Friday, April 07, 2006

A BLOGGER IN NEED IS A BLOGGER INDEED!

Like, I sincerely doubt that anyone out there in realworldland can help me but given my, er, power as a blogger of well reknown I think I'll give it the ol' college try. (And besides, maybe an ex-member or their mother is cruising the Google in the hopes that somebody out there still cares in order to save themselves or their progeny from a lifetime cooped up inna bedroom!) Y'see, I'm looking for ANYTHING...information, CD-Rs, tapes, pix, what-have-you, on a couple of very obscure New York City groups who seem to have come and gone without leaving much if any imprint on the local music scene which is a total honest-to-Lmo shame given that these bands were pretty good and didn't cave in to current alternative/amerindie trends that seem to have ruined way too many funtime listening sessions for people like myself (tried and true rock reactionaries) for way too long a spell. Their names??? None other than Lucky and Kleiner's Kalabah Syringe!

The former bunch were, for a short spell, able to be seen via the CBGB cybercast archives when a 1999 gig at the infamous sister club CB's 313 Gallery had popped up amidst the mix of solo folkies and acoustic rock jams that permeate the place. However, these guys weren't just your average runna the mill daddy-cut-off-my-trust-fund-woe-is-me! soft and introspective REM wannabes...their sound actually seemed more or less rooted in a hard-rocking early-punk style that owed more to a New York 1975 groove rather than the musings of a good quarter-century later. The leader of the group reminded me of Harry Toledo with his slicked back hair and he played a Fender Stratocaster as well as sang while some other guy alternated between a bass guitar and acoustic standup (one instrument that linked Lucky to many of the other groups who were playing the Gallery at the time) while their drummer played a small trap set also akin to those that shared the same stage. From what I remember from the then-archived gig this trio opened their set with an instrumental very reminiscent of the Heartbreakers' "So Alone" which I think accounts for some sorta cool, mainly because I have the sneaking suspicion that this Lucky bunch never even heard of the Heartbreakers!

I also remember tuning into a live as it was a-happening gig, also at the Gallery, which ended with this interesting jazzy thing with the bassist playing his acoustic while the guitarist pecked out these staccato lines that must have come from sorta avant garde background but didn't really to fit into that form! And yeah, I've done a web search on these guys and for years trying to find that li'l something, only to come up with one group called Lucky who had a CD out and all, but they looked too healthy and well-scrubbed in the typical amerindie mode to be the same bunch that I'm on the lookout for. Can anyone out there in computerland help me get Lucky???

As for Kleiner's Kalabah Syringe (cool name even if I don't know what it means!), I with I knew a lot more about these gonzos! They kinda looked like the late-seventies Flamin' Groovies, but that's probably because they had two proud baldies inna bunch and dressed in suits and ties which I think is cool especially in these casual times when it seems that many bands step up to the stage straight from their day jobs at the fish market. Kleiner's Kalabah Syringe also had a boss sound which reminded me of a cross between the early-seventies Flamin' Groovies variety and the Velvet Underground with a bitta the SHAKE SOME ACTION driving-pop Groovies tossed in for good measure, and I still remember giving them a try via a live cybercast also from the Gallery but turning it off after awhile because somehow I perceived the set to be devolving into some sorta bloody mess that was conflicting with my personal sense of rockism (either that or I was getting too tired to comprehend and enjoy the music at hand). I can still kill myself for doing something as stupid as shutting these guys off, because after making it to the main CBGB stage for one gig these guys jettisoned themselves into nowhere sans any traces that they had even existed in the first place! Too bad even if they kinda looked like a buncha toughies who get drunk at wedding receptions and try to start fights.

So please, if anyone out there has any info or concrete material regarding the above aggregates (and others!) please let me have ALL OF IT! Leave a post or snail-mail whatcha got to me at 714 Shady Ave., Sharon PA 16146 and maybe I'll be able to sleep even better that I already do at nights! Please don't let these guys go the way of the Disposable God Squad or Tuli Kupferberg and the Fuxxons as far as forgotten New York wonders go, for they deserve to be noted and lionized a lot more than a lotta lamebo loser bands out there are, that's for sure!

4 comments:

Christopher Stigliano said...

After a little more web-searching, I've come to believe that "Lucky" later became, or evolved into the now-popular NYC underground blues/rock act the Reid Paley Trio. Given that Paley looks pretty much like the man I remember leading Lucky (although Paley plays a '65 Gretsch according to his website and not a stratocaster) and they have an acoustic bassist (who doesn't switch to an electric, so maybe I am wrong about this!), I have the sneaking suspicion that both aggregates may actually be one 'n the same even if there's no web material I've come across on Paley's site or elsewhere that comes out and actually says this. However, Paley's '99 solo CD's entitled LUCKY'S TUNE which may be the lead I'm looking for, but either way this Paley guy sounds interesting enough that I might just check out the music available on his site and perhaps even purchase a CD or two of his, even if the guy comes off typically New York ultralib if any of the links made available on his site (ACLU, Air America...) are any indication!

Christopher Stigliano said...

But then again, after playing a Paley track via myspace I've come to the conclusion that, given the upbeat musical stylings and Paley's bass grovel, that the Paley trio and Lucky are definitely not the same bunch. Back to square one!

Anonymous said...

To be honest, I've never even heard of a band called "Lucky."

RP


www.reidpaley.com

Anonymous said...

To be honest, I've never even heard of a band called "Lucky."

RP


www.reidpaley.com