{"id":25414,"date":"2023-06-27T05:30:19","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T09:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25414"},"modified":"2023-06-28T07:56:36","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T11:56:36","slug":"dawn-of-the-smithereens-part-2-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/27\/dawn-of-the-smithereens-part-2-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawn of the Smithereens (Part 2 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"But even playing covers, the three musicians quickly developed a musical character all their own, defined by Diken\u2019s assertive yet tasteful drumming, Babjak\u2019s powerful and melodic guitar, and Mike Mesaros\u2019 thunderous bass. Diken notes that the band\u2019s influences extended well beyond the Dave Clark Five and beat era groups. \u201cWe listened a lot to The Stranglers,\u201d he says. \u201cMike loved JJ Burnel\u2019s bass playing. The Stranglers informed our attitudes and how we played more than people might think.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the late \u201870s, they were playing bars and clubs in and around New Jersey. Babjak recalls a regular Thursday gig at a place called The Stone Pony. \u201cWe were paid $25 for the entire band; my bar tab alone was more than that!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGraduation was \u201875, and it took us a few years to get anywhere,\u201d Diken says. Almost all of the pieces were in place. \u201cWe had a sound, and we were looking for a singer,\u201d Babjak says. The band went through a few lead vocalists, but none was quite right. In 1978, they took out classified ads in The Village Voice<\/i> and The Aquarian<\/i>.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Diken was reading those ad sections himself, looking for additional band opportunities. He spied an ad in The Aquarian<\/i> that caught his attention: \u201cSeeking drummer to play in a band covering The Who, The Jam, Buddy Holly, Devo, Elvis Costello, Beatles.\u201d He called the number, and singer-guitarist Pat DiNizio answered the phone.<\/p>\n

Diken ended up joining that cover band for a short while; when that ended, it led to some studio sessions \u2013 his first-ever \u2013 recording some DiNizio originals. Pat played everything but drums on those tracks, so at one point Diken made a suggestion. \u201cI’ve got these two other friends who would be really good for this music,\u201d he told DiNizio. Soon thereafter, the songs were re-recorded with what would become the classic lineup of the Smithereens. \u201cOur first gig was March of 1980,\u201d Diken says.<\/p>\n

One night soon after, while the band was onstage in Greenwich Village, Babjak\u2019s car was stolen. When he received the insurance money on his claim, he used the funds to open a record store in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He soon became friends with the owner of a nearby bar, the Court Tavern. \u201cHe started giving us weekend gigs,\u201d Babjak says. The band also landed a regular gig at another bar, Kenny\u2019s Castaways in Greenwich Village. \u201cThose were our stomping grounds,\u201d he says. \u201cWe played three sets a night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Smithereens recorded their debut EP, 1980\u2019s Girls About Town<\/i> at Chelsea, a 24-track studio in New York City. A sort of mini-concept record, the four-song seven-inch featured three DiNizio originals (all with titles beginning with \u201cGirl\u201d) plus a cover of Brian Wilson\u2019s Beach Boys classic, \u201cGirl Don\u2019t Tell Me.\u201d Self-released in October 1980 on the band\u2019s own D-Tone Records, Girls About Town<\/i> is among the rarest of all Smithereens records.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The songwriting credits for most Smithereens originals would read \u201cPat DiNizio,\u201d but the reality is much more nuanced. \u201cIt was a collective effort,\u201d Babjak says. \u201cPat would come in with a skeletal demo, and then we would do our thing. I came up with all my solos and a lot of the riffs, and Mike came up with wonderful bass lines and countermelodies.\u201d (Starting in the 1990s, Smithereens songwriting credits reflected that collaborative approach.)<\/p>\n

The Smithereens became an in-demand opening act, booking shows with The Ventures, Robert Gordon and Blue Angel, a band fronted by future star Cyndi Lauper. \u201cIn \u201982 or \u201883 we opened for The Searchers at The Bitter End in New York,\u201d Diken recalls. \u201cWe tried to get opening slots,\u201d Babjak says. \u201cAnd those were pretty big for the early days before we were signed.\u201d For more than a year, The Smithereens worked as the backing band for Otis Blackwell, the hit songwriter for Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Del Shannon. \u201cYou can’t help but learn and be enriched by the presence of these people that have had so much experience, talent and success,\u201d Diken says.<\/p>\n

The group also met and started opening for Marshall Crenshaw. \u201cWe thought he was one of the best songwriters around,\u201d Diken says. \u201cTo actually open for him was an eye opener, because he was a step ahead of where we were. He was where we wanted<\/i> to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October 1982 the group began work on its second EP. This time they would record at one of New York City\u2019s most hallowed studios, The Record Plant. \u201cJohn Lennon\u2019s Walls and Bridges<\/i>, Mountain\u2019s Climbing!<\/i>, early Raspberries and [albums by] Bruce Springsteen were all cut there,\u201d Diken says. The band had forged a relationship with engineer Jim Ball (noted on the sleeve of the Beauty and Sadness<\/i> EP only as \u201cJAB\u201d), who recorded and mixed the EP\u2019s four songs. And sitting in the producer\u2019s chair at The Record Plant was Alan Betrock, who had moved on from the influential New York Rocker<\/i> to focus on studio work.<\/p>\n

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

Continued from Part One… But even playing covers, the three musicians quickly developed a musical character all their own, defined by Diken\u2019s assertive yet tasteful drumming, Babjak\u2019s powerful and melodic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25424,"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-25414","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\/25414","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=25414"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25534,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25414\/revisions\/25534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}