Great Lakes Spotlight: The Turfits - Losin' One/If It's Love You Want

Day three of our Great Lakes Region of the Battle of the Garage Bands takes us to Ohio for the first time. That is where we find four Buckeye men wearing mini-skirts and frilly blouses. I don't know what more I can say about that.

The Turfits hailed from two small towns West of Cleveland, Fremont and Findlay, Ohio. The band was Whitey Gwinup, Gary Reddick, Kenny Turner and Roger Hilty. The members had been in various other bands and came together into one as The Other Ones. But, ironically, there was already another band called The Other Ones. So this other, Other Ones held a "name the band" contest at one of their shows. From that contest came the winning name of The Turfits. Okay. One has to wonder what the hell the other suggested names may have been for these hep-cats to choose The Turfits above the others? The Roadkill Kittens IV? The Pink Fluffies? The Mama's Boys?

Regardless, the curiously dressed, curiously named band recorded two songs written by Whitey Gwinup. Two songs he brought with him to the band. The A-Side is right out of garage songs 101. Losin' One has a  slow groove with a meandering Farfisa organ weaving it's way through the song. I particularly love the subtle fuzz guitar at 1:05 leading into the organ lead. The song was credited to the whole band per legal requirement. As is so often the case, the label misspelled a name. In this case, Gwinup's. The Flip-Side, If It's Love You Want, is a much more upbeat number. Again. Garage 101. Great back-up vocals, heavy organ, sweet guitar lead.

The record was recorded in Cleveland and released on Capitol Records in October of 1967.

As is the case with all things Ohio, we took a lot of info and pics from the great website, Buckeye Beat. They were given the pics from Whitey Gwinup and Wayne Van Doren.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Pied Pipers - Hey Joe

From Youngstown, Ohio, we have The Pied Pipers with their 1966 release of Hey Joe on the not-so-infamous WAM Records. As with most things Ohio garage rock, the good people at Buckeye Beat have done a nice write up on The Pied Pipers. Check it out if you can.

The Pied Pipers hailed from Cardinal Mooney High School and were founded by Les Moro, Pete Pompura, Lenny Krispinsky, and singer Dennis Sesonsky. Not sure why he gets "vocal" billing where the writer credits should go on this disc. The Pied Pipers' version, like the Hazards' version yesterday, clearly owes a lot to The Leaves seminal third recording of the number.

Check out the pics of Sesonsky on stage. Seems to be of a different time and place than anyone else in those pictures. All photos were lifted from the Buckeye Beat site. It would seem these photos were taken in '68 with a slightly modified line-up.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Empty Streets: I'm Not Going To Worry About You/You Can Make It

It's not everyday that we feature a song with bongos, glockenspiel and backtracking, but you get them all from today's Side A, I'm Not Going To Worry About You by Salem, Ohio's The Empty Streets. Yes, this is our second Ohio artist in one week! The band consisted of John Vail on guitar and vocals, Larry Siddle (on ?) Mark Riffle on bass, Mike Riffle on keyboards (and glockenspiel!) and Ian Robinson on skins.

They recorded in the attic of an Ohio garage in June of 1967 and then mixed and pressed the songs in Pennsylvania where I'm Not Going To Worry About You got some vocal and lead overdubbing and the flip, You Can Make It, remained as recorded in the attic.  Both sides are penned by band member John Vail and display a keen pop sensibility for which I have no ready comparison. They are in their own universe. Sit back and enjoy!

All information furnished by the reliable Buckeye Beat which chronicles '60s music out of the buckeye state. I'd love to get a picture of this band. Anyone?

See you on the Flip-Side!