The end of 1996 was a productive time for Mazinga. We ended up playing a bunch of shows and house parties. We also started playing a lot at the Green Room in Ypsilanti. We played a huge show there in November with Daddy Longhead and the Plumbobs. Bassest Jeff Pinkus from the Butthole Surfers also played in Daddy Longhead and it was way cool to hang out with him.
1997 Promo shot taken behind the Green Room.
In late December I moved out of the Kung Fu lounge. The place had really started to fall apart by that time and I had to bail. Bills weren't getting paid, no one was cleaning, and I could see where things were headed and I wanted no part of it. I ended up moving to Ypsilanti the last week of December 96' and staying with a friend of my Mother's, who was kind enough to let me live in her basement. I ended up living there for the next year. Since I was living in Ypsi and broke, I entered a period of relative solitude which gave me time to practice playing guitar for many hours. I also acquired a wah pedal around this time, which I still use to this day. It became an integral part of the Mazinga sound.
In February we almost broke up due to the guys at the Kung Fu lounge getting an eviction notice and everyone wanting to go off in different directions. Instead we set about recording our first record with Chris Goosman at his home studio on February 15th. The reason was, we had two big supporters in brothers Eric and Stefan Peterson. They had recently come into some money and decided they wanted to start a record label called Reanimater Records and have Mazinga be one of their first releases. That was enough to keep the band together. I had been taking an audio recording class at Washtenaw Community College and Chris Goosman was the instructor. He had also worked with our pals in Nadsat Nation. So I asked him if he would like to record our band. It also just so happened that I had missed (skipped) a bunch of class and this recording project would count toward my grade. It worked out really well. We recorded a ton of songs. Four of which were quickly pressed up and became our first 7".
Here are the 4 different color covers from what would be known as the Legacy 7". The record came with a full color pin up illustration and a comic book both featuring Big Tony's artwork. Only 500 were pressed.
Tony and Marc continued to live at the Kung Fu lounge until April. Then everyone was thrown out and we lost our rehearsal space and Mazinga Head Quarters. Our good friend Dave Moreno who played with the group #6 and the Prisoners let us rent practice space at his loft apartment for $75 a month. We practiced there for a while and did some recording there as well with #6's drummer Ray.
In June we had our record release party at the Green Room.
The show took place the same night that the Red Wings won their first Stanley Cup since 1955. I remember the place cleared out while we were playing and everyone ran across the street to TC's speakeasy and catch the last few minutes of the game. Then thankfully everyone came back and watched us finish our set. It was a great night.
For the rest of the summer we took it a little easy. Some friends of ours took over the old Kung Fu Lounge and started having shows again. We ended up playing there with one of the bands we had booked the previous year when we ran the shows. The group was Divisia, a hardcore group from L.A. with a female lead vocalist. They were on a big tour and had just appeared on the cover of Maximum Rock N Roll that month. The show was packed and totally wild. People really got into it. Later on after the show CJ, Divisa's bass player, said he really dug Mazinga and that he would try to set up a tour with us on the west coast. That sounded awesome to me, but I figured he was just trying to be cool and I didn't expect to much out of it. He did end up calling me though and we began plans to go out to California in the late fall.
Mazinga at the Green Room, 1997
Me at the Kunge Fu Lounge, summer 1997.
We played a bunch of local gigs around A2 and Ypsi that fall, but we couldn't seem to break into the insulated Detroit scene. Not that we tried to much. There seemed like a lot going on around our own town and we were all poor so we never traveled very far. That may have ended up hurting us down the line.
After waiting to hear back from CJ about touring he finally called and said he had it all set up. We booked our plane tickets. I had to borrow money from Don to buy a ticket. I remember counting pennies out just trying to scrap up whatever money I could so I could eat while I was out there. We were set to fly out on Nov. 28 and come back Dec 10th. CJ said he had lined up a good handful of paying gigs and that everything was good to go. We trusted the guy since we had hooked him up twice when they came to our town. Little did we know what kind of adventure lay ahead for us.
Stay tuned for Part III. The Cali tour fiasco...
All photos by Stefan Peterson. All Artwork by Big Tony.
