Philly-Style #8
This installment of the "popular" Philly-Style feature brings us two gems from entirely separate Philly days of yore.
Frank Brown has always been a man about Philly Town. Having achieved a modicum of local and national acclaim with Buzz Zeemer, Brown is currently making excellent, hummable Petty-meets-McGuinn-y stuff on the solo tip, under the name his mama (presumably) gave him. But before all this, there was Flight of Mavis, whom I saw open for Roger McGuinn himself one overcast day at Penn's Landing. They made jangly pop, somewhere in the realm of REM and Dramarama. It was all up in my high school tape deck, and still makes me all emotional when I put it on today. Here, evidence of the goodness that they brewed-- Brown, drummer Ken Buono, and bassist Dave McElroy, all of whom continued on as the core of Buzz Zeemer (supplemented with erstwhile Philly rock dignitary Tommy Conwell). Buono continues to play in the modern era with the Wishniaks' Andy Chalfen in Trolleyvox, certain to be featured in a future Philly-Style edition. This is from their eponymous 1989 debut.
Flight of Mavis - On My Mind
Buy it!
Recliner are harder to follow up on, in spite of their having made music more recently than FOM. This is largely due to me not knowing any of their last names, which leaves me at a loss on google. I'm pretty sure we played with them once, or maybe I saw them open for Moped in the second set of yore of which I speak. They made good, slightly weird, sleepy guitar pop and I don't know what happened to them. This is from the album "Cookies," which appears to have come out on Kept in the Dark records during probably 1996 or 1997, and was engineered by Jason Cox at the former Studio Red and someone else at Dead Beat Studio. Anyone with information on their current whereabouts, the comments section awaits.
Recliner - Elle
Frank Brown has always been a man about Philly Town. Having achieved a modicum of local and national acclaim with Buzz Zeemer, Brown is currently making excellent, hummable Petty-meets-McGuinn-y stuff on the solo tip, under the name his mama (presumably) gave him. But before all this, there was Flight of Mavis, whom I saw open for Roger McGuinn himself one overcast day at Penn's Landing. They made jangly pop, somewhere in the realm of REM and Dramarama. It was all up in my high school tape deck, and still makes me all emotional when I put it on today. Here, evidence of the goodness that they brewed-- Brown, drummer Ken Buono, and bassist Dave McElroy, all of whom continued on as the core of Buzz Zeemer (supplemented with erstwhile Philly rock dignitary Tommy Conwell). Buono continues to play in the modern era with the Wishniaks' Andy Chalfen in Trolleyvox, certain to be featured in a future Philly-Style edition. This is from their eponymous 1989 debut.Flight of Mavis - On My Mind
Buy it!
Recliner are harder to follow up on, in spite of their having made music more recently than FOM. This is largely due to me not knowing any of their last names, which leaves me at a loss on google. I'm pretty sure we played with them once, or maybe I saw them open for Moped in the second set of yore of which I speak. They made good, slightly weird, sleepy guitar pop and I don't know what happened to them. This is from the album "Cookies," which appears to have come out on Kept in the Dark records during probably 1996 or 1997, and was engineered by Jason Cox at the former Studio Red and someone else at Dead Beat Studio. Anyone with information on their current whereabouts, the comments section awaits.Recliner - Elle
posted by Nerf Mark Malone @ 9:20 PM
5 Comments:
At 9:48 PM,
Unknown said…
Jason Cox tells the best "we were hallucinating on robitussin one day at a gas station while on shore leave from the navy" stories of anybody I've ever met.
At 10:36 PM,
Anonymous said…
Dear Kurtis, Please help me. I'm getting bored. Please start a fight with either Lemon or Backer or both. I know you can take them. Thank you.
At 10:42 PM,
Nerf Mark Malone said…
You mean like go hit them? Or here, on the blog?
At 11:01 PM,
fastbacker said…
The boys in Recliner gave me their album for free in Lakeside Lounge in NYC (why do I remember that?) I think we were supposed to play with them, but it may have never happened. I still pull this one out sometimes...
At 1:41 AM,
DJ Caterina said…
Enjoyed reading your comments on Frank Brown and his bands, Flight of Mavis and Buzz Zeemer. I just discovered Frank a couple of years ago. A crying shame and a crime, I know...
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