A La Carte
A La Carte is my all time favorite rock band. Sandy and I used to see them and Van Halen a bunch in the 70's - Van Halen had the better show, but A La Carte were by far the better band. Real professional, killer songs, and they had quite a devout following for a local act. There were just three of them:

Kevin Kreis on guitar, chicken top haircut (his girlfriend at the time wore the same cut, they looked like twins walking into clubs), played a Les Paul, and sang in low growl. He was the most solid and most professional guitarist on the scene, and wrote classic songs instead of just cool riffs.

Brian (Tannehill) O’Brian on drums who was scary tight, and used to paint eyes on his eyelids for show so it’d look like his eyes were always open when he played. He was Sandy West of The Runaway’s drum teacher, and we thought it was cool when he was there setting up her kit for her when we played with them at The Whiskey.

Craig Miller on bass, very solid, kind of looked like Frankie Marino of Mahogany Rush with the stache’ and long hair. Great singer too...

A La Carte

Finally meeting your idol. Keevo with yours truly, 02/06. Kevin plays better than ever, btw!

had basically the worst timing in history. Their peak was the late 70’s, when their kind of blues-based rock was being ignored by the record labels, and labels were instead signing new wave bands like The Knack and The Scooters. By the time of ZZ Top’s comeback in the mid-80’s, A La Carte were gone. This would have been the perfect time for them, but as everyone knows, timing is everything.

Kevin is now a solo blues player and also produces and runs a small record label. I’ve written him numerous times hoping to get some A La Carte songs from him, he’s always polite, but I suspect he thinks I’m a stalker. The song below I actually got from a guy in England. It’s not my favorite number, but you can get an idea of just how solid they were.

MP3: » Old Number 7
MP3: » It's Pink On The Inside (1991 Reunion Rehearsal!)
MP3: » Leave The Backdoor Open (from obscure 'Rock Climbers' CD - M4A format. If it won't open, save to your hard drive and open in iTunes!)
Web Link: » www.myspace.com/alacarterocks

Smile
I used to take little groups up to The Starwood when Smile played. What stood out about them is the positive vibe that came from their crowd. Their fans loved them, more so than I saw with any other band. They had a helium-voiced singer in Scott Waller, a great writer in Tommy Girvin (whose been in Eddie Money’s band now for years) and the great Jimmy Volpe on drums. If I could have traded my spot in The Mechanics to be in Smile, I would have jumped. I liked them that much.

The following song I was lucky enough to get from another fan off the Internet. This was my favorite ballad (I still know it note-for-note), and has a seriously pretty chorus. I still remember people in the crowd glowing as this one played. Ah, the good old days...

MP3: » Sailor
Web Links: » Used Bin (Tribute) » Used Bin - New Scott Waller Interview!! » The Scott Waller Video Library
» Scott Waller's Website, run by the lovely Melissa! » Tommy Girvin's Website

Eulogy
Eulogy were local stars when every other local kid was still figuring out riffs off his Bowie records. They arrived at the tail end of the glam scene, and still had a great fashion sense. They looked cool, and they dressed cool. They could also play rings around most bands with record contracts.

(At the time) Eulogy was Myles Crawley on vocals (a Scot who went to my school), Rusty Anderson on guitar (more on Rusty later), Dirk Van Tatenhove on bass, and Ross Holly on drums, later replaced by Rod Mitchell, then John Nyman, and later replaced by a rotating host of drummers. Myles had a cool chicken top cut, a vibrant personality, and it was fun to visit him when he worked at Whittier Plaza Music where he’d sneak you off to play you their latest demos. I took a couple of guitar lessons from Rusty (we’d end up raving about guitar players, and I wouldn’t learn anything), and I also took Dirk’s music class at Lowell’s alternative school. There, after the class project of turning in an original song, unbeknownst to us, Eulogy record them, and Dirk handed back tapes to everybody of their songs performed by Eulogy. What I would give for that tape today.

My favorite Eulogy memory is when they played at La Habra High, and, during their closer, Bowie’s ‘Moonage Daydream’, invited the audience up on stage to groove around with them. Scott and I were high as kites, and were having all kinds of fun seeing what it was like to be on stage with the great Eulogy.

In ten years of searching, I’ve found zilch as far as recordings (would love to hear, ”Society Brats” again...) Below is a video clip of when Rusty played a freebie in Fullerton this year. He hasn’t aged a bit (damn him :-) Rusty’s done session work with about everybody (an Amazon search will pull up artists like Mick Jagger, Elton John and Susanna Hoffs. Rusty also played the signature parts in ”Livin’ La Vida Loca” and the New Radicals ”You Get What You Give.) He’s been with Paul McCartney for a few years now, and as I understand it, had to turn down a tour with Mick Jagger to do so. Imagine, telling a Stone ‘no’ so you can go play with a Beatle. Truly amazing.

Web Link: » Rusty Anderson's Home » Dirk Van's Home (Huge Eulogy Photo Collection!) » Rod Mitchell's MySpace
» Link to interview in punker magazine Flipside (Mr. Bali Hai refers to them as 'Pompous Glam Weiners!')

The Dogs
The Dogs were the hardest rocking band we ever saw. Formed in 1969, they traveled around a lot, living in Detroit (their home), then New York, then here in 1975 when we were lucky enough to see them whenever they played. They still have a big cult following (Jeff Dahl and Keith Morris are huge fans), and they’ve recently reformed and released a CD.

The attached song was sent to me by Loren, their guitar player, after they did a reunion show a couple of years back. They’re pretty rusty on it, but you can still hear awesome the power they’ve got.

MP3: » You Look Like a Girl
Web Link: » Interview Site » The Dogs YouTube Page

The VIPs
The Mechanics opened for the VIP’s in San Francisco in April, 1979. They were a short-lived band with two ex-Nuns, Jennifer Miro on vocals, and their bass player who’d converted over to guitar. On looks alone, they didn’t match up. Jennifer has that low key, sexy Marlene Dietrich thing, and the guitarist wore a bowtie, a collegiate sweater, and had a buzz cut like a 50’s schoolboy. Then they kicked into ‘Helter Skelter’ and I just about lost it. Opie had the best guitar sound (Flying V through a Marshall, like your’s truly) I’d ever heard, and Jennifer could belt. This was nothing like the crassness of the Nuns. They absolutely rocked.

After doing Internet searches, all I’ve come up is they weren’t together very long, and released one 45, which I’ll post here if I ever get my paws on it.

The Strand
When I was sixteen I thought Fred Taccone was god. Scott, Sandy and me would see The Strand play locally when we were learning our chops, and Fred was their front man. He didn’t have the typical rock star look. He (and the band) wore short-on-top cuts with ducktails in the back (called a mullet nowadays, then known locally as a Strand cut), looked very Italian (like the relatives on my Mom’s side), played a fairly rare Ricky 4000 bass, and had this look of total confidence when he played. I think I still puff my chest out a bit when I play, and that goes back to seeing Fred. I’ve seen in print that The Mechanics were the first good band out of Fullerton, but this is wrong. The Strand were like four years before us, and they were great.

They were the first local band I knew of that played New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and Iggy covers. I was never that into their guitar player Tommy Autera (had an offbeat, Andy Summers style, great player but not my cup of tea), but they had a great drummer in John Scalzo who could whack and looked intense when he played.

Below is an unreleased demo. Download and crank it up.

MP3: » All I Ever Want To Do
Web Link: » Fred Taccone, now builds stylish amps for the likes of Aerosmith!

Xciter / The Boyz
The first time I saw George Lynch (later of Dokken & Lynch Mob) play was when his band The Boyz opened for Van Halen at the Golden West Ballroom in 1976 (also the first time I saw Van Halen.) He and Eddie had similar styles, both were doing stuff no one had seen before, and I still truly believe if George was in a decent band that got signed first, he would have had all the buzz that Eddie did. George’s bands were always so-so (not every band is lucky enough to find a David Lee Roth), but he was always amazing himself. He also had the coolest guitar moves alive, the way he'd swivel and pivot around in perfect time to the song. Just too cool.

The only time I ever felt frustrated with our fans/friends was at shows where Xciter opened for us. I’d be excited to be on the same bill with George, but also stressing out that I’d have to follow him. Our crowd would do the polite clapping thing for Xciter, then pump it up when we came on, and I’d be thinking, ”Did you not notice that George just handed my ass to me?” :-) You can buy the attached track off the finally released Xciter CD through George’s website. Again, they were O.K., but George was (and still is) absolutely awesome.

MP3: » It's Alive
Web Link: » Home of George Lynch