HIGH TIDE (BIG NOSES & PIZZA FACES)
Members of the Crawdaddys went on to populate many other California bands; I have already mentioned several of them. The future UARB (probably by year’s end) and another like-minded San Diego band called the Tell-Tale Hearts (named after a famous Edgar Allan Poe story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”) has numerous connections with the band. Former Crawdaddys bass guitarist Mike Stax was a founding member, as were Mystery Machine alumni Bill Calhoun and Ray Brandes (I praised and heavily borrowed from Brandes’s fine biography of the Crawdaddys in preparing this post). Another past Crawdaddy, Peter Miesner contributed guitar on two tracks on the Tell-Tale Hearts CD that I have, High Tide (Big Noses & Pizza Faces), with the name adapted from that of the first Rolling Stones retrospective album, Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) (1966).
(January 2015/2)
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The liner notes for the album that I have, High Tide (Big Noses & Pizza Faces) state: “There was never any intention to start a movement, influence local musical tastes or convert the masses – we were simply five young men who came together at the right time and place.” The Tell-Tale Hearts had a winning combination of strong musicianship – I particularly love the organ – and a raw sound that proved popular with local audiences. A tongue-in-cheek sidebar on the liner notes by drummer David Klowden says: “I don’t know why the band did as well as it did – couldn’t have been the music . . . Must have been the trousers. Yes, I think it was the trousers that endeared us to those handfuls of sweaty, alienated teenagers displaced from reality during the feverish height of Reaganism. There was even a band member (Mike [Stax]) who actually called pants ‘trousers’.”
The liner notes for High Tide (Big Noses & Pizza Faces) relate the time in 1985 that the Tell-Tale Hearts opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers (right after their first album, The Red Hot Chili Peppers came out) and the Cramps, one of their idols. “When the Cramps finally took the stage around midnight, we were absolutely blown away. The level of talent and professionalism was beyond belief – higher than we could have ever aspired to – yet they managed to lose none of their raw, powerful edges. . . . We were further treated to a backstage meeting with the group later that night, who said that we ‘looked and sounded just like the Shadows of Knight’. They truly must have understood how much that meant to us. A nicer, more down-to-earth group of people would be hard to find.”
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The retrospective album that I own by the Tell-Tale Hearts, High Tide (Big Noses & Pizza Faces) came out in 1994 on Voxx Records, collecting 6 songs from The Tell-Tale Hearts (after being remixed to recapture their original sound); 5 from The “Now” Sound of the Tell-Tale Hearts; the 1986 single mentioned above, “Promise” b/w “Too Many Lovers”; 5 demos dating from early 1984; and 3 live performances. Nine of the songs are previously unreleased. Among the demos is a particularly welcome version of “Crackin’ Up”; “Crackin’ Up” by the Wig is listed on the cover of both the Pebbles, Volume 1 LP and the Pebbles, Volume 1 CD but is not actually included on the album.
There are some great covers on the Tell-Tale Hearts CD that run the gamut of the whole Sixties scene, among them “Just in Case You’re Wondering” (originally by the Ugly Ducklings), “Me Needing You” (the Pretty Things – the band who inspired the name of Mike Stax’s magazine, Ugly Things), “I’m Gonna Make You Mine” (the Shadows of Knight), “Satisfy You” (the Seeds), the great lead-off track, “My World Is Upside Down” (the Shames), and “Cry” (the Malibus). The band’s original songs are steeped in the same Sixties brew; my favorites include “(You’re a) Dirty Liar”, “Crawling Back to Me”, “It’s Just a Matter of Time”, “One Girl”, and “Promise”. As usual though with the UARB’s, all of their music sounds great to me.
When playing L.A. clubs, the bands there often looked down on San Diego bands like the Tell-Tale Hearts; the album name comes from a dismissive comment in 1984 by Gwynne Kahn of the Pandoras: “The Tell-Tale Hearts? Oh, they’re just a bunch of ugly boys with big noses and pizza faces!”
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The Tell-Tale Hearts also toured in 1994 to promote High Tide (Big Noses & Pizza Faces). Further reunions took place in 2004 and 2007. An article written by Bart Mendoza of the Shambles for sdnews.com for the 2007 reunion says of the band: “Mixing Vox keyboard-driven rhythm and blues with fuzzed-out rock, the group’s live shows were incendiary, championing an authentic ’60s sound and taking their cues from such legendary acts as the Pretty Things and [the Dutch band] the Outsiders. While the group has been overlooked locally in recent years, their impact worldwide, particularly in Europe and Japan, continues undiminished. The band is cited regularly as an influence on today’s rockers. Numerous acts have covered the Tell-Tale Hearts’ music, including Spain’s Agentes Secretos, Australia’s Shutdown ’66, England’s Diaboliks, and Japan’s Young Pennsylvanians.”
(September 2017)
