SHE’S NOT MINE
The blog entry on the Crawdaddys is headlined: “In a Ché Underground exclusive, Ray Brandes offers the first comprehensive history of San Diego’s original retro-visionaries.” Ray Brandes was previously a member of the Mystery Machine, which contributed a mind-bogglingly great song called “She’s Not Mine” (written by Carl Rusk) to a Voxx Records garage rock band “competition” called Battle of the Garages, Part 2.
(January 2015/2)
* * *
The Mystery Machine was formed in 1982 by veterans of several other like-minded bands like the Hedgehogs, the Crawdaddys, and Manual Scan. Bandmembers included Ray Brandes (vocals), Carl Rusk (acoustic and electric guitar), Mark Zadarnowski (bass guitar), Bill Calhoun (keyboards, saxophone), and David Klowden (drums). The band stayed together only about one month, but that was long enough to create one of my long-time favorites called “She’s Not Mine” that was included on three different Bomp! Records/Voxx Records compilation albums: Battle of the Garages, Part 2, The Roots of Power Pop, and Destination: Bomp!.
(September 2017)
* * *
So far I have had some good bands and artists to talk about over the past two dozen months. They have all been bands that I love, first of all; and they have had a fair amount of recorded material to their credit. There are any number of unknown garage rock bands that I could talk about who have only recorded one or two 45’s (and it might come to that in a few years). In fact, one of my favorite power pop songs, “She’s Not Mine” – with enough musical ideas to fill an entire side of an album – is the sole recording by a band called the Mystery Machine; it was included on a compilation album in the mid-1970’s as the power pop movement was just starting to take hold. For now though, I am trying to find artists with at least a full album of work to talk about.
(Year 2 Review)
