{"id":20157,"date":"2020-12-30T05:30:58","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T10:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20157"},"modified":"2020-12-29T14:20:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T19:20:18","slug":"always-comes-back-415-records-and-the-sf-new-wave-scene-part-3-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/30\/always-comes-back-415-records-and-the-sf-new-wave-scene-part-3-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Always Comes Back: 415 Records and the SF New Wave Scene (Part 3 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"The Uptones<\/b>
\nSka was relatively unknown in the United States when The Uptones got their start. Eric Din \u2013 who still leads a version of The Uptones today \u2013 recalls that he and a bunch of high school friends formed the group in 1981 to play the kind of music made by UK groups like the Specials, Madness and the English Beat. \u201cOne of the key flash points for us was the movie Dance Craze<\/i>,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt was basically a bunch of concert footage of the English two-tone bands.\u201d But by the time Din saw that film, the ska boom in England was nearly over.<\/p>\n

The nine members of The Uptones were into a lot of different styles of music, which added all sort of flavors to their sound. \u201cSome of the guys \u2013 especially the horn players \u2013 were coming from more of a jazz background,\u201d Din says. \u201cBut we just agreed on a lot of things musically. So without really having to write down the ground rules, we knew what they were.\u201d<\/p>\n

And even though The Uptones were inspired by British ska bands, they sounded different somehow. \u201cWhen you try<\/i> and sound like something,\u201d Din observes, \u201cyou don\u2019t.\u201d He says that his group had one especially significant characteristic that set them apart: \u201cWe played really fast. Our tempos were amplified by our experience and our energy.\u201d And that energy was infectious, translating into a wildly dancing crowd.<\/p>\n

The Uptones grew their audience over time, but Din says that shows were packed from the very start. \u201cFirst of all, there were nine of us,\u201d he recalls with a chuckle. \u201cNine high school people with friends is not going to be an empty room.\u201d High energy music coupled with the young band\u2019s mod-based fashion sense was a recipe for success.<\/p>\n

The two-tone bands\u2019 message of love and unity was built into The Uptones\u2019 approach. The band was even well-received playing underground shows for hardcore punk audiences. \u201cOur crew would come in dressed mod, and other people were dressed punk,\u201d Din says. \u201cAnd it was not acrimonious; it wasn\u2019t a gang fighting mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Booked by Bill Graham, The Uptones opened shows for the English Beat, General Public, UB40, Steel Pulse and other like-minded touring acts. But they also opened for Billy Idol at the Oakland Coliseum. \u201cWe did okay,\u201d Din says. \u201cBut we were used to playing nightclub stages. That was the shortest half hour in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Din doesn\u2019t think that The Uptones\u2019 local success led to a raft of new ska bands. \u201cBut we had some impact,\u201d he allows. \u201cI did notice that some of the pop bands started working some reggae or ska stuff into their material.\u201d Citing the example of a group that was considered at the time to be one of the biggest bands on the planet, Din observes that \u201cThe Police had a really big part\u201d in expanding pop music’s scope.\u00a0 \u201cAll of a sudden, it was cool for rock bands to play something like reggae.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howie Klein had interviewed the young band on his radio show, and Din says that\u2019s where the conversation about doing a record for 415 began. \u201cBut by the time we actually delivered a record to him, it was really the second lineup of the band,\u201d he says. That record \u2013 the 1984 K.U.S.A. <\/i>EP \u2013 forms the basis of Liberation Hall\u2019s new Get Out of My Way<\/i>. The CD adds several previously unreleased tracks documenting the sound and energy of the original lineup. Those demo recordings \u201cturned out to be some of the more definitive tracks of what the group really was,\u201d says Din.<\/p>\n

\"\"SVT<\/b>
\nBassist Jack Casady had been playing with his best friend, guitarist Jorma Kaukonen since both were in high school. They hit the big time in 1965 with Jefferson Airplane, and went full-time with their side project, Hot Tuna, in 1972. But as the \u201870s neared an end, they decided it was time to take a break from each other, so Hot Tuna went on hiatus.<\/p>\n

But Casady still wanted to play. \u201cI called up a friend of mine from San Francisco \u2013 a fairly famous lawyer named Brian Rohan \u2013 who took care of a lot of bands,\u201d Casady says. \u201cI asked him if he knew of any players, and he gave me a cassette tape of Brian Marnell playing with a band.\u201d Ten years Casady\u2019s junior, Marnell was a singer, guitarist and songwriter of great talent. \u201cI liked his attitude and style right away,\u201d Casady says. Marnell\u2019s music called for a more basic style of bass playing than Casady\u2019s work in Hot Tuna, and that appealed to the bassist.<\/p>\n

He got in touch with Marnell, and the two decided to start a new band. And while the group \u2013 also featuring drummer Bill Gibson and Hot Tuna keyboardist Nick Buck \u2013 booked some of its early dates as the Jack Casady Band, the group\u2019s plan wasn\u2019t to trade on his name. \u201cWe slogged our way through many of the clubs and on tour,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was always pretty rough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The music wasn\u2019t rough, though. While sporting a razor-sharp feel, Marnell\u2019s original songs like \u201cAlways Comes Back\u201d (included on the new Still Disturbing the Peace<\/i> compilation and as the title track of the new SVT collection) showcased a strongly melodic, power pop character.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cBrian had a really unique and powerful guitar sound,\u201d Casady says. \u201cI would\u2019ve liked to see Brian develop as an older man \u2013 with his thoughts and sense of lyrics developing into a more mature form \u2013 but that was not meant to be.\u201d Sadly, Marnell died prematurely in 1983. By that point SVT had released a single (\u201cHeart of Stone\u201d) and an EP on 415 Records, and gone on to make a 1981 album, No Regrets<\/i>. Liberation Hall\u2019s definitive Always Comes Back<\/i> includes all of that material plus a handful of other tracks.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the key participation of Jack Casady, unknowingly or not SVT provided a bridge between rock\u2019s old guard and the newer, streamlined sounds of new wave. While SVT never broke out nationally, the later success of Red Rockers \u2013 perhaps the most commercially successful band to come out of 415 Records \u2013 demonstrated that the melodic values of \u201860s rock need not be abandoned in the quest to make compelling rock music for a subsequent generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just had a sense we were good because we really wanted<\/i> to be good,\u201d Casady says. \u201cI remember Brian just being so devastated when things didn\u2019t to a fulfillment that he envisioned. After all, I\u2019d been in a very successful, two very successful bands, why couldn\u2019t it happen again?\u201d And although he went on to reunite with Kaukonen in Hot Tuna \u2013 a collaboration that continues to this day \u2013 Casady admits some disappointment at SVT\u2019s failure to gain more success than it did. \u201cAfter it was all over and stopped,\u201d he says., \u201cI was bewildered and chagrined by the fact that we couldn\u2019t get any farther than we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

415 Records: The Columbia Era<\/b>
\nAs 415 Records found more and more success, major labels came around with offers to distribute their releases and\/or buy them out. After a number of conversations with industry execs \u2013 many of whom fit into the worst stereotypes of the era \u2013 Klein signed a deal with giant Columbia Records.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to sign with them,\u201d Klein says today. But longtime friend Pearlman \u2013 an industry veteran himself \u2013 told him that 415 Records would never get a better offer. Klein laughs as he recalls his thinking. \u201cI said, \u2018Well, these guys look like the worst label of all. And if I\u2019m going to do this thing, why do it with someone who\u2019s semi-good? Why not do it with the absolute worst, the most corporate, the most uninterested-in-bands?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Klein\u2019s experience with Columbia\/CBS bore out his pessimism. \u201cThey didn\u2019t give a shit about anybody,\u201d he says. \u201cThey would make all these promises, all these plans about a record that was coming out. We would put marketing plans together and then they\u2019d say, \u2018Oh, god! We forgot. We\u2019ll get you on the next one.\u2019 These bands put their whole lives into writing these songs; they\u2019re going to be janitors if this things doesn\u2019t happen for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

415 Records\u2019 Columbia era did nonetheless see some success for a number of bands, including Translator, Romeo Void and Wire Train (all from San Francisco) and New Orleans-based Red Rockers. But Knab sold his share of 415 in 1985, and by \u201887 Klein joined Seymour Stein\u2019s Sire Records. By that time, Sire \u2013 a label that had shepherded punk and new wave acts like the Ramones and Talking Heads to success \u2013 had its own distribution deal with Warner Music Group. In 1989 Klein was named General Manager at Reprise Records in Los Angeles; Pearlman bought 415 Records and changed its name.<\/p>\n

40 Years On, Still Disturbing the Peace<\/b>
\nMuch of the pre-Columbia releases on 415 Records went out of print years ago. But recently, archival label Liberation Hall launched a campaign to reissue music from the San Francisco label\u2019s earliest days. Headed by former Rhino Records executive Arny Schorr, Liberation Hall focuses on rescuing worthy music from obscurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause everyone involved with Liberation Hall is an ex-Rhino,\u201d Schorr says, \u201cthat ethos of honoring artists from the past continues with what we\u2019re doing now.\u201d Beyond the 415 Records stable, other acts getting the reissue treatment include the Blasters, Phil Ochs and San Francisco\u2019s own Flamin\u2019 Groovies.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of what I enjoy most about this project is working with the artists,\u201d Schorr says. He admires \u201ctheir enthusiasm to put their music back in the hands of old fans, and exposing them to new fans.\u201d When possible, he includes bonus material on the expanded reissues. Acknowledging that the details sometimes pose a challenge, he says, \u201cmotivating them to find elements and to understand our marketing plan and time constraints was a challenge. But getting letters and phone calls thanking us for putting these out made it all worthwhile.\u201d Schorr hopes to release more music from other 415 Records artists.<\/p>\n

The music showcased on the 415 Records reissues and compilations captures a specific moment in time, a period when the San Francisco punk and new wave scene was wide open. It had yet to be co-opted and watered down by major label involvement. \u201cThere was no real [genre] definition at the time,\u201d Klein says. \u201cPeople were still trying to figure out what\u2019s punk, what\u2019s new wave. At the time, people were defining Tom Petty as punk rock!\u201d<\/p>\n

And the new reissues document music made at a time when it seemed that anything was possible. The recordings capture the spirit and energy of venues like the Mabuhay Gardens in 1980. \u201cit didn\u2019t really matter who was playing,\u201d Klein says. \u201cIt was just a scene.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two\u2026 The Uptones Ska was relatively unknown in the United States when The Uptones got their start. Eric Din \u2013 who still leads a version of The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,50,62],"tags":[4390,4429,4397,4395,4398,4394,4396],"class_list":["post-20157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-wave","category-rawk","tag-415-records","tag-howie-klein","tag-mutants","tag-pop-o-pies","tag-readymades","tag-svt","tag-uptones","cat-41-id","cat-50-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20157"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20217,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20157\/revisions\/20217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}