THE LOONS
So far, I have included two Under Appreciated Rock Bands with Mike Stax in the line-up: the Crawdaddys a few years back, and the Loons in my last post. The Tell-Tale Hearts, named after one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous stories, is the third and came along between the Crawdaddys and the Loons.
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In the mid-1990’s, Mike Stax and Eric Bacher of the Tell-Tale Hearts formed the core of and did most of the early songwriting for the Loons, who was the UARB last time.
(September 2017)
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Under Appreciated Rock Bands (UARB’s) and Under Appreciated Rock Artists (UARA’s) are hard to come by, but I came up with a fine batch this past year. The least likely UARB of them all, to my way of thinking, came along in March: Iggy Pop got his name from his first band called the Iguanas; and somehow, some way, no punk rock fan had yet prepared a Wikipedia article on this band. Also in the mix this past year were two bands featuring Mike Stax, founder and editor of one of the premier music magazines Ugly Things and one of greatest experts on 1960’s music on Earth: his current band the Loons and another from the 1980’s, the Tell-Tale Hearts. Rounding out the quartet this year are the Lazy Cowgirls, a long-time favorite punk rock band whose music is often called “outlaw rock” that put out 11 albums – not counting the 4 albums put out by frontman Pat Todd’s new band the Rankoutsiders.
(Year 8 Review)
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I think that I have now purchased all four of the albums by past UARB the Loons, one of three UARB’s that number Mike Stax among the bandmembers. While I still do not have the EP 5 x 4 by past UARB the Crawdaddys (which also included Mike Stax), I did pick up the 45 that features “There She Goes Again”. Even more surprisingly, I came across the other two albums by past UARB Crystal Mansion in some record store or other: their 1969 album Crystal Mansion and also their 1979 album Crystal Mansion that is also known as Tickets. (More recently, I did come across a copy of the Crawdaddys EP 5 x 4 on Bomp! mailorder, along with the original 7-inch Jesus Loves the Stooges – but I still don’t have a copy of the green-vinyl Kill City by Iggy Pop and James Williamson that also came out in 1977).
(Year 10 Review)
