THE SECOND CHANCE - Sonic's Rendezvous Band (Easy Action)
In less than a decade, Sonic's Rendezvous Band has gone from one of rock and roll's best kept cult secrets to one of its best-documented. And for that we should all be eternally grateful.
If you lived outside of earshot of the molten aural glow of their amps in the late-'70s, or simply hadn't stumbled across a copy of their double A-sided, monstrously great mindfuck of a single, "City Slang", (until the bootleggers got into the act and actually did us a favour), chances are you'd read more about than you'd heard of this well-credentialled quartet. Which just added to the mystery, even if the sound of illegal documents like the "Strikes Like Lightning" LP sucked a large furball.
Justice was only done in the shape of the sublimely restored treasure that was the "Sweet Nothin'" album in 1999. "City Slang" (a second live album) followed and then the tap was turned off. UK label Easy Action, Devil's Jukebox (a UK imprint that committed the box set's "Too Much Crank" disc to vinyl, and Rock-a-rama, a label resting under the wing of Bomp's cousin Total Energy, have since taken up the cudgels, while and the listening public are the winners.
"The Second Chance" is by no means a scraping from the bottom of the barrel. It's another live set, spread over two CDs. SRB is still a work-in-progress, with some songs on their way out of the set-list or still being fleshed out and bedded down. The mood on this Tuesday night, February 22, 1977, is relaxed but focused. The band's playing one of their regular haunts in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the crowd is very much their own.
There's history being made. We hear what was the first public airing for "City Slang" and if it's still to realise its potential and become the Best Rock and Roll Song of All Time, it's still a killer even in this embryonic form. The tempo's slower than in subsequent playings and the break-down finds SRB feeling their way at times rather than driving the changes home.
"Earthy" is appended by a superfluous introduction but adorned by some extended riffing and a playful Scott Morgan vocal. Co-vocalist Morgan was getting a lot more air-time at this stage of the band's life and plays some mean occasional harp, must notably on "You Gotta Succeed (If You Really Try)". Sonic's high point for the night comes in the form of some sublime lead guitar work in "Hearts". You could bounce bullets off his and Morgan's strings in "Step By Step", so flint hard is their sound.
There's a small chunk missing from the eight-minute plus version of "Empty Heart" but I'm sure glad that didn't rule it out. The guitars mesh like cogs here and it's well worth hearing.
For a show recorded more or less on the fly - uber fans and faithful band aides Tim and the late Joe Hurley ran tape but the Rolling Stones mobile was otherwise engaged that night - it's very listenable. Succinct liners by SRB bassist Gary Rasmussen and photographer/box set executive producer Robert Matheu round off the handsome package. - The Barman
Since the release of the Sonic’s Rendezvous Band boxset in 2006 and the appearance this year of the January 1978 Masonic Auditorium show from that collection as a standalone, affordable-by-mortals artifact, the SRB legacy can truly be said to be well documented and easily accessible to the interested listener. But wait, there’s more! Easy Action just dropped this nearly complete - the Hurley brothers, who recorded it, missed a song and part of another at the end - document of a February 1977 show from the Second Chance in Ann Arbor, site of the show released a decade ago as Sweet Nothing and now available as disc four of the boxset.
A year earlier means that you get to hear SRB evolving right before your very ears from an R&B-influenced rock band into, if not exactly punk, something damn near like it. Scott Morgan tunes and lead vocals (eight in all) outnumber those of Fred “Sonic” Smith here (six); Morgan compositions like “Soul Mover,” “Cool Breeze,” “You Gotta Succeed (If You Really Try),” and “Keep On Hustlin’,” not to mention the cover of “Like A Rolling Stone” (with Scott and Fred sharing lead vocal chores) were dropped from the set once Sonic hit his writing stride. Material familiar from later recordings is still in a developing stage – “Earthy,” f’rinstance, opens with a bluesy jam; Scott plays harmonica as well as guitar on a couple of the tracks, something I hadn’t heard on any other SRB recordings. This particular show also marked the premier live airing of “City Slang,” the song that’d come to define SRB and serve as the band’s only officially released legacy for 20 years.
None of the above is meant to imply that the band’s performance on these shiny silver discs is in any way tentative or unfocused. Quite the contrary – they go for the throat with the same energy and abandon as on the Masonic or later Second Chance recordings, propelled by Scott Asheton’s distinctive kick-snare action, and the enthusiastic hometown crowd roars, howls, and whistles their appreciation - listening to the opening moments, you’d think you were back at the Grande ca. ’68 or something. At its best (on “Hearts,” say, or “Asteroid B612”), this is rock ‘n’ roll as trance music, as close the Platonic ideal as Funhouse itself. And the closing “Empty Heart,” joined in progress, kicks ass on other SRB versions of the song I’ve heard.
While the recording lacks the clarity of the nonpareil ’78 Second Chance set, it’s comparable to the Masonic Auditorium, sound-wise; all the instruments are audible with plenty of force and presence. The packaging – this time a gatefold LP sleeve replica – is up to Easy Action’s high standard, with informative notes from SRB bassist Gary Rasmussen and compiler Robert Matheu. The cover photo of Fred in action, teeth bared as he assaults his Rickenbacker, tells you everything you need to know. - Ken Shimamoto
LIVE, MASONIC AUDITORIUM - Sonic's Rendezvous Band (Rock-a-rama/Alive)
Sonic's Rendezvous Band never received the acclaim they should have when they were a going concern and the record's finally being corrected in the '00s. Here's a live show, previously issued in the Easy Action box set but now slightly sonically-upgraded and standing alone, that should be an essential part of the music collection of anyone who purports to understand rock and roll.
This is the night SRB supported the Ramones at the New Yorkers' special request. SRB were on their home turf and on top of their game. Denied mainstream radio acceptance, the Ramones were on one of their audience-building forays into Heartland USA. It's tempting to see this show as a bridge between the old school and the new - even if SRB weren't about being standard-bearers or passing batons to anyone. Photographer and band friend Robert Matheu (who's behind the CD) was there and relates the gravity of the occasion in his succinct liner notes.
If you have the box set you'll already know that this is 36 minutes of unmatched guitar glory. From Scott Morgan's set kick-starter "Electrophonic Tonic" to an especially powerful "City Slang" that brought down the curtain, this is a lean and focused set with all elements in equilibrium. This is 1978 and some of the band's best tunes are by now embedded in the set-list with "Love And Learn", a sharp "Sweet Nothin' " and "Asteroid B-612" delivered in stunning style.
Superlatives are tossed around like confetti when it comes to discussions about Sonic Smith's guitar playing and not much can be added here to what's been previously said. The mastering job (the source was a C-90 cassette) puts his playing and that of Morgan in nice relief.
Great songs apart, the strength that some gloss over when reflecting on SRB was the yin-and-yang chemistry between Smith and Morgan that didn't manifest itself in co-writing, but onstage in contrasting vocal styles. Morgan's rich, soulful tones and Smith's gruff drawl in combination actually worked in the band's favour. That's evident from the way these songs are tracked, with Smith and Morgan taking centre mic, time about. When the pair drifted apart, the band was diminished.
"Masonic" comes in CD or vinyl, the latter coloured purple and possessing the warmth that only black carbon fuel by-products can. The limited edition LP also includes some extra photos and a handbill montage on the inner-sleeve. Both formats are procurable via the SRB website or Bomp if you're quick. - The Barman
SONIC'S RENDEZVOUS BAND - Sonic's Rendezvous Band (Easy Action)
Provincialism, or a lack thereof, is a major flashpoint on this small patch of cyberspace, the Aussie and Norwegian contingents barking mad for most anything with the sulfuric stench of the Motor City clinging to its denim and leather and many of us native Detroiters fairly jaded about the embarrassment of riches, perceived or real, in our own backyard.
Don’t get me wrong; as a music lover, it’s hard to imagine a better city to have grown up in than Detroit, but it’s not something I thank the Big Man for on a nightly basis, concentrating instead on bullet points like the health of my family, the security of my job, and the size of my prostate. Far be it from me to burst anyone’s bubble, but I used to pass the storied Grande Ballroom every day on the ride home from work and it’s about the furthest thing from Mecca you can imagine, its crumbling facade just another eyesore on Grand River. Ford Auditorium? Abandoned save for the homeless who huddle around the entrance to get out of the rain and snow blowing across the Detroit River from Canada. The Second Chance? Now doing business as Necto and from all accounts a great place if you can stomach frat boys and techno. I never could.
And you’re unlikely to run into any of your Murder City heroes on the streets of Detroit or Ann Arbor, ducking out of seclusion for smokes, beer, and a newspaper, although I did spot Bootsey X perusing the lunchmeat freezer at my neighborhood Farmer Jack about a year ago. I think he settled on the pimento loaf.
Despite a pedigree (MC5, Stooges, Rationals, Up) which should have marked them as gods among vermin, it’s hard to remember Sonic’s Rendezvous Band making much of a ripple on their own turf despite representing the final piece of the Detroit jigsaw, no big surprise for four guys who only released one single while they drew air, the “City Slang” 7” on the Orchide label, a copy of which yours truly traded in with a big stack of vinyl in college to raise funds to see The Damned at Bookie’s. Save your breath. Lapses in judgment like that have already caused me many a tormented and sleepless night.
The past 25 years have seen these rust belt titans showered with a sweeping shitstorm of accolades and hyperbole, living proof that death and/or dissolution are wise career moves, the faithful scrambling for a dog’s breakfast of dodgy bootlegs, dusty cassettes, and three “official” releases on the Mack Aborn label that are even harder to track down than the “City Slang” 45. Aborn honcho Freddie Brooks’ diatribe against this six-disc box as “cheap,” “pitiful,” and a “haphazard jumble of ‘odds and ends’,” while the dust collects on his long-promised “American Boy,” amounts to nothing more than sour grapes at being beaten to the punch by Easy Action, who have focused on music created with guitars, drums, and amps rather than with the chin.
By default, four of the six discs here are live, the band willing to plug in and play on “10” in just about any venue that would have them, from a high school in the eastern suburbs of Detroit to Ann Arbor clubs to the 5,000-seat Masonic Auditorium, their earliest gigs skewed toward covers before Fred “Sonic” Smith and Scott Morgan began playing tug-of-war with the spotlight, an unspoken battle of one-upmanship which spawned Smith riffs on a day-pass from Hell like “It’s Alright,” “Hard Stoppin’,” and “Song L,” and primo Morgan donations like “Electrophonic Tonic,” “Asteroid B612,” and “Dangerous.” Regardless of who’s drawing the songwriting royalties, there’s enough guitar grit underneath the nails of this compendium to make anyone feel unwashed.
If a winner MUST be crowned in this war of attrition – “divided we fall” is as fitting an epitaph as any for these guys – perhaps Smith should get the nod for the tough, stuttering, dead-to-sights “City Slang,” an affront to post-60’s types reared on the grand notion of The Epic Twiddly Solo and the greatest Detroit single no one’s ever heard, unfettered by management pipedreams of revolution or distracted by Johnny Law or unstable, peanut butter-smeared frontmen, just four musos heads down and knees up, little or no regard for past glories or fuck-ups. Included here are two live takes and the studio version, which may just throw a spanner in the works for those looking to turn big coin on ebay for copies of the Orchide vinyl.
Contained within the studio and basement workouts contained on Discs 5 and 6 is the foundation of what could have been trimmed, tweaked, and harnessed into one hell of an album, “Sweet Nothin’,” “Song L,” “Electrophonic Tonic,” “You’re So Great, and “It’s Alright” breathing flames, shitting brimstone, and bereft of anything remotely resembling smoke or mirrors.
Tragically, because well this is Detroit we’re talking about here, a combination of crossed signals, resentment, lack of communication, and what those with little or no imagination might term “artistic differences,” not to mention the burgeoning romance of the Smiths Fred and Patti, derailed this bullet train faster than you can say “Yoko Ono.” This disturbs me on so many levels that I don’t know where to begin. Excuse me while I go set myself on fire.
It should come as no surprise to those familiar with the curation of Easy Action on The Stooges’ “Heavy Liquid” project that the packaging here is nothing short of top drawer; mini box, cardboard inner sleeves, and magnificently annotated booklet. - Clark Paull
1/2
For a band that's far more legendary in death than when they were an active concern, the official recorded legacy of Sonic's Rendezvous Band is incredibly slight.
That output adds up to one studio single, the inestimably great "City Slang", and two well-received but impossible-to-find, posthumous Mack Aborn live albums, "Sweet Nothing" and "City Slang", the official status of the latter two many still find questionable. There's no doubting the Mack Aborn discs (plus a follow-up vinyl EP) were great releases that captured the band at a particular point of its trajectory. Their only deficiency is that they sold out fast and have never been re-issued (though you might also ask why the label re-mixed the 45, with original and new versions book-ending the second CD). With those releases out-of-print and most of the bootlegs circulating near-unlistenable, news of the impending arrival of this six-CD box set was greeted with anticipation on a par with the Second Coming.
(Of course, that didn't stop the dormant Mack Aborn label trying to stop the box set with its principal, a former SRB employee, claiming the box was an unofficial release that was not approved by all parties with an interest. No legal action ever came to pass - ostensibly because all surviving band members and the estate of the late Fred Smith had already given the nod - but it's the same sort of inadequate bullshit that's dogged the birth of similarly worthy legacy projects like the MC5 rockumentary "A True Testimonial". As said ex-SRB employee has been stridently vocal about the actions of the Wayne Kramer camp in relation to the stalled doco, insert irony wherever it's considered most applicable.)
The indisputable fact is that "SRB" is now here and it's been worth the wait. Just as they did with the "Raw Power" era Stooges box "Heavy Liquid", Easy Action have done a legendary band justice. It's not all pristine studio recordings but the quality is quite a few rungs clear of the usual bootleg dross. Most importantly, the feel is that you're being given a more complete picture of the development of this band. In other words, someone's not restricting you to a snapshot of one moment in time to suit their own views of SRB's output being down to any single member. This band really was a sum of its parts, and that's what you take out after a few listens.
Disc One kicks off with one of the earliest line-ups, with original bassist Ron Cooke still in the ranks. This is a 1975 gig at the Chances Are club in Ann Arbor and although the sound's a little ropey at the start, it picks up. The quality of the guitarwork does cut through regardless, and the set list shows a determination not to re-visit songs from Fred Smith's MC5 or Scott Morgan's Rationals days by playing originals, the odd chestnut and some relatively obscure covers.
"I Believe To My Soul" is one tune that was covered by the Five and it stands out here with a terrific Morgan vocal and some strong playing. "Goin' Bye" is another classic (one of Fred's best), and although it lived on in sets until much later in the band's life, this version shows it to be fairly well-realised, even in these early days.
Disc Two is a show from Lamphere High School in 1976. It shows a band hitting its straps and casts a light on the rarely-heard "Hard Stoppin'" and "Irish Girl", Smith and Morgan compositions respectively. This has been unheard by all but a handful of people. Disc Three captures a show from the Masonic Auditorium in Detroit from '78. It was booted in a small way not very long ago, but for all intents and purposes is another hitherto unheard gem.
Disc Four reprises material from the '78 show from the Second Chance in Ann Arbor that produced the "Sweet Nothing" CD; theirs was edited, this sounds like a real-time set. Sound differences are marginal and hardcore collectors will play it less.
Discs Five and Six will be the godhead for most. Disc Five is tagged "The Melancholy" and the name makes sense when you hear Sonic Smith's joke. It compiles what are arguably the best takes of "Succeed", "Hijackin' Love", "Mystically Yours", "Take a Look" and "Electrophonic Tonic" that the band committed to tape as demos. (The complete tape has been issued as a small-run bootleg out of NYC, apparently after someone close to the band passed on the tapes. You'd be lucky to find a copy). Of the live stuff that follows, Gary Rasmussen's sole vocal spot is here - a spirited work-out of the Stones' "Flight 505" - as well as a version of "Step by Step" with Lenny Kaye sitting in and an alternatively rambling and explosive "Party Lights".
Disc Six ("Too Much Crank") revisits material on MacAborn's "City Slang" (CD and vinyl) releases, but add barn-burning versions of "Empty Heart" and the rarely heard, left-of-field "American Boy", with Sonic laying down his guitar in favour of a saxophone. This is avant stuff, miles removed from the band's early material and even some of the Five's more exploratory material. The definitive 45, "City Slang", shuts it all down, which is handy for those whose vinyl copies are scratched beyond retrieval. Also included is the band's studio version of "Electrophonic" (whose exclusion as the B side to "City Slang"was a focal point for the band dissolution that followed). It shades the original basement demo for strength and dynamics and made a prior appearance on "Motor City is Burning" .
The liners are sourced from a feature article on the I-94 Bar, the full version of which you can read here, but it's been appended and enhanced by more commentary from Scott Morgan and Gary Rasmussen. What they have to say is especially illuminating in terms of the turning point at which the band's equilibrium became upset. The Smith-Morgan creative axis was at the heart of this band and popular opinion is that SRB was at its best when it was a fully functional and equal partnership. The band as the sum of its parts. There's no evidence to the contrary here.
Fan-atic Graham Ling (who provided some source material) reckons 47 of the 66 tracks have never been released in any form so you could hardly complain about value. The one criticism you could make is that the origin of some of the material (especially on Disc Six) is not fully annotated but apart from the completists, most people won't care. Executive producer Robert Matheu and label chief Carlton Sandercock have approached the project with care and an eye for detail. The result is an expansive and at times stunning collection that's probably better than anyone might have been entitled to expect.
If absolute value judgments are worth anything, SRB was one of the best four or five rock and roll bands to stride the planet. The proof is in these discs.–
The Barman
