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| Four of my favorite Skels. From left to right: Michael "Sport" Murphy, Jim Colford, Willy Ligouri and Bill Hafener. These are the guys on this radio broadcast, as bassist John Borgarhdt is in absentia. |
Today is Skels Day here at the LOOB blog!
How The Skels came into our lives....who else?.......Ted! And what an entrance! I remember Ted telling me about a band he had come across and how they came on his show ("Hoedown From Hell", 5-6 PM) and did a kick-ass broadcast. Well, ladies and gentlefiends....the tape do not lie!!!! Here today is that first radio broadcast! This was October 15th, 1990. By Thanksgiving, we were playing with them at the All Aboard in Port Jeff, the first of many double-bills we did with the Skels.
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| Our first show with The Skels, trading sets at the All Aboard. You can hear our first set to this show by clicking here. |
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| We played Carrigan's, which had been The Skels' old home-base, The Stealin' Time Saloon". These shows are all from the Frank era. |
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| All three of these hilarious flyers were created by Sport....in case you can't tell! |
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| A letter on behalf of Mystery Fez, most likely penned by Ted. |
As I said, Ted, Frank and Bill (and other Skels) ran Mystery Fez. Though Mystery Fez wasn't as insular of a clubhouse as the Suffolk Office or the Rocky Point house, it was a great place to play and I have many great memories of hanging with both LOOB and the Skels there. (I remember playing LOOB my original demo for "Caught In The Rain" in the outer "lobby", as well as rehearsing an accapella song I was working on that we never finished. And I remember hanging with Sport and some dudes super late one night, singing every Beach Boy song we could think of. (I remember Sport lit up when I called out "You're So Good To Me", ha, a man after my own heart!).
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| detail from "Skels Life". See below. |
Before I actually met the Skels, I heard this broadcast, and I read this fucking brilliant comic that Sport made......see below scans.......with this amount of talent, how could this band not get a leg up? It's a story I've seen repeated countless times since the late 80s.....the best music I personally have heard in the last twenty-five years has almost all been "unsigned", unpromoted bands, singers, songwriters, etc.
Take a song like "The Mighty Sun", or "July". "Knucklehead" (which isn't on this).... or any of them! I mean, The Doors got signed when Danny Fields walked in and saw them playing "Light My Fire". Didn't like any of their other songs, just that one. Zappa got signed when Tom Wilson walked in and saw them playing the intentionally-dopey "Wowie Zowie". That's it. One song....you're signed. But the music business got inundated with "middlemen" starting in the 70s. That's why CDs were so fucking expensive, even though they're cheaper to make than vinyl: they had all that overhead, from employees!
But even in the most crass, bottom line, heartless music-business way of thinking: no blithering idiot ever thought to put "July" in some indie "Reality Sucks" movie, or John Hughes thing? "St. Elmo's Nightmare" or something.....I mean, listen to that song.....it's a no-brainer! In other words, these people are less than someone with no brains.
So that's my rant, on behalf of The Skels, and for all of us. Not that there weren't things the Skels could have done, I have no idea what the backstage stories are. I know LOOB could have done a whole slew of stuff, but hindsight is 20/20. But, this isn't 1954, where nobody is looking out for this shit. We're talking 1990, when you've got a giant music industry, supposedly with their eyes peeled for new talent, sniffing it out.....for fuck's sake, we were on Long Island and playing in the city (both bands).....I can understand them passing on LOOB, maybe they were put off by my loud shirts, Dancing Lawrence's baby talk, Big Ted.....ok, fine.....but The Skels? The Skin Doctors and Hootie & The Blowpeople, but not The Skels???? What the.......
Let's forget all that now, and listen to this tape! This excellent, excellent tape!!
On this broadcast, Ted does a great job of presenting The Skels.....aside from giving the boys a forum and an excellent sound mix, he lets them do their thing, let's them sing lots of songs, and barely talks himself.....just let's 'em play and play and play, and because Sport is such a great frontman (and the band is so sensitive to "dead air"), Ted does not have to "jump in" and guide the show along....
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| Our Main Man: Michael "Sport" Murphy |
Sport was/is undeniably a great frontman and songwriter, a guy you can build a band, or an album around. Willy is one of the nicest guys I've ever met, really sensitive guitar player, especially attuned to Sport's writing, great tone. I love Jim's drumming on this (and all Skels recordings). He and I always got along like a house on fire. Bill, of course, a phenomenal, phenomenal guitar player....and still plays with Ted in Cowpatch! That band started as a side-project from the Skels & LOOB - and it's outlived both bands! Who'd-a-thunk it?!
Everything sounds really great on this tape, a fantastic version of "Trouble In The House" really stands out, and for me, this is the version of "Mighty Sun". I love the harmony that Willy sings on this. I always wanted to cover this song, when I used to do my "cover of the week" feature on my old website...but then the Pope came to New York and I covered "The Weeping Icon" instead! Also by The Skels! (you can find that cover version by clicking here, it's on Cover of the Week volume 3.) Really love Jim's tasteful cymbal swells on "The Mighty Sun", he plays with impeccable taste throughout this entire broadcast. Right now I'm digging his snare work in "The Foggy Dew". Live, Jim could wail, this guy was no wilting violet when it came to making a snare drum speak! But listen to this guy, how versatile he is, how comfortable he is in all of the various styles, never affected, always apt, always contributing, always playing "the song". God bless you, Jim, wherever you are!
Sport's singing is also great on this tape. Again, sounds comfortable in every musical idiom, and always like himself. The chorus of "Go Away", great. Spine tingling. That's a vocal performance for the ages, right there. Giving it everything he's got to give. God bless Sport, as well!
The Skels had great taste in covers; I remember them doing Badfinger's "No Matter What", and, fantastically, the disco nugget "Right Back Where We Started From". Here they do great versions of Elvis' "Little Sister", Dylan's "I Shall Be Released", Hank Williams' "Setting The Woods On Fire", even a rare Bill vocal on Neil Young's "Harvest". They also had great interband rapport and shtick.
One item to note: during this broadcast, Bill's wife was 9 months pregnant and due any second! So whenever people start putting notes up on the window, or when she calls in....The Skels' first impulse is to break out the cigars!
The story continues below the links, so don't miss a wealth of Skels-related material. But as for me, I think I'm all talked out! So....have some more LSD and I'll turn up that old Skels broadcast!....and we'll romp romp romp till your hard drive crashes, and you lose all these mp3s.....
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Get It
Accidentally Leon Erroll
Misery Loves Company
The Big Parade
I'll Read You Stories
Jesus Is Coming
Little Sister
Trouble In The House
July
I Shall Be Released
The Mighty Sun
Setting The Woods On Fire
Harvest
The Foggy Dew
Go Away
Romp, Romp, Romp
Michael "Sport" Murphy - vocal, harp, train whistle, melodica, recorder
Willy Ligouri - guitar, vocal
Bill Haeffner - guitar, vocal
Jim Colford - drums
(not sure who's playing mandolin, Willy or Bill?....Sorry guys!)
Hosted, engineered, and recorded by Our Ted.
download here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/swcfqttdrrnj0ch/1990-10-5+The+Skels+on+WUSB.zip
or if you prefer Dropbox, click on the link below (this link will expire in a week)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6v9qkx6a0hezuvn/1990-10-5%20The%20Skels%20on%20WUSB.zip?dl=0
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For a great introduction to the Skels' recording work, may I refer you to this outstanding compilation they put out after they broke up: Evidence Of A Struggle.
Or you could pay $150 for their cassette-only 2nd album, "Be With That"! Great album! I know I have at least two copies of this cassette! I'm gonna be rich!!!
Below are scans I did of The Skels' 1991 Press Kit, including the fantastic "Skels Life" comic book! These scans are included in the above download, but you can check 'em out here.....what a band!!!
God Save The Skels! Vout!
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| click to enlarge |
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| This is one of my favorite panels, but I'm not sure if you can read all the titles clearly. So, left to right: "Some Important Thought On Brian Wilson" by Sport (big book). "Great Landlords I Have Known" (thin book). "Things To Do On Long Island" (thin book). "Lousy Bands Of New York - A Directory" (big book). "The Noble English" (thin book). "Art Masterpieces Of The Late 20th Century" (thin book) (i'm laughing just typing these up!). "The Wit & Wisdom Of P.J. O'Rourke" (thin book! ha!) "Me Vol. 1 - The (illegible) Years" by Sting (big book!). And lastly, "North American Wildlife" (thin book) |
