In December 1988 the woman who would become my wife and I first conversed at a show by an Bethlehem, PA garage-rock band called The Creatures. This band played Philadelphia a lot, wearing black suits and never straying from garage-rock conventions. Unlike a lot of bands that adhered that closely to re-creating an era that was long gone, they didn’t get bogged down in anachronistic hairdos. Although their songs were as stoopid as could be expected from any no-holds-barred garage-rock band at that time, they delivered their material with some real snarl. Their drummer was one of those tall, thin guys who seemed capable of driving a dance beat while playing nothing but fills. Their bassist looked like a chubby, nerdy cartoon version of my own band’s bassist. I think he even played a Gibson Ripper, which my close personal friend chickenfrank initially played when he joined our band as the bass/guitar swingman, filling in for whichever of our two original members in those roles had decided to “retire” or go whitewater rafting for a given show. The Creatures’ singer and leader had a strong, if stiff, stage presence. He reminded me a bit of Herman Munster, had Herman taken the stage with whatever garage band it was that appeared on an episode of The Munsters. There may have been a second guitarist, too, a blond guy who functioned as Malcolm Young to the lead guitarist’s garage-rock Angus. The lead guitarist was the main attraction for me, however, in the half dozen shows I caught by The Creatures, another chubby, mop-topped guy who looked like he loved nothing more than digging into his riffs and shouting all the requisite backing vocal parts that the band’s no-nonsense garage-rock songs required.
Around the same time I started dating this woman who would become my wife I learned that the lead guitar player, who went by his initials, JT, also led his own band, The Original Sins. They made a deservedly big splash with their debut record. The Original Sins were The Creatures minus their lead singer and plus a wicked organ player. The Original Sins were still squarely in the garage-rock camp, but they were more intense and had more range and emotional depth. JT would bark out a series of Stooges-influenced “outta-my-head” songs, actually seeming a little out of his head as he delivered his rave-ups, and then shift gears with something more introspective and poppy, something more akin to one of Big Star‘s feelin’-kinda-strange-but-it’s-all-right numbers. I missed the suits, and over time, as the band continued to follow JT’s increasing flights of fancy, sometimes missed the early Animals-like focus of The Creatures’ material, but – no offense to the abandoned leader of The Creatures – I was happy that JT gained his “independence” and got to lead his own band. (This is not to suggest that he was tied down, or anything like that, when he was the guitarist for The Creatures – I never knew their history or intra-band dynamics.)
For purposes of discussion, have you ever followed a band, keyed in on a particular musician who did not seem to be the leader of said band, and then get to enjoy seeing that musician go off and start his or her own thing?
By the way, I believe the leader of The Creatures kept his band going and may still play to this day.
A few that come to mind: Graham Coxon of Blur, Tanya Donnelly of the Throwing Muses, and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac. Two of my favorites have been Tricky from Massive Attack and Barry Adamson of the Bad Seeds.
Not to belabor this, but I always liked David Lindley’s playing when he was in Jackson Browne’s band. When he formed his won band, El Rayo Ex, the albums he made with them were better than I could have dreamed, some of my favorite albums ever.
Jeff Tweedy going from second banana in Uncle Tupelo to bandleader in Wilco is an obvious one.
BigSteve, you may be surprised at this, but: We REACH!
Good call on Jeff Tweedy, BigSteve.
oh my god ladymiss!
i love your choices.
i don’t know that i care so much about Tanya Donnely, but all the other folks you mentioned are SOOO damned good!
Kurt Vile stepping to the front after being a partner in War On Drugs was cool.
Nick Lowe was in somebody’s band before going solo wasn’t he?
David J from Bauhaus/Love and Rockets put out a few really good albums.
Phil Collins……….
It all happened well before I started getting into it, but Bootsy Collins came out of James Brown’s shortlived J.B.’s (even though I think the J.B.s were originally Bootsy’s band anyway called the Pacemakers) and then joined with George Clinton for Parliament, Funkadelic and P-Funk, before forming Bootsy’s rubber band. Oh, and Sly and the Family Stone was a proving ground for the great Larry Graham.
Bringing up funk provides a very thin excuse for me to post some Ohio players on youtube…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrOnHOpgNng&feature=related
….theres no way anyone could make a track like this today and have any cred….back then it was possible, everyone was a lot less uptight. Can’t deny it’s fun…:)
Maceo Parker was in somebody’s band too right?
Yes on Kurt Vile!
And speaking of the Ohio Players, did anyone else grow up with the urban legend that the scream during “Love Rollercoaster” was the sound of a gal being murdered in the recording studio (or on the rollercoaster – it was never explained to me – but we all listened for it!)?
Oops, yes, Maceo Parker followed a similar path to Bootsy , starting off with James Brown, Leaving, coming back, then moving on to George Clinton’s various funk-splorations.
Lady, that OP legend made it down under as well. I’d forgotten about it ’till you bought it up. The cover of their earlier album “Pain” set the stage for some fairly wild reactions to – what is by todays standards anyway – a fairly PG rated act (but a damn fine one I must say).
The way I heard it, a girl was stabbed to death in the recording studio while the track was being recorded. Even though I was under 10 years old when I heard this story my first reaction was still “That’s a load of Bull!”. If anyone is going to get stabbed in a recording studio, its going to to be the lead guitarist…;)
This fun piece of rock fabrication was resurrected during the 80’s attack on Rock by the retarded right fundamentalists (Led Zep, Judas Priest, Ozzy, KISS and Blue Oyster Cult being the main targets). Apparently the band added fuel to the fire by refusing to comment on it because legends like that sell more records (as Led Zep, Judas Priest, Ozzy, KISS and Blue Oyster Cult found out! Thanks, retarded right fundamentalists!
Not much love for him around here but Jason Falkner toiled in The Three O’Clock and Jellyfish before he was allowed to really write and perform stuff with the Grays and solo.
Nice reminder of JT and the Original Sins. They played Philly constantly and were always a good show. And if you weren’t into it one night, you could miss it since they’d be back doing the pretty much the same show next month.
I certainly dug a lot of Townshend’s solo work in the 80’s but I think that is not what the question is getting at. Is this more the 2nd banana to top banana thing? Then I think Tweedy is a fine answer and possibly Jeff Lynne coming out from behind Roy Wood in early days of ELO.
Yes, k., second bananas stepping forward to do their own thing is probably a big part of what I’m getting at, plus I’m also most interested in hearing people’s personal tales of witnessing such a phenomenon. I would think that few if any of us followed The Move in their final years and said, “I’d love to see what that Lynne kid could do leading his own band!” On the other hand, I’m sure plenty of Townspeople got to see Tweedy in his old band and welcomed his formation of Wilco, so bigger as well as smaller bands are open for discussion. Thanks.
So you’re interested in something like the “Late Night with William B” show… of Rock, I mean.
How about Sam Coomes going from the latter-day bassist for Heatmiser (a band featuring Elliott Smith) to frontman of Quasi?
Are you making an SCTV reference, HVB? That’s one possible way to look at it. Oats gives the Sam Coomes/Elliott Smith example. Perhaps some of you did follow Heatmiser and think that one of those guys should step forward – and then delighted in seeing said guy do so. Dave Grohl wouldn’t count, though, because I don’t think anyone watched the drummer of Nirvana and thought, “Nirvana’s OK, but I’d like to see THAT guy lead his own band!”
Maybe none of us have had many opportunities to see a second banana in a band long enough to think he or she would make a good frontperson – and then got to see it happen. shawnkilroy pointed to a very good personal experience along these lines with that Kurt Vile guy. The bands/artist need not be MAJOR players – it’s your own tales I’m most interested in hearing.
I’m shocked that no one has mentioned Bill Wyman. In Another Land gave us only the slightest hint of the greatness that is Monkey Grip.
Herman Menderchuk
Look at what happened to HVB once he was out from under the evil control of initial frontman Ken Cills in Bob’s Revenge.
How’s THAT for obscure!
Ken’s not really evil, he’s an ad man though.
I kid.
Coomes is a great example of a guy going off on his own to put out amazing stuff, but I have to admit that I wasn’t really familiar with Heatmiser by more than their name until after I’d heard Quasi.
I maintain that Lynne essentially usurping The Move with the shift into ELO is an example of Rock Mutiny, maybe second only to Mike Love taking over Beach Boys, Inc.
Falkner is a great example for those of us here who enjoy his work.
Herman Menderchuk
totally.