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.

 The Cyrkle

Revival

Big Stir

The band’s heyday was the mid 1960s with a song written by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley (of The Seekers), “Red Rubber Ball.” It went gold in the US and hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, kept from #1 by “Paperback Writer.” They opened for the Beatles on their final US tour. Brian Epstein had discovered them, and John Lennon gave them their name.

They disbanded in 1970, and but now the surviving members of the band have put out this comeback album, and what a comeback it is! They sound like the elder statesman they are, with sweet love songs, even the break-up ones. “It’s All Right It’s Okay” is about getting old gracefully. Some songs ape the love and peace of the 60s, like “Singing for Tomorrow.”

As good as those songs are, it’s the last few that do it for me, starting with “We Were There” and “We Thought We Could Fly” telling the band’s history, the definitive version of Simon and Garfunkel’s “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” and the fine remakes of “Red Rubber Ball" and their Top 20 second hit. “Turn-Down Day.”

These songs alone are worth the price of admission, but the whole album is wonderful sunshine pop, even when the sad ones make for partly cloudy days. “Center of the World” brings the band into the 21st Century, even if it sounds like the aughts with their references to chat rooms and instant messages. It still sounds like today nevertheless, as does the rest of this fun, gentle, sweet, rocking, and great album, and with “Red Rubber Ball” a staple of oldies stations, it's like they’ve never been away either.

Andrea Weiss

 Day Dreems has been around for a while, but for me they're new. And I’m glad I found out about them, very good music indeed. Those who are into power pop will get into this.

Day was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.

Andrea Weiss: For those who don’t know you, could you give a short history of your music career?

Day Dreems: OK, sure. I’ve been recording music since the ‘90s, so this might take a minute. I started in Providence, RI with a two-songwriter band called The Hurricanes. That name was chosen in honor of Ringo’s pre-Beatles group, but our sound was really more indebted to Teenage Fanclub, R.E.M., and ‘90s indie rock like Pavement. We were young and played a lot of shows. I got to share stages with legends like The Velvet Crush, Chisel (Ted Leo), and Elliott Smith.

After the Hurricanes scattered to different cities, I formed DRB with Mason Lee, in which I once again shared songwriting duties, but also got to play a lot of drums! Mason and I both ended up migrating to Berkeley, CA, but we didn’t perform again for eight years. For most musicians, those are their prime productive years, but we spent them jamming in private with almost no recorded output. In 2006 DRB re-emerged for a couple of years, and I’ve been pretty active publicly ever since.

By 2008 I’d moved across the bay to San Francisco, and DRB had run its course. I had a new crop of songs that I wanted to perform, and an opportunity for a show, so I sent out email to a whole bunch of local musicians that I knew and invited them to join me for a whirlwind three weeks of getting a set together. Five people said yes, so we had maybe six rehearsals as a 6-piece band and did our first show as B And Not B. From 2008-2012 various lineups of B And Not B put out four releases, played a lot of local shows, and went on a West Coast tour. It would have kept going, but in 2012 I moved to Oregon, where my spouse had gotten a job.

I was desperate to continue making rock music, so I hit Craigslist right away looking for bandmates. After about 6 months of looking, I found Pete Schreiner, who had spent years playing with the Magnolia Electric Co. (an alt-country/Americana group), as well as his own more punk rock projects. My friend Stan Hall said he’d be interested in learning bass guitar, so I let him play mine, and the three of us jammed. We wanted a fourth member, so Stan recruited his friend Rachel Broach to play keyboard, and The Zags were born. We released four records between 2013 and 2019. The cast of characters shifted a bit over the years, but Stan and I were constant as the core songwriters.

The last Zags show was in early 2020, right before SARS-CoV-2 changed all of our lives. It took me a couple of years to regain my focus and energy enough to make music again. I started a monthly subscription service in 2022 under my new name, Day Dreems, and since then I’ve released 40-something demos, works-in-progress, and live tracks. The songs on this debut album were built one at a time in my basement, over the course of a year and a half. I hope you enjoy them!

AW: How did you get involved with Bradley Skaught?

DD: Bradley told me about your blog, so it’s only fair he gets a special feature in this interview, LOL. (Hi, Bradley!)

My first interaction with Bradley Skaught was actually when I responded to his classified ad (in a print weekly!) looking for bandmates for a group that would be called Belle da Gama. I had just moved to the Bay Area, and whatever he wrote in the ad made me think we’d be compatible. I think I was right about that, but he was very clear about wanting to be the sole creative director of the band, and I was more interested in finding another multi-songwriter project. So that path was not taken! Years later, when I finally returned to performing, my band’s first gig was an opening slot for the Bye Bye Blackbirds, which was Bradley’s newly formed group. My next band, B And Not B, also played shows with the BBBs, and at one point, I even joined the Blackbirds as a harmony singer for one show.

AW: Who are your influences?

DD: This is a tough question in some ways, because what constitutes an influence, really? Is it stuff that you like? Or that you heard a lot as a kid? I’m going to answer only with musicians whose work I can recall thinking about while writing my songs, or whose imprint I feel shows through pretty clearly in my musical style. There are plenty of artists I love (and that have surely influenced me in some way) that don’t fit these criteria, like Claude Debussy, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder, etc. And there are lots of newer acts that are probably influencing me in this moment, but it’s too soon for me to assess their true impact on my work. With all that said, I’ll go ahead and list some clear influences:

I mean, The Beatles is a big one, but I know that’s a really basic thing to say. How can I not acknowledge it, though? Plus The Kinks, The Zombies, etc. Besides the British Invasion, there’s Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Smokey Robinson, VU, Bowie, Harry Nilsson, T. Rex, Joni Mitchell, Elton John, Big Star, Blondie, Elvis Costello, Kirsty MacColl, The Go-Go’s, R.E.M., Nirvana, Teenage Fanclub, Liz Phair, Blur, Guided By Voices, Frank Black, Elliott Smith, The Olivia Tremor Control, The Apples in Stereo, of Montreal, Belle & Sebastian, The Minders, Ted Leo, The Fiery Furnaces, and surely lots more stuff that I’m forgetting.

AW: How did you go about making this album, and is there an overall message you want people to take from your songs?

DD: I’m not sure there’s an overall message embedded in this album, but maybe, in some ways, it’s a portrait of me. I made it all alone — songwriting, performance, recording, mixing… even album artwork (which, fittingly, includes a cartoon image of me). The songs deal with lots of different topics, but they nearly all relate to me personally, which is not my usual approach to writing songs. I think it might have worked well, though, so perhaps I’ll try it again for the next record?

AW: I like your melodies. Do they just appear, or is it a struggle to make them come alive?

DD: This is probably a deeply unsatisfying answer, but melodies are almost effortless for me. Once I’ve come up with chord changes, which is also pretty painless, the melodies just flow out of me. Lyrics are another story entirely, and it might take me weeks or even months to complete the words for a single song. Sometimes I get lucky/inspired and the words are done in an hour, but that’s definitely a rare exception.

AW: “The Bad Old Days” is both anti-nostalgia and telling the Right to go to hell, since they don’t like anyone who isn’t like them. It’s great, but is it accurate?

DD: “The Bad Old Days” is a song about fascism, which is an ideology that, among other things, promises a return to some imagined past greatness. “The Right” is a very broad label — one that I’ve heard some Europeans apply even to “moderates” in the U.S.A.’s Democratic Party! Some people who consider themselves to be on the right might still value living in a democratic, pluralist society, but there is an increasingly shameless fascist movement in the U.S.A., and those extremists have been steering the American right for at least a decade. Belief in the inherent supremacy of its favored group(s) is a core aspect of fascist ideology. Of course not all American fascists agree on the exact borders of their bigotry, but there is quite a bit of consensus among them. They have a pretty consistent commitment to white supremacy, patriarchy, Christian supremacy, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism. Any and all of those values can also be held, usually more quietly, by non-fascists, but fascists don’t bother rationalizing or hiding their ugly beliefs. Instead, those supremacist values are centered and celebrated as self-evidently virtuous, while aggression and ruthless domination are glorified as the correct paths to power. They see no problem with hypocrisy and DARVO tactics, when used in the service of fascist goals. The cruelty is the point, in a way, as it helps reinforce a social hierarchy that they want to portray as correct and natural.

AW: “F Natural” is a great push back against the hippie notion that everything is natural. What would you add to that?

DD: If you’ve ever watched a David Attenborough documentary, you know that nature can be brutal. Personally, I’m unwilling to accept avoidable pain and hardship when humans have an “unnatural” solution figured out. Medicine saves lives, and that includes things like antidepressants, reproductive interventions, and trans health care. Your body’s there for you, not anyone else, and only you can define what outcomes are best and what risks are acceptable to you. Leaving things up to “nature” is certainly a choice you can make, but there’s nothing inherently better about that choice.

I would also add that it’s not just hippies who fall for the appeal-to-nature fallacy. It’s a widespread bias, beloved by many socially conservative Christians and other non-hippies!

AW: What are your plans for the future? Is another album in the works?

DD: I’m going to keep making music for as long as I have the energy and ability. It may be another year or two until the next album, but monthly subscribers on Bandcamp (https://daydreems.bandcamp.com/fan-club) and Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/daydreems) will get to hear things as they develop!

AW: Any plans to tour?

DD: No. I am constitutionally unable to undertake a tour, but I would like to get together a local outdoor show this summer. We shall see.

AW: I’m out. You’re non-binary. What would you tell someone who is also non-binary or out and just starting out in music?

DD: When I was a kid, homophobia was rampant even in many “liberal” contexts, and transphobia was so standard that it wasn’t even legible as bigotry to most people. Kids would habitually label anything or anybody they didn’t like as “gay.” For many (most?) of today’s youth, that’s just not the way it is! In the 2020s, Americans’ acceptance of lesbian and gay people, while still not nearly universal, has never been broader. Bisexuality (the most common LGBTQ+ identity, by far) is still widely misunderstood or even disbelieved, but it’s usually invisible, since bi+ people end up being perceived as gay or straight depending on who they’re partnered with. Trans people really did reach a tipping point of acceptance in the mid-2010s, and since then have been increasingly embraced in some circles while being actively vilified in other circles. It might be simultaneously the best and worst time in American history to be trans! Nonbinary identities are still confusing to most people, even to those who see themselves as allies, but the young people tend to get it a lot better than the oldsters.

Humanity’s collective future on this planet is scary, and I don’t envy the youth in many ways, but I do wish that when I was young there had been half as much sociocultural freedom to show your whole self as there is now. The kids are here, they’re queer, and they just don’t think it’s a big deal unless you make it one. I do definitely worry about what will happen to trans people in the U.S.A. (and subsequently to other LGBTQ+ people) if the neo-fascists eventually succeed in replacing our pluralist democracy with an explicitly supremacist, nationalist, and quite possibly theocratic regime. But I think all we can do as musicians is live our best lives, speak out when we’re moved to and feel safe enough to, and maybe inspire some people to positive action along the way.

 Day Dreems

Day Dreems

Self-Released

Day Dreems has been making music for a while, but this album is my first encounter with them. It's a happy surprise--light hearted, sweet, tough, retro but not old-fashioned power pop. It's a lot of fun to listen to and very wise.

The songs romp through topics like fascism, as in “The Bad Old Days.” This song couldn’t have come at a better time. In an election year where democracy is on the line, this fight song takes a stand for the good new days of freedom justice and equality, and against the bad past of conformity, prejudice, being in the closet if you’re gay, and having to hide if you’re non-binary, which Day Dreems is.

“F Natural” takes a stand against alternative medicine, homeopathic remedies, herbal drugs, and holistic health, and asserts that the best medicine is western, not eastern, advocating for doctors, and drugs made by the drug companies. Anything else is mumbo-jumbo snake oil.

The whole album is melodic and somewhat baroque. You can hum these songs, and dance to songs about ADHD (“Brain Drain”), being introverted (“Let’s Be Lonely”), and an ode to ladybugs (“Lady Beetle”).

So if you like your power pop poppy, seriously fun, impure, and just plain good, this debut is for you. You will get a lot out of it. It will make you think. What more could you ask for?

Andrea Weiss

 The Cynz are something of a new band for me. I heard their singles last year, loved what I heard, and am glad there's more arriving this year. The first new single is “Crow Haired Boys.”

Cyndi Dawson, the lead singer, was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.

Andrea Weiss: Who’s singing lead on the song?

Cyndi Dawson: I sing the lead.

AW: Who’s in the band?

CD: Henry Seiz - lead and rhythm guitars, Dave U. Hall on bass, Mike Wretched - drums

AW: What’s it about?

CD: It reflects on my days in the clubs in NYC - mostly Danceteria and all the punks with the dyed black Mohawks and sprayed up spiky hair. So many burnt out on cocaine and musicians at night, office workers by day. Leaving the clubs in the wee hours of the morning to the brutal reality of every day life.

AW:  I wish there were more 4-on-the-floor rockers like this today. Were you influenced by anyone while writing or recording it?

CD: I’m only ever influenced by myself while writing songs, but the music is always the various influences of myself and Henry’s musical taste.

AW: Will it be on your upcoming album?

CD: Yes. It’s the opening track on our fifth release ( and our first on Jem Records) called Little Miss Lost!

 The Cynz

Crow Haired Boys (Single)

Jem Records

The Cynz are from New York, and this song is about clubbing in NYC in the 80s. It’s a great rocker like few made these days. If you remember those days in the 80s, or wish you’d been there, this song is for you. Or if you just like real rock and roll, this is for you too.

Andrea Weiss