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| From | "wigout6@juno.com" <wigout6@juno.com> |
| Subject | Harry Steinfeldt & The Mosquitos (long) |
| Date | Mon, 31 Jan 2005 03:43:19 GMT |
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I asked:
> 50 bonus points if you can name the 3rd baseman! His name was in the title of baseball trivia book.
John B. responded first, with:
> That'd be Harry Steinfeldt.
< ding, ding, ding!! > Congratulations John! You get 50 bonus points that will earn you... uh... an ice cold Natty Boh from me the next time you visit Andy Bopp's Mojo Room! How's that Sherman? ; - )
Larry Dunn asked:
> Are these Vance Brescia's Mosquitos from NYC in the early and mid 1980s?
and mkropp responded:
> I remember Vance Brescia's Mosquitos from my "glory days" as a college radio DJ in the mid-80's... The year was 1986 and Monkee-mania had taken control of the country. 2 members of the 1960's group The Monkees had regrouped and recorded "That Was Then, This Is Now". The song reached the Billboard Top 10.
Actually, if memory serves correctly, it peaked at # 20. I remember it well as I tracked its progress up the charts, and still have those Billboard magazines in my basement.
> many people didn't realize that the song had been released a year earlier by the New York band The Mosquitos. The Mosquitos had made their name as a barn burning live act, and for writing catchy rock tunes. After years of building this reputation they finally went and laid it on wax. Yet some how all the wildness and fury that they were known for was lost in the translation. The 5 songs that appear on their one (and only) release "That Was Then, This Is Now" suffer from very dated production. At times the drum hits appear to be on a tape loop, and the guitars are so filtered that they sound like they belong on an instructional record. Even with these flaws the songwriting of Vance Brescia still shines through. It would have been interesting to see what would had happened had they had the production and push that was given to bands like The Romantics and The Plimsouls. The tunes here are on par with both of those acts.
I really "came of age" (musically) with The Mosquitos, and saw a few dozen exciting live shows between '83 and late '86, when they sadly broke up just a half-year after The Monkees covered their song. I think it really blew Vance's mind that his boyhood idols (he was truly a Monkees fanatic) covered a song that he wrote (when he was 20 yrs old), and that certainly was a contributing factor.
The Mosquitos were the first "local" live band I ever saw, and the scene at their hometown shows (Sparks in Huntington, NY) always made me and my friends feel like we were seeing the next Beatles at our own version of the Cavern Club. Their songwriting, 4-part harmonies, and musicianship were all very impressive. It was a thrill when they won Best New Rock Band at the 1st (and last?) New York Music Awards in late '85 (held at the MSG Felt Forum), beating out The Smithereens among others. Unfortunately, your description of their only record is dead-on accurate, and most fans of the band were very disappointed. The songs were solid, but the production (and album cover) were dreadful. As a live act, they were almost always great, but didn't travel much (they made it as far as First Avenue in Minneapolis, opening for Wire Train). And coincidentally, they opened for The Romantics at Widener College outside Philadelphia.
> Rumors have been around of live tapes, but none have surfaced anywhere to my knowledge.
I've got a bunch, and some of them still blow me away. One of these days I hope the band members will put their differences aside to compile a proper retrospective!
Richard added:
> My introduction to The Mosquitoes was via the fantastic ROIR Garage Sale cassette. The Mosquitoes had the opening track to the cassette, a song called Darn Well. It's a terrific, sneery, obnoxious lo-fi affair and I loved it from the opening bass notes. I was kinda disappointed when I first heard their proper EP. Super clean production and utterly sneerless... The Garage Sale comp is definitely worth seeking out... one of the milestones in the garage revival of the early/mid-80's.
Yep - "Darn Well" is a great song, and the most garagey of 3 tunes on the band's demo tape, along with a pair of Mersey-ish tracks called "Hang" and "Quit It." I'm really surprised that Garage Sale never came out on CD. I heard somewhere (unverified) that "Darn Well" inspired Jeff Tamarkin to put the compilation together for ROIR.
Note: Vance Brescia was last seen starring as Peter Noone's music director.
Be seeing you,
Bill
np: IKE - Parallel Universe (Dandelion is a truly fabulous tune...)
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