop.

It was recorded at Continental Studios in Framingham, MA, the same studio used by the Rising Storm. Dan Flynn ran both the studios and the Cori label.

Richard Barnaby wrote to me about the band, and Jack Bruno sent me scans of the two photos seen here. I will have a fuller story soon but for now here is a little info from Richard:

Members:
Charles Currie (CC) Wicker – lead vocals
Ted Demos – lead guitar, vocals
Richard Barnaby – bass guitar, vocals
Joe Castagno – rhythm guitar, vocals
Jack Bruno – drums, vocals
We switched from Bonner and Gordon, done largely with George Papadopolous’s (Unicorn) input to a more psychedelic format called “The Sacred Mushroom”, and then went to New York. After that we changed to Applepie Motherhood Band without Currie, and taking on Ann Tansey. After Applepie, the group went in many directions. Jack and I went to Florida and played with The Second Coming, and shared a house in Jacksonville with the Allman Brothers. Then Jack went with Shakey Legs Blues Band with Ted, and then Jack went with Tina Turner, and was her drummer for 15 or more years, and then he went with Elton John for about 2 years.

Thank you to Jack Bruno and Richard Barnaby for the photos and info about the band.

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