Photo by Doug Coombe.
Mazinga is a band based out of Ann Arbor, MI. in which I play guitar. The other members are Marc McFinn, lead vocals, Big Tony O'Farrell, Bass, and Al King on Drums. The group engages in a mash up of styles ranging from driving power pop punk anthems, to dark surfy songs with psycho, wah-wah tinged guitar tones, along with bludgeoning hard, fast pounding rock songs, with the hooks designed for complimenting high speed runs down the I-94 expressway, while looking for a way to make something better out of the bleak existence that is life in a mid west college town.
The group formed on Nov. 15th, 1995. At the time the three core members, Marc, Tony, and myself, all lived in the same house at 112 Chapin St. just off our Huron. We ran DIY shows out of the basement. Marc named the place "Scorpio McSatan's Kung Fu Lounge". The basement had a dirt floor studded with beer caps. More about the Kung Fu lounge in another post.
Originally I wasn't supposed to be in the band. Our friend & fellow housemate Rodney was supposed to play guitar. Marc asked me to teach Tony how to play bass, since that was my main instrument at the time. So Tony and I headed down into the basement and I showed him some basic stuff, and then we wrote a surf song. We showed it to Marc and he really dug it. It became our first song titled "So Incomplete". Afterward we went out for some fast food and talked about having me play guitar for the group. I guess Rodney had told them he didn't want to start a band with Tony since Tony was to inexperienced for what Rodney wanted to do. Rodney was nice enough to let me use his Guild guitar and his Fender super reverb amp. Since my other band had just broken up earlier that fall, I decided to join up and make a go at playing guitar. I was also excited about being in a band with Marc. We had grown up together. He is the person who gave me the nickname "Jukebox" way back in 1979. Anyway, I remember them telling me their idea for the name of the group on the ride back to the house. They wanted to call it Mazinga. The name comes from a Japanese cartoon about a giant ass kicking robot called Mazinger Z. This character along with a group of other Japanese giant robot toys were brought over to the US toy market in the late 70's under the banner name of the Shogun Warriors. As kids we all owned various Shogun Warriors, but one of the coolest ones was Great Mazinga.
I didn't really like the name at first. I thought it was sort of silly sounding and no one would get it. Then Marc explained to me that the comic book, pop culture geeks would get it and that they were our target audience. This was back in the day when it wasn't very cool to be a pop culture nerd. Now-a-days they have cable shows and web sites dedicated to all things geeky. We've had ten + years of comic book, sci-fi, fantasy movies and TV shows. The geek impact on the mainstream culture is very prevalent now, but back then, it wasn't nearly as hip. In fact it wasn't really hip at all. So upon our return to home, Marc rang up their prospective drummer for the group, Don Blum. He is a childhood friend of Marc and Tony. I knew him through those guys and had seen him play in a few local bands. He came over a few nights later. We ended up jamming for a long time and things clicked right away. Don is an amazing drummer and can play a wide range of styles. We would often play off each other, bringing out the best in each others musical ability. I was really musically energized because of focusing on playing guitar. I found that the instrument gave me the ability to control a lot of the dynamics of the sound and the vibe of the music. The ideas and riffs seemed to flow very easily. Tony took to the bass quickly as well and within a month we had a handful of songs. Marc's vocals sounded like a cross between early Glen Danzig's shout and early Dave Vainian's snarling croon. His lyrics were funny and direct as he would sing about things we were into like comic books and movies, or things we dealt with in our personal lives like love and loss, or the 9-5 grind. We started off writing simple songs to keep it easy and fun. Some early song titles included "Fuck You Reagan" which was our homage to 80's hardcore, and "Get ahead" which was all about being young and poor in a rich honky infested college town with no chance to break out of the social barriers that exist there. We were trying to write the type of music that we loved in our youth. Stuff like the Misfits, the Stooges and the MC5. We ended up sounding like a mix of those groups with a strong surf influence. I've always been way into surf music.
We practiced a lot. Here is a photo of a very early band practice in the basement of the Kung Fu lounge. (L-R, Big Tony, Don , Me)
I would get off of work around 5ish and drive to Don's house at Packard and Division St. and just grab him, no matter what he was doing, then drag him back home to jam. We drove our housemates nuts. At some point early on we recorded some of the songs with our pal Joe Morita. I've still got that tape somewhere around.
The band didn't play any shows for a while, even though we were throwing house shows all the time in our basement. Eventually we booked some gigs. We ended up playing two parties in one night. The first was a house show in John Griffin's basement located in heart of the student ghetto of Ann Arbor.
At John's house we opened for our favorite local punk band at the time, The Fags. They had played our first Kung-Fu lounge show and many others after that. They were sort of our house band for the Kung Fu lounge. The Fags did really well that summer, releasing a single and a live record and playing tons of shows. Unfortunately they broke up shortly after. Here is a photo of Becky Fag on bass, and Jef Fag on drums from the show. I couldn't get much closer cause it was packed.
My recollection of the night is hazy to say the least but I do remember the crowed going nuts and dancing when we played. My other bands had never had that sort of reaction before. Marc lunged into the mass of sweaty bodies packed into the tight cramped basement and things got out of control as they all pushed back and almost knocked over the whole band. I remember Nate from Wolf Eyes, Dave from Nadsat Nation, and Jessica from Jaks all up in the front having a blast. It was a fun first show. I do remember Rodney's super Reverb blew a tube on our last song. But that just added to the energy, like we rocked so hard that the amp blew!
Here is me (pre big sideburns) and Big Tony rocking out.
The second part of the night took place at a loft party in Downtown Ypsilanti, at my friend Dave's place. We quickly packed up our gear and went out to Ypsilanti where the folks were into it, although it wasn't quite as wild as the crowd at John's house.
It was a great start for our group. We felt like we really launched ourselves right out of the gate.
The rest of 1996 would see us building a steady momentum. We played several more house shows, as well as the local college radio station WCBN on their local music radio show. We did finally end up playing a show at our own house at the end of the summer for Nadsat Nation's last show. The Nadsat Nation guys were good friends of ours and a very popular local punk band at the time. The show was totally insane. Big Tony and I did the poster.
On October Friday the 13th we opened for the Cult Heroes and the Fury at the Heidelberg.
It was Mazinga's first show there. Our good friend Sean Carroll was the bartender. It was the first time that I officially met Hiawatha Bailey the charismatic lead singer for the Cult Heroes.
It almost turned out for the worst. At first he wasn't going to pay us. I had to go into the back room and confront him. He was cool as ice as he sat back with his feet on a table. He asked me why some young upstart new band should come and demand money from him. I said because we're not that young and we don't take any shit from anyone (although none of us were really "tough guys"). He laughed and said he liked my attitude and guitar style because I reminded him of the guys from the MC5, which I took as a high compliment. He paid me and then asked me to sit and have a drink with him. I' m glad I did. We ended up becoming good friends and musical collaborators and I'm glad I've got to know him.
This ends part one of the Mazinga history lesson. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for part two, 1997, when we record and release our first single, board a plane out to California for our ill fated west coast tour, and see the beginning of the ongoing war against the anti Rock 'N' Roll conspiracy brought about by legions of pretentious indie-rock fuckheads.
