Mazinga Recording! 12/14/10

Howdy folks,

Mazinga started recording last Tuesday with Jef Jenkins. He's got a crazy old school 4 track set up down in his Michigan basement. We tracked 5 tunes in under 3 hours. It went really well. Going back soon to add vocals and overdubs. We hope to have the jams out to the people by Feb/March on Jef's Arbco label.


^me rocking out.


^Big Tony


Al King on the drums.

Stay tuned.

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.

Ypsifest 2010 This weekend!

Howdy folks.

Ypsifest 2010 is going down this weekend at the Savoy in Ypsilanti.
My group Blue Snaggletooth will be headlining on Friday night.

Each night is $6. The doors will open at 6:00pm each night, and music will start at 8:00 (7:40 on Thursday). There will also be drink specials from 6:00 until 8:00. 18 and up are welcome.

Thursday October 14, 2010

The Muggs 1:00 ->

The Boys Themselves 12:20-12:50

Rust Country Electric 11:40-12:10

Electric Fire Babies 11:00-11:30

Ola Ray 10:20-10:50

Annie Palmer 9:40-10:10

Wrathgate 9:00-9:30

Woodman 8:20-8:50

Marc Cogman 7:40-8:10

Friday October 15, 2010

Blue Snaggletooth - 12:40->

The Satin Peaches - 12:00-12:30

Beggars - 11:20-11:50

JWPP - 10:40-11:10

Sharky and the Habit - 10:00-10:30

Buffay 9:20-9:50

Fur - 8:40-9:10

The Wolfs - 8:00-8:30

Saturday October 16, 2010

Lettercamp - 12:40->

Silverghost - 12:00-12:30

Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor - 11:20-11:50

Destroy This Place - 10:40-11:10

Red Iron Orchestra - 10:00-10:30

Marco Polio and the New Vaccines - 9:20-9:50

Err... - 8:40-9:10

Lawless Carver - 8:00-8:30

Hope to see you there!

Up next for the Tooth...

Howdy folks. You should consider coming out to the Lager house on Friday Sept 24th to see Blue Snaggletooth when we open for the Shakey Jakes and Lava Moth. It's going to be a real cool time.

Blue Snaggletooth @ the Savoy, Friday Sept. 3.

Blue Snaggletooth and 3 other cool bands will be rocking tomorrow at the Savoy in Ypsilanti.

First up will be Scissor Now featuring ex members of the Pussy Pirates and the Nothing.

Next is Suicide by Cop featuring your favorite 8 ball dynamic duo Jef and Nate blasting out hardcore jams.
...
Then Jehovah's Witness Protection Program come on strong to give you a heavy dose of their rock 'n' roll religion.

And finally Blue Snaggletooth will deliver on to you the sonic equivalent of the apocalypse.

You've been warned...

Psych Out Fest Recap with Videos

Howdy folks,

Back on July 10th I organized a show called the Psych Out Festival. It was a real cool time. Here is some cool video from the show. All the video was shot by Jonas Sliuzas. You can see more of his videos over on his youtube page.

Up first is my group Blue Snaggletooth.



Then we've got Tokyo Sexwhale.



This is Lava Moth.



And finally here is Chapstik.



There was one other group, The Wolfs, but their video hasn't been finished yet.

Big thanks to Jonas for filming the show and thanks to all the bands for playing. I hope to do this again next summer.

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!

The first annual Ann Arbor PSYCH-OUT music festival.

Hey there folks,
Are you ready to get Psyched Out?

SATURDAY JULY 10th at the BLIND PIG
Jukebox Productions presents,
The first annual Ann Arbor PSYCH-OUT music festival.

Featuring 5 of Michigan's best face melting, brain bursting musical acts,

Chapstik - The audio version of Napalm. Sonic Destruction.

Blue Snaggletooth - If wizards cast spells with guitars it would sound like this.

Lava Moth - ex 500 Ft of Pipe dudes show you the truth and the light.

Tokyo Sexwhale - Tripped out surf with a twist.

The Wolfs - two young dudes with a lot of spunk and tunes that burn.

Only $7 or $10 for folks under 21. Ages 18 and up are welcome!

Hope to see you there!

psych : also see

v. psyched, psych·ing, psyches

v.tr.

1.

a. To put into the right psychological frame of mind: The coach psyched the team before the game.

b. To excite emotionally: The children were psyched to see the circus.

2. To undermine the confidence of by psychological means; intimidate: "Depending on whose personality is stronger, one can more easily psych the other" (Harold C. Schonberg).

3.

a. To analyze, solve, or comprehend.

b. To anticipate or guess the intentions of: "Most others could never approach [his] ability ... to psyche out the opposition's thinking so consistently" (Steven Brill).

4. Informal To analyze and treat by psychoanalysis.

v.intr.

To become confused or mentally deranged.

n. psych

Building the Viper Mk II model, update.

Howdy folks. It's been a spell since I had time to blog so I thought I drop a little update on the model building. Here are some photos of the almost complete Viper Mk. II that I've been working on in my spare time.

I decided to paint the red stripes instead of using the decals. After 3 coats of gloss white, masking, and then 2 coats of red, the ship was ready to be assembled.


Here it is all pieced together. Everything fit well and looked sharp! Time for decals!


Some of the decals were a serious pain to apply. The one bellow the cockpit was tough for some reason. It was the only one that ripped on me.


After some effort I had all the decals on. Then it was time for the fun part, weathering! I started with a charcoal pencil. I haven't got much further then that yet. I just started adding streaks and blast marks. I plan on doing some ink washes soon as well as scrapes and dings. I'm dying to finish this project.




I took all these photos with my cell phone.
Hope you enjoy.

Mazinga History Lesson, Pt. II

See the cracks. Watch them spread.

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.

Metro Times posts Scott Morgan album review.

Metro times ran an excellent review of Scott Morgan's new album which is due out in record shops next week . You can order it directly from Alive records right now. You can read more about the recording of the album over here.
Stay tuned for info on the upcoming record release party which is taking place on July 9th at the Magic Bag.

Building the BSG Viper Mk II. A return to model building.

I finally realized a small goal I've been attempting to accomplish for many years. I bought a plastic model kit and I'm now in the midst of actually completing it, instead of buying a model kit and then letting it sit on a shelf for years, which is what I've done in the past. I've had a stack of them in my basement for years just waiting for the "right time" for me to start them. For a while in the 90's, I would just buy cool model kits when ever I would see them on clearance with the idea that I would get around to building them someday when I wasn't so busy with music and life settled down some. Theresa would always tease me about the little pile of model kits collecting dust in the basement. Then a few years ago, I got crazy and bought the Fine Molds Millennium Falcon model from Japan. It cost a nice chunk of change and I figured I better build the darn thing sooner then later. But at 900 or so pieces, it's kind of overwhelming. So I figured I would start with something a little less challenging for my return to model building. But instead of building one of the older kits I already own, something else caught my eye.

For my 37th birthday I went out and bought the new Moebius Battlestar Galactica Viper Mk II model kit at the Vault of Midnight.




I love both new and old BSG and I really dig the designs of the space ships featured on the show. So when I saw the Viper model I knew it would nag at the back of my mind until I bought one. I first saw the kit over at Starshipmodeler.com where they did a nice pre-release review of the model. After checking that out, I figured I could build that without to much trouble. So I went out and picked one up. Theresa was super supportive. For a birthday gift she offered to buy me the supplies I would need to get started. After a fun trip to Riders hobby shop I had the paints and brushes. All I needed was the free time to begin. Some how I've managed to find some. It didn't take long before I was on my way. Here are some of the results so far.












I've spent a lot of time on the cockpit area. It needs to be complete before I start gluing the main body together and doing the gloss white coats on that. So far it's been a very satisfying experience. I'm looking forward to finishing this kit and moving on to my stack of old kits that await! Up next after I finish the viper, I'll finish my old Millennium Falcon Cut away model that I started way back in 1998!

Meet our new dog, Coco!

My wife brought this little bundle of joy home a few months ago. We named her Coco. She is a 5 month old German Shepherd puppy.
You can learn more about her over here on my wife's blog.

MOTOR CITY COMIC CON!

I can't wait!

Non-music, political post. War is bullshit.

It's hard to care about music and band stuff when this kind of thing is going on everyday in the name of America. I wish I could stop my tax dollars from contributing to this insanity. Ever wonder why the "terrorists" hate us?
Watch this.

Go get the new Scott Morgan Record NOW!

Hey folks. You can go over to this link here and purchase the new album by Scott Morgan coming out on Alive Records.
I think you'll dig it. I played guitar on it. It was fun.
Thanks!

Mazinga histroy Lesson, Part II, 1996-97

See the cracks. Watch them spread.

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.

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.