Flamin' Ohs
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The Replacements have always been better on record than live. “Alex Chilton” and “Kids Don’t Follow” are anthemic for a whole generation. On stage though, they were not as entertaining as a good police bludgeoning. I remember one gig they did at the Uptown Bar where they were so drunk and f*cked up that they did a cover of “Polly Wolly Doodle All The Day”. That did it for me. I’ve got most of the ‘Mats albums and have still picked up Paul’s CDs on occasion, but it’s just not worth the money to see him live, whatever the price.
Flamingo was recommended to me in the late 70's by Julian West, who used to own Comic City on 32nd and Hennepin, probably because he was roommates with Curtiss A [Curt Almstead] and Robert Wilkinson [Flamingo] at the time. I was just getting back into listening to live music after the years of disco had turned the knobs of the local scene up to 12 on the S*ck-o-Meter.
In the early 70's, my buddies and I would frequent Pudge's in Highland Park where Cain usually played, JJ's on 66th and Lyndale which was usually cover bands, and the late lamented Home Bar on Franklin and Lyndale (now Rudolf's BBQ) where Gypsy pulled up their wagon. Then, like I said, disco turned Minneapolis into Bl*w-Me Central.
However, that market share couldn't last forever, fortunately. Punk happens. Sex Pistols, yeah. The Ramones, sure. The Real Elvis buried Presley. Ian Drury drowned K.C. and his Sunshine Band. The Philly Sound blew big chunks and Britain was in. Places like Ichabod's South near 494 and 100 started booking bands again, and slowly wide lapels yielded to skinny ties. $100 hairdos were out, acne was in.
Bands weren't booked every night overnight. There was a little bar in the basement of the Roaring 20's, a strip bar, called the Blitz Bar, across the street from the Longhorn that alternated bands with female impersonators. Jeez, I can't remember all the bands from back then: The Suicide Commandoes, the Overtones, NNB, The New Psychenauts, probably dozens of others, all very different from each other and easy to either like or hate. The Commandoes were the godfathers of the scene, and everybody liked them. They were always good, live or on record, and were nice, sane human beings in a scene that was coming on so strong that cults of personality and “long-lived” bands were measured in months. A great band would rehearse through the cold winter and then play their first gig in the spring and be burned out by fall. Venues would come and go almost as fast. Duffy’s lasted maybe four years. Goofy’s Upper Deck was a fondly remembered venue for a short time and so was Scheik’s downtown before it became a strip club. The Yukon Club on Lake and Grand was very cool for a few months when E. Brown was around. Members of E. Brown would go on to form Trip Skakespeare and later Semisonic, but with James Harry on processed guitar, Matt Wilson on drums Dave Pinsky on keys and John Munson on bass, their trance-rock was absolutely riveting.
The first time I saw Flamingo was at the Powderhorn Park pavillion. They were absolutely f*cking blowaway. They blew off Beej and his irritating Subf*cks and made Prince kiss *ss. Flamingo was two lead guitars fencing with each other [Robert Wilkinson and Johnny Rey], a bass player who followed the lead lines {Jody Ray], a keyboard player who knew how to play off the lead lines without resorting to playing rhythm [Joseph Behrend], and an unstoppable force of nature as indomitable as a hurricane and as formidable as an earthquake on drums [Bobby Meide]. "Everyday" with duelling leads circa 1979 was as anthemic as the "Star-Spangled-Banner" or "Shake Some Action". I enjoyed these fools for a couple years before I got to know them personally.
The first time I met Bobby Meide I was working the door at a private party at the Olympia Arts Ensemble at 200 N. 3rd St. I was acting then, and every once in awhile we'd have a party to pay the rent. Hartley, who ran the Longhorn at that time, would often call the cops on us, as he saw us as competition. I'm glad he's gone. Anyway, it was after one o'clock, and our party was closing down. So when Bobby showed up after his gig, I had to throw him out.
The second time I met Bobby he put me in a headlock at Duffy's. I knew I had arrived. From then on I was part of the family, which usually meant the drinks were on me. Joseph always wanted me to come over so he could cook venison. When they played three sets a night at the Cabooze, they didn't have enough songs, so they repeated the first set in the third set. Johnny left, to form his own great band, Johnny Rey and the Reaction, taking a few great songs with him like "Hit and Run", “No Emotion” and “Looking For Trouble” and the remaining four continued as Flamingo until they had to change it. For one night at Duffy's they were "Private Eyes", then they changed it to Flamin' Oh's.
In the middle ‘80’s, the Flamin’ Oh’s and the Phones [later: Stickman] were the premiere competitors in the larger rooms like Duffy’s, Louis Pedro’s Cabooze and the Union Bar. In those days you were usually an Oh’s-fan or a Phones-fan, though there was quite a bit of crossover. Girls would get dumped by one of the Phones and then become an Oh’s –fan and vice versa. Of course, the guys would follow in their wake. Whereas the Oh’s did mostly originals written by Robert, Joseph and then later Terri Bratz and Gary Snow who joined in ’85, the Phones did about half covers. Jeff Cerise on lead vocals was the center of attention, but Jim Riley wrote a lot of the songs and played bass, who with Brad Mattson on drums formed a rhythmic center that few bands could aspire to. Minneapolis’ own version of Eric Clapton was Steve Brantseg on guitar enabling the band to do cool covers from Echo and the Bunnymen to Squeeze, and Gang of Four to Television, that filled the dance floors with pretty women and the guys with awe. Always in friendly competition, The Phones went with Twin Tone to record, and the Flamin’ Oh’s went with Blackberry Way.
The Blackberry Way label was started by Mike Owens in the famous studio where a lot of the Minneapolis bands did their best work that was earlier released by Twin Tone. The Flamin’ Oh’s [now just the Oh’s] recorded their last two albums there, Mike’s own Idle Strand also took advantage, and they were joined by two other bands that no history of the Minneapolis scene should ever exclude.
The first of these is Swing Set, who even though they released an LP and a CD on Blackberry Way and one CD on the short-lived Crackpot label, has more unreleased good stuff than any other band I can think of off the top of my head. Hopefully someone will release these gems before the republicans gut the nation. With David Nussbaum on keyboards, Swing Set had essentially four good songwriters. Generally influenced by some of the more melodic bands like the Church, Swing Set was a true democracy. Mike Nilles and Danny Prozinski on guitars, Ric Studer on bass and Dean [Dino] Johnson [R.I.P.] on drums all wrote great songs. Dino’s great “We’ve Changed” and most of Ric’s like “Inside and Outside” and “I Want To Play With You” didn’t make it to record in the days when Jesperson was talking them to Twin Tone. Once they started up with Blackberry Way though, Ric’s “The Dance” on the first LP was the ultimate slow dance song when you wanted to get to know that cute girl in the corner talking to her friends. After Ric left, Mike and Danny’s songs started to predominate, with Mike’s “New Citizens” and Danny’s “Cold Wind Through Your Heart” being just two that pop into mind.
Brian Drake has been the front man and chief songwriter in at least four Minneapolis bands that go back to the early ‘80’s, The Quiz, Idiot Savant, the Fontanas and 60 Cycle Hum with possibly more that I’m spacing out on at the moment. Idiot Savant recorded an EP and an LP and 60 Cycle Hum recorded one CD on Blackberry Way. These should be seeked out by any true rocker. Brian’s “Carolina” off the 60 Cycle Hum CD “Bad Dream Date” was the hit that went national for a while and was in heavy airplay in some state out on the east coast. Kent Militzer’s “Crooked Smile” off the same CD is one of the great all out rockers of all time.
No discourse on the history of the Minneapolis scene would be complete without a mention of the blessed Groove. Hallowed be their name. One of the best of the bands that never released an album or CD in the ‘80’s, these guys fronted just about every local band in clubland. This was because they wrote great poppy songs that the girls could dance to, and they threw the best parties after the gig. Their recent self-released CD “Whole Lotta Loveseat” finally includes such great songs as “My Addiction” and “Born In Vegas”, chock full of hooks, beats and riffs. Even funnier is the occasional Dave’s Rant on their web-site, www.thegrooveguys.com.
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