Thee Katatonix - Thee Basement Tapes (1979)

Practice makes imperfect: Kats demo tape from 1979 unearthed!

Foraging through my basement, I recently discovered and digitized a Katatonix audiocassette practice tape from 1979 that represents one of only two known recordings I have of what thee original Kats - Adolf Kowalski, Katie Katatonic and me, Tommy Gunn - sounded like back then, as well as demonstrating what our setlist was at that time. The only other recording I have is a live tape of an October 1979 show (only our third-ever gig) at Oddfellows Hall in Towson with our pal Archie Android (Tom Lehr) splitting bass duties with Katie Katatonic. These recordings stand as the Rosetta Stone of our early retarded musicality. It's probably for the best that Mankind's ears have been spared more than two tape recordings of these sonic affronts to sense and sensibility.

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10 We Dared: A Thee Katatonix Practice Tape from 1979

01 Mono (2:17) Kowalksi-Gunn
02 My Son the Gynecologist (2:21) Kowalksi
03 (I Didn't Get Laid On) Valentine's Day (3:09) Kowalski
04 My Baby Is a Basket Case (2:57) Kowalski
05 (I Sure Do Miss My) Foreskin (3:01) Kowalksi-Gunn
06 Highlandtown (2:54) Kowalski
07 (You Grow On Me Like a) Fungus (5:32) Kowalski-Gunn
08 Stretch Marx (3:18) Kowalski-Gunn
09 I Don't Wanna Marry a Dyke (4:29)
10 I Hate DC (3:09) Kowalski-Gunn

Adolf Kowalski: Guitar & Vocals
Katie Katatonic: Bass
Tommy Gunn: Drums

Recorded in Adolf's basement, Dundalk, 1979

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Still, listening back to these songs makes me laugh (at our barely-more-proficient than The Kids of Widney High musical "prowess") and wish - with the exception of my horrendous lyrics to such throwaways as "(I'm In Love With the Only Boy in the Neighborhood Without) Mono" (which was based on Katie Katatonic's real-life romantic dilemma, but was thankfully shortened on our setlists to just plain old "Mono") and "Stretch Marx" (my attempt to write a pro-abortion/anti-breeding dance hit that never caught on with the Planned Parenthood Set) - that we had professionally recorded some of these ditties, especially the topical-at-the-time "Highlandtown" (about the real-life phenomenon of adolescent East Baltimore boys balling-for-dollars with pederasts), "My Son the Gynecologist" ("My daughter is a thief: she spends her days snatching watches/My son's profession nearly matches: he spends his day watching snatches"), and "I Don't Wanna Marry a Dyke" (I always loved Adolf's line about how some militant disciples of Sapphos were conspiring to "Cut my balls off and hang 'em from their rear-view window"!).

Only three of these songs would survive to be recorded by later editions of the Kats: "Valentines Day" and "Basket Case" appeared on 1983's three-song Katatonix Valentine's Day EP (along with the new Adolf ballad "Joie de Vivre") which featured the new trio of Adolf, bassist Mr. Urbanity, and drummer Big Andy Small...


"Valentine's Day" EP (UK Spud, 1983)

...while "Fungus" resurfaced on the 1984 Divine Mission LP that featured Adolf and Mr. Urbanity on guitars and vocals, Rockin' St. Anthony on bass, and Big Andy Small once again on drums.


"Divine Mission" LP (UK Spud, 1984)

Someday I will upload these early primitive soundblasts upon an unsuspecting world. Who knows, maybe these Kowalski-Gunn compositions will someday be resurrected to play on Broadway as a Producers-style musical fiasco!

Thee Katatonix Songbook: Selected Bits

"Basket Case" was my fave early Kats song and possibly Adolf's best-ever effort as a songwriter (vying with his later "Maison de Rock" from Divine Mission) and it was also the highlight of our early setlist before "My Genitalia" became the setpiece-de-resistance. But there were other faves, as well. Following are some lyrical highlights from the Katatonix Songbook.

MY BABY IS A BASKET CASE (Kowalski)


My little baby can't walk and she hardly ever talks
But when it comes to fuckin', she never ever balks
She got a pretty little figure, but a real ugly face
My baby baby baby is a basket case

(Chorus)
My baby is a basket case
She ain't got arms or legs but that's no disgrace
She does exotic bird calls and she's gonna go far
I take her out strapped to the roof of my car

I met her at a freakshow, she played piano with her nose
I went up to her later and said "Your music really blows!"
She got a sparkle in her eye and her mouth began to foam
I stuffed her in my knapsack, and I ran all the way home

(Chorus)

My parents don't approve - 'cuz my girlfriend's not a Jew
Well what do they expect, from a dame who's mostly neck?
My little brother plays Little League, uses my babe for second base
But I don't really care - cuz it sure can't hurt her face!

(Chorus repeat)

MY SON THE GYNECOLOGIST (Kowalski)

Sonny Boy says "Once more into the void!"

My daughter is a thief
She spends her day snatching watches
My son's profession nearly matches
He spends his day watching snatches

(Chorus)
My son the gynecologist
Pokes and probes around the clock
My son the gynecologist
Never takes time to yank his cock

He brings home his dirty rubber gloves
I lick them clean and pat them dry
I'm so very proud of my son
He never has stains around his eyes

(Chorus)

Put your feet into the stirrups
And let my son do his stuff
His sister taught him everything he knows
About diving right into the muff - oh!

(Chorus)

Watch Katatonix 2.0 play "Gynecologist" live at Marble Bar (early '80s)


I DON'T WANT TO MARRY A DYKE (Kowalski)

Call him "Hans Brinker": Adolf sang of plugging dykes

There's a militant mother coming round after me
She's waiting for me in the men's lavatory
She's hunting me down, just cuz I knocked her up
But I'll never marry her - cuz she acts like a man
1-2-3-4!

(Chorus)
I don't wanna marry a dyke
(Ask me why) It's something I don't think I'd like
I don't wanna marry a dyke
I don't wanna marry a dyke
I don't wanna marry a....

All day long she sits around with her lesbian friends
They're plotting against me , it never ends
They wanna cut my balls off and hang 'em from their rear-view mirror
But I won't let that happen, not yet anyway

(Chorus)

FUNGUS (Kowalski-Gunn)

The hair-razing "Fungus" grew on Adolf, who later recorded it as a twin-guitar workout with Mr. Urbanity on "Divine Mission"

At the start of the semester
You said our love would grown and blossom
But like an open wound it festered
By midterms we was just playin' possum

(Chorus)
Cuz you grow on me like a fungus
You grow on me like a fungus
And you like grow on me like a tumor - that turned malignant
You put me in a bad humor, and ruined my pigment
Now I'm indignant!

(Chorus)

Guess our biorhythms didn't match
But ain't it always just that way?
You're like an egg, just don't hatch
You wanna fertilize but you won't get laid

(Chorus)

You became a bacterial infection
You always wanted one more shot
But I can't take another injection
Get outta my system or my blood will clot

(Chorus)

It's over now there ain't no doubt
You gimme gangrene and you gimme gout
Our tiny rosebud never bloomed
It didn't even hardly sprout

HIGHLANDTOWN (Kowalski)

This one's for the kids!

Well I'm from Dundalk and you can't tell me nothin'
Cuz I've seen and done more things than I'd admit I'd ever do
And on the one side we got Essex and I love that place so dearly
That if you don't like it, then you're just a cunt

And on the other side of Dundalk is a part of town
Where little kids will beat you with a chain if you are old
But if you're weird and you can whip out $20 dollars
The little kids will love you
Excuse me, it's other way around - in Highlandtown

(Chorus)
Highlandtown is my kinda town
Where everyone pulls their pants down
To make some bread, you use your head
Oh everyone loves Highlandtown

Little kids are on the street
And people think they look so sweet
But they just wanna rent their meat
To anything that's on two feet

I call that a fucked-up scheme
Those kids aren't old enough to breed
If you go for them, then you're a dick
Cause if you're gonna get down to it
It's no good 'less you can screw it

And why spend your hard-earned money
When you can have my dick for free?
If you wanna have some fun
Buy yourself a great big gun
Go and find those kids and mow 'em down - in Highlandtown

Highlandtown, my kinda town
Where everyone pulls their pants down
You eat my head or wind up dead
Oh everyone loves Highlandtown!

(I SURE DO MISS MY) FORESKIN (Kowalski-Gunn)

Foreskin, like hindsight, is golden

I had no chance when I was born
They grabbed my Tweetus and I was shorn
Sterilized tweezers held my dick
The doctor smiled and went snippity-snip

And I sure do miss my foreskin
I-I-I lost it when I was just a kid
Yes I sure do miss my foreskin
But they said that it was not for Yids

Mom and Dad are Orthodox Jews
They said foreskin means smegma, that means goo
Now all the other guys can make their heads disappear
But mine ain't going nowhere, cuz it's been sheared

(Chorus)

Met a little lady, we jumped into bed
A little while later asked her for some head
When I whipped it out, she went into shock
She said, "Huh, you ain't got no flap on your cock!"

(Chorus)

Older now and I can lament
The loss of my foreskin and what it meant
My sex life would be a lot more kinky
If I was hung like an elastic slinky

I don't wanna hear none of that hygiene crap
I would've taken good care of my flap
Even little turtles need a place to hide their head
But my snakeskin's already been shed

(Chorus)

I HATE DC (Kowalski-Gunn)

"I Hate DC": Can you feel the love?

Though we liked a number of DC retro-pop and garage bands (Razz, Slickee Boys, Original Fetish, Kill the Messenger), we hated the DC Punk Scene - except for Black Market Baby. (Why their Straight Edge Scene was so popular is a mystery that continues to puzzle me.) I think this song adequately expresses our heart-felt sentiments, while also reflecting the subtlety for which we were renown.

I hate Washington, DC
This just ain't no place for me
Never thought we'd sink so low
Playing in this bungalow

I hate DC, I hate DC
Too many assholes in DC
I hate DC, I hate DC

I don't wanna be an Idle Teen
I don't want my Brain to go Bad
In the nation's capital
People don't have class at all
Everyone's a stuck-up little twit
And you're a dick

I hate DC, I hate DC
I hate DC, I hate DC

Don't be fooled by propoganda from the White House lawn
Everyone will be much better off when DC's gone
Georgetown's full of fuckheads, everyone's a square
DC's full of assholes, I don't care if you live there, cuz

I hate DC, I hate DC
Too many assholes in DC
I hate DC, I hate DC
Etc., etc.


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Got Lame If You Want It!: Thee Kats Live '79


"Third time's the charm!" Adolf reminds the faithful at our 3rd-ever gig

The other "basement tape" I discovered (literally unearthed in my basement), of our third-ever show at Oddfellows Hall, made me realize I had forgotten about two more cover songs we did (for a listing of still more Kats covers, see "Cover Your Ears") - the Surfaris' "Wipe-Out" and our Towson State pal Dr. Waste's "I Wanna Die On a DC-10" (Doc Waste performed it with us onstage that night) - as well as two more originals Adolf and I apparently penned but which I have no recollection of: "Alpha Trance" and "Nocturnal Emission." (I'm sure both of these were based on real-life incidents we experienced - especially the latter!) Unfortunately, this tape's a mess, requiring a salvage job only slightly less complicated than efforts to recover the remains of the R.M.S. Titanic; I've only been able to listen to a few songs as a result.

Our lead guitarist at this gig was Al "Son of Charlie" Manson (our ace Charles Manson-lookalike guitarist for a gig or two), who was a "real" guitarist we met at Towson State who could actually play scales and technical stuff but who mainly just liked to jam. I think we used the doodly jam "Alpha Trance," on which Katie sang the title over and over, as a transitional song to let Archie Android tune up after taking over relief bass duties. Whenever Archie Android played bass, Katie either sang or banged a tambourine like Betty in the Archies.


Katie Katatonic works the mic while in an "Alpha Trance"

Come to think of it, "Alpha Trance" might have been one of Al Manson's guitar jam-outs that we just stamped a title on - I recall he liked to practice his guitar exercises whenever we played, going off on divergent leads while everybody else played something completely different (i.e., simplistic and non-complex), resulting in a sort of hybrid Punk-Grateful Dead sonic experience. I forget Al's real last name, but I remember he was the only guy I knew whose favorite band was The Incredible String Band - the UK folkie legends who explored as polar-opposite a musical direction from us as one could get! - but who couldn't find anybody with similar tastes to play with, so he fell in briefly with us for something to do. Boredom, badum-badum!


Erstwhile Kat Al "Son of Charlie" Manson: Killer riffs!

"Alpha Trance" may have been the song we played while projecting a pornographic film behind the band at this show. On the tape, right after "Fungus" in our set, you can hear Adolf announce to the crowd, "Marty's gonna show a movie now."


Marty Benson screens a dirty Western

That would be our No. 1 fan, Marty Benson, who came to all our shows. I remember we had planned to screen one of those old 8mm stag film loops on my projector (these were the days before video and VCRs, kids!) of two girls dressed as squaws playing Cowboys & Indians with some lucky cowpoke with a big "six-shooter." Somehow Marty put the film on backwards, so it turned into this anti-climatic experimental art film - the "Wild Wild West" action started with everybody naked and the "moneyshot" shooting back into the cowpoke's six-gun, the squaws un-smoking the "peace pipe," and ended with everybody getting dressed and walking backwards out of a seedy motel room. I lost the beat (so to speak) as I kept craning my neck to leer back at the screen behind me; Katie, of course, was a good Catholic girl and refused to look, but she was the only person in Oddfellows Hall that night not watching the "Ride 'Em Cowboy" peep show. Never again would the Kats so keenly hold an audience's attention! For a fleeting moment, it seemed like people actually liked us - until the film unspooled and reality once again reared its ugly head.

Thee Katatonix @ Oddfellows Hall, Towson (October 5, 1979)



01 Punk Food Junky (Kowalski-Gunn)
02 Satellite (Sex Pistols)
03 Basket Case (Kowalski)
04 Fungus (Kowalski-Gunn)
05 Alpha Trance (Kowalski-Gunn)
06 My Genitalia (Kowalski-Townshend)
07 Nocturnal Emission (Kowalski-Gunn)
08 Wipe-Out (The Surfaris)
09 Mono (Kowalski-Gunn)
10 I Wanna Die on a DC-10 (Dr. Waste)
11 Stretch Marx (Kowalski-Gunn)

Adolf Kowalski: Guitar & Vocals
Katie Katatonic: Bass, Tambourine & Vocals
Al Manson: Lead Guitar
Archie Android: Bass & Transcendent Cool Vibes
Tommy Gunn: Drums
Dr. Waste: Vocals (?) on "DC-10"


Katie shook a tambourine whenever Archie Android filled in on bass

I like that "Punk Food Junky" opened our set at Oddfellows Hall. Like "(I'm In Love With the Only Boy In My Neighborhood Without) Mono," this was another song inspired by a real-life Katie Katatonic experience, namely her being canned from working at Towson's Health Concern (a spiritually and environmentally and yada-yada-yadally conscious hippie-yuppie New Age health food store whose original location is now a parking lot behind the Rec Room in Towson) for listening to punk rock. (Well, she also ate cows served up from across the street at the Burger King and smoked cigarettes, but that's beside the point.) Apparently, the owners told her she wasn't working out because they listened to classical music while she, as a bass player in a punk band, didn't fit in with their high ideals. They not only fired her - perthaps their best, hardest-working employee - but tried to stiff her on her final paycheck, until her attorney dad got involved and threatened to sue their vegetarian asses. The Health Concern later moved into the old Towson Public Library building on W. Susquehanna Avenue. The only drawback to the song "Punk Food Junky" was that Adolf use to load up a bag with health food - tomatoes, oranges, bananas and such - and fling some of them into the audience during this song. Most of the vegetable and fruit barrage was thrown at me, though!

PUNK FOOD JUNKY (Kowalski-Gunn)
Lettuce & tomatoes & a lotsa cheese
Follow the Organic Code and no smoking, please
Our minds are as wholesome as our food
So when we fire you, please don't think us rude

(Chorus)
We don't like candy, chemicals or junk
We only like health food, so we don't like gunk
Our philosphy's hypocrisy, atrophy and bunk
We cater to weaklings so we don't like punk

Our version of the Sex Pistols' "Satellite" is almost unrecognizable (it would have helped if any of us besides Adolf had actually heard the song before attempting to play it!), but I do love how 'dolf changed the song's locale from London's suburbs to Towson's ("You know I don't like where you come from/It's just a satellite of Towson").

And I remember that Doc Waste's "I Wanna Die On a DC-10" had a line about how he wanted to die on a DC-10 because he was let down by Comet Kohoutek (sometimes spelled "Kahoutek") - which was initially hyped in 1973 as being potentially the "Comet of the Century" (In Celebration of the Comet: The Coming of Kohoutek was even the title of a popular and widely-circulated Pink Floyd bootleg album of the period, while Sun Ra also recorded an LP called Concert for the Comet Kohoutek, Kraftwerk's first 1973 single was called "Kohoutek-Kometenmelodie," and R.E.M.'s song "Kohoutek" used the comet as a metaphor for a failed romance on their Fables of the Reconstruction album!) - not colliding with Earth.

Because Comet Kahoutek fell far short of expectations, its name became synonymous with spectacular duds, which is why both Doc Waste and Thee Katatonix could relate to it! Like Devo, we all had to be content with nothing more than "Space Junk" falling from the skies in the '70s...oh, yeah, and those DC-10s. Doc Waste was no doubt inspired by recent events - you see, back in May 1979, an American Airlines DC-10 crashed after take-off at Chicago's O'Hare airport, killing all 271 on board and causing the FAA to ground all DC-10s due to structural problems with their pylon engines. It was a big deal at the time - we had come full-circle from Sinatra's 1950s high-fly celebration "Come Fly With Me" to nervy Come Die With Me times. Between terrorist hijackings and numerous DC-10 crashes, the '70s were far from Superfly times. I have no idea why we covered "Wipe-Out" unless it was an unconscious reference to all these air disasters.


As a drummer, Tommy Gunn was a total "Wipe-Out" live
(note Katie's mouth retainer worn around neck as jewelry)

Though listening to this tape is, um, rather challenging, I like Adolf's fuck-all attitude and repartee with the Oddfellows (and Oddfemmes) in the audience. He intros "(You Grow On Me Like a) Fungus" with the words "Here's a lovely tune that we can't play but we don't give a fuck anyway...it's called 'Fungus In Your Crotch, Asshole'!" But perhaps his most telling crack, after our "cover" of "Satellite" crashed and burned, was "See what happens when you don't practice?" Indeed.

Lean Keene

The Real Underground of Tommy Keene Rarities


Q:What's a four-letter word for Keene rarities? A: Cool!

"Keene's inexhaustable supply of engaging melodies and indelible hooks is matched by an ability to string them together in novel ways..."
- Moira McMcormick, Rolling Stone

Kicks keep on getting harder to find as far as scoring Tommy Keene rarities that remain unreleased or undigitized - what with the release of the 41-track double-CD You Hear Me: A Retrospective 1983-2009 (Second Motion Records, 2010) and its 10 digital-only bonus bundle tracks; the 1998 CD reissue of Songs From The Film that included several unreleased T-Bone Burnett-Don Dixon demos recorded at Reflection Studios in Charlotte, NC in 1984; the demos, singles and EPs collection The Real Underground (Alias Records, 1993); and Drowning: A Tommy Keene Miscellany (Not Lame, 2004) - so many thanks to my favorite music blog, the wonderful Wilfully Obscure, for uploading two early demo recordings - seven unreleased tracks from Tommy's 1981 Strange Alliance album sessions and five outtakes from the original 1984 Songs From The Film sessions recorded with T-Bone Burnette and Don Dixon - as well as previously posting all eight tracks from Keene's (still unreleased) debut mini-LP Strange Alliance (1981).

After that, the rarities pickings from his "inexhaustible supply of engaging melodies and indelible hooks" get a tad lean, but if you're both a Tommy Keene fan and a card-carrying completist like me, following is what you'll need to get a Keene Slate as far as collecting all the rarities that have not been officially released or widely available. Where possible, I've included the same download links that Wilfully Obscure provided.

(Now all we need is somebody to upload The Razz's back catalog of singles for closure! Speaking of which, a few folks have uploaded Razz songs to YouTube; see more about this at the end of this post.)

*** STRANGE ALLIANCE ***
(Park Avenue Records, 1981)



1. Landscape
2. All the Way Around
3. Don't Get Me Wrong
4. I Can't See You Anymore
5. It's All Happening Today
6. Strange Alliance
7. Another Night at Home
8. Northern Lights

http://rapidshare.com/files/166772991/tommykeene_strange.rar

Produced by Tommy Keene and Ted Niceley. (Note: Ted Niceley's last name is sometimes spelled "Nicely" in print and online sources; I'm going with "Niceley" because that's what appears on my copies of Songs From the Film, The Real Underground, Connected, and the Razz singles.)

Personnel:

Tommy Keene - Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals; all instros on "Northern Lights"
Ted Niceley: bass
Doug Tull: drums
Michael Colburn: Harmony Vocals on "Don't Get Me Wrong," "I Can't See You Anymore," "Another Night At Home"

From Wilfully Obscure:

The eight-song mini-album Strange Alliance was the world's (or at least the US') introduction to Tommy Keene (formally of the D.C. based Razz) as a singer/songwriter and ultimately, jangle-rock demi-god.

From song one, "Landscape," Keene established a recipe that he would rarely deviate from on future recordings, up to and including his last studio record, Crashing the Ether. Much sought after (going for $100 on Ebay!), Strange Alliance bears an unmistakable prescience, foreshadowing a remarkably consistent career that would follow in the ensuing decades.

From music scribe Rob Caldwell:

Strange Alliance was originally released in 1981, and then re-released the next year with a 7" single containing the song "Back to Zero." This bonus single was a smart move, as "Back to Zero" was a big jump forward in songwriting from most of what was on the album. Strange Alliance wasn't bad by any means, but there were fewer hooks and fewer memorable songs than on future Keene releases. Basically a power pop record with a raw garage -- almost punkish -- feel, it was better than most of what was being released in the same period. Overlooked then and now, the album is by no means a classic, but is definitely worth seeking out by Keene fans and those with an interest in music akin to Jules & the Polar Bears and early Greg Kihn.

I'm so glad this is finally available for digital consumption. I've loved this album ever since Tommy's former College Park roommate Bernie Ozol made me a tape of it back in the '80s - and it took me until this year to finally score it on vinyl (mucho gracias to Jack at El Suprimo Records in Fells Point!). And while I still don't understand (given all the superior unreleased demos from this period) why the dirge-like ambient album-closer "Northern Lights" was included (it's one of maybe a handful of Keene compositions that I don't love), the first five songs - "Landscape" ("Close proximity in your vicinity!") , "All the Way Around," "Don't Get Me Wrong," "I Can't See You Anymore," and "It's All Happening Today" - stand up to the best of any Keene tunes in his long career. I've always thought that "All the Way Around" was Tommy's "Ballad of El Goodo" and I love how Keene's piano bridge in the middle of "Strange Alliance" evokes the "I'd love to turn you on" segment of The Beatles' "A Day in the Life." Backing vocals on several songs were provided by Michael Colburn, erstwhile Razz player and a later member of Nightman.

In case you can't download the above, here's a YouTube video of "Landscape."


*** 1981 "STRANGE ALLIANCE" DEMOS ***
(Track Recorders, Silver Spring, MD, 1981)

In April and May of 1981, Tommy recorded five songs at Track Recorders in Silver Spring, MD with the rhythm section from his former band The Razz: bassist Ted Nicely and drummer Doug Tull. Keene and Ted Niceley produced these sessions. The songs recorded were "Strange Alliance," "End Of The World," "In Our Lives," "Walking On The Street," and "The Heart Is A Lonely Place To Hide."

"Strange Alliance" and "The Heart Is A Lonely Place To Hide" were released on Connected, a vinyl-only Limp Records compilation of Washington, DC-area bands. The same recording of "Strange Alliance" also showed up later - but with a different mix - on Keene's debut LP Strange Alliance.

In November of 1981, five more songs were recorded at Track with Keene and Niceley again producing. The songs recorded this time were "I Can't See You Anymore," "Don't Get Me Wrong,""Another Night At Home" - which were used on Keene's debut LP Strange Alliance (with backing vocals courtesy of Michael Colburn) - and "I'm Your Friend" and "You Break My Mind."

At some time in early 1981, Keene also recorded demos for "Someone To Blame" and "Foolish Mind." The liner that accompanied the download suggest the personnel on these last two songs may just be Tommy Keene and Steve Carr.

So that accounts for the seven tracks that were left on the cutting room floor from these 1981 Strange Alliance sessions. Those tunes were circulated on cassette by Tommy's management; the files here were transferred from a copy of one of those cassettes.

01 End Of The World
02 In Our Lives
03 Walking On The Street
04 I'm Your Friend
05 You Break My Mind
06 Someone To Blame
07 Foolish Mind

http://rapidshare.com/files/227708661/tk1981demos.rar

Produced by Tommy Keene and Ted Niceley.

Personnel:

Tommy Keene: Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Ted Niceley: Bass
Doug Tull: Drums

I'm amazed that these songs didn't make the cut because these seven are arguably as strong (especially "End of the World" and "Walking Down the Street") if not stronger than the eight songs Keene ended up selecting for Strange Alliance. "In Our Lives" would inexplicably be shelved for five years, not seeing the light of day until Keene's 1986 Geffin debut Songs From the Film. If Tommy ever decides to officially release these songs, he might call it The Alternate Strange Alliance (a la T. Rex with 1994's Rabbit Fighter: The Alternate Slider) - it even has a plodding equivalent of Strange Alliance's "Northern Lights" in the slo-mo "You Break My Mind." The latter's opening guitar motif would later be utilized both in Keene's "Safe In the Light" from the Back Again (Try...) EP (Dolphin, 1984) and "Down, Down, Down" from the Sleeping On a Rollercoaster EP (Matador, 1992).

*** 1984 "SONGS FROM THE FILM" DEMOS ***
(Reflection Studios, Charlotte, NC, 1984)



01 Call On Me
02 Run Now
03 Fall Down Too
04 The Story Ends
05 Gold Town

http://rapidshare.com/files/227717066/tk1984demos.rar

Produced by T-Bone Burnett and Don Dixon

Personnel:

Tommy Keene: Guitar and Vocals
Billy Connelly: Guitar and Vocals
Ted Niceley: Bass
Doug Tull: Drums

Don Dixon, T-Bone Burnette & Tommy Keene

As most Tommy Keene fans know, the album Songs From The Film - like Dylan's storied tale of two cities (Minneapolis and NYC) Blood on the Tracks - was essentially recorded twice. The first, with T-Bone Burnett and Don Dixon producing, was recorded at Reflection Studios in Charlotte, North Carolina. The second recording - the version that was ultimately released on Geffin Records - featured Geoff Emerick producing. Tommy Keene wanted engineer Bob Clearmountain to produce Songs From the Film, but Geffin insisted on a big-name producer, ending up with Geoff Emerick who had engineered Beatles records, as well as producing Badfinger's No Dice and Elvis Costello's Imperial Bedroom.

"We'd hired Geoff Emerick as the producer because he had worked with the Beatles, but I don't think he had listened to the radio in 20 years," Keene recalled. "In the '80s to get radio airplay you needed a 'big' drum sound and Emerick hated that. The drums on the record sound really tiny."

Some of the Burnett/Dixon recordings were later released on the Run Now vinyl EP. Those tracks, plus a few more outtakes, were then included on the 1998 CD reissue of Songs From The Film. To further complicate matters, a third version of the Burnett/Dixon-produced "Gold Town" was included on 2010's You Hear Me: A Retrospective 1983-2009 release (it's an alternate mix with a slightly different ending to the demo included here).

These five tunes are recordings from the original sessions that remain unreleased. Four of them were re-recorded for the second version of the album, but none of these particular recordings appear on any officially released version of Songs From The Film. These are probably unfinished mixes.

"Fall Down Too" later resurfaced as one of the 10 digital-only bonus tracks available with the You Hear Me CD release.

You can listen to Tommy talk to Tony Peters of iconfetch.com (at about the 10-minute mark of a 15 minute interview) about the Songs From the Film backstory and how he rues not standing up to Geffen and releasing the Burnette-Dixon album.

***

COMPLETISTS' CORNER: The Best of the Rest of Tommy Keene Rarities

"Kill Your Sons (Live)" (Lou Reed)


B-side: "Kill Your Sons (Live)" (Lou Reed)


"Kill Your Sons (Live)" is also on the "Run Now" EP

Personnel:

Tommy Keene: Guitar and Vocals
Billy Connelly: Guitar
Ted Niceley: Bass
Doug Tull: Drums

The live version of Lou Reed's "Kill Your Sons" (a studio version is included on Songs From the Film) was recorded in 1986 at NYC's The World and is still only available on the vinyl & cassette versions of the Run Now EP and on the B-side of the "Listen To Me" 12" single. Tommy introduces the song with the words "This is a song by one of America's great heroes, Lou Reed" and then lets rip for 5 1/2 minutes.

Here's a rare video of that performance from The World, posted on YouTube by "peyoteshaman":

"Kill Your Sons (Live) @ The World, NYC, 1986

Keene explained why the song was so important to him in a 2006 interview with Bill Kopp's musicoscribe.com:

I got Live In Italy around '85 where he's playing with the band with Fernando Saunders and...I forget his name...the producer guy [drummer Fred Maher -- ed.], and Bob Quine...Robert Quine. That was a great band. Then I saw this videotape [Coney Island Baby -- Live in New Jersey]. And I never really gave that song that much thought. But when I saw it in that context, I was thinking "ah, this is a great song!" At a rehearsal I just said "let's learn this song and do it tomorrow night" and we did it that night somewhere. So we did it and we enjoyed playing it. And then we did it again at a show where the A&R guy from Geffen came and he said "Oh! That's awesome. You've gotta record that and put that song on the record." And we were thinking "really?" And he just kept pushing and pushing, so when we made Songs From the Film we had a night where we threw a party and we just played a bunch of covers in the studio live, and that one came out well. And we went to try to remix the record (when we went to New York, as I said earlier) that tape was all live. I re-did the vocals and added a rhythm guitar but the rest was basically a "live in the studio" thing. And they liked it so much that they said "we've gotta put it on the record." So we put it on the record and when they put out the EP Run Now they took a version of it from this show we did in New York. And having done it on those two records it became an audience favorite. And so that's why it continues to be in the set. I thought "we're never gonna cover a Lou Reed song" for a major label ...next to "Sweet Jane" I think it may be one of his best songs. It's a classic.

***

"Faith In Love" (Acoustic)


B-side: "Faith In Love" acoustic version

The flip side of an alternate "Listen To Me" 7" single has an acoustic version of this outtake from the 1984 T-Bone Burnette and Don Dixon-produced Songs From the Film sessions recorded in Charlotte, NC. The full band (Billy Connelly, Ted Niceley, Doug Tull) version was included as a bonus track on the 1998 CD reissue of Songs From the Film.

***

"The Heart Is a Lonely Place To Hide"


"Connected" LP (Limp, 1981)

Personnel:

Tommy Keene - guitar, keyboards, vocals
Ted Niceley - bass
Doug Tull - drums

In April and May of 1981, Keene recorded "Strange Alliance" and "The Heart Is A Lonely Place To Hide" (also known simply as "The Heart") at Track Recorders in Silver Spring, MD. "Strange Alliance" and "The Heart Is A Lonely Place To Hide" were released on Connected, a vinyl-only Limp Records compilation of Washington, DC-area bands. The same recording of "Strange Alliance" also showed up later - but with a different mix - on Keene's debut LP Strange Alliance. This is a pretty good record in its own right, and includes tunes by Tommy's rhythm section of Ted Niceley and Doug Tull in their band Nightman (a group that also included two more ex-Razz players in guitarists Mike Colburn and Bill Craig), as well as The Slickee Boys, Howard Wuelfing's The Nurses, Don Fleming's Velvet Monkees, The Dark, and Black Market Baby. Despite being a relatively obscure song, "The Heart" was later covered on a 1987 single by Million Miles, a powerpop-loving German group who dedicated their record to Chris Bell [Big Star] and Chris Stamey [The DBs].


Million Miles: "The Heart" b/w "Fooled" 7" (Exile, 1987)

***

"Run To Midnight"



Tommy recorded this while still on the Not Lame Records label. As far as I know, it was only available on the CD that came with John M. Borack's powerpop guidebook Shake Some Action (also published by Not Lame Recording Company). Alas, Not Lame went lame a few years ago, so Keene completists would be well advised to look for used copies of this book.

***

"All I Want Is You" (Live) (Bryan Ferry) &
"When the Whip Comes Down" (Live) (M. Jagger-K. Richard)


"Back Again (Try...)" EP (Dolphin, 1984)

From the Back Again (Try...) EP. The B-side of this 4-song vinyl-only 12" single contains live covers of Roxy Music's "All I Want Is You" and The Rolling Stones' "When the Whip Comes Down" recorded in 1984 at Boston's Rat. Besides the title track, the other studio recording is "Safe In the Light" (both are available on The Real Underground CD).

In an interview with musicoscribe, Keene characterized the Stones cover as a one-off concert throwaway: "We['d] only played that once or twice...that was definitely the first time we've ever played it. You can tell because we don't really know the chords. I think we didn't get that middle part right. We rehearsed it once or twice and then went on."

Interestingly, the Unknown80s blog (unknown80s.blogspot.com) chose this EP to highlight Tommy Keene as an unheralded '80s songwriter and you can watch/listen to "Back Again (Try...)" and "Safe in the Light" below:



*** You Hear Me: Bonus Digital-Bundle Tracks ***


You shoula bought the 10 bonus tracks! You Hear Me?

This 10-track digital-only bonus album was available to pre-ordering customers when You Hear Me came out in 2010. I could kick myself for quibbling over cost when it was available for $20 vs. the $15 for the regular 2-disc edition. What fools these mortals be (or, to be it in Keene terms, me and my "Foolish Mind"). The bonus album includes the following tracks, which I suppose I will have to get someday...just to be a completist!

01 Places That Are Gone (alt mix by Bill Wittman from Songs From The Film)
02 Nothing Is Grey (demo 1982)
03 Stuck On A Ship (Demo 1983 from Dolphin Places That Are Gone EP)
04 Fall Down Too (Unreleased track from T-Bone/Don Dixon album recorded July 1984)
05 All Your Love Will Stay (Home Demo 1999)
06 Eyes of Youth (Home Demo 1999)
07 Never Really Been Gone (Live in Chicago 1998)
08 Call On Me (Live at Campbell University NC - 1996)
09 Compromise (Live at Campbell University NC - 1996)
10 Love Is A Dangerous Thing / Brad's Boogie (Live at Campbell University NC - 1996)

*** "LOVE OR ELSE" W/NILS LOFGREN ***

Watch "Love or Else".


This Nils Lofgren song, originally recorded on Grin's 1973 LP All Out, was reprised live in Rockville on August 25, 2004 with Tommy Keene on guitar for the A Tribute To Nils Lofgren DVD.

According to his iTunes bio, the teenage Keene played drums in the rock trio Blue Steel, whose original guitar player was Nils's younger brother, Mike Lofgren. Keene's first notable gig, in fact, was when Mike's Blue Steel opened for Nils's Grin. Here's a pic of Tommy playing drums with Blue Steel:


Blue Steel, 1972

And here's a (post-Mike Lofgren?) Blue Steel rendition of "Roll Over Beethoven", recorded at Silver Spring's DB Studios and showcasing Tommy's percussion skills, that I found on YouTube:


In a 2006 interview with Magnet magazine, Keene commented "Nils was really a huge influence on my guitar style and my songwriting. When people ask my influences, I always say the Beatles, Who and Stones, but I think the people that influenced me the most were the people I came into contact with when I was learning how to play. Nils’ brother Mike basically showed me how to play guitar."

(Those Lofgren boys sure knew how to play, as Nils and Mike were just two of the four Lofgren brothers who played guitar; the others were Mark and, of course, former Grin rhythm guitarist Tom Lofgren. You can see them all strumming away on the Nils Lofgren and Friends: Live Acoustic DVD.)

*** "Lost a Number" (Nils Lofgren) ***

Another Nils Lofgren song, originally recorded on Grin's 1972 LP 1+1 (their masterpiece), that Tommy played live - this time without Nils - for the August 25, 2004 recording of the A Tribute To Nils Lofgren DVD.

Watch "Lost a Number."


*** THE RAZZ ***


Razzmania: The Razz ruled DC's rock roost back in the day

I loved The Razz, who provided my introduction to Tommy Keene. I recall liking a DC girl who loved Tommy Keene and I would try and see them whenever I'd hit DC with my pal (and erstwhile Thee Katatonix bass player) Tom Lehr. They had a pretty big following, too, and opened for a number of national acts. I recall seeing them open for Devo at Georgetown's Gaston Hall and I saw their last-ever Baltimore gig when they opened for The Ramones at Martin's West.



Tommy Keene joined The Razz after guitarist Abaad Behram left the band; he played on the post-Behram Razz 7" records, which were released on the O'Rourke/Limp label and have never been digitized, to the best of my knowledge. Before joining Razz, Keene was in The Rage with Richard X. Heyman and future Sorrows bassist Ricky "Street" Leigh (unfortunately the only Rage recording was a live radio broadcast that remains unreleased).


The Razz live (Tommy Keene far right)

"You Can Run" b/w ""Who's Mr. Comedy?" (Reidy-Keene)


Razz - "You Can Run" b/w "Who's Mr. Comedy?" (O'Rourke/Limp, 1979)

This 1978 single features two songs credited to Reidy-Keene. Singer Michael Reidy always thought Keene's words were lame, while Tommy thought Reidy's words debased his beautiful melodies. Theirs was truly a strange alliance. As he later explained to Blurt-Online, "When I was in Razz, I was the guitar player who wrote songs and sang backup, and I was perfectly comfortable in that role. The reason why I 'went solo' in the first place was because I couldn't find anyone in the D.C. area to form a band with. I couldn't find a lead singer to make it work."

Still, Reidy was a charismatic frontman and Keene an ace guitarist-tunesmith; they were a dynamic duo while it lasted. The other Razz guitarist, Bill Craig, was no slouch either - as his work here and later with Jr. Cline & The Recliners attests. And the Razz rhythm section of Ted Niceley and Doug Tull would go on to back Tommy Keene on every record up through 1986's Run Now EP.

"Air Time" 4-song EP


Razz - "Air Time" EP (O'Rourke/Limp, 1979)

01 Marianne (Reidy-Keene)
02 Cherry Vanilla (Reidy-Behram)
03 Love Is Love (Reidy-Keene)
04 Hippy Hippy Shake (C. Romero)

Personnel:

Michael Reidy - Vocals
Ted Niceley - Bass
Bill Craig - Guitar
Tommy Keene - Guitar/Vocals
Doug Tull - Drums

Four live tunes from a 1978 University of Maryland College Park show recorded for a WWDC-DC101 radio broadcast. The other songs recorded during this 47-minute set included: "Move It," "Tired Of Trying," "Take It Back," "It Happened One Night," "I See," and"C Redux." (The show used to be available for download at megalupload.com, but the post-Napster authorities shut 'er down!) Thanks to Lightning Jukebox, you can listen to "Love Is Love" online.

Skip Gross (founder of Limp Records and owner of Yesterday and Today Records), who edited the EP, commented:

I think Airtime was one of the greatest records ever to come out of DC. I edited it. That was my entire involvement in it, aside from putting it out.

They had done a concert for DC101 live from a local venue, and I'm sure there's more songs than those four, but I have not been able to find where they might be. In any case, at some point I had access to the whole tape and took it over to Zientara's and chose those cuts and put them in--they weren't together in the concert the way they were on the record, they didn't necessarily fall together.

I thought it was a really, really strong EP, and it showed their dynamics and versatility on stage, the ability of Michael Reidy to go from a ballad to a harmony type thing to a hard rocking type thing. It also showcased Tommy Keene's "Love is Love," which at that point in time was developing into the Razz's real tour de force. It became the ending piece later on, and they would do that at the very end of a set and expand on it.

"Doo Wha Diddy"


"Best of Limp (...Rest of Limp)" (Limp Records, 1980)

The Razz recorded a test pressing of this song that was never released until it resurfaced on the 1980 Best of Limp (...Rest of Limp) compilation album (alongside tracks by Nightman, The Slickee Boys, The D. Ceats, The Nurses, Bad Brains, and Tex Rubinowitz). I'm not sure whether this is Tommy or Abaad playing guitar.

Though Razz records may be hard to find, several songs from the Air Time EP have also been uploaded to YouTube:

Razz - "You Can Run (But You Can't Hide)" from the indie rock compilation record Declaration of Independents:

Razz - "You Can Run (But You Can't Hide on YouTube)"

Razz - "Cherry Vanilla"


Razz - "Hippy Hippy Shake"


According to the the blog Camarillo Brillo ("Cool and Hard To Find Tunage"), the Razz also recorded unreleased studio demos of "Bad Intentions," "It's Like Fire," and "Say Way."

*** SUZANNE FELLINI - "Love On the Phone" ***


Suzanne Fellini (Casablanca, 1980)

After the Razz, Keene embarked on a European tour as a sideman for New Wave singer Suzanne Fellini - a one-hit wonder most infamous for her 1980 single about phone sex, "Love On the Phone" (which featured lyrics like "Its so hard when Im feeling on fire/And all I can hold is the telephone wire ...You know I want you cause you're the best/Hang on a minute I'll get undressed/Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No!") - before co-founding a band called Pieces in New York.

Fellini had one album out on Casablanca Records, 1980's self-titled Suzanne Fellini. The clip below shows a very New Wavy-looking Tommy playing guitar with Suzanne on some television show.

Watch Tommy play guitar on "Love on the Telephone."


*** PIECES ***

After touring with Suzanne Fellini in 1980, Tommy's NYC band Pieces recorded a four-song demo tape, which used to be available for download before the btjunkie site went down. The group split up when they failed to land an acceptable record deal. (I wonder if anyone still has this demo tape? Tommy?)

Pieces was the band Keene formed with Staten Island-native drummer Frankie LaRocka (Cherry Vanilla, David Johansen, Scandal, John Waite, Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi), Brooklyn-born bassist Kenny Aaronson (Rolling Stone's 1988 Bassist of the Year, who played with Stories, Dust, Rick Derringer, and with Sammy Hagar and Neal Schon in Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve), and Staten Island singer Matt Lamberti.


Frank LaRocka, 1954-2005 (photo by Ivan Kral)

In an interview with Scene Point Blank magazine, he recalled "I was playing with a girl in New York at the time [Suzanne Fellini] with a bass player named Kenny Aaronson, he knew Frank, who knew a singer named Matt [Lamberti]. We did about eight shows and were offered one record deal that was deemed too cheap. Frank was a fun guy, I was very sorry to hear that he had passed some years ago. I remember sleeping on his couch in his Staten Island apartment for many months."

According to a New Yorker Rocker obit for LaRocka, who died of the debilitating heart condition known as cardiomyopathy in May 2005, Piece's demo was featured on WNEW’s "Prisoners Of R&R" show back in the day.

*** BRUCE SPRINGSTONE ***

"Bedrock Rap/Meet the Flintstones" b/w "Take Me Out To the Ballgame"


Bruce Springstone - "Live at Bedrock" single (Clean Cuts, 1982)

In 1982 Craig Hankin and Tom Chalkley of The Reason came up with the idea of a Bruce Springsteen parody in which Chalkley-as-"The Boss" sang "Bedrock Rap/Meet the Flintstones" and "Take Me Out To the Ballgame." They recruited Tommy Keene - a huge Springsteen fan - and veteran jazz saxophonist Ron Holloway to record with them at Hit and Run studios in Rockville, and released this single (available in 7" and 12" versions on Clean Cuts Records). Bruce Springstone's parody single sold 100,000 copies, became a Dr. Demento fave (it's included on the Dr. Demento Presents The Greatest Novelty Records Of All Time LP), and led to the musicians making a video intended for MTV - before Hanna Barbara threatened to sue if MTV played it. Even The Boss himself liked it, writing Hankin a postcard that said "The record is great! I love it! Keep on rockin! Bruce Springsteen." Today Hankin and Chalkley are working on a graphic novel called If I'd Known Back Then - "a 200-page comic book about the bonds of friendship, creativity, youthful ambition and the staying power of a well-crafted novelty hit" - recounting their Springstone saga (to help their Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for this project, see If I'd Known Back Then: A Graphic Memoir).

Listen to "Bedrock Rap/Met the Flintstones."


*** THE KEENE BROTHERS ***


The Keene Brothers: "Blues and Boogie Shoes"

Alas, I don't have any of Tommy's collaborations with Guided By Voices leader Robert Pollard in which Pollard croons his words over Keene's tunes. I guess a completist should pick up Blues and Boogie Shoes (Recordhead Records, 2006) huh?

According to an interview with Blurt magazine, "The Right Time to Fly" from Tommy's In the Late Bright (Second Motion, 2009) was a Keene Brothers instrumental track that wasn't used on the album.

In 2006, Tommy toured with Robert Pollard & The Ascended Masters and there are numerous concert clips available on YouTube. The one below for "Little Lines" features some good footage of Keene playing guitar.


Related Links:
Tommy Keene official site
Tommy Keene - You Hear Me (Accelerated Decrepitude)
Razz Fanatics (Facebook group)