B5Erik

In 1974 three musicians from Queens got together, wrote, rehearsed, and recorded a short album's worth of songs. The band went their separate ways before they could play many (any?) live gigs, and before they could go after that elusive record deal.

In 2006 by chance the guitar player of the band ran across a mint condition reel to reel tape deck and bought it. When he got home he plugged it in and pulled the first reel to reel tape he could find out of his closet to test the tape machine. The tape just happened to be this recording, and he was blown away by how good this band had been. It had been well over a decade since he really listened to the material, and he was amazed at how well it held up. So were his friends, who encouraged him to clean up the recording (the 32 year old tape had several spots with drop out that had to be fixed) and release it on CD.

And now he has.

The influences are obvious - Cream, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Jimi Hendrix, and a healthy dose of Grand Funk Railroad, which is ironic considering that guitar player is now the lead guitarist for Grand Funk Railroad!

Yep - It's Bruce Kulick's band, or, more accurately, the band he had with Bass player/Vocalist Mike Katz (who wrote most of the material), and drummer Guy Bois.

Really, the album sounds like a more progressive, slightly heavier version of Grand Funk Railroad. Just imagine them writing songs with Yes, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones, Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton - always from the GFR platform, but springboarding off of that into territories that GFR rarely went into.

Here are a couple of the tracks....

"I'll Never Take You Back" ..................................................................."My Baby"
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I like it. The songs are solid, and for raw 8 track recordings they sound amazingly good (the YouTube processing diminished the sound a bit, unfortunately). Bruce's lead playing on "My Baby" sounds amazingly similar to the lead playing he did on Revenge. Technically he wasn't quite where he would get just a few years later - but he was damned close!

The biggest problem they had was that this type of stuff was about 2 years too late (it was on it's way out after about 5 or so years where this kind of stuff was fairly popular).

But I'm really impressed with the album. Good stuff.

lukewarmwater

Ehhh, kinda average. The lyrics are genric and the guitar is all over the place. And the voice doesn't have the range of zeppelin or doors and the drumer sounds more like a drum machine. It just doesn't feel their is any emotion or energy behind it, and I've heard b sides and raw stuff, so that has nothing to do with it.

The singer also isn't singing in his right range, he does the thing a lot of ameatur singers do where they know they can't hit a note so they cheat, pull back and sing things like "waaaayyyy heyyyy heyyyyy".

But it's cool that you're trying to find alternatives to zeppelin and cream and stuff. Keep posting!

DaveWadding

The reason that many of the trios were as good as they were were because the guitarist milked everything out of their signature tone. It's okay, but Kulick doesnt have the tone of a Clapton, Hendrix or Walsh enough to carry the band.

B5Erik

The one thing you've got to remember is that this stuff was recorded by the band themselves as 8 track demos. One take stuff - no overdubs. Of course Kulick didn't have the tone of a Clapton or a Hendrix at that point - this was just a demo done on a shoestring!

Given a good producer and a proper 16 track recording studio (more than adequate at the time) they could have turned this into a really, really good album.

As it is I'm still impressed with it.

Here are a couple of their more "Progressive" leaning songs (showing the Yes influences) combining late 60's/early 70's Progressive rock with the Power Trio format.

You Won't Be There........................................................Tryin' to Find a Way
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StealthMusician

I am amazed that some of you who would listen to this rather 'WAY ahead of their time' progressive/Art-rock ( my terminology for what I hear ) band's music would be in any way, shape or form 'negative?? I am a retired (Pro-Recording/Music Industry Music Producer) who was listed with the best in the Industry for a decade throughout the 90's. I was also listed as a Pro-audio engineer, Mastering Studio, Artist Management, Public Relations, played 11 instruments, counted among my friends legendary Record Promoter's etc, etc.. and I not only think this band, was 'GREAT'...I think vocals were great too! I am nearly 60 yrs. old and still have my ears! Just like so many 'poser's' I've met in my life...and those with more 'ego' than brains.. it obviously goes beyond ( those of you to who I direct these comments ) heads...that this is an OLD recording...done on Reel to Reel ( probably w/little or no processing pre or post ) that has been 'salvaged' and sounds great to me! I honestly wonder what the usual 'negative' comment people of you, can claim for YOUR back-ground musically? Some of you poor fools actually have the originator of this trying to come up with ( excuses..'remember etc' ) and I'm saying- it's just GREAT! By the way...I had the ears of people at Capital, Virgin etc... I think my opinion is a 'qualified' one.. I wonder what ever became of these VERY talented musicians I heard...

Why So Blu?

I had no idea this even existed. Bruce Kulick has always been my favorite of the Kiss guitarists.

arminius

Is this the band Putin was in?

auto

Meh. It's alright, I guess.

Michael Corvin

Listened to the first two. Sounds pretty good to me.

Jason

The solo at around the 2:00 minute mark on Tryin' to Find a Way sounds overdubbed, which would be no problem with an 8 track recording.

Still, it's not bad overall. I don't see any prog influence, but that could just be me. I agree that a good producer and better recording equipment would have filled out the sound quite a bit and this would have sold moderately well.

Geofferson

Not bad at all. Always up for unknown/overlooked rock bands from the 70s. Reminds me of a couple early tunes from Wishbone Ash though with a bit more blues in the vein of Taste.