Pencil Storm is re-running this to salute music mogul Seymour Stein who passed away this week at the age of 80.
In part one of this TV Party Tonight! series we touched on some the amazing and successful bands Seymour Stein signed to Sire Records. Part Two starts with two amazing bands he signed that unfortunately never got the success they deserved.
What are the odds that two of Seymour’s biggest misses happen to be two of my all-time favorite bands and bands I know personally? Long odds indeed.
RC MOB
The Royal Crescent Mob, or RC Mob, were one of the biggest acts in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio when I was coming of age. (The others being The Toll, Willie Phoenix and Ronald Koal & the Trillionaires.) Like many, I picked up their major label release Spin the World, and though I liked it, I didn’t quite get it.
Then…..I saw the band live, and I am not exaggerating when I say, the RC Mob were one of the greatest live bands ever. I wish there was better footage of the band during their prime, but I guess one way to describe it would be:
RC Mob = Led Zeppelin
Red Hot Chili Peppers = Whitesnake
If you were an RC Mob fan, there was NO WAY to enjoy a hack group like the Chili Peppers. Every member of the Mob was better than every member of the RHCP and their songs were intelligent. And they had a sense of humor way above playing with socks on their cocks.
I once asked singer Dave Ellison why it never happened for the Mob and basically, they were just a little ahead of their time for radio play. The college scene that supported the likes of REM and The Replacements didn’t exist yet and bands like the Mob were just too quirky for the classic rock format. They always drew huge enthusiastic crowds, but they just couldn't sell enough records to keep the suits at Sire/Warner Brothers happy.
There isn’t a ton of footage of the band on YouTube though I’m hoping someone has a pro-shot show that will emerge one day. Adding insult to injury, their two Sire releases aren’t even streaming on Spotify. But dig around and I’m sure you can find those tunes. Also, make sure to listen to anything Mob member Happy Chichester has ever been involved with starting with Howlin’ Maggie and going forward to the present. One of the greatest talents there ever has been or will be.
This is the best clip I could find that captures the crazy vibe of a Mob show. It’s sort of hard to follow but will bring back memories of those of us lucky enough to catch this band live. Keep an eye out for the late, great CD1025 legend Andyman Davis tearing it up in the mosh pit. You can’t miss him.
I once saw the Mob at the 9:30 Club in DC in the 90’s. I was there to help my girlfriend move and I promised I would take it easy so I would be ready to get to work early the next day. All was going according to plan until I decided to join Carlton for a nightcap after the show. I can’t hang with real rock stars. The next morning was rough.
This next clip shows the unique stage plot of the Mob. Dave and Happy upfront, Carlton and B set behind. I wish this whole show was available.
Video for the single Timebomb on Sire Records
The Fags
Folks familiar with my band Watershed know we have a long history with the members of Detroit’s power pop maestros The Fags. Bassist Tim Patalan produced our best records and we have been fans/friends of John Speck and Jimmy Palozzi for for almost 30 years. Or put another way, Watershed bass player Joe Oestreich has a tattoo on his arm that John Speck did at a party a long time ago. That’s a unique bond.
Anyway, I don’t know what the hell happened to The Fags at Sire but by all accounts it was a typical major label horrorshow of indecision and second guessing. As I mentioned in Part One, I was at The Fags show at SXSW when Seymour was checking them out and offered them a deal. It’s a drag that their record Light ‘Em Up never got the push it deserved. It’s a stone-cold classic. Much like Happy with the RC Mob, make sure to check out any project John Speck is involved with. He too is one of the greatest talents around.
Greatest Movie Ending and Tonight are absolute monsters. What a band!
Bonus Botch Job
While Seymour doesn’t mention the Mob or The Fags in his autobiography Siren Song, he does say one of his biggest regrets was being unable to break The Paley Brothers in the late-seventies. I wasn’t familiar with these guys but Seymour swears they should have been huge, but for some reason he just couldn’t get it to connect with the public. I’m going to turn it over to Ricki C. now as he has some firsthand knowledge of the Paley Brothers.
Ricki C.: The elder brother of The Paley Brothers was Andy Paley, who I became a fan of as a member of The Sidewinders, a great Boston band of the early & mid-1970’s, who I unfortunately never got to see live. (Billy Squier was a latter-day member of The Sidewinders and the songs “Telephone Relations,” “Drop By And Stay,” and “Can’t Wait” on his early Piper band records on Casablanca were brought over from The Sidewinders repertoire. Here’s a couple of Paley Brothers tunes and a 1975-vintage Sidewinders track re-done later by the brothers.
And the reason Seymour Stein couldn’t break The Paley Brothers was because they were PURE power-pop in the days of punk and corporate rock. (At one point Sire sent them out opening for David Cassidy from The Partridge Family, for Chrissakes.) Who was gonna play these songs on the radio in 1978 in the midst of The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and The Clash on the one hand; and Foreigner, Journey and (God help us) Styx on the other…….
The Paley Brothers, “Ecstasy” / 1978
“Meet The Invisible Man” / recorded 1979, unreleased until The Paley Brothers’ Complete Collection release in 2013…..
The Paley Brothers, re-doing an old Sidewinders tune, 1978