TURN IT DOWN!

Locals Pick Locals: Vol. III

More Michigan-made gems to ease the cabin fever, from Lansing and beyond

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For those keeping tabs, this is indeed the third installment of locally produced songs. This week, AllMusic critic and music-scene vet Mark Deming dishes on an obscure East Lansing-made cassette tape, FBC’s Jon Howard looks to the Motor City for comfort, and Inzane Johnny returns with another Capital City rarity. Oh, and yours truly also dug up a long-lost Mid-Michigan oddball track. All of these songs are either on YouTube, or streaming elsewhere, so feel free to listen along.

Mark Deming (music critic, musician)

Pick: The Wayouts “Mr. Cloud”— 1990

Before he opened Detroit’s Ghetto Recorders studio, played with the Dirtbombs, or became producer to garage rock stars (The White Stripes, The Sonics, The Fleshtones, the list goes on), Jim Diamond was the guitarist with The Wayouts, who in the late ’80s were the most rock ‘n’ roll fun you could have in Greater Lansing. Calling their style “speed gold,” the Wayouts’ music was rooted in late ’50s to mid-’60s rock performed with the tempo and impact of punk rock, but their usual show closer, “Mr. Cloud,” was a glorious anomaly. A tongue-in-cheek exercise in psychedelia (“I saw a cloud up in the sky! I saw a cloud, I don’t know why!”), “Mr. Cloud” was to the Wayouts what “Black to Comm” was to the MC5, a dirt simple riff that gave them a format to explore the musical cosmos in wild fashion. While Diamond’s wailing guitar took off to parts unknown, bassist Eric Apczynski (aka Eric Makowski) and drummer Steve Simonson would at once hold the performance together and push it to the outer limits, to the point that what was a goof mutated into the real thing in sublime fashion that would have done the Grande Ballroom proud.

Rich Tupica (Turn it Down! writer, “Inzane Michigan” co-host)

Pick: Bobby Dee & the Crestliners “Graveyard Twist” — ’60s

In 2016, a copy of this ’60s-era 45 rpm sold for a whoppin’ $863 online. Why? Because Bobby Dee & the Crestliners sound like the demented, reverb-soaked ancestors of The Cramps. All of the elements are there: The surfy-riffs, the echoey screams, the primitive percussion and zombie growls. Recorded at the long-defunct Don Lee Studios in downtown Lansing, this scarce single, which features “Jerry’s Twist” on the flipside, was never properly released. The Battle Creek-based band only cut it to an acetate and few copies remain. It’s a lonely existence for this Holy Grail slab of proto-psychobilly, but perhaps that’s the perfect ending for a single haunted by ghosts and goblins. Bobby Dee, however, went on to join The Pastels and recorded 1966’s “’Cause I Love You” single for the Phalanx label out of Portage, Michigan.

John Olson, aka Inzane Johnny (Musician, Wolf Eyes, “Inzane Michigan” co-host)

Pick: Skidd Freeman “1969” 7-inch — 1991

Here’s some homemade damage that’s much loved in hushed global circles, from the nowhere year of 1991, but sounds more like post-apocalyptic bad-attitude rock — when only four people are left, three of them cockroaches. The flipside, “Poor Little Suzie,” gets real overcast, fast. This self-issued phenom-racket, released via Bad Productions, has aged amazingly well and not a soul has met this lurker legend named “Skidd.” Only an East Lansing P.O. Box is listed on the label. Calling Rich Tupica to investigate and solve this tangled East Lansing confusion.

Jon Howard (Flat, Black & Circular, Hordes bassist)

Pick: Iggy Pop “I’m Bored” (1979) + Destroy All Monsters “Bored” (1979)

The late-’70s/early-’80s were my formative years for discovering punk. I was shopping at Sam’s Jams in Ferndale, who had a small, but killer selection of locals and imports. I knew about Iggy Pop and The Stooges from my dad, who also tipped me that ex-Stooge Ron Asheton was in Destroy All Monsters.

I bought Iggy’s “New Values” LP based on “Five Foot One” (killer bass intro, hello?!). Somehow, two ex-Stooges put out simultaneous songs, on two different records, about boredom in 1979. I don’t care if someone copied, there’s plenty of room for both songs. It’s two slices of Detroit rock that will stop a bored pity party. Iggy goes for a bit of a goofy take with some puns. It’s pretty safe and poppy, but has some great lines, like “I bore myself to sleep at night...”

Which links right up with Niagara from Destroy All Monsters droning, “Woke up this morning/I was really bored.” They go right for the disaffected approach. Clearly nothing is going to excite this singer, not even Ron’s blazing solos right from the go. Their dry humor was right up my alley. Totally charming bridge that adds sax and goes a bit off.

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