Local Rock Musicians Reaching for Golden Grail

Part 1 of 2
Date: -------------------
By: DAVE ZURAWIK
Of the: Milwaukee Sentinal
THERE IS A sign over the desk of the man who runs the record company.

The company makes most of it's money recording local acts.

The sign says: "Hope springs eternal in the heart of a sucker."

And local acts are recording more than ever.

New Legion Rock Spectacular has a 45 out. Rio has one. Jim Spencer has a new album. Sigmund Snopek III has one, too. There also are 45s, demo tapes and LPs floating around from Short Stuff, Winks, Tary Tanin and every folk act that has ever done four bars of "Blowin in the Wind."


-- Sketch by Sentinal artist Ken Frank

A LOCAL musician who had mortgaged every thing but the family cat to get on wax asked the question: "Were we swuckewred on this recording thing?" He was sitting in his basement surrounded by 975 copies of the record his group had spent $4,987.27 to record. The records have been collecting dust in the basement for six months. They are not going anywhere.

"Apparently the group isn't going anywhere either," pounding douwn another blast of straight gin. "Not after this. We're demoralized, not to mention the debt. We'd have to play six months at the Filmore just to break even on this fiasco."

The Fillmores have been closed for a couple of years.

Not too long ago, another musician, John Rondell of the Big Apple Band, was sitting behind the recording studios control board watching the dollars tick off the studio clock.

The members of the Big Apple had already spent $2,000. They were going to spend a lot more before the final mix met their approval.

"IT"S WORTH THE extra money to get it right," Rondell said. "After it's finished, the studio will be throwing a press party with all the local jocks (disk jockeys) and major record companies. I mean, with any kind of luck we'll recoup what we spent and make a profit right there -- if the records any good."

The record was plenty good. So, it must have been the lack of luck. The press party never came off, neither did the sale of the record to any major label. Big Apple, one of the better lounge groups in the Midwest, was forced to peddle the records one at a time between shows. The group did not recoup the investment.

"I guess most groups don't recoup the investment," Bob Marsh, co-manager of Rio, said, "but there's always the long shot. What alternative do you have if you want to try and make it? Local records taking off is not without precedent."

The "precedents" that are most often cited are The Seven Sounds, The Legends, The Messengers, The Robbs and Tony's Tygers. While it's true that the localy produced records by these area groups did hit the national charts and win the groups a moment of fame, all were in the 1960s.

In the '60s, the pop music industry was hardly as organized as it is today. The record industry wasn't even close. The major labels were not that sure about rock and still had guys like Prez Parado headlining their stables of contract artists. They pounded the bushes looking for small label, finished rock products they could pick

up for a couple of thousand dollars and only had to distribute to rake in the profits.

"That kind of thing happening today is a myth," a local Midwest distributor said. "It's a myth that keeps a lot of bands going. It's part of the great rock dream, part of the young, rock musicians conciousness. The odds are impossible. Butyou still have to place your bet in the teeth of those odds if you want to become more than a local saloon band.

"If you can keep the studio costs down, it's not a bad idea. You can use a demo 45 to get work in places you're not known in. Most clubs demand one. It's like a resume. And there is that chance that some record company executive will put it on his stereo, like it and sign the band."

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Local Rock Musicians Reaching for Golden Grail
Part 2 of 2
Date: -------------------
By: DAVE ZURAWIK
Of the: Milwaukee Sentinal

Continued from above
And, so, a lot of bands are recording and hoping. There are not a lot of clubs in town to play new music in right now. You record to find work.

IT IS NOT easy to push records on labels like Spectacular, Zero, Bang and AW Nuts. But a few of the local records are making a little headway.

New Legion Rock Spectaculars record got a favorable review in Record World Magazine. It is not easy to get reviewed at all in those pages. The reviewer found the primal energy of early rock in the "A" side, "Second Cousin."

Rio has an exceptional record in search of the right market. It's called "Goin' Home." On the practical side, the best thing the record has going for it is that it could be played on Milwaukee's big country station, WBCS-FM, as well as on a rock station (WOKY) or a middle of the road channel (WTMJ).

"Air play of course is the secret," Dave Kennedy of Dave Kennedy Recording Studios said. "The most important thing, though, is to inform the new group coming into record of the realities of the situation.

"If a group is working in area clubs, recording here can be a good investment. If you get any air play, you're going to get more money per night on your jobs. If you're out working the clubs, you can always push the record off the bandstand. And if you're working, you're making money and have taxes to pay. A recording session is tax deductible as advertising.

"You do this on a $800 to $900 budget, and you'll probably make out. The key, though, is to do it as a business investment and forget the glamor.

"We don't want people recording under the false hope that this is going to be a million seller. When it doesn't go gold, they think you ripped them off. It's business, not glamor. The kids who can't accept that are the ones who get suckered."

Kennedy's one of the Good Guys.

"There's one born every minute," the guy with the sign over his desk says.

And you know he's not talking about hits.