April 2011 = Real Cool Time!

Howdy folks,

Things have been non stop crazy at the Taylor household this past month.

My wife and I now have a little baby boy.


(photo by Amanda Zee)

He is perfect! His birth went off without a hitch. His mother is recovering well and her and the baby were home after two days. It's been a magical time.

The day before the little guy was born, I was hanging out at the Stooges rehearsal for their big show honoring Ron Asheton at the Michigan Theater. I provided a guitar rig for my pal Deniz Tek, who sat in with the Stooges for part of the show.


Meeting James Williamson was really cool!

April 19th- After working all day and visiting the family at the hospital, I went to see the Stooges. It was epic, every Ann Arbor rocker's dream come true gig. The only thing that could have made it better would have been to actually have Ron there and I believe he was in a spiritual form. You should go read Jeremy Wheeler's awesome review of the show.

April 22- Friday after the show, I accomplished a major personal musical goal. After ten years of missed opportunities, I was finally able to have Deniz Tek to come into the studio and cut some lead guitar tracks on a Mazinga song.


Deinz playing my 65' Epiphone Wilshire.


(L-R, Big Tony, Deinz, Al King, Pete Bankert, Me)

We do plan on releasing it asap. As usual it comes down to money and time. When we get those two things together then the Mazinga album will be completed and released.

So that was April 2011.
Up next is May, and that means MOTOR CITY COMIC CON!
I can't wait.

Baby time, recording, and walking the dog.

Hey folks,
I haven't been blogging much lately because I've just been to busy. So I thought it was time to drop a little update on what's been going on.

First off, my wife Theresa is pregnant with our first child, Asheton Kiefer Taylor.



The little guy is due in late April and we couldn't be more excited! We've been doing a lot of nest building in preparation of his arrival. We've already got tons of baby clothes and the crib is all set up. We're going to be painting Asheton's room sometime in Jan. It's going to be blue with an ocean theme. A baby on the way means big life changes coming up soon.

On the music front, Blue Snaggletooth entered the recording studio this week at Metro 37 Studios. Kevin Sharpe was behind the mixing counsel. We did two marathon sessions on Monday and Wednesday evenings, starting at 8pm and going till around 2-3am each night. In that time we were able to complete all the basic tracks on 8 songs the first night. The majority of the overdubs were completed on the second night. The plan now is to mix down the Monday after x-mas. I'm really happy with how things have turned out so far and I can't wait to finish up the album and get it out so people can hear it.


^Matchless in the house! What a great sounding amp! Metro 37 has got that and more! I totally recommend recording there.


^Jess was rocking in style with this half stack. I wish we could afford awesome gear like this. That is part of why we went to Metro 37. Kevin had the gear and the skills to make us sound killer!


^Kevin doing what he does best.

My other group Mazinga will also be recording this month with our pal Jef Jenkins at his home studio in Ann Arbor. We've got enough songs for a full length right now. We'll see how the recordings turn out and go from there. I would love to see both bands release albums before the baby is born. So far so good on that plan.

Other then all that, my time mostly consists of working my day job and walking our dog Coco.



Having a dog has turned out to be a blessing and tons of fun. She is always happy and ready to play. Yeah she gets a little puppy crazy sometimes, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Mazinga discography for Free!

Hi friends,

How would you like to download a ton of FREE MUSIC?! Recently my band Mazinga posted up most of our 15 year discography over on bandcamp.com, and if you head over there now you can download 5 albums worth of high energy Mazinga jams FOR FREE! I would do it sooner rather then later as these albums won't remain free for long. There is all kinds of Rock 'N' Roll goodness for you to enjoy including our first 7" and our original full length album! Relive the old days or get hip to the jams you missed out on. CLICK here! Go Now!
You will thank me later.


As if all that free music wasn't enough to get you excited, Mazinga will be performing for the Ann Arbor Derby Dimes Benefit Bash on Friday Aug. 13th at the Blind Pig with a bunch of other great bands. Come out and help us launch the A2 Derby Dimes to success.



At the show we'll have copies of our EP "Open the Blast Doors" on hand, which was recently re-released on Arbco records. The EP is only $5 so make sure to bring your cheese$!


Thanks for your support!

Mazinga history lesson, Part 1, 1995-96

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.

The Bang workshop + band rehearsal space.

Hi Folks,

As some of you might already know, I work for Team Bang. That is the group that does the set up for the Bang!, the monthly mix tape dance party that has been going on for the last 8 years in Ann Arbor. It started out at the Halfway Inn then moved over to the Blind Pig where it's been packing the bar ever since. It's run by two creative masterminds, Jeremy Wheeler and Jason Gibner. I started working for them around Oct 2003 I think. Originally my brother Mike and I were brought on board to help amp up the over all Bang experience by building a light table and running overhead projectors and other light effects during the party. We also became the Bang carpenters and set designers. We started building sets to accompany the various Bang themes. For instance when we threw the Space Bang, we built a rocket ship cockpit that people could take photos in. We also began painting large backdrops and other assorted decorations to go along with whatever type of Bang was being put on. After a few years we had to rent out a storage unit to store all the Bang props and sets. Eventually after outgrowing two storage units and being in desperate need of a larger work space, we lucked into a nice warehouse space neatly tucked away in an industrial area of Ann Arbor.


My wife actually suggested the place to us. She works in real estate and had heard about a local business that was looking for tenets to rent a small warehouse space on their back lot. After taking a tour or the building, we had the space within a few weeks and we moved in by the end of that month. Part of the deal in order to make it affordable for the Bang, was that I bring in my bands to rehearse in the smaller of the two rooms that make up the space. That plan fit perfect for me since the bands were rehearsing in my basement and my wife and neighbors were getting sick of it.
When you first enter the space you encounter the office/lounge area.


On the desk to the right is the audio visual editing station where Jeremy creates parts of the videos that are played during the Bang. On the left is a nice table and chair set where we hold meetings and eat pizza.


This is a photo of the office ceiling, which is covered with Bang posters.


Here is the chalkboard that divides the room in half. As you can see we're going to be busy for the next few months.


On the other side of the chalkboard is the other half of the room which is set aside for band rehearsal space.


I hung up a couple of black lights and then brought in my vintage Third Eye Marvel black light posters and few other nice ones to decorate the band side of the room.


So far we've got City Center, Mazinga, Scott Morgan and Blue Snaggletooth all rehearsing in the space.

In the adjacent larger room is the workshop space.


This is the area where we build and store all the stuff we use to make the Bang happen. There is a bathroom and a mini fridge, fully stocked of course.


We also have a nice large garage door for easy loading & unloading. Here is what it looks like from the outside.

Yes, that is Clint Eastwood keeping an eye on things.

So last Wednesday night we started building mock ups of the decoration ideas for the upcoming Ann Arbor Film festival. The Bang crew has been hired for a second year to decorate the theater for the Festival.

First, we do some prep work before the actual work begins.


Warning! Don't climb the ladder to the loft after drinking!


There is a great loft space above the office. It's were we store big set pieces like the giant cassette tape.


My brother Mike enjoys some bread sticks. ?


Jeremy hard at work on a mock up of a hanging piece for the film fest.

Here is how it turned out.

It's going to end up being back lit somehow. We are still figuring it all out.
I'm glad we have such a nice place to work in.

So there you go. I hope you enjoyed this quick inside look at the Bang workshop.

January Rock 'N' Roll update.

Howdy folks,
Things are moving fast right now. Lots of music writing and recording going on.
Last Friday night Scott Morgan and I went down to Detroit, to Jim Diamond's studio. The band did basic tracks on 4 songs. We were all having a great time. The atmosphere at Ghetto Recorders is very laid back. Jim has some nice little guitar amps to record with. I played through an old univox.

I went for an over driven dirty amp sound, but one that would still allow me to lay back when needed. I didn't use any distortion pedals or effects. I did get to play some fun wahwah on one of the tunes. Overall the session went great. I was in a good mood until I went outside and found the window smashed out on the passenger side of my car. Luckily someone from the bar down the street heard the sound of the glass breaking and chased the thief away, so nothing was stolen. I called my insurance company and made a claim right then. While I was on the phone, Jim cleaned up some of the glass and taped a piece of plastic on the window for me. That was super cool of him. The ride back to Ann Arbor was LOUD! As soon as we hit the freeway and got up to speed, the plastic started to tear off and vibrate extremely loud. So loud in fact that Scott and I had to yell to hear each other speak. I kept telling him to just rip it down because the sound was becoming unbearable, but he refused. It was hilarious. He held the plastic over the window the whole way home. I swear I lost some hearing from the sound of the plastic shrieking. So far its ended up costing me $200 because my insurance company is fucking with me. They are about to lose a costumer. Tonight Scott and I will be returning to Detroit to record another batch of tunes. This time we're taking his car. The plan is to record for the next three days.

The rest of last weekend went better. Blue Snaggletooth had practice on Sunday. We've got two new songs we've been working on for a little while now. One of them, Jess and I wrote over a year ago, but we're just getting it finished off now. I'm still working on the lyrics to both tunes. I've been able to come up with vocal melodies over the last few practices but actual lyrics are tough. We'll be playing both songs tomorrow at the Elbow Room when we play with Ganon and the Octopus. I've heard nothing but good things about these two bands, although I have yet to see either of them play.


On Tuesday, I had Mazinga Rehearsal. We've mostly taken a little break since the Rock 'N' Roll revival show back in December. The goal is to have a new record out this summer. We've got some new tunes we've been working on for a while. Al came in last time with a great set of riffs. I added a riff for the chorus and it was sounding pretty tight. We don't have any shows booked for a while. Our next confirmed show is March 13th. We'll be rocking for the A2 Skate Park during their skate competition. We're really looking forward to that.

That's about all for now. I'll be recording and rocking for the rest of the weekend. I'll try to take some photos and post some more updates next week.

Ann Arbor Rock 'N' Roll Revival, 2009

I've got an awesome show coming up at the Blind Pig on December 18th, The Ann Arbor Rock 'N' Roll Revival for 2009. It's hosted by Stanley the Madhatter and will feature, Deniz Tek (from Radio Birdman), Scott Morgan and the IrRationals, Gorevette and Mazinga. Hiawatha Bailey (from the Cult Heroes) will also be joining Deniz and Scott during their set to perform a few Stooges songs in honor of the late Ron Asheton. DJ Jeremy Wheeler of the Bang Dance party will be spinning records inbetween bands. He also designed the amazing hand drawn limited editon poster which will be avalible for purchase at the show.
It's only $10, doors are at 9:30, Mazinga goes on at 10pm. Advanced tickets can be purchased on the Blind Pig Web site. Don't miss this show. It's going to rule.

Halloween Weekend!

Here is what all you people in Southeast Michigan should be doing this weekend.

Friday Oct 30th at the Blind Pig.
Mazinga will be performing a 20 song Misfits tribute set along with Suicide By Cop, who will be performing as Minor Threat. Should be an old school punk rock party night at the Blind Pig! Plus the ladies of the TICKLED FANCY BURLESQUE CO.!


On Saturday Oct. 31 Halloween night there is only place to be!
THE HALLOWEEN BANG! at the Blind Pig.


See you all there!

This Saturday, Robo Bang + Punk Rock Prom 2009

This Saturday you'll have at least two options for maximum party time in our little town of Ann Arbor, and if you're really up on your game then you'll take advantage of both.

First off, if you like Robots, dancing your ass off to interplanetary boogie and donating money to a good cause at the same time, then you'll want to head over to the Blind Pig for the Robo-Bang! There is sure to be some sexy cyborgs and gorgeous droids shaking their metallic bodies to outrageous jams provided by the Bang DJ's all for your audio visual enjoyment. Proceeds from the event will be donated in support of 826Michigan.

If that doesn't exactly fit your idea of a good time, and you would rather get your ears shattered by thunderous high energy Rock 'N' Roll, then just skip a few blocks over to Main St. and the Club Above the Heidelberg, where you'll find the 2009 Punk Rock Prom in full swing after 9pm. The theme for this year is "This Tragic Moment". Make sure to dress to impress! Music and entertainment will be provided by the bands: MAZINGA, Versificators, Bantha Fodder and Cock Snot (From Grand Rapids), as well as DJ's Jef Porkins and Nate Pancakes spinning punk vinyl all night. Who will be king and queen of the prom? You and your mom?

Come and find out.

I challenge you all to attend both events, since they take place within blocks of each other. I'll be at both. See you there. What the hell else are you going to do on a Saturday night around here?