Cure of Ares came from St. Cloud, Minnesota and cut two excellent singles in 1969, but I’m surprised to find very little information on the group, and had to draw on many sources to assemble this post.

Members included:

Duane Korte – lead vocals
Reynold Philipsek – lead guitar
John Waverek- bass
Mark Wenner – drums
Steve Hoffman – original drummer

and possibly:

Doug Nelson – bass
Michael McGlynn – organ (?)

Their first 45 from May included “Oval Portrait” an original by Reynold Philipsek and Michael McGlynn according to a Library of Congress copyright registration in March, 1969, although not credited on the label. On the flip is “Stepping Stone”, not the hit song but a cut from Steve Miller Band album Children of the Future.

Peter Steinberg produced Cure of Ares’ second release which included the excellent original song “Sunshine”, featuring plenty of wah-wah, vocal harmonies, stops and starts, and even cowbell.

No song writing credits appear on the label for “Sunshine”, but I found a July 1969 registration for “Sunshine Road” with words and music by Reynold Philipsek and music by Michael McGlynn. Registered at the same time was another song, “What About the People?” which may have not been recorded.

On the flip was a version of “Twenty Years Ago (in Speedy’s Kitchen)”, a song recently done by T.C. Atlantic and written by Steinberg with Barry Goldberg, Gary Paulak and Dale Menten. All of those writers were active in the Minneapolis music scene: Dale Menten had been in the Gestures and wrote “Run, Run, Run”, and produced the C.A. Quintet’s single on Falcon, “Mickey’s Monkey” / “I Want You to Love Me Girl”. Peter Steinberg had engineered at Dove Recording Studios in Minneapolis.

Cure of Ares recorded both records at Audiotek Studios in Minneapolis. Audiotek Systems Inc went out of business in 1979, but in 2016 the contents of the studio were offered for sale, including hundreds of records and master tapes. I do not know what became of the tapes, or if they included any Cure of Ares material.

Neither single had a label name, but “Oval Portrait” shows release number 69-99 while “Sunshine” has CPO-106.

Reynold Philipsek’s Wikipedia page continues,

Oval Portrait received enough mid-west regional radio airplay to garner an invitation to perform on the ABC Television show THE HAPPENING ’69, produced by Dick Clark Productions … Cure of Ares taped on Sunday, April 20, 1969, for the Season 2, Episode 24 installment, which aired on May 17, 1969. The telecast included performances by Three Dog Night, and The Peppermint Rainbow.

In 1970, Cure of Ares was chosen from over 15,000 entries as one of 50 semi-finalists in a national music competition, “Iced Tea’s Big Search for the New Sound”[5] presented by the Tea Council of the U.S.A., Billboard Magazine and over 200 radio stations.

The Wiki page has a link to a letter from Dick Clark to Tom Roman, who may have been the Cure of Ares’ manager.

After the Cure of Ares broke up, Philipsek made a 1973 single I haven’t heard under the name “reynold”: “Change (Not the Same)” / “Wordless Wonder” both original songs, produced by S. Gasner and Philipsek. His solo career continues to this day. Reynold Philipsek’s website is https://reynold.com/.