Northern California Spotlight: Teddy and His Patches - Suzy Creamcheese/From Day to Day

Day five of our Nor Cal Battle of the Garage Bands has the flipsters spinning both sides of a 1967 single that can only be described as brilliantly depraved.

The record is Suzy Creamcheese which was comped on Pebbles Vol. 3. That's where I first heard it. Not long after I heard it on the low-fi Pebbles comp -- and had it indelibly etched into my memory -- I found the dang record in a little strip mall record store in Sacramento, CA. I recall turning that thing over in my hands time and time again trying to comprehend what I was holding. It probably cost me a buck. Maybe two. Check out the picture, it even came with what I assume is the original paper sleeve from Campi's Music Shop in San Jose. All the way from the Valley Fair Mall. Way cool to a vinyl geek like me.

At the time of my find (1984?) I didn't know much about Teddy nor any of his Patches, but time and the internets has shown the band was fronted by singer Teddy Flores. Teddy, it would seem, had a patch over one eye (the one he apparently lost to cancer as just a wee depraved singer). Suzy Creamcheese and From Day to Day were each written by the keyboard player, Dave Conway. According to an interview in 60sgaragebands.com, the remaining members were Steve Marley on drums, Steve Urbani on bass and Bernie Pearson on guitar. Here is Steve Marley as interviewed by 60sgaragebans.com:

...[the] recording was done at TIKI Studios on 17th Street in San Jose.....'Suzy Creamcheese,' was recorded live in the studio on a four track Ampex, without overdubs. The psychedelic whoops heard on the track were part of the live recording, with Teddy moving from a studio mic to a hand held PA mic that was plugged into an old Fender tape-loop echo feeding back through a PA monitor. The whole thing was recorded without a single overdub or edit...and in just three or four takes total. That record received considerable airplay in California, thanks to helpful independent radio stations and actually charted #1 in Salinas/Monterey and Santa Maria/San Luis Obispo.

I took my load of 7 inches back to the record store at which I worked in a nearby town and spun this gem for all to be subjected. Suzy Creamchee starts with a trippy intro (with a Mothers of Invention reference) which gives way to a pounding beat and a heavy organ. Soon it gives way to a swirling, echo drenched rave-up with space noises and manic drumming. And then the coolest part...it all breaks down to a slow, two chord organ riff as Teddy entices us take a trip on his mind. Then I flipped it over and, for the first time, heard the great Flip-Side, From Day to Day. Damn near as cool. Maybe cooler. I'm not sure. Discuss. Very low-fi.

The funny thing is, sometimes you hear these records and you think, "damn, those guys must have been wild! Hipper than hip." And then you see their picture. 

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

Northern California Spotlight: The Chocolate Watchband - Are You Gonna Be There/No Way Out

Back to San Jose, California for more of our Nor Cal region of the epic Battle of the Garage Bands.

The Chocolate Watchband recorded for producer Ed Cobb between '66 and '68 down in LA. The recordings don't always feature all of the band as Cobb had a penchant for bringing in studio musicians. He even went so far as to record instrumentals with not a single member of the band in it (think Expo 2000) and even vocal songs with a different singer (think Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go!).

Are You Gonna Be There was written for the band by Cobb's friend and LA songwriter, D. Bennett (who occasionally sang lead on these records as well) and was the third, and last, single under their name (they had done a 4th under the pseudonym of The Hogs). It was released on Tower Records in October of 1967.

The Flip-Side of Are You Gonna Be There is the excellent quasi-instrumental, No Way Out. That song gets an Ed Cobb credit for composer. That said, credible claims by the band suggest they were really the composers of the song. Producers aren't always so honest, you know. The pairing of the two strong songs, the quality of the production and the quality of singer David Aguilar's voice make this one of the most desired singles out there.

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

Northern California Spotlight: The Mourning Reign -- Satisfaction Guaranteed/Our Fate

[Please see the comments section below for a comment from the band's singer, Beau]

Day 2 of our Nor Cal Battle of the Garage Bands.  1966 is the single greatest year for rock-n-roll ever. 1956 was good too, but no 1966. 1977 was also a critical year, but falls far short of what went down across the globe in 1966.

Let's back up a bit. A few short years prior to '66, rock-n-roll in America was desperately treading water. The record stores had been flooded with a tsunami of over-polished crooners with faux pompadours and plaid dinner jackets who were being sold to America's precious daughters as a safe alternative to true originals like Chuck Berry. Elvis was no longer a ground breaking, dangerous rocker, he was a well quaffed sell-out actor. Gene Vincent himself had sunk to crooning and Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran were the earliest victims of rock-n-roll's toll. True, faint flickers of life could occasionally be glimpsed on the horizon. In Los Angeles Dick Dale was not very quietly creating an entirely new genre of rock-n-roll starting in '61. But it hadn't reverberated yet. In Texas, for a few brief years, starting in '62, Bobby Fuller tried to keep the Holly spirit alive. And in 1963 in Portland, Oregon, the Kingsmen recorded the single most important rock-n-roll record ever, Louie, Louie. But the record was immediately banned across the country and the Hoover-led FBI launched an investigation of obscenity and effectively put out the flame before it could spread too far...in this country. Then The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and the tsunami of schlock was itself washed out by the British Invasion, which, thankfully, restored rock-n-roll to its birthplace. Those who couldn't make the football team (and some who could) went to Sears Roebuck and bought themselves a new Silvertone Guitar and declared war on the neighborhood barber. The frustrated radio station engineer implemented dreams of becoming the next George Martin and started moonlighting as a record producer. Club owners and a host of other entrepreneurs eager to make a dollar on the biggest craze since the hula-hoop formed what would pass as local "record labels". Of course, none of these people knew what they were doing so the revolution was delayed a few months. In the meantime, flying in the slipstream of the Beatles, more aggressive Brit bands -- bands hugely influenced by Louie, Louie -- like the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones, The Who and the Kinks found an audience in the US. And then, very early in '66, the perfect storm hit. That band in San Jose had put in enough practices in dad's garage that they were now winning the battle of the bands contest. Grandma quietly slipped Dave $150 to cut a record and follow his passion. The owner of Rock-n-Rollerskate, the bestest teen night spot in all of San Jose, was ready to put some bucks down to record that band and maybe make some more money at the concession stand by selling a local record. And Ed, the frustrated audio engineer, had his recording studio all set up in the back of the local appliance store, It's A Wash. The time was now. No editors. No suits. No record company men to say who could and could not record. This was the moment. And all across the world -- in America, Australia, Holland, Sweden and countless other places -- like a brood of cicadas, the now long haired rockers crawled out of the garages adorned in chelsea boots, three button jackets, paisley vests and dark wrap around sun glasses to make their first record.

Within a year the record company executives would reassert their control and descend on towns like San Jose, California, Amsterdam, Sidney, and Stockholm and swoop up the bands deemed valuable and crush the bands that showed no utility. But in that one brief moment of 1966 -- wedged between the chaos of innocence and the unassailable rule of record companies -- millions of bands recorded their song. Some awful. Some brilliant.

Today's song is one of those brilliant songs from '66. It's by the stunningly obscure San Jose, California quintet, The Mourning Reign. The song, with a clear play to the Rolling Stones, is called Satisfaction Guaranteed. A snarly guitar riff is spurted out with an unrelenting attack. The singer, some bloke named Beau (Bo) Maggie, does his best Mick Jagger swagger: "As you wander around, you find your imagination standing upside down in the mouth of mass hallucination. You are dissatisfied with the other guys you tried. Now don't you think it's time for a change, because, you know, Satisfaction Guaranteed!" Cue the double guitar lead that no respectable music exec. would have allowed. "Listen boys, you can't be playing over each other like that. It's just noise. Nobody will buy this record if you do that." Thank goodness their was no record exec. at the mighty Link Records in San Jose.

The flip side is the Beau Maggi composed Our Fate. We get a great Rickenbacker rhythm guitar part from more Steve Canali before Johnnie Bell jumps in with the relentless scorching guitar. Craig Maggi on drums and Charlie Gardin on bass lay down a substantial bedrock for the song. 

Unlike their San Jose brethren, The Chocolate Watchband, The Count Five and the Syndicate of Sound, the Mourning Reign wouldn't get the chance to make an album. They only recorded one other single and then disappeared into nowhere. Perhaps it was into that "invisible door" or that "hole in the floor" the singer is so desperate for us to know about.

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

San Jose Suite: The Harbinger Complex - Time To Kill

Our final day of the San Jose Suite has us crossing the city line into neighboring town, Fremont, California. Cheating, I know. But we're talking about the world's shortest drive on the 880.

The Harbinger Complex were made up of Jim Hockstaff, Ron Rotarius, Robert Hoyle, Jim Redding, and Gary Clarke. The band put out two singles on local labels and two more songs on a bay area compilation called A Pot of Flowers. Today's song, A Time To Kill, which already received a link from us in an excellent Chesterfield Kings article written by Jack Hayden for this site, was on that compilation. It's a funky little song with a palpable Byrds influence.

The very understated Time To Kill, written by Hosckstaff and Hoyle, allegedly touches on some of the thoughts Hoyle experienced upon his return from Vietnam.

Enjoy our final day's salute to San Jose (and just slightly beyond) bands.

Video Diary: The Chocolate Watchband, "Sitting There, Standing"

The Chocolate Watchband perform Sitting There, Standing as seen in the 1967 movie, Riot on Sunset Strip. The video/audio sync blows, but you get the picture.