Rare MC5 photos from West Park Ann Arbor + More!

Hey fellow rockers,
Have I got a treat for you today. Check out these rare photos of the MC5 rocking out in West Park. My good friend Sean Carroll hooked me up with these pics. The story behind these photos is sort of strange. Back in the late 70's a friend of Sean's had to split town in hurry and gave Sean some stuff to hold onto for safe keeping. Unfortunately (or fortunately for us) his friend never returned for his stuff. Among the items was a roll of film simply dated May 1969. It ended up in a storage box at Sean's place for 40 years until one day after some spring cleaning he rediscovered the film roll and decided to see what was on there and had it developed. To his surprise the film contained photos of an MC5 performance at West Park in Ann Arbor from May 1969. Sean was gracious enough to pass some prints on to me, so now we can all enjoy!

Up first is a shot of (future) Stooges sax player
Steve Mackay performing with opening group Carnal Kitchen.

The MC5 take the stage!

Rob Tyner and Fred "Sonic" Smith

Wayne Kramer

The photo above of Rob Tyner is really interesting because one can see a teenage Deniz Tek in the audience wearing dark aviator sunglasses. I showed this photo to Deniz and he confirmed that this is him in the crowd.

Fred "Sonic" Smith

Wayne Kramer

Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson

These next MC5 photos I purchased off of ebay a while back. Not sure who the photographer is but I believe these are from a show in Cleveland in 1968.

Finally here are some photos from the Rob Tyner Memorial Concert that took place Feb. 22, 1992. This was the last time that the group played together with Fred Smith. Photos by Brian (?)

Stay alive with the MC5!

-Chris

Radio Birdman on tour July 2007.

Thought I would post some photos from these two shows. Radio Birdman did a US tour in the summer of 2007. My buddy Sean Carroll and I went to Cleveland on July 7th to see them at the Beachland Ballroom with Easy Action opening the show. Powertrane opened for RB the next night at the Blind Pig. The trip to Cleveland was well worth it. All photos by Sean Carroll.

Here is Easy Action at the Beach Land Ballroom ripping shit up like they do.

Harold (EA, guitar) and I after their performance.

Then came Radio Birdman, doing what they do best.

Rob Younger and Chris Masuak

Chris Masuak

So at one point something happened in the audiance and Chris got really pissed off and was going to smash some guy in the face with his guitar. I love the look and Deniz Tek's face. 

Luckily no actual violence went down.

Deniz Tek does damage with his guitar.

It was a fantastic show. 

The next night promised to be even better!

 I designed this poster for the event with some help from Big Tony.

 Hanging out before the show.

Karen and Nikki Corvette excited about the new Radio Birdman 7".

Powertrane opened the show.

(L-R) Chris Taylor, Dave Knepp, Robert Gillespie, Scott Morgan.

Radio Birdman put forth an inspired performance for the Ann Arbor show.

Deniz Tek, Rob Younger, Chirs Masuak

Jim Dickson -Bass, Russell Hopkinson -drums, Deniz Tek -guitar. 

Radio Birdman was on fire during this show. The twin guitar attack was intense! I'm so glad to have witnessed this show!

-Chris

Summer's gone...

I know, I haven't been here in a long while. Being a new dad with an active social life will do that.
Here is what I've been up to all summer.

 I also finally completed this project. You can now buy the Blue Snaggletooth album Dimension Thule on blue vinyl with an awesome black light silk screened cover. Big thanks to Jeremy and Jef.

It took a lot of work and effort and couldn't have happened with out Arbco Records and my friends.

I still need to post a link so folks can order the vinyl. If you just want to buy the tracks go over here
The next Blue Snaggletooth show is Friday Oct 14th as a part of Ypsi Fest 2011, taking place at Woodruff's. You should go. The event will feature tons of great local bands. It runs Oct 12-15th.

I'm going to try to blog here more often, so stay tuned.
-Box

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.

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!