Paul Collins
In Another World (single)
Jem Records
The latest single from his new album Stand Back And Take A Good Look is a jangly rocker about finding a better world, on both a personal and political level. It’s one of the best songs on the album. You can shimmy around the room to it, or just sit and think about the lyrics. Either way, it’s wonderful, and one to put of repeat, as that’s how good it really is.
Andrea Weiss
I’m a bit late to the party as, while I liked Weezer, I’d never really heard their albums all the way through. So I dove in, and really liked what I heard. While my favorites on The Blue Album are “Undone – The Sweater Song” and “Say It Ain’t So,” Pinkerton, which got kicked to the curb by the press, features my two favorite Weezer songs, “El Scorcho” and “The Good Life.” It's a very good, underrated album. The Rentals’ “Friends Of P” is sweet, sincere, and fun, as is “Waiting.” That the Los Angeles Geek Rock scene combined these bands’ sound with Nirvana’s is cool. You might think so too.
S.W. Lauden, who played drums in Ridel High, one of the bands on the Generation Blue compilation, and curated and edited the accompanying oral history book, provided a window on a scene that I’m very glad to know about now. He was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.
Andrea Weiss: How did the Geek Rock scene start?
S.W. Lauden: “Geek Rock” is one of those terms that has been applied to a variety of artists over the decades, from Frank Zappa and Devo to Descendents and They Might Be Giants – but in the 90s it was most often used to describe Weezer and a slew of bands that took aesthetic and songwriting cues from their self-titled debut album (aka The Blue Album). In Los Angeles, where Weezer formed and got signed to DGC, they (along with The Rentals) inspired a whole scene of bands like Shufflepuck, Ridel High, Nerf Herder, Ozma, and many others throughout the 90s and into the early 2000s. That specific Hollywood Geek Rock scene is really the focus of Generation Blue.
AW: What did the scene get from Weezer?
S.W. Lauden: Quite a lot, actually. You have to remember that Hollywood was still experiencing a Sunset Strip/Hair Metal hangover in the early 90s, so you had a lot of talented musicians trying to figure out what was next. At the same time, funk/punk/hard rock bands like Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction were taking off from the local scene. That was also the same moment when college rock/alternative/grunge/pop punk were all breaking into the mainstream. Wild times.
Weezer combined musical elements from everything that was current at the time (quiet/loud song structure, crunchy guitars, etc.), but mixed it with a classic Beach Boys-y pop songwriting approach and a sort of metal precision. On top of that, they abandoned any classic ideas of what a rock band was supposed to look like (wearing soccer jerseys and glasses on stage, etc.) and wrote lyrics about loving KISS and playing Dungeons & Dragons. A lot of Hollywood musicians found that really freeing and gravitated toward it to make something of their own.
AW: I hear Nirvana in these bands too, which is a great combination. Were the bands listening to them as well?
S.W. Lauden: We were all listening to Nirvana back then, and Rivers Cuomo has often cited them as an inspiration for the direction Weezer took. So, Nirvana’s influence on all of the Generation Blue bands, either directly or indirectly, is pretty undeniable. That said, I always assumed that Nirvana’s quiet/loud dynamics on Nevermind (and specifically “Teen Spirit”) were at least partially inspired by Pixies. And Pixies was the band that Weezer most reminded me of when I first heard The Blue Album – Pixies meets The Beach Boys.
AW: The lyrics for a lot of the bands here deal with heartbreak and frustration. Were they outlining fictional situations or drawing from their own lives?
S.W. Lauden: I honestly have no idea, but in general I assume that most pop songs are works of fiction brought to life by some kernel of personal experience or perspective. We were all in our 20s, playing in bands, and spending most of our free time in beer-soaked rock clubs. Given those conditions, you’d have to assume that at least a few hearts got broken along the way.
AW: Supersport 2000's “Mooks” is a great song about surfing fun. Were they surfers?
S.W. Lauden: It was a long time ago, but if memory serves I think at least one of them did surf. Thematically, though, I like how that track offers a more indie reflection of Weezer’s “Surf Wax America.” On top of that, Supersport 2000 is pivotal in the 90s Hollywood scene, because they were there (at first as Magpie) when Weezer formed and started playing clubs; and most of Supersport 2000 later became Matt Sharp’s band during the Return of the Rentals/ “Friends With P.” era.
AW: “We Opened for Weezer” by Nerf Herder is a wonderful tribute. I'd read in the companion book to the comp Generation Blue that Weezer, especially Rivers, gave a lot back to the scene. Could you say something about that?
S.W. Lauden: I’m glad you pointed that out because it was one of my favorite threads that emerged as I did interviews for the Generation Blue oral history. Many of the musicians I spoke with had a story or two to tell about how members of Weezer helped them out early on.
There’s no doubt that Rivers Cuomo and Matt Sharp helped their close friends Adam Orth and Justin Fisher in Shufflepuck, introducing them to club bookers and adding them to a couple of high-profile shows. Adam Marsland gives Rivers a lot of credit for helping him conceptualize a direction for his band Cockeyed Ghost. Weezer had my band Ridel High open a handful of West Coast shows during the Pinkerton era when A&M Records was thinking about signing us, and I’m pretty sure that helped seal the deal. The Nerf Herder-Weezer connection is perfectly (and hilariously!) chronicled in “We Opened For Weezer,” and I already mentioned the Supersport 2000-Rentals connection.
Ozma is probably the band that most directly benefited from Weezer’s support. They were still teens when their guitarist handed Rivers a copy of their first album at Warped Tour. That led to them opening for their idols on two California shows, later followed by a couple of full-blown national tours. That early support gave them a platform to become the phenomenal band they are. Ozma’s entire catalog is well worth exploration.
As Rod Cervera of Supersport 2000/The Rentals says toward the end of the Generation Blue oral history: “The Weezer story is kind of a unique story for the LA music scene. It’s a small camp of people...it’s always been a pretty tight-knit thing."
AW: What do you hope people take away from the comp and book?
S.W. Lauden: If they were there or were aware of this Hollywood scene back then, I hope it brings back some great memories and fills in a few blanks. If they weren’t there and this is all new to them, I hope they enjoy these stories and music as much as we did putting it all together. It really was an incredible scene.
Various Artists
Generation Blue
Big Stir
What happens when you put Nirvana and Weezer together? You get Hollywood’s Geek Rock scene of the late 90s and early Aughts. It should’ve had more reach than it did. This was a great scene that never got its due.
I’d already heard one of the bands on this comp, Nerf Herder, with their single “Van Halen,” which is a total goof on said band, a great song and video. They’re also known for the theme music to Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Their contribution here, “We Opened For Weezer,” is sweet, funny, tough, rocking, and geeky. It’s a wonderful tribute and emblematic of the bands on this comp--nerds rocking out AKA Nerd Core--and doing a great job of it.
There’s also a song about Nirvana here, Cockeyed Ghost’s “Keep The Sun (Demo),” that quotes “Come As You Are” (“man I swear I don’t have a gun”), then, at the end, adds “and I’d kill myself if thought it’d be fun.” That bitter, angry, backhanded tribute to Kurt, is like a lot of the lyrics here, dealing with heartbreak and frustration, like Shufflepuck’s “Where The Hell Is She.” When they do have fun, like on Chopper One’s “Touch My Fuzz” it’s ironic.
For all that was going on in the 90s and aughts, it’s sad and not fair that this scene was overlooked, so here’s your chance to remedy that. But be quick about it! It’s a limited edition, with an oral history of the scene included. If you can get this comp, it’s more than worth your while, to hear what might have been for a great scene.
Andrea Weiss
I have the good fortune of a great radio station to listen to, the non-com AAA station for Philly, WXPN. It was there I heard The Beat and the original version of "Hanging On The Telephone" by The Nerves. If you’ve never heard it, it’s worth seeking out on You Tube. It’s different than what Blondie did with it, and I like it. L7 covered it in 1995. I like their version too. It complements both the original and Blondie's version.
Paul Collins, as you’ll read here, is one of the best known members of the Beat, as was Peter Case. Pauls was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.
Andrea Weiss: For any who don't know who you are, could you give a short history of your career in music? Who are your influences?
Paul Collins: My first band was The Nerves back in 1974, that's the band that created "Hanging On The Telephone." Then I had a band with Peter Case, The Breakaways. They were short-lived and finally got a record released 30 years later on Alive Records. Then I started The Beat probably my biggest band. We were on Columbia Records and managed by the late great Bill Graham. We toured all over the US and Europe and that established me pretty much worldwide. After two albums we lost our contract and from then on I was a DIY artist. I released a lot of records as Paul Collins Beat and then as Paul Collins. I also toured constantly, sometimes with a band and sometimes just with my acoustic guitar.
I lived in Spain on two different occasions, in the 80s and in the 2000's. I have been here in New York since 2008, and I have been releasing records all along, first with Alive Records in California, and my most recent record is with Jem Records, who I also released To Beat or Not To Beat in 1982. My influences are from all the great rock and roll and pop music from the late 50s and 60s. I listened to WABC and WNEW while I was growing up here in Long Island and New Jersey.
AW: I like your Americana/power pop a lot. What made you decide to change direction from your earlier work?
PC: My work is really all based on trying to write what I consider a good song. As you try to write songs for a long time you start to drift all over the stylistic map, so to speak, of all the different types of music you have grown up with. For me that’s everything from Hank Williams and Ray Charles to The Beatles and The Stones.
AW: I also like how mature your lyrics are. Do they reflect your mindset now?
PC: It's all about the song for me. Some songs that you might think reflect me now were actually written many years ago. For example, "That’s When I Think of You" is one of my earliest compositions, written in San Francisco around 1975.
AW: Is “Liverpool” a true story? Is it about the city (which is nice commentary about it) or just a state of mind?
PC: I spent three crazy days in Liverpool with my host Andy from Pink Moon Records. It's a true story about my impressions of being there in the rain and going from pub to pub every night!
AW: The anti-nostalgia of “We Can’t Go Back” is great, but is it also a political statement?
PC: Songs take on different meanings as time goes by. Originally it was about when we relocated form Spain to America in 1987. When we got to California after being gone for four years we saw how different everything had become. Then, in time, it also reflects the feeling of not being able to go back to the life we had before everything in the world changed.
AW: Do you plan to tour?
PC: No it's too arduous for me now. I will do isolated shows but no long tours.
AW: What would you tell someone just starting out in music?
PC: Practice, practice, practice and if you believe in yourself don't give up. It’s a very hard profession, you have to really love it.I have the good fortune of a great radio station to listen to, the non-com AAA station for Philly, WXPN. It was there I heard The Beat and the original version of "Hanging On The Telephone" by The Nerves. If you’ve never heard it, it’s worth seeking out on You Tube. It’s different than what Blondie did with it, and I like it. L7 covered it in 1995. I like their version too. It complements both the original and Blondie's version.
Paul Collins, as you’ll read here, is one of the best known members of the Beat, as was Peter Case. Pauls was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.
Andrea Weiss: For any who don't know who you are, could you give a short history of your career in music? Who are your influences?
Paul Collins: My first band was The Nerves back in 1974, that's the band that created "Hanging On The Telephone." Then I had a band with Peter Case, The Breakaways. They were short-lived and finally got a record released 30 years later on Alive Records. Then I started The Beat probably my biggest band. We were on Columbia Records and managed by the late great Bill Graham. We toured all over the US and Europe and that established me pretty much worldwide. After two albums we lost our contract and from then on I was a DIY artist. I released a lot of records as Paul Collins Beat and then as Paul Collins. I also toured constantly, sometimes with a band and sometimes just with my acoustic guitar.
I lived in Spain on two different occasions, in the 80s and in the 2000's. I have been here in New York since 2008, and I have been releasing records all along, first with Alive Records in California, and my most recent record is with Jem Records, who I also released To Beat or Not To Beat in 1982. My influences are from all the great rock and roll and pop music from the late 50s and 60s. I listened to WABC and WNEW while I was growing up here in Long Island and New Jersey.
AW: I like your Americana/power pop a lot. What made you decide to change direction from your earlier work?
PC: My work is really all based on trying to write what I consider a good song. As you try to write songs for a long time you start to drift all over the stylistic map, so to speak, of all the different types of music you have grown up with. For me that’s everything from Hank Williams and Ray Charles to The Beatles and The Stones.
AW: I also like how mature your lyrics are. Do they reflect your mindset now?
PC: It's all about the song for me. Some songs that you might think reflect me now were actually written many years ago. For example, "That’s When I Think of You" is one of my earliest compositions, written in San Francisco around 1975.
AW: Is “Liverpool” a true story? Is it about the city (which is nice commentary about it) or just a state of mind?
PC: I spent three crazy days in Liverpool with my host Andy from Pink Moon Records. It's a true story about my impressions of being there in the rain and going from pub to pub every night!
AW: The anti-nostalgia of “We Can’t Go Back” is great, but is it also a political statement?
PC: Songs take on different meanings as time goes by. Originally it was about when we relocated form Spain to America in 1987. When we got to California after being gone for four years we saw how different everything had become. Then, in time, it also reflects the feeling of not being able to go back to the life we had before everything in the world changed.
AW: Do you plan to tour?
PC: No it's too arduous for me now. I will do isolated shows but no long tours.
AW: What would you tell someone just starting out in music?
PC: Practice, practice, practice and if you believe in yourself don't give up. It’s a very hard profession, you have to really love it.
Paul Collins
Stand Back And Take A Good Look
Jem Records
His best known bands are the Nerves, who did the original version of “Hanging On The Telephone,” and The Beat, sometimes known as Paul Collins Beat. Both bands were great, but I kind of like this solo album a bit better, just because I like my power pop mixed in with other types of music -- impure, like it is here, with a lot of Americana and folk/rock mixed in.
It's adult, but not sedate; these songs do rock, and very well. It's also serious and sensible, but not pounding the universe. More level-headed and mature.
There’s the anti-nostalgia of “You Can’t Go Back,” written with, Steven Huff, bassist of The Beat, who also co-wrote with Paul “Another World,” about finding a better one. “Liverpool” is about a whirlwind trip there. There are also relationship songs, like the title track.
The balance between folk/rock, Americana, and power pop is very nicely done here -- light but not lightweight, and a fun listen all the way through -- from someone who’s been making music since the 1970s, and it shows in his knowledge of pop and rock in all the right ways. I suggest picking this up, sitting down with it, and soaking up the good, adult vibes.
Andrea Weiss
AM radio was where I first heard rock, as a young teen in the mid 70s, but the station I listened to played old and new songs. I remember hearing “Red Rubber Ball” and “Turn-Down Day” and really liking them. I still like both to this day, and I like the new material too.
Don and Daniel from the band were kind enough to answer a few questions for me.
Andrea Weiss: For those who don’t know you, or only know “Red Rubber Ball” or “Turn-Down Day,” could you give a short history of the band?
Don Dannemann: We originally formed as the Rhondells in Pennsylvania in 1961. In 1965 we were discovered by Nat Weiss, who told us that he was forming a management company with Beatles manager Brian Epstein. That led to us getting signed by Brian Epstein, which led to our Columbia Records contract, which led to our getting a new name from John Lennon, which led to our getting to tour with the Beatles in the summer of 1966. After a few albums, we broke up in early 1968.
In 2016, I was retired, and was sitting around watching TV with my wife Deb, and I got a call from Mike Losekamp. It was really cool to talk to Mike, I can’t remember how many years it had been since I talked to him. He tells me that he’s in a band in Columbus, OH called the Gas Pump Jockeys, and one of his bandmates has this idea that they should revive the Cyrkle. When Pat found out that Mike was a member of the Cyrkle, he actually went bananas. He didn't know it at first. So Pat had this recurring thought, “Why can’t we revive the Cyrkle?” They flew me out to Columbus, and then had it set up to meet the band at lead guitar player Don White’s house, which is where they rehearse. This is kind of funny, because it was set up like a major rock star was coming to Don White’s house. So I walk in. They were all gathered at the front, and they were all worried about, “What is he gonna do when he sees Mike?” When I saw him, I gave Mike a hug. We had dinner there, I think it was pizza. Then we went downstairs to play to see if we could make anything work. We played “Red Rubber Ball” and “Turn-Down Day.” That went very smoothly.
Pat then set up a concert where he booked a theater and held a show. No charge, just invited people, and booked a video crew, and we did a show. His booking agent said, “Yes, you can do it, but you’ve got to have a promo video.” I took all the tracks, and ended up mixing the tracks in my basement studio, which I spent a lot of time doing. We put it out as a Cyrkle live album, and that is what got us started. It wasn’t until fall of 2017 that we actually got our first real booking. That was in Lakewood, NJ. It was a last minute booking, because I think that the Lovin’ Spoonful canceled. Joe Mirrione had to scramble and figure out what he was going to do, and I remember we were shocked that we were only going to do fifteen minutes. We’re used to that now. We ended with “Red Rubber Ball” and we got a standing ovation. That was the beginning of us touring again.
AW: Who are your influences?
DD: The thing that really killed me, in 1955 I had gotten, for my birthday, a new transistor radio. Sitting on our back porch in Brooklyn, just flipping the dial, I came across Alan Freed’s show on WINS, from New York. The first song that I heard was “Story Untold” by the Nutmegs. That blew me away. I still remember going, “What is this?” You have to be coming from that time period to realize what a deal it was to hear your standard kind of music, and all of a sudden, you hear “Story Untold” by the Nutmegs, which was a typical doo-wop song. I was mesmerized by it, and listened to that show into the evening, and missed a couple of my favorite television shows, because I couldn’t get away from it. That really got my head into, “Wow, I really want to do this.” It was probably 7th or 8th grade that I started taking guitar lessons. I was really turned on by looking at Elvis holding that guitar. I thought, “How cool is that?” It was a really neat thing to hold a guitar, and be a Rocker. The whole Rock scene essentially was my influence.
AW: How did you get to record Paul Simon's “Red Rubber Ball?”
DD: Tommy Dawes was hanging out in Greenwich Village and met a guy named Barry Kornfeld, who had a publishing company with Paul Simon. Tom had also played bass with Simon & Garfunkel for a tour. Tom heard a guitar and voice demo of Paul singing “Red Rubber Ball.” Nat had asked us to look for material, and he heard it, and we said, “Okay, let’s try it.”
AW: I really like your cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy).” Why did you choose that Simon and Garfunkel song?
DD: We came into the studio one day and Simon & Garfunkel were also in there, just finishing up. Paul says, “Hey, one of the songs we’re working on for this new album we think would be perfect for you guys. Listen to it. It won’t come out from us for a while, so it’ll be your song.” They played it, everyone is bopping around, thinking it was going to be a hit. Then, at that moment, our brains froze, and we looked at each other and said, “Yeah, that’s good, but not right now.” For whatever reason, we didn’t do it. We play it now in our show, and we say, “If we had done it, it would have sounded like this.” And when we play it, you hear a big gasp from the audience, like, “Are you kidding?”
AW: How did you get involved with The Beatles, including opening for them, as recounted on “We Were There” and “We Thought We Could Fly”?
DD: We were playing at the Alibi Bar in Atlantic City, NJ in the summer of 1965. This is when Nat Weiss heard us. He was in town for a convention, and he walked into the bar and heard us play. He introduced himself, and said, “My name is Nat Weiss. I’m a matrimonial lawyer, and I’m good friends with Beatles manager Brian Epstein. We’re going to start a company in America and take on groups. Give me a call.”
After we signed with Brian, and had begun recording with Columbia, we knew that we were going to have to change the name. Brian visited us one day and hands me a business card. I looked at it, and he said, “Look at the other side.” I could barely make out what it said. “The Cyrkle.” “The Crikle?” I said. “No, the Cyrkle. I was talking to the boys,” (and when Brian referred to the Beatles, he called them ‘the boys’) “and I told them that we had this new American band and that they needed a name, and John said, ‘How about the Cyrkle?’” And we all said, “Yes, what a great idea.” I had some trouble with the mis-spelling, but I came to like it. I’m the worst memorabilia person in the world. I probably threw the card out the next day. I wish I had it now.
While we were recording the first Cyrkle album, I had a six-month enlistment with the US Coast Guard. This was a six month active duty reserve, then a total of six years inactive duty. I knew that this would be a bit of a pain in the neck, but at least continue the Cyrkle. But the six months ending was going to be too late for the Beatles tour. I was going to miss the tour, and they were in the process of trying to figure out how to replace me for the tour. Thankfully, we were in the middle of is what I refer to as Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame, where everything goes right. What happened was the US government, out of the blue, changed the six month requirement to five, and that let me out just in time for the Beatles tour.
AW: “Center of the World” mentions chat rooms and instant messages. How old is the song?
DD: In the late 1990s I decided to give chat rooms a try and ended up meeting the woman that became my wife. I wrote the song in the early 2000s, but that song really did happen to me.
AW: “Singing for Tomorrow” is also very good. How do you feel music has changed since the 60s?
Daniel Coston: (Revival producer): “Singing for Tomorrow” is a new song written and sung by Mike Losekamp, who joined the band in the fall of 1966. Popular music, or music in the Top 40, has definitely shifted its focus to hooks and rhythm, with less emphasis on melody and harmonies. That being said, there is a place for artists like the Cyrkle. People get and dance to the band’s classics, as well as their new songs. People still want to sing along, dance, and enjoy the moment.
AW: Some of the new songs are love songs for adults. Are they meant just for them or for all ages?
DC: To me, the songs speak to love of all ages. The writer’s perspectives may change as they get older, but the hope and wish for love springs eternal.
AW: Do you plan to tour?
DD: Yes! We will be touring throughout the United States this year, including an appearance at Abbey Road On The River in May. Check out the www.thecyrkle.com and our Facebook for updates, and we hope to see everyone soon.
