The Same Band
1985
SR-1085-01
(LP & CD )
NEW CD RELEASE CONTAINS 4
BONUS TRACKS!!!
The Same Band LP compiled several of this adventurous group's best recordings from the tumutluous and ecstatic 1977-1980 period onto an LP of 13 newly-mixed selections. It was assembled and released six years after the band broke up. An expanded edition with four extra tracks is now available on CD, and the original LP's are still in stock.
You can order by E-mail.
Price in the contiguous United States is $12.00 postpaid.
Visa and Mastercard are accepted. Contact us to arrange payment via PayPal.
Radiation
(b/w The Desert Is A Bitch)
1978
SR-1078-01 (7" Single)
This single swept the New England college/alternative charts in 1978. It's a punk-jazz classic, which is more than can be said for you.
A few copies remain.
A few copies remain.
It can be ordered by E-mail.
Price in the contiguous United States is $8.00 postpaid.
Visa and Mastercard are accepted.
Contact us to arrange payment via PayPal.
During its existence, The Same Band received a lot of press coverage.
One article is reproduced here-
On The Run With The Same Band
By Will Jackson
Sweet Potato
February 1979
I keep telling people about this crazy band. They sound like a cross between Zappa's Mothers of Invention and the early Kinks, or maybe the Sex Pistols. They use jazz and punk idioms freely, often intermingling them within the same song. They're theatrical- changing costumes several times a show, using masks and assorted props. The question is always asked: "Where are they from?" "Oh, Brunswick." "Brunswick... Maine??"
Yes, folks, there is something new under the sun. We're talking about The Same Band-Swill Hovel, singer, guitar and keyboards; Bartholomew Rex Gross, singer, guitar and piano; Dual Space Orphans, singer, guitar and keyboards; Blitz Hacker, saxes and trombone; Bolt Upright, bass; and Wild B. Needle, drums. The other question that's always asked is, "Where do they play already??" Well, they've done a couple of gigs at the Bowdoin Steakhouse, they opened for the Ramones this summer at the Loft-but their shows are few and far between, Something about the nature of the Portland club scene (the most obvious place in Maine to showcase the band, until they reach Boston) club owners are afraid to book a band as unestablished and unconventional as these guys. Admittedly, they're a difficult band to book- such limited commercial potential. But that hasn't discouraged the Same Band- they even had t-shirts printed with a design of "The American Tour- 1978." (This, after a total of maybe 5 gigs last year.) The group is serious about continuing to play regularly now, and have just released their first single: "Radiation," flipside "The Desert Is A Bitch."
Our intrepid reporter, fully aware of the unspoken madness implicitly lurking in such an assignment, took it upon himself to meet with the group. In a scenario that recalled episodes of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, we got together and babbled for a while. A translator was able to provide the following snatches of conversation:
Jackson: Well, I guess I ought to start out with the obvious journalistic question. At what point do you feel you lost your musical virginity?
Bart Gross: Taking guitar lessons from a 65 years old piano teacher who didn't know anything about guitar... she lived in a candy house.
I'll try to be serious. Do you think Maine is ready for The Same Band?
BG: Sure, everybody knows Maine people are crazy and rowdy.
Dual Space Orphans: Is Maine ready Is Wyoming ready? Are we ready? Is anybody ready? It doesn't matter- nobody's ready. I'm ready as hell, but my doctor has me wearing these corrective shirts. That why I play such great guitar. I'm ready. Do you think you're ready?
I think maybe you've answered my question.
Swill Hovel: But they will be ready! We are the band of the future! The teenagers already love us. I've got 5 teenage sisters and they love it. The teenagers love us.
Teenagers from outer space, right.
DSO: We're gonna sell half of the records to friends, you know, word of mouth. Our biggest outlet is a bicycle shop that sells skateboards...
Do you think the kids see the music as punk or what? They never get to hear stuff like this on the radio...
SH: They see it as energy- they've got that energy, old people get offended by it. It's on their level, they relate to the originality, the energy.
DSO: We could go on forever about being associated with punk. I never saw us as a punk band. -It seemed like a good bandwagon to jump on at the time, it meant something different; now it's been hard to get off of.
Well, maybe when you combine terms like 'jazz' and 'punk' together, people don't know what you're talking about, and they do get the idea that something original is happening. How about acid jazz punk satire?
DSO: You can string the adjectives out to Venezuela, we've got to get it down to something usable,
Got to get it in rock critic lingo-is New Wave better? that can be anything.
DSO: I like that as far as labels.
SH: It's impossible. One night we'll do a country set followed by a totally spaced out set. How can you label that?
Really. Where else can you hear Conway Twitty one minute and. then Pink Floyd the next ... By the way, what does the name signify?
BG: It's funny. None of us really like the name.
SH: I like to change my name every once in a while ... keeps things interesting.
BG: We like to sit around and think up new names. You know, the Sleeve Drippings, the Outcasts ... one of our favorites was Bedpost. And "NV." Love those letter/number names like XTC, 999, The B-52's ... great,
Some great names come out of punk. In Boston there's Human Sexual Response, The Moving Parts...
SH: We love Generation X- our newest influence. That guitarist is one of my new heroes.
What about influences?
DSO: I grew up listening to Edgard Varese, Stockhausen. We all went through the free jazz thing- Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, The Art Ensemble of Chicago; and then when you also go through the Stones, the Animals, and the Kinks very heavily, and on to Johnny Rotten...
Something about the heavy intensity, the expression of both free jazz and punk music melds them together I guess.
SH: When we were in the Granite Farm Band, in like 1968, or 1970, we went through a band that had three horn players-Me and Bart and Ozzie all screaming on horns.
You guys go back that far?
DSO: Sure, Swill and Bart and I have been the nucleus of the various incarnations of this band for ten years or so. We still do songs that go back that far.
SH: We've got a lot of good material, it continues to evolve. We keep changing it around, rearranging it maybe, or even discard it altogether, or keep it exactly the same.
DSO: Bart wrote a song called "Look Alike" about a sex change operation. We're a current events band all the way.
SH: "Mad As Hell," that's a cooker- it's the dumb song every rock band does-it's about the tax revolt trip, it's a good song, And "Disposable World' about people throwing things I could use... we do a lot of bitching .
BG: Our whole trip is disaster, death, the burning inferno trip- one of our songs is "End Of The World," one of our big hits- it's going to happen, just a question of when. And we'll be playing when it does!
A fatalistic trip. Might as well celebrate insanity. The -Doom Band!
SH: We shouldn't be classified as a doomsday band, though. We're not prophesizing doom as much as we're saying, "Wake up before you die!"
BG: We're a re-awakening band!
SH: A born again band. We do a song called "Thirteen." All the other bands do "Eighteen," or the Pistols did "Seventeen "-so we do "Thirteen!"
It's all about total irreverence-it's like we were saying before, people probably aren't ready for this stuff lyrically, and even musically, it's loud rock but it's also sort of anarchic.
DSO: There's this song called "Call Out The Dogs," written in 1970. A friend of mine and I were sitting in Dunkin Donuts parking lot at 2 a.m., on acid, and he told me he could stand on the edge of a pond and make a noise that would attract all the frogs, so I wrote a song about it...
SH: We do it. Merv Griffin style., cocktail lounge singer, y'know (imitates Merv) .... Seriously, he's one of my favorite singers, he and Mike Douglas.
You guys oughta do "The Men In My Little Girl's Life." A great Mike Douglas tune. Who writes most of the songs?
DSO: Swill, Bart and I-all of us really, though. A lot of it is just group arranged.
SH: What we'd really like to do now, is play these incredible one night things, just set up some place, do one incredible, loud, spaced out gig, and then just disappear!
DSO: The next thing will be like a terrorist band- go into a bank with portable amplifiers...
The true band on the run. Too bad that's already been used, it's perfect. You guys have almost been doing that in a way.
DSO: Well, no one has really taken the time to go out and look for work, but we're going to step it up-with the record and all, it seems more feasible.
Well, I think you guys are ready for a tour of Europe, or maybe Japan Release a four-color disc, you'll be all set.
DSO: Or at least a t-shirt that says "Tour Of Europe!" It's just the money-we have a complete album in the can, I could have ready in four days if we had the money...
And to make it all possible...
SH: Just say we have a taste for champagne. This whole international punk scene is so funny- here's Billy idol (Generation X) with his long blonde hair and his black leather jacket strutting around Europe- they're going to tour Red China with Roxy Music!
Don't worry about a thing, you guys. After this article appears, you won't be able to keep the promoters away...
One article is reproduced here-
On The Run With The Same Band
By Will Jackson
Sweet Potato
February 1979
I keep telling people about this crazy band. They sound like a cross between Zappa's Mothers of Invention and the early Kinks, or maybe the Sex Pistols. They use jazz and punk idioms freely, often intermingling them within the same song. They're theatrical- changing costumes several times a show, using masks and assorted props. The question is always asked: "Where are they from?" "Oh, Brunswick." "Brunswick... Maine??"
Yes, folks, there is something new under the sun. We're talking about The Same Band-Swill Hovel, singer, guitar and keyboards; Bartholomew Rex Gross, singer, guitar and piano; Dual Space Orphans, singer, guitar and keyboards; Blitz Hacker, saxes and trombone; Bolt Upright, bass; and Wild B. Needle, drums. The other question that's always asked is, "Where do they play already??" Well, they've done a couple of gigs at the Bowdoin Steakhouse, they opened for the Ramones this summer at the Loft-but their shows are few and far between, Something about the nature of the Portland club scene (the most obvious place in Maine to showcase the band, until they reach Boston) club owners are afraid to book a band as unestablished and unconventional as these guys. Admittedly, they're a difficult band to book- such limited commercial potential. But that hasn't discouraged the Same Band- they even had t-shirts printed with a design of "The American Tour- 1978." (This, after a total of maybe 5 gigs last year.) The group is serious about continuing to play regularly now, and have just released their first single: "Radiation," flipside "The Desert Is A Bitch."Our intrepid reporter, fully aware of the unspoken madness implicitly lurking in such an assignment, took it upon himself to meet with the group. In a scenario that recalled episodes of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, we got together and babbled for a while. A translator was able to provide the following snatches of conversation:
Jackson: Well, I guess I ought to start out with the obvious journalistic question. At what point do you feel you lost your musical virginity?
Bart Gross: Taking guitar lessons from a 65 years old piano teacher who didn't know anything about guitar... she lived in a candy house.
I'll try to be serious. Do you think Maine is ready for The Same Band?
BG: Sure, everybody knows Maine people are crazy and rowdy.
Dual Space Orphans: Is Maine ready Is Wyoming ready? Are we ready? Is anybody ready? It doesn't matter- nobody's ready. I'm ready as hell, but my doctor has me wearing these corrective shirts. That why I play such great guitar. I'm ready. Do you think you're ready?
I think maybe you've answered my question.
Swill Hovel: But they will be ready! We are the band of the future! The teenagers already love us. I've got 5 teenage sisters and they love it. The teenagers love us.
Teenagers from outer space, right.
DSO: We're gonna sell half of the records to friends, you know, word of mouth. Our biggest outlet is a bicycle shop that sells skateboards...
Do you think the kids see the music as punk or what? They never get to hear stuff like this on the radio...
SH: They see it as energy- they've got that energy, old people get offended by it. It's on their level, they relate to the originality, the energy.
DSO: We could go on forever about being associated with punk. I never saw us as a punk band. -It seemed like a good bandwagon to jump on at the time, it meant something different; now it's been hard to get off of.
Well, maybe when you combine terms like 'jazz' and 'punk' together, people don't know what you're talking about, and they do get the idea that something original is happening. How about acid jazz punk satire?
DSO: You can string the adjectives out to Venezuela, we've got to get it down to something usable,
Got to get it in rock critic lingo-is New Wave better? that can be anything.
DSO: I like that as far as labels.
SH: It's impossible. One night we'll do a country set followed by a totally spaced out set. How can you label that?
Really. Where else can you hear Conway Twitty one minute and. then Pink Floyd the next ... By the way, what does the name signify?
BG: It's funny. None of us really like the name.
SH: I like to change my name every once in a while ... keeps things interesting.
BG: We like to sit around and think up new names. You know, the Sleeve Drippings, the Outcasts ... one of our favorites was Bedpost. And "NV." Love those letter/number names like XTC, 999, The B-52's ... great,
Some great names come out of punk. In Boston there's Human Sexual Response, The Moving Parts...
SH: We love Generation X- our newest influence. That guitarist is one of my new heroes.
What about influences?
DSO: I grew up listening to Edgard Varese, Stockhausen. We all went through the free jazz thing- Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, The Art Ensemble of Chicago; and then when you also go through the Stones, the Animals, and the Kinks very heavily, and on to Johnny Rotten...
Something about the heavy intensity, the expression of both free jazz and punk music melds them together I guess.
SH: When we were in the Granite Farm Band, in like 1968, or 1970, we went through a band that had three horn players-Me and Bart and Ozzie all screaming on horns.
You guys go back that far?
DSO: Sure, Swill and Bart and I have been the nucleus of the various incarnations of this band for ten years or so. We still do songs that go back that far.
SH: We've got a lot of good material, it continues to evolve. We keep changing it around, rearranging it maybe, or even discard it altogether, or keep it exactly the same.DSO: Bart wrote a song called "Look Alike" about a sex change operation. We're a current events band all the way.
SH: "Mad As Hell," that's a cooker- it's the dumb song every rock band does-it's about the tax revolt trip, it's a good song, And "Disposable World' about people throwing things I could use... we do a lot of bitching .
BG: Our whole trip is disaster, death, the burning inferno trip- one of our songs is "End Of The World," one of our big hits- it's going to happen, just a question of when. And we'll be playing when it does!
A fatalistic trip. Might as well celebrate insanity. The -Doom Band!
SH: We shouldn't be classified as a doomsday band, though. We're not prophesizing doom as much as we're saying, "Wake up before you die!"
BG: We're a re-awakening band!
SH: A born again band. We do a song called "Thirteen." All the other bands do "Eighteen," or the Pistols did "Seventeen "-so we do "Thirteen!"
It's all about total irreverence-it's like we were saying before, people probably aren't ready for this stuff lyrically, and even musically, it's loud rock but it's also sort of anarchic.
DSO: There's this song called "Call Out The Dogs," written in 1970. A friend of mine and I were sitting in Dunkin Donuts parking lot at 2 a.m., on acid, and he told me he could stand on the edge of a pond and make a noise that would attract all the frogs, so I wrote a song about it...
SH: We do it. Merv Griffin style., cocktail lounge singer, y'know (imitates Merv) .... Seriously, he's one of my favorite singers, he and Mike Douglas.
You guys oughta do "The Men In My Little Girl's Life." A great Mike Douglas tune. Who writes most of the songs?
DSO: Swill, Bart and I-all of us really, though. A lot of it is just group arranged.
SH: What we'd really like to do now, is play these incredible one night things, just set up some place, do one incredible, loud, spaced out gig, and then just disappear!
DSO: The next thing will be like a terrorist band- go into a bank with portable amplifiers...
The true band on the run. Too bad that's already been used, it's perfect. You guys have almost been doing that in a way.
DSO: Well, no one has really taken the time to go out and look for work, but we're going to step it up-with the record and all, it seems more feasible.
Well, I think you guys are ready for a tour of Europe, or maybe Japan Release a four-color disc, you'll be all set.
DSO: Or at least a t-shirt that says "Tour Of Europe!" It's just the money-we have a complete album in the can, I could have ready in four days if we had the money...
And to make it all possible...
SH: Just say we have a taste for champagne. This whole international punk scene is so funny- here's Billy idol (Generation X) with his long blonde hair and his black leather jacket strutting around Europe- they're going to tour Red China with Roxy Music!
Don't worry about a thing, you guys. After this article appears, you won't be able to keep the promoters away...
media stars!
a major full-length interview with Same Band members appeared in
Kapital Ink!
a major full-length interview with Same Band members appeared in
Kapital Ink!
Contact us for further information.
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"a brilliant, beautiful strangeness...
part free-form, part Zappa, part punk,
...this is rural-experimental fuckeroo of the
highest order."
Byron Coley
& Thurston Moore:
Bulltongue's
Best of 2006 listing.
part free-form, part Zappa, part punk,
...this is rural-experimental fuckeroo of the
highest order."
Byron Coley
& Thurston Moore:
Bulltongue's
Best of 2006 listing.
Discover other music
by former Same Band
member John Etnier
by former Same Band
member John Etnier