{"id":25413,"date":"2023-06-26T05:30:12","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T09:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25413"},"modified":"2023-06-27T07:55:58","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T11:55:58","slug":"dawn-of-the-smithereens-part-1-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/26\/dawn-of-the-smithereens-part-1-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawn of the Smithereens (Part 1 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Beginning with their major-label debut Especially for You<\/i>, New Jersey rock quartet the Smithereens enjoyed widespread critical acclaim and a degree of commercial success. The band\u2019s trademark synthesis of diverse influences \u2013 beat era rock, girl group pop and heavy metal thunder a la<\/i> Black Sabbath \u2013 came together to create a distinctive, powerful and melodic sound. The band\u2019s first album Especially for You<\/i> rose to #5 on the UK indie chart; its followup, 1988\u2019s Green Thoughts<\/i> made it to the #7 spot.<\/p>\n

But as the record industry (and popular tastes) changed, the group found itself dropped by one label, signed with another. Over the course of The Smithereens\u2019 career, they went from self-released records to deals with Enigma, then Capitol, RCA, Velvel, Koch and eOne. And during a period between labels, the group recorded an album\u2019s worth of top-notch material that would languish in the vaults for nearly 30 years. Finally released in 2022, The Lost Album<\/i> shows a band without a record deal that\u2019s nonetheless writing and playing at the top of its game.<\/p>\n

With more than a dozen superb albums to their credit, the core band continues to present day. Bassist Mike Mesaros left the group in 2006 but returns on occasion; the rest of the time, longtime Smithereens fan Severo \u201cThe Thrilla\u201d Jornacion takes over on bass. Lead singer Pat DiNizio passed away in 2017; since that time, the band has enlisted longtime friends Marshall Crenshaw or Robin Wilson (Gin Blossoms) to fill the lead vocal spot. Along with live dates, The Smithereens are currently working on new material. And while the group has been together for more than 43 years, its musical beginnings extend back much farther.<\/p>\n

Both born in 1957, Dennis Diken and Jim Babjak both grew up in Carteret, New Jersey, a borough just across the Hudson River from Staten Island, New York, and \u2013 depending on traffic \u2013 less than an hour\u2019s drive from the heart of New York City. The two met and became lifelong best friends while attending high school, but Diken\u2019s interest in music had begun much earlier. \u201cWhen I was two, three years old, I started picking up my Lincoln Logs and beating on the plastic lids of coffee cans,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

Diken got his first drum kit at age 11; by summer 1971 he was in a band. \u201cIt was not a super great band,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut it threw me in the position of playing with other musicians and actually playing in front of people.\u201d He soon left that band, hoping to start one of his own. As he prepared to start high school that fall, he recalls thinking, \u201cMaybe, just maybe I could meet a guitarist who can play \u2018I Can’t Explain.\u2019\u201d That was his litmus test.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was day one of high school,\u201d Diken recalls. \u201cPeriod one. I was in the second row in the second seat. And in the first seat in the first row, there was this kid with kind of a Beatle-ish haircut.\u201d As the kid opened his looseleaf binder, Diken leaned forward and looked over his shoulder. Plastered inside the binder were color photos of The Who from Hit Parader<\/i> magazine. After a quick introduction, he discovered that this Who fan called Jim Babjak played guitar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The two started playing music together in the garage of Babjak\u2019s parents\u2019 house. They bonded over their shared love of most all things British: the Who, the Beatles, the Kinks, the Move, Small Faces, the Troggs and the Pretty Things. They learned about those bands \u2013 some of which were comparatively unknown in the U.S. \u2013 through Sire Records compilations, and fanzines like Who Put the Bomp<\/i>, Trouser Press<\/i> and Alan Betrock\u2019s Rock Marketplace<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The musical tastes of Diken and Babjak were unusual for Jersey kids of that era. \u201cThat made it hard to find other musicians who were coming from the same place,\u201d Diken says. \u201cWe were kind of in our own little bubble.\u201d But they kept looking. It was shortly after graduating high school that they added Mike Mesaros to their band.<\/p>\n

Mesaros had known Diken and Babjak since third grade; his and Babjak\u2019s families attended the same church, and they made first communion together. Mesaros took an early interest in music, too: he studied accordion and became proficient. But by the time he neared high school graduation, he couldn\u2019t help but see the fun that his friends Jim and Dennis were having playing in a band. So he decided to learn bass guitar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI taught Mike to play bass,\u201d explains Babjak. \u201cI taught him \u2018No Matter What,\u2019 \u2018I Can\u2019t Explain, \u2018We Gotta Get out of This Place\u2019 and Elvis\u2019 \u2018My Baby Left Me.\u2019 Babjak says that Mesaros headed off to college that fall, and when he returned after one semester he \u201cwas playing like a pro.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were called What Else at the time,\u201d Babjak recalls. \u201cA spoof on The Who, I guess.\u201d Playing guitar in that trio, Babjak was already interested in moving beyond a set of cover tunes. \u201cAnd when we did<\/i> play covers,\u201d he emphasizes, \u201cpeople thought they were originals: obscure songs by the Beau Brummels\u201d or Byrds deep album tracks.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beginning with their major-label debut Especially for You, New Jersey rock quartet the Smithereens enjoyed widespread critical acclaim and a degree of commercial success. The band\u2019s trademark synthesis of diverse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,62],"tags":[1986],"class_list":["post-25413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-smithereens","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25413"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25532,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25413\/revisions\/25532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}