It was 1988 when I went to the Trade Winds to hang out with some friends. It was a nice club, very neat and clean. I never saw any bands there, but I can imagine how that must have been. But I was a WHTG fan, so I did hear the Bongos. I liked them a lot and still do.

Richard Barone was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.

Andrea Weiss: For those who don’t know you, can you give a short history of the band?

Richard Barone: The Bongos were formed by three guys who loved music at the cusp of the 1980s, as the new decade began, and as the alternative, college rock movement was just beginning. There was no network yet for indie rock, just a handful of new bands in a few pockets around the country. Athens, Georgia, was one of the first, and The Bongos, and the music scene we helped create around our home venue of Maxwell’s, was another. Through making music videos and being signed to British label Fetish Records, we were able to tour, soon joining the B-52s on the road for their first (and our first) major U.S. tour. Signing with RCA Records gave us wider recognition here in the States and bigger tours. By the time MTV put our videos and our peers’ videos in rotation, what had started as an underground movement became practically mainstream. But, from the beginning, our roots were in indie rock and the DIY ethos.

AW: Who’s in the band?

RB: The Bongos were founded by me [Richard Barone; guitar, vocals], drummer Frank Giannini, and bassist Rob Norris. After our first album, we added James Mastro on second guitar.

AW: Who were your influences?

RB: Our influences are many, and each of us in the band has his own. For instance, the music we grew up with, like the Beatles and the Velvet Underground, David Bowie, T. Rex, Buddy Holly, Donovan -- the music that came later like Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Ramones, Patti Smith, Television -- and whatever was happening at the moment with our friends like The Feelies, the Bush Tetras, many more. The Bongos are also music fans and record collectors, so we are influenced by a lot of different artists.

AW: Could you tell us more about the concert here -- what club, the date, and so on?

RB: The Shroud of Touring: Live in 1985 was recorded during a 300-show tour in 1985, following the release of our second RCA album, Beat Hotel. The shows were sounding good, and wild, and we thought it would be a good idea to record one. Steve Scales, percussionist with the Talking Heads, had joined us on the tour, making our sound even more percussive than it already was. We had a day off on May 24, 1985, which was Memorial Day weekend, and we decided to add a show at the Trade Winds in Seabright, New Jersey, on the Jersey Shore, for the express purpose of recording a live album. We knew the audience would be psyched for the concert as Memorial Day was the unofficial start of summer. At the time, the Shore was an area of great support for The Bongos and home of alternative radio station WHTG, which presented the show. Because we had just released the Beat Hotel album, and then went directly into the studio after the tour to make our "final" album Phantom Train, Shroud was not released and stayed in the RCA vaults for forty years. The songs here have a lot of wonderful energy.

AW: Were you known for upbeat shows?

RB: The Bongos were always a highly energetic live band, and the studio albums could never replicate what we did in front of an audience. So, this album has always been the missing link in our catalog. It completes the story and shows a little more of who we are.

AW: Do you hope this album stirs up interest in the band?

RB: We're always happy when people discover The Bongos and find something they like in our music. With The Shroud of Touring, people are given the opportunity to step into a snapshot -- a moment in time -- and experience a live Bongos performance in the middle of a decade that spawned a new kind of pop culture. The Bongos were always a unique band, walking our own path -- a fine line between almost Beatlesque pop song structures and tight harmonies and the total, wild abandon of Iggy Pop and the Stooges, and this album captures us walking that tightrope, without a net, in front of an audience that was more than ready to catch us if we fell.

 The Bongos

The Shroud of Touring: Live in 1985

Jem Records

Recorded on May 24, 1985, this show sat in the vaults until now. (More of the story in my companion interview with Richard Barone).

They were great live – fun, high energy, letting it all hang out some very quirky pop that sounds like no one else, then or now. While I don’t want to go on about the good old days, I don’t hear many bands today that sound this original, even among the many, many great ones.

There’s also an innocence to this music, a coming of age type, that I also don’t hear much of now. Anyone can come of age at any age, and that’s a big reason why this band is so relevant today.

But don’t take my word for it. Get this album, put it on your media player of choice, and see what you think. You’ll have bought, at the very least, a great album, and if you do agree with me, seek them out and other bands from that scene. You’ll have blast doing so, and hear a lot of good music.

Andrea Weiss

 I’ve been listening to the Flashcubes long enough now to be considered a long-time fan, and this tribute, Make Something Happen, is testament to how much love there is for this great band. If this is your first time hearing them, dive in, and be richly rewarded.

Gary Frenay of the band was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.

Andrea Weiss: How did the project come together?

Gary Frenay: The album is really the brainchild of our friend and de facto biographer Carl Cafarelli. He’s the one responsible for getting us on Big Stir Records in the first place, and he pitched the idea to us, and to Rex and Christina at Big Stir. I really love nearly every track. But the real surprises are bands who did their own thing with one of our songs like sparkle*jets u.k. on the title track, The Verbs on “I Need Glue,” and The Sorrows on “Radio.” I honestly think many of these versions are better than our own. As a songwriter, it’s the ultimate compliment to have someone do your song.

AW: Were songs assigned to people, or could they choose their own songs?

GF: A combination, really. The project started slowly with just a few takers. We loved the results but were doubtful we could get enough people to participate. It’s one thing for other musicians to pay lip service to your band, and quite another to take the time and expense to actually record (at home or in studio) our songs. We took a three-pronged approach, with Carl, Rex and Christina, and us (the four band members) all compiling wishlists of artists to approach. Via his longtime radio show with Dana Bonn (This Is Rock & Roll Radio), Carl had many direct contacts with bands at and above our level. Rex and Christina had a roster of Big Stir artists to ask, while we reached out to many of our longtime friends and CNY stalwarts; Ed Hamill (Hamell On Trial), Tom Kenny (former Tearjerker and longtime cartoon voice of SpongeBob Squarepants), Chris Von Sneidern (legendary indie pop artist and veteran of the Flamin’ Groovies), Pete and Maura Kennedy (internationally known folk duo), and Meegan Voss (former PopTart and current leader of The Verbs with her husband drummer/producer Steve Jordan who is – oh, by the way – also the drummer now for Rolling Stones)!

AW: The Flashcubes cover themselves on it. That must have been fun for you?

GF: That was a real treat! As tracks were being assembled, Carl approached the band about doing a few new Flashcubes recordings to include in the package. While it is unconventional for the artist(s) being honored, to participate in their own tribute album, we are nothing, if not unconventional. We wrote and recorded three new songs (Paul’s “Reminisce,” my “The Sweet Spot,” and Arty’s “If These Hands”) in time to include them in the package. And Big Stir – bless them – were so psyched about our new recordings that they released each as a single, one a month throughout the summer, to promote the release of the album

AW: Would you say the band is universally loved?

GF: I don’t know about “universally loved,” but we’ve really undergone a renaissance in the 21st Century. Although we were a part of the original New Wave and Power Pop scene in the 70s when we started, we weren’t able to ever score a major label deal like so many of our contemporaries. But over the past few decades, we seem to have become bigger than we ever were in our original incarnation. With the tours of Japan (’02 and ’12), our numerous appearances at IPO (International Pop Overthrow) festivals throughout the US and, of course, and our new recordings -studio and live - it feels like we’ve found a new audience, which is amazing for a band that formed in the summer of 1977.

AW: Some of these songs take on new meanings when someone of the opposite gender sings them, which is great. Was anyone shy about doing that?

GF: No one made an issue of it, that I know of. The Kennedys changed the gender on Arty’s song, “Walking Through The Park,” but I think the other four just went with it, which is very cool!

AW: There are a couple of bands, Hamell On Trial and the Kennedy’s, that are more associated with folk. I think it’s great they're on the album.

GF: I agree. I love their tracks. And it’s inspiring to hear the different approaches some of the bands took.

AW: Other types of pop are represented here too, like garage rock. Were you surprised by its appeal?

GF: Not really. There seems to always be an undercurrent of appeal to basic rock & roll.

AW: Do you hope the band picks up new fans with this comp?

GF: Absolutely! We just keep doing what we do, and hope to find new fans along the way. Every new record is a door into potential new fans.

 The Flashcubes and Various Artists

Make Something Happen: A Tribute To The Flashcubes

Big Stir Records

The Flashcubes have been around since 1977 and were inducted into the Power Pop Hall of Fame. This  tribute emphasizes how beloved this band is.

It’s nicely punky, reminds me of the Ramones, but the covers come from all areas of rock, like garage, and sometimes outside of it, like folk.

The Big Stir roster contributes tracks, including legends like Graham Parker with “Pathetic,” and long running icons like Chris Von Sneidern with “No Promises.”

All these track are lots of fun, and whether you’re a newcomer to the band, or a long time fan like me, you will find something rewarding to get into. This comp is as good a start as any to get into this band, and I urge everyone to do so. Take a chance and you’ll wind up loving their songs, all of them, for your own personal reasons.

AndreaWeiss

 Big Stir Records never ceases to amaze with their innovative compilations, whether this one for Halloween, the wonderful Flashcubes tribute, the Generation Blue comp from last year spotlighting geek rock, or their tribute to the year 1970, We All Shine On. I thoroughly enjoy this latest one, perfect for the upcoming holiday.

Rex and Christina from Big Stir were kind enough to answer a few questions for me.

Andrea Weiss: How did the project come together?

Big Stir Records (Rex Broome & Christina Bulbenko): We’ve always been fans of Halloween, and we had noticed over the years that a lot of our artists would tend to deliver “spooky” songs that were always fresh and creative. We suspected that there would be some pretty widespread enthusiasm for this idea if we threw it out there to our roster. We’d done a sort of “proof of concept” digital collection of back catalog songs from our artists for Halloween in 2023, and it went really well. For 2025, we were looking for a way for BSR to get back to its roots as a real community of musicians, having fun collaborating, and “Various Artist” compilations are nice, but in some senses overdone. There are a lot of tribute albums, and having just done one (Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes) we wanted to explore a different kind of themed record. To be honest, we’d almost initiated a Halloween collection several times in the past, and this year, we sort of felt, it’s now or never, let’s see if this works. And it did, even better than we expected!

AW: Am I right, from the way the songs sound, that everyone was really enthusiastic?

BSR: Very much so! We know our artists pretty well, and the other thing is that they know us as artists too – The Armoires are a well-established band at this point. And in talking to them on that artist-to-artist level, we’ve found a lot of them to be interested in exploring these sorts of supernatural, witchy, or horror-humor subjects. The Corner Laughers and The Armoires have always used a lot of similar imagery, lots of ghosts and crows and autumnal vibes; Hungrytown works with “folk horror” themes a lot, and The Jack Rubies, Dolph Chaney, and The Incurables have all literally released Halloween singles with Big Stir. What’s funny is how much Splitsville, who are relatively new to our roster, were into the whole Haunted Mansion and midcentury “scary LPs for kids” culture that we, and co-producer Michael Simmons, were using as the lynchpin for the album. That was a cool bonding discovery, and they’re just a great band.

AW: Who are the Pepper’s Ghost Players?

BSR: Thanks for asking! For those who haven’t heard the album, almost every song gets an introductory vignette that’s a tribute to a scary cultural phenomenon, mostly from the ’60s or ’70s, that’s tied in to the song that’s about to play. They’re like very short radio dramas, and a lot of them are based on the ’60s sound effects record Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House on Disneyland Records. It wasn’t really planned that way, but when we were putatively mastering the album with Michael Simmons, and we planned to maybe do intros for each side of the LP at most, we sort of turned into an improv group, writing, performing, and sound-designing these things on the fly, and we found we were pretty good at keeping them short, hitting the ground with sound cues and dialogue styles that say “this bit is a riff on MacBeth, this is The Twilight Zone, this is Vincent Price, this is a ’50s monster move trailer” and wrapping it up in less than half a minute. It really makes the album both fun and coherent! So, while there are some fun guests on those bits, The Pepper’s Ghost Players are basically the two of us and Michael Simmons. Of course, along the way, we ended up writing a song, “Spread My Ashes In The Haunted Mansion,” that wasn’t really in the style of either of our bands – both of whom were already on the album anyway! – so we used the same name as we had for the little narrative interludes for the band name on that song, which was a delightful excursion for all of us.

AW: I like how it’s devilish fun, and ghoulish humor. Was that humor planned in advance or did everyone’s lyrics naturally point that way?

BSR: We thought about that a lot as all the artists sent in their songs! Our theory is that it’s kind of a zeitgeist thing. These are bleak times, and the only way to get through them is with a sense of humor about some pretty grim subjects. We imagine (and in some cases know for sure) that the artists felt the same – “Zombie Century” by Dolph Chaney and The Speed Of Sound is overtly political, while a few others like the Corner Laughers and Armoires songs celebrate “differentness.” Overall we think that in a world with so few heroes, falling back on horror stories, especially humorous ones, helps us cope. The album is fun, but it’s also a kind of investigation into why we like being scared, and how does the whole idea of horror or the supernatural relate to rock and roll, which it has since it’s folk and blues roots. The final song, which we wrote as The Pepper’s Ghost Players, is pretty explicit about our conclusions in the first verse: “When life is oppressive, depressive and bleak / It could be cathartic to let out a shriek / And seek sweet solace in a scary story / A madcap macabre memento mori.” To us, that’s what ties the whole album together.

AW: Who was everyone listening to when they wrote the songs?

BSR: The artists all provided us with song notes, so we can answer that in a lot of cases! Some of them did amazing jobs at pushing their core sounds in spooky directions (jangle pop for Librarians With Hickeys, power pop for Splitsville and Shplang and Crossword Smiles, sinister soul for Graham Parker, psych-pop for The Gold Needles, postpunk for The Jack Rubies and Lady Darkevyl). Others branched out... sparkle*jet u.k. went ’50s retro for a cover of an unreleased song by singer Susan West’s dad, which was really special. We know Hungrytown was going for a meld of Pentangle and Dead Can Dance. Blake Jones was thinking new wave and Two-Tone ska in the Madness vein. For us as The Armoires, we were looking to add a dub-influenced groove, somewhat borrowed from postpunk bands like The Slits or the Raincoats, or Jah Wobble. It just felt very “connected to the things that move beneath the surface” to us, appropriately witchy, although our vocal approach remains more akin to the differently-witchy Fleetwood Mac!

AW: There are a lot of good in-jokes on power pop and Halloween. Was that more spooky fun?

BSR: Hahaha! Most of those genre-based cracks were written by Michael Simmons, and he’s earned the right! Although the title with “hooks and harmonies” in it was made up by Rex, who writes all the press releases for Big Stir Records and gets tired of those terms being overused. It was a pretty great “writer’s room” with the three of us. Christina landed some of the best jokes on there. But yeah, it was fun projecting our friends and our musical concerns into genre stories, like Scooby-Doo or Rosemary’s Baby. Some of it is really only intelligible to people who are mutually nerdy about music and Halloween or spooky retro media, but the vibes are always there, we think.

AW: Were there any scary movies watched during the making of the album? Or horror novels?

BSR: Again, we’re lucky to have gotten song notes! And we also were at the bottleneck when another blog asked us to ask all the artists for their favorite scary film. More than one of them picked the original Wicker Man, and it’s funny that we went with the Rosemary’s Baby bit, because it’s a favorite  of Susan West (of sparkle*jets u.k.) and she ended up voice-acting the Ruth Gordon character in our parody. The biggest influence you can hear is on Rick Hromadka’s track “Stories Of Souls,” which is very much a love letter to the whole history of horror movies It should be noted that everyone was working on these songs in the middle of Spring, so the actual “let’s scare ourselves” time of year was very far off! But two bands, Shplang and Splitsville, did complementary takes on the Frankenstein story, so that tells you something.

We’d be less able to say what anyone was reading, although we know Hungrytown’s song “Footprints” was inspired by their reading about the Brazilian folkloric spirit the Curupira, and Steve Stoeckel’s “I Wanna Be A Vampire” has quite a Dickensian flair, mixed with Bram Stoker, of course! One thing that happened as we were getting deeper and deeper into the Haunted Mansion-related references is that we found out that the Splitsville guys, very much like Michael Simmons and Rex, were huge fans of the ride and even similarly philosophical about it, and Paul Krysiak of the band recommended the book Boundless Realm: Deep Explorations Inside Disney’s Haunted Mansion by Foxx Nolte, which Rex bought and read immediately. And he’s been reading books and articles on “haunted” attractions ever since. We’ve been working on this Halloween thing all year and thinking about the genre, so we’ve learned a lot and developed a lot of pet theories about “horror humor.” So it’s been interesting to have a more informed perspective as media like Wednesday rolled out, and Halloween candy started appearing in grocery stores, hahaha! Rex and his kids (who are into this stuff too) even went to one of the first days of Knott’s Scary Farm, the long-running Halloween overlay at the Knott’s Berry Farm theme park near LA, and he says it was a totally different experience this year, being so immersed in it. So while those aren’t novels, there’s been a lot of reading and deep dives into this whole vibe that have been going on as a result of this record. We’re happy to feel like we’re part of that lineage now, and living up to some of the best of it!