Rittenhouse Square - The Hots - 1972
from eponymous R-Squared EP

In honor of our host Michael's new fatherhood, a tune from the grandfathers of NC music history, Rittenhouse Square.

According to legend, Mitch Easter had the vision of forming Rittenhouse Square after seeing MC5 open for Ted Nugent in Winston-Salem in 1971. Easter had already been through several bands and he, with friend Bobby Locke, went through several lineups with Rittenhouse Square before hooking up with high school classmates Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey with the intention of capturing the sound of Move. Rittenhouse Square chug like classic early 70s guitar heroes, but with sillier and poppier lyrics and singing. To be honest, none of the tracks rank among career highlights for the band members but yet the record is fascinating for what the songs tell about the times. Indeed, according to Easter the record was put out by Locke on his own after the band broke up. "We were all horrified at the time because we didn't think it turned out very well."

Somewhere someone has an actual copy of the record (failing on that score, above is a photo instead of the actual Rittenhouse Square). What does it look like? Well, the article "How North Carolina Got Its Punk Attitude" provides as comprehensive a history as exists of the band and says "Original copies of this album have an odd line drawing of a little animal silkscreened on the plain white cover, while later versions have a cartoon "R" with bell bottomed legs or just a blank cover."

Easter himself told the B.O.B. magazine: "There's like a limited edition, of about twenty, that have these cardboard sleeves that are silk-screened by hand.Actually after the record came out and I accepted that fact I made those sleeves.I realized that was going nowhere fast so I just sort of disappeared from doing that.Then the drummer went on and got those sleeves made up from this horrible publicity picture that we had taken wearing matching shirts really hideous picture - and he had these printed on those sleeves that have a hole in the middle so there's four bodies there but all our middles are missing because of the hole, so all the ones that exist have that sleeve as far as I know."

Anybody got the sleeve?

Band members:
Bobby Locke- drums
Mitch Easter - guitar
Peter Holsapple - guitar
Chris Stamey - bass

Posted by: Zach Coleman

Thanks to Zach Coleman for several great posts. We have now hit the 100 posts mark!!! If you have an idea for a post or want to write one yourself PLEASE email me. My life has just gotten a heck of a lot more hectic (see below) so I need all the help I can get.

Another reason for celebration: On April 25th at 4:55 pm my wife and I welcomed a new son William Roane Slawter into the world. Baby and mother are happy and healthy.

The Connells - Hats Off - 1985
from Black Park Records LP "Darker Days"


The Connells were the sounds of high school for me, a transition from insulated and isolated commercial radio down to the indy underground (plus one member was dating a high school classmate and we often went to go see them play around the nearby universities).

The Connells were earnest to a fault, well scrubbed and buttoned-down and fit well into a time when U2 and REM were posing a mannered challenge to the musical establishment. They were ours and seemed just as good and far more accessible.

Steady touring and album releases built them a wide if not deep following and the band achieved its biggest success in Europe - indeed "Darker Days," their debut album, was released first in the UK.
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The core of the band are the brothers Connell, David and lawyer Mike, nice guys who have kept the band alive for 22 years now. Doug MacMillan, who joined early on as vocalist, is still part of the crew, but the rest have changed.

Band members:
Michael Connell: Guitar
David Connell: Bass
Doug MacMillan: Vocals
Peele Wimberley: Drums
George Huntley: Guitar, keyboards and vocals

Posted by: Zach Coleman

The Slushpuppies - Assimilation - 1987
from the Palindrome Productions singles box, "evil i do not/to nod i live"

The Slushpuppies were another of Mac McCaughan's pre-Superchunk bands, as straight ahead as they come. He was certainly a busy boy.

Aside from the single in the Palindrome box, band release a couple other singles.

Band members:
Jonathan Newman - Drums
Mac McCaughan - Guitar, vocals
David Whisnant - Bass

The Mayflies USA - Baby's Got Her Own Ideas - 1999
from Yep Roc Records CD "summertown"

The Mayflies USA were the Great White Hope of late 1990s NC power pop. The dB's may have fallen short of world conquest because of bad timing, but it's hard to say why the Mayflies did.

Sweet, carefully constructed guitar pop melodies, great harmonies, a knack for hooks, good live shows, enough crunch to keep 'em honest... all the ingredients seemed to be in place. dB's alum Chris Stamey produced "summertown," their first full length, as well as its follow up, "Pity List." They cobbled together one rougher EP before he came on board and another album after he left.

Then they broke up and just disappeared. Hopefully it won't take them 15 years to get back together like the dB's because they will be missed.

Posted by: Zach Coleman

Antiseen - N.C. Royalty - 1986
from Chopper/Bona Fide Records LP "Honour Among Thieves", 1988

Don't mind the dirty sound. Everything about this band is dirty. Forget Nirvana, this is grunge, pure and raw.

Antiseen emerged from some back woods shack round about 1983 with a sound that didn't quite fit in North Carolina and was closer to the nastier fringes of the Subpop world around Seattle. These were self proclaimed trailer trash ready to rumble - and they often did. Common practice when I saw them was for singer Jeff Clayton to break off the top of a beer bottle on the mic stand, cut his forehead with the jagged remains, then slam the mic into the wound so that blood would ooze down and envelop his face.

Somehow he and guitarist Joe Young have managed to keep their 'Destructo Rock' going and the band is still playing and releasing albums though the rest of the line up has changed. Over the years, there have been a number of spinoff records under other names plus ones together with upstanding members of society like GG Allin. Doug Throgmorton's gone on to play with other bands including Liquid Devil

"N.C. Royalty," first put out on the band's second release, the Royalty EP was a flip-off to Christian fundamentalist political group Concerned Charlotteans, led by preacher Joe Chambers.

Band members:
Jeff Clayton - vocals
Joe Young - guitar
Doug Throgmorton - drums
Tom O'Keefe - bass

Posted by: Zach Coleman

electro-LUXE - Lined With Fur - 1994
from Madame Records 45

Another preview of things to come. Charlotte combo electro-LUXE would eventually evolve into Come on Thunderchild, who made a much bigger splash.

This may have been electro-LUXE's only release, but hard to say. I just remember an enjoyable gig where I picked up the 45 -- there's little trace left of them on the Web and the cover doesn't even say who played what, so what follows is my guess

Come on Thunderchild included three of the four electro-LUXE members, omitting Michael Glaser. John Morris current band is TyreFyre. Rainy Day Lewis leads Les Dirt Clods. Ben Towle still gigs around a bit, but is mostly cartooning. Coming up empty on Michael Glaser.

Band members:
John Morris - vocals
Randolph "Rainy Day" Lewis - guitar
Michael Glaser - drums
Ben Towle - bass

posted by Zach Coleman

Bad Checks - Johnny Bring Your Girlfriend Home - 1985
from Loretta Records EP "Graveyard Tramp"

from The Independent:
A mutant blues/punkabilly/garage rock outfit, Bad Checks was founded in 1980 by the Mann brothers, Robin and Clif. The old school rockers became one of the area's signature acts playing with about every important underground punk and alt-rock group of the time. Alternating between a laconic rumble with the despondent blues pulse of Jon Spencer and a muscle car guitar hum racing hell-bent for leather down old-fashioned rock-n-roll highways and unmarked dirt roads, the quartet sizzles like steak gristle cooking on V-8 manifold.

Bad Checks recording debut, the 1982 single "I'm Paranoid," was a pleasant enough bit of Ramone-ology. By the time of the follow "Graveyard Tramp" on their own Loretta label, the Durham band had grown to a foursome (three-fourths of which amazingly still holds together today) and developed its own compelling sound.

"Graveyard Tramp" was a masterpiece of growly menace that perfectly evokes its title and which has now been reissued on CD by Clif Mann's co-owned label Demonbeach. Somehow I've never had the chance to see them live and haven't heard any of their albums since the disappinting follow up, "Innocence." But "Graveyard Tramp" remains the supreme soundtrack of the Halloween holiday season.

Band members:
Robin Mann - guitar, backing vocals
Clif Mann - bass, percussion, backing vocals
Hunter Landen - lead vocals, percussion
Mike Griffin - drums, percussion, backing vocals

Alaska, "YeahYeahYeah (Atomic Mix)," 1995
from Hello Recording Club Selection, May 1995

What could be more North Carolina than Alaska? The band was something of a NC supergroup, led by Chris Stamey (ex-dB's) but this disc seems to be the only record of its existence.

From what I gather though, the guys in Alaska had been touring with Stamey for a while as 'Chris Stamey's Big Band' before gathering at Mitch Easter's home studio in Kernersville to record this delightful slab (one track of which appeared reworked on Stamey's recent solo album).

Stamey's one-time bandmate Easter is credited with "adding guitar textures." Bassist John Chumbris was a member of DC combo Slickee Boys, then the NC band Pinetops and now Glory Fountain. Drummer John Howie formed Two Dollar Pistols soon after this disk came out.

Hello Recording Club was a subscription CDEP service run by a member of They Might Be Giants; Eugene Chadbourne was also among the artists honored with an issue.

Band Members:
John Chumbris - bass, background vocals
John Howie - drums
Chris Stamey - guitar, vocals

By: Zach Coleman

Wwax, "Just Like" 1987
from the Palindrome Productions singles box, "evil i do not/to nod i live"

Wwax was Mac McCaughan's pre-Chunk/Superchunk combo, offering a good taste of what was to come next from Chapel Hill. The band released three or four singles; this one came in a artfully decorated box. with ones from four other bands (including another Mac-powered group).

Drummer Brian Walsby also pounded sticks for a number of other bands including Patty Duke Syndrome, Polvo, Daddy and Scared Straight, but has made his biggest mark creating covers as a comic artist.

The box, Mac's production project before founding Merge Records, haunted me for weeks from the back of the record store shelf before I buckled.

Band Members:
Brian Walsby - Drums
Mac McCaughan - Guitar
Wayne Kerr - Bass

by: Zach Coleman

Eugene Chadbourne - Nazi Punks
previously unreleased

"A seemingly endless-and endlessly eclectic-series of releases made Eugene Chadbourne one of the underground community's most well-known and well-regarded eccentrics. Chadbourne had a definite singular style, comprised of equal parts protest music, free improvisation, and avant-garde jazz, topped off with his absurd, squeaky vocals."* His topics ranged from Lee Harvey Oswald to David Crosby to the Pope and his instruments varied from the guitar, the banjo, the electric rake (which he invented and invited audience members to play), and even to a wire bird-cage (which he would play with the cage surrounding his head--see photo). He blended jazz, country, and folk and would be at times both captivating and grating, but always hypnotically baffling. Besides his solo work (and countless home-made tapes) he is also known as being the frontman for Shockabilly (an early '80's rockabilly revisionist outfit) as well as joining members of Camper Van Beethoven to form Camper Van Chadbourne (or as they were also known-Eugene Van Beethoven). During his heyday in the mid- to-late 80's, Eugene resided in Greensboro (I think he still does) and became a popular attraction on the NC music scene.

*Part in quotes is courtesy of the "All-music guide".

By Patrick Richardson

Chuck - AJB - 1986
previously unreleased

Chuck was a duo consisting of Dave Nikias and Murray Reams. Chuck was a cross between industrial noise and improv--a combination of noisy guitar and erratic percussion. Dave would use two guitars to produce "untraditional" guitar sounds while Murray on percussion would use everything from garbage can lids, Coke signs, floors, ceilings, and basically anything else he could hit to get a sound. They could best be summed up as a "mind-opening experience to delve into the use of sound as music..." (quote courtesy of "Rock N' Biscuits"). I believe they were based out of Greensboro and were around for a short period from 1986 to 1987. Their shows were usually very short in length (usually 30 minutes top) but were intense in feel and delivery (almost dramatic in a way). They never had any official releases, but instead sold "do-it-yourself" tapes at their shows.

The song is "AJB" as recorded at the Brewery in Raleigh, NC on 8-13-86.

Band Members:
Dave Nikias - Guitar
Murray Reams - Drums

by Patrick Richardson