Showing posts with label DENIZ TEK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DENIZ TEK. Show all posts

9.08.2019

DENIZ TEK INTERVIEWS HIS BROTHER KARL TEK OF HOOZEBETH!


Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Hoozebeth is living proof that rock’s reckless roots are alive and kicking in an age where “hook and chorus” pop seems to rule the airwaves. Their neo-vintage sound pays homage to the raw elements of early rock while pushing to explore the energy of their own distinct voice. Since it’s inception in 2011, the band has been creating a buzz locally and is poised to challenge the music scene with their innovative direction.


Hoozebeth is fronted by raspy vocalist Shay Allen, with guitarists Karl Tek and Scott Allen creating the melodic leads. Bassist Unkle Raja and drummer AJ Kahn lay down the rhythmic core to complete the sound.

Contributing DRNRM editor, famed Radiobirdman guitarist, and brother of Hoozebeth guitarist Karl Tek shared this brotherly Q&A  today...

Deniz:  What are your main influences as a guitarist and songwriter?

Karl:  When I first started playing I was really influenced by Jimi Hendrix, loved it. His music really motivated me to learn some of his songs and also just to try to play along with his recordings even when I didn’t really know how to play the guitar. Later on, I got into Van Halen, The Stooges, Alice Cooper, the Stones and your music of course. I was really into Blue oyster Cult too.

Deniz: What are you listening to these days? Has this changed much over the years?

Karl: I still like most of the bands I grew up with some exceptions. I still often listen to old blues and surf music too. I like listening to more obscure cuts lately. I suppose since you can hear anything and everything these days all the time.

Deniz: You have a new album out, of all original music. In this age of digital streaming, some say albums are obsolete. Why make an album in 2019?

Karl:  Well, Hoozebeth started as a cover band and we wanted to create something original. Something we could hand to our friends and family.

Deniz:  What words of advice would you have for a young guitar player just starting out in bands these days?

Karl:  So many kids these days have great technical ability and can play very complex stuff. What I’ve seen lacking with some kids these days is the ability to improvise at the moment and to play without a plan.

For instance, try sitting down with some music you like and try to make sounds on the guitar that go with it. Like humming or dancing. That may seem like unsophisticated way to practice but it can be a useful tool to play more naturally.

Deniz:  What challenges is the band facing going forward, and how do you plan to meet those challenges?

Karl:  Time! We are all really busy. The other members play in one or two other bands. I have my own business to run and actually play the least in terms of performing. AJ (drummer) is a dentist and plays in the Memphis Thrillbillies with Shay (singer) and Scott (guitarist). Roger (bassist) is busy with various musical pursuits and other commitments also.

Deniz:  You are from the Ann Arbor / Detroit area. What does it mean to you and your band to be rock musicians in the context of this rich heritage?

Karl:  It’s great to be here in the midst of this great rock ’n roll culture. We all contribute to writing music and our songs reflect that. Our sound is unlike anything else I’ve seen out there. I think people will appreciate that.

Hoozebeth



TRACK LIST
It's a Twister
Beggar's Alley
Waiting for You
I Don't Care
Who Is Beth?
On with the Show
Crash and Burn
Leave Me Alone
Atomic Bitch (Because I Can)


Hoozebeth is playing a free album launch concert on Oct 5th at Ann Arbor’s “Live” nightclub !!! Their self titled album will be available at the show or via Amazon. Event info on Facebook

FOLLOW HOOZEBETH
Spotify/Facebook/YouTube


★Deniz Tek, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a prolific guitarist, singer and songwriter currently based in Sydney, Australia. His career in music, grounded in late-60's Detroit, extends through several decades and across continents. He is best known as a founding member of the influential Australian independent rock band Radio Birdman.



 FOLLOW DENIZ TEK:
WEB PAGE/FACEBOOK/TWITTER

5.21.2017

RADIO BIRDMAN: MY GANG DADDY-O! WRITTEN BY CHRIS KLONDIKE MASUAK


Chris Masuak May 21, 2017

Radio Birdman used to mean something...used to stand for something! The band attached concepts like “brotherhood”, “honour”, “loyalty”, and “integrity” to itself while slowly but surely disappearing into the kind of vanity driven and posturing black hole that we used to disdain.

I had just been instructed that I “was not invited to participate” in the upcoming tour to promote the band’s “definitive boxed set” and I was certainly not interested in facilitating the ongoing personal fantasy that the band’s history had been relegated to.


However, the filmmaker Jonathan Sequeira assured me that no one was calling the shots on this project except him! No one had the power of veto…there was no one (and the emphasis was on a particular “one”) running interference.



So, I thought sure…if I’m going to make an asshole of myself at least I’ll be in good company!

Jonathan was circumspect. He never let on what the other guys had to say. He was letting us all reveal ourselves for who we were despite ourselves. He was assiduously objective.

It was crazy timing! Like I said…I had only just “officially” fallen out of favour. It was inevitable and a long time coming and a relief when it finally did. In that culture you’re a bully or you’re a sycophant or you’re simply not in the gang.



I didn’t miss it.

But, it reminded me that it was great being in the gang in the old days. We were comrades, fighting a real and (we truly believed) noble fight. We were different and my new teachers and role models and heroes were patient and tolerant and kind to their young and naïve bandmate.

We were champions of a music that no one else knew about. I learned about all this stuff through the guys and because of my more formal musical training, I had something to give back.

I think that this documentary will capture a sense of that early unity and the genuine excitement that we felt for our music.

I know that the audience felt that, too! I had been in the audience and knew what it was like to be swept along on a tsunami of sound and energy.


In later years I would meet and play with some of the guys who we admired and who we helped introduce into the culture. Ron and Scott from The Stooges, Wayne and Dennis from the MC5. God, I even played in a band that blew Iggy and his band offstage night after night on his first tour of Australia!

I related to them like normal people. It felt like we were friends at the time.

I don’t know if they ever realised how much Radio Birdman did for them. Even before Birdman, Warwick, Ron, and Younger were playing their music in The Rats. I mean…who did that in those days?!

I didn’t really hear any of that stuff until I started hanging out with the guys, even though I’d seen the Raw Power ads and reviews in Time magazine and seen The New York Dolls album covers in record stores back in Canada.


Back at the Birdman “clubhouse” we were always listening to The Stooges, The MC5, The New York Dolls, Alice Cooper, The Velvet Underground, The Rolling Stones and surf music. The Blue Oyster Cult helped up the ante just that little bit!

It was a real education. We were filtering all that stuff through our collective hands and making new music in the process. Those were thrilling times!

And, we were a gang. No one else could join. Everyone wanted to.

We were a gang and an alchemical reaction. I think that the documentary will finally make that clear. I think everyone’s getting a bit tired of that tired lone gunman's attempts at re-imagining the band’s history.
Chris Masuak

5.11.2017

JAMES WILLIAMSON AND DENIZ TEK LAUNCHED A NEW EP "ACOUSTIC K.O."

Deniz Tek (Radio Birdman) and James Williamson (Iggy & the Stooges) photo Anne Tek

FROM DENIZTEK.COM 

Fans of The Stooges and Radio Birdman are in for a real treat this spring as guitarist James Williamson and singer/guitarist Deniz Tek have teamed up for a new spin on four classic Williamson compositions from the early/mid '70s. The two proto-punk icons have unplugged their amps for drastic, yet no less gratifying reworkings of two numbers from Iggy & The Stooges’ seminal Raw Power album (“I Need Somebody” and “Penetration”) as well as two tracks from Pop & Williamson’s often-unsung masterpiece Kill City (“Night Theme” and “No Sense of Crime”). These songs were orginally composed by Pop & Williamson, with the exception of "Night Theme" which was penned by Williamson and Scott Thurston.


Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Williamson explains hooking up with Tek and working with him on this effort, “I first met Deniz in 2011 when doing the Ron Asheton Tribute show at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor. Deniz had been a good friend of the Ashetons (having come from Ann Arbor like them) and had been asked to play on some of the old Stooges tunes that night.”

“Later we stayed in touch during the times I would visit Australia on tour with the Stooges, and it also turned out that he visited the Big Island of Hawaii frequently, as do my wife and I. In fact, during one of our get togethers on the Big Island Deniz mentioned that we should record some acoustic songs together. Maybe do some of my old stuff. It was later that day, hiking in a remote area, that we came across some abandoned trucks. His wife, Anne, got her camera out and said 'there’s your record cover!’”


ACOUSTIC K.O. TRACKLISTING:
I Need Somebody
Penetration
Night Theme
No Sense Of Crime

Oddly, in a parallel development, a long time fan and incredible collector of Stooges memorabilia, Hakan Beckman, had suggested to James a couple of years earlier that “Night Theme” should be orchestrated. Further, he had developed a fantasy album cover called Acoustic K.O. James loved these ideas and now, with Tek, had the vehicle to realize them.

“That’s how it all started,” Williamson admits. “However, once we began recording, the project took on a life of its own. If this was to be called Acoustic K.O. it needed to be entirely acoustic. Michael Urbano broke out his old 1920s drum kit and Gregg Foreman used my old 1930s pump organ and a piano. Guitars, of course, were acoustic, and the only exception was the bass that Bob Glaub played - an old hollow body Kay since an upright just didn’t sound right for these songs. The horn section rounded everything out.”


“For ‘Night Theme’ I enlisted the help of Mark Culbertson, musician extraordinaire who had played contra-bass for me on the albums Ready to Die and Re-Licked, to do the arrangement. He did an extraordinary job! I was able to find an incredible group of players called The Awesome Orchestra from Berkeley, CA under the direction of David Moschler to realize Mark’s arrangement and I couldn’t be happier with the results.”

“It all came together once we layed down Deniz’s vocals while in Hawaii, and with the help of Petra Haden doing some backing vocals and violin, along with Annie Hardy (Giant Drag) doing the duet with Deniz on ‘No Sense Of Crime’ we had performances to be proud of.”

Deniz Tek and James Williamson’s Acoustic K.O. EP will be available March 31st on vinyl and digital (iTunes, Amazon, etc.) formats. Read Full Article Here

4.09.2017

THE DODGE MAIN STORY: DENNIS THOMPSON & DENIZ TEK


Released November 1, 1996

What an amazing industrial amalgamation of killer musicians! MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, the legendary voice and guitar of Scott Morgan, and the ever evolving incredible Motor City-via-Australia Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman make up Dodge Main, with help from bassist Paul Ill and drummer Brock Avery.



I transferred a VCR tape of this show for Dennis Thompson some years ago. The quality isn't perfect but it captures this historical night in Detroit!

The Dodge Main CD is fantastic! What a great record... thankfully Scott Morgan gave me a copy awhile back... You gotta listen to these samples....

1. City Slang Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Fred "Sonic" Smith) 4:36
2. I.94 Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, (Deniz Tek) 2:57
3. Citizen of Time Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Wayne Kramer) 3:48
4. Future/Now Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Rob Tyner) 3:01
5. Fire Comin' Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Paul Ill / Deniz Tek) 4:11
6. 100 Fools Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, (Deniz Tek) 2:38
7. The Harder They Come (full song) WKramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Jimmy Cliff) 2:54
8. Over and Over Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Fred "Sonic" Smith) 2:49
9. Better Than That Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Kramer / Deniz Tek) 3:29
10. I Got a Right Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Iggy Pop / James Williamson)

Here is a treat... Dodge Main cover of KICK OUT THE JAMS!

So a few days a ago I was talking to Dennis Machinegun Thompson on the phone and he told me how great Dodge Main was. MGT told me what an incredible mix of players that composed Dodge Main. So we wrote to our very busy friend Deniz Tek and asked him to write his take on this moment in Detroit Rock and Roll History.



Deniz Tek tells the Dodge Main story...

Dodge Main

I got a call from Patrick Boissel, who at the time had recently taken over Greg Shaw's BOMP and Total Energy labels. He suggested assembling a band to be based around me and Wayne Kramer for a studio recording. Wayne's rhythm section, Paul Ill and Brock Avery were included.

Wayne came up with the name "Dodge Main" after the monolithic abandoned Chrysler assembly plant in Hamtramck, Detroit. I flew out to LA, and was put up in a motel in Burbank. During the day, we recorded in a little studio in east Hollywood.



In the morning before heading over to the studio, I wrote songs for the album, reworking lyrics and so forth. We did some older material from the MC5 and (Radio)Birdman, but also wrote some completely new tunes.

It all took about a week. Scott Morgan was in town and joined for some vocals. Wayne produced the sessions, keeping a tight rein on things, and he later mixed the album. Mark Arminski did the brilliant cover artwork. I got paid a small token amount and had all my expenses covered.

SCOTT MORGAN "FUTURE NOW" at the State Theater Greasy show!



Later, Dodge Main assembled in Detroit for a benefit at the State Theatre for local guitarist Phil "Greasy" Carlisi who had to have cardiac surgery. On that occasion, Dennis Machinegun Thompson played drums, and we added some Rationals material to round out the set, including, I think, "Guitar Army" and "Respect".


We also played a show in Cleveland, with Gary Rasmussen on bass and Scotty "Rock Action" Asheton on drums. Wayne and Margaret have a tape of that show which is rumored to be of high quality. They have suggested releasing it at times, but it remains in the vaults at Muscletone Records, Wayne's label. For a while Dodge Main was a revolving door of Detroit/Ann Arbor based musicians. They did some shows without me. The recording was out on both vinyl and CD, and still sounds great. It has stood the test of time. -D

Thank you Dennis and Deniz!!!!

7.06.2014

RON ASHETON AND NIAGARA VISIT DENIZ TEK/HAWAII 1984

 
 Niagara with Deniz's Helmet

DENIZ TEK ORIGINAL POST JAN 2010

Sunrises are often spectacular on the north shore of Oahu. This dawn was exceptional ...The pale seashell pink glow, with bright crimson borders, was almost painfully beautiful. There were splashes of mauve, deepest gentian, and even subtle shadings of celadon green against a gentle milky background.
The only difference was that today the sun was shining on a different background - not sea and sky - but skin. It was the skin of Niagara; skin normally so pale and translucent that the faint criss-crossings of underlying veins often gave it a disturbing blue tint. Today, as the sun rose over Kaneohe, its golden rays highlighted yet another overlay of bruises and welts, the traces of activities left by the night before...

At the Officers Club things were starting to heat up. It was a Friday night squadron party, and the theme was “Sixties”. The F-4 Phantom pilots and RIO’s of VMFA 212 were drinking. They’d be letting their hair down if they had any, and no one ever accused Marines, much less Marine aviators, of being less than totally gung ho at these sort of gatherings. These guys flew hard, fought hard, and played hard. I was their flight surgeon, and flew with them in the back seat. In my cut-off denim jacket with Radio Birdman logo emblazoned, spinning 45’s, playing DJ and feeling very happy. I had an endless supply of local Primo beer and Jack Daniels coming my way, as long as the hits kept spinning on the turntable. Namu, Bone, “Evil” Frog, and some of the other squadron “class clowns” had shown up in long hair wigs with mock drug paraphernalia. Even “Pack”, the cigar chomping, hard as nails skipper, was relaxing ... just a bit.

Lt.Col J.J. “Pack” Barta had a right to be a tough customer. He had spent a fair amount of the late sixties in the jungle living on bugs, dodging AK-47 rounds and avoiding booby traps as a recon Marine. He had a little different perspective on that decade than us younger dudes. Ron Asheton, who was visiting me and my wife of three years, Angie, in the Islands, had yet another perspective on the sixties based on several operational tours of duty with the Stooges. Niagara had flown out with Ron for the holiday. They had gotten over jet lag and climate shift, and the carefree couple were beginning to enjoy a taste of squadron life.

The drinks flowed freely, the conversation got louder, the music and dancing grew wilder as the Marines and their Michigan guests partied on into the night. Niagara was constantly surrounded by Marines bringing drinks, like courtly slaves at the beck and call of a princess in ancient Egypt. She was completely in her element, as self-assured, and in control as a 6000 hour veteran Navy or Marine jet fighter jock making a carrier landing in daylight and good weather. The young pilots had never seen anything remotely like her. Usually fearless, often loud, they were now not only polite, but a little bit ... shy! They didn’t know what to do when she spoke to them in “that” voice. They were even less certain of the outcome when confronted by a pale white breast spilled momentarily from the low cut dress. This was at home, mind you, not the Phillipines! There were wives around, and there was no emergency procedure checklist for that!!



Ron had acquired the honorary call sign, “Sixpack”. He knew his military history, and he loved airplanes. Ron’s father had been a Marine aviator in the Pacific in World War 2. Ron rode to work with me, and had been spending plenty of time hanging around the squadron. Once Ron was in the ready room, and had taken over the base radio. He was actually communicating with Phantom crews out on a mission, when The Skipper walked in, shook his head in disbelief. Without removing the cigar from his mouth, he yelled “ASHETON! IN MY OFFICE NOW!!” Both Ron and the duty officer, who had taken a break leaving Ron in charge, took a verbal beating. Ron prided himself on this later. Being disciplined by the Skipper made him feel like he was really part of the team! Tonight he was drinking hard, enjoying conversation with the squadron guys but always had one concerned eye on Niagara and was feeling a little bit of anxiety over some of the indiscretions of the evening, and where it all might lead.

Finally things wound down and Marines with three sheets to the wind drifted out into the balmy tropical night. On the way out of the club, the laws of gravity overcame high heels and equilibrium. To the horror and fascination of onlookers, Niagara murmured “Ohhhh, Ronnie!” and then plunged head first down a long flight of stairs. She swapped ends two or three times, long legs and thin arms violently slamming corners, rails and steps all the way down. She landed in a piteous heap at the bottom of the landing, knickers exposed, moaning. The crash was spectacular, but Ron had seen this scenario many times before and knew what had to be done. After a quiet “God DAMN it” from between clenched teeth, he looked around at the shocked audience, lit a cigarette, and smiled. He said, “Hey, its OK, she’ll be all right, could you guys just help me get her in the car?”.

We did just that and drove the 10 miles northwest up the King Kamehameha Highway to our townhouse on Hui Kelu Street in Temple Valley. Everyone went straight to bed ... because in an unbelievable lapse of planning wisdom, I had organized fishing for the next day. It would require an early start.

Three hours later Niagara, Ron, 7 months pregnant Angie and I had climbed into the green ’72 Olds Cutlass-S and were heading for the pier. We were all tired and (except Angie, who wasn’t drinking) hung over, that was a given. Ron, beyond tired and hung over, was barely able to speak. Niagara was even worse, and seemed very close to needing to be placed on life support. Niagara’s external injuries were bad enough, but there was also inner damage to that slender wraithlike 50 kilogram body. The mix of fermentation by-products and toxins from the alcohol were taking an even greater toll from the inside. The weary pair only wanted to be unconscious, better yet fully anesthetized, but being the good sports that they are, tried very hard to stay present and awake. It didn’t work out that way.


★Deniz Tek, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a prolific guitarist, singer and songwriter currently based in Sydney, Australia. His career in music, grounded in late-60's Detroit, extends through several decades and across continents. He is best known as a founding member of the influential Australian independent rock band Radio Birdman.

In 2007, Deniz was inducted into the Australian Music Hall of Fame, and in 2012 was voted number 7 in the top 100 Australian guitarists of all time.★


4.06.2014

THE DODGE MAIN STORY


Released November 1, 1996



What an amazing industrial amalgamation of killer musicians! MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, the legendary voice and guitar of Scott Morgan, and the ever evolving incredible Motor City-via-Australia Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman make up Dodge Main, with help from bassist Paul Ill and drummer Brock Avery.

I transferred a VCR tape of this show for Dennis Thompson about 3 years ago. The quality isn't perfect but it captures this historical night in Detroit!

City Slang...


The Dodge Main CD is fantastic! What a great record... thankfully Scott Morgan gave me a copy awhile back... You gotta listen to these samples....

1. City Slang Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Fred "Sonic" Smith) 4:36
2. I.94 Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, (Deniz Tek) 2:57
3. Citizen of Time Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Wayne Kramer) 3:48
4. Future/Now Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Rob Tyner) 3:01
5. Fire Comin' Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Paul Ill / Deniz Tek) 4:11
6. 100 Fools Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, (Deniz Tek) 2:38
7. The Harder They Come (full song) WKramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Jimmy Cliff) 2:54
8. Over and Over Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Fred "Sonic" Smith) 2:49
9. Better Than That Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Kramer / Deniz Tek) 3:29
10. I Got a Right Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Iggy Pop / James Williamson)

Here is a treat... Dodge Main cover of KICK OUT THE JAMS!

So a few days a ago I was talking to Dennis Machinegun Thompson on the phone and he told me how great Dodge Main was. MGT told me what an incredible mix of players that composed Dodge Main. So we wrote to our very busy friend Deniz Tek and asked him to write his take on this moment in Detroit Rock and Roll History.



Deniz Tek tells the Dodge Main story...

Dodge Main

I got a call from Patrick Boissel, who at the time had recently taken over Greg Shaw's BOMP and Total Energy labels. He suggested assembling a band to be based around me and Wayne Kramer for a studio recording. Wayne's rhythm section, Paul Ill and Brock Avery were included.

Wayne came up with the name "Dodge Main" after the monolithic abandoned Chrysler assembly plant in Hamtramck, Detroit. I flew out to LA, and was put up in a motel in Burbank. During the day, we recorded in a little studio in east Hollywood.

In the morning before heading over to the studio, I wrote songs for the album, reworking lyrics and so forth. We did some older material from the MC5 and (Radio)Birdman, but also wrote some completely new tunes.

It all took about a week. Scott Morgan was in town and joined for some vocals. Wayne produced the sessions, keeping a tight rein on things, and he later mixed the album. Mark Arminski did the brilliant cover artwork. I got paid a small token amount and had all my expenses covered.

SCOTT MORGAN "FUTURE NOW" at the State Theater Greasy show!



Later, Dodge Main assembled in Detroit for a benefit at the State Theatre for local guitarist Phil "Greasy" Carlisi who had to have cardiac surgery. On that occasion, Dennis Machinegun Thompson played drums, and we added some Rationals material to round out the set, including, I think, "Guitar Army" and "Respect".


We also played a show in Cleveland, with Gary Rasmussen on bass and Scotty "Rock Action" Asheton on drums. Wayne and Margaret have a tape of that show which is rumored to be of high quality. They have suggested releasing it at times, but it remains in the vaults at Muscletone Records, Wayne's label. For a while Dodge Main was a revolving door of Detroit/Ann Arbor based musicians. They did some shows without me. The recording was out on both vinyl and CD, and still sounds great. It has stood the test of time. -D

Thank you Dennis and Deniz!!!!

ORIGINAL POST FROM RETROKIMMER.COM

4.03.2014

SCOTT ASHETON TIGER STADIUM AND DENIZ TEK



Tiger Stadium
 
I went to my first baseball game at Tiger Stadium when I was about 8 years old. It was at the north west corner of Trumbull and Michigan Ave, in a leafy, old neighborhood. For a long time, the stadium was called "The Corner". The Stadium was a gathering place of the people. You could feel part of a community there. It held the spirits of ages past, and it seemed that the Stadium was a connection to where the unique local culture had come from. Not the slightest bit dangerous or threatening, in those days, the area had the timeless feel of the outskirts of a very old big city.

That feeling was a lot different from where I lived, in the little university town of Ann Arbor only an hour's drive west on I-94. I liked it down there. It seemed to be the sort of place where the Little Rascals would play outside and cause trouble. I heard echoes of the post civil war days, when horses and wagons were the street traffic. The influx of southerners, to work at Henry Ford's factories...wave after wave, during the boom days of the '20's.

Poor black folks looking for a better and freer life came by the tens of thousands, and changed the culture. Polish migrants started up neighborhoods like Hamtramck down by the Dodge Main plant. German tradesmen, who built little engineering companies and machine shops to feed into the growing car industry, found the surrounding rural areas of Michigan to be very much like the old country. All of these and more added to the mix of culture. It was an old, and graceful place.

 

Fast forward 30 years, and in the same neighborhood my friend Scott Asheton is driving through west Detroit with friends. They are headed back to Ann Arbor late one night having been at a party in Windsor on the Canadian side. After crossing the Ambassador Bridge, the streets seem deserted at 2am. Guys are smoking cigarettes, and the car is stopped at a light with the window down. Out of nowhere, another car roars up, screeches to a stop. Guys jump out, doors slam.

A guy with a nylon stocking over his head walks right up to the drivers side window, pulls out a 9mm automatic pistol, points it at Scotty, screaming at him to “Get out of the fucking car!!!” Scotty, reacting instantly, slams his foot down on the gas pedal and smoked the tires getting out of there.

Just as he hits the accelerator the guy pulls the trigger, shoots Scotty in the head. Blood is everywhere, spattering the inside of the old Dodge, but Scotty keeps going, hauling ass up to the 94 on ramp. Only a little later do they check the wound, and find out the bullet seriously grazed his scalp, cracked his skull but didn't take out any gray matter. Scotty’s amazing luck was a matter of a split second and less than an inch. One of the greatest rock drummers of all time, Rock Action of the Stooges, was that close to getting killed that night.

They go directly to the hospital. Scotty tells me that later he found out it was an undercover cop and a case of mistaken identity.

The last time I saw Tiger Stadium was around Christmas few years ago. I was back in Detroit on tour with the Last of The Bad Men, and we played at the Lager House, a small bar on Michigan Ave a couple of blocks east of Trumbull. Scott Morgan's hard rock outfit Powertrane, from Ann Arbor was the headliner.

 
Tiger Stadium was a sad, ominous and deserted hulking monolith, looming darkly above the snow covered street. Luckily it was too cold out for the local crackheads and dealers to plague us. The Lager House was mostly deserted until a couple of busloads of Santa Clauses piled in. At least a hundred Santas appeared ... had the buses come down from the North Pole??

There were Santas of every shape and description. There were even fetching Santa's Helper chicks in short sexy Santa skirts and fishnet stockings. They all made a noisy racket, drank hard for about half an hour and then suddenly disappeared out into the snow. This left the band with the impression that we had been hallucinating, but it was true. A drinking bus tour of Detroit bars made up of people in Santa suits, bizarre as that may seem, had made a stop there.

The next time I went to The Corner, about a year later, Tiger Stadium was gone ..... gone forever, as were the times that it lived in. I wrote it into the song “Pine Box”, one of the laments I recorded on the recent “Detroit” album.

★Deniz Tek, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a prolific guitarist, singer and songwriter currently based in Sydney, Australia. His career in music, grounded in late-60's Detroit, extends through several decades and across continents. He is best known as a founding member of the influential Australian independent rock band Radio Birdman.

In 2007, Deniz was inducted into the Australian Music Hall of Fame, and in 2012 was voted number 7 in the top 100 Australian guitarists of all time.★



3.04.2014

SONICS RENDEZVOUS BAND: DENIZ TEK PART TWO


Ron and I began to work on songs and were often hanging out at his Mom's house on Highlake Rd on the west end of Ann Arbor, where he was living. Ron had contact with some other local musicians, and was trying to put something together. This was before Destroy All Monsters, and not too long after the New Order. We would sit in the TV room (the TV was on continuously) and have drinks until 4 or 5 AM, and go down to the basement to jam.

 
There was a singer in Ypsilanti...a bit too much of a "rock god" type for me, and Rob King who would later drum in Destroy All Monsters, and Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson, from the MC5, who was living in downriver Detroit.

 
Dennis was with Ron in the New Order, and would be part of our New Race project in 1981. We jammed with Dennis a few times, and made some tapes.


Wayne Kramer had just gotten out of prison, and came by while we were jamming in a studio and making tapes. He was doing something with Brits Mick Farren from the Deviants, and Larry Wallis guitarist of the Pink Fairies. Soon after that Wayne would form Gang War with Johnny Thunders, more or less a debacle in which Thunders was usually too smashed to play, but it still offered a good opportunity to see the great Wayne Kramer at very small clubs.


Here, at last, was the energy source. It seems that it never dies, but like an artesian water source it sometimes goes underground and reappears later, elsewhere. It can have multiple tributaries and it needs to be replenished from time to time, not just taken from. You take, but you have to give back. It goes on.
 

I would see Sonics Rendezvous as often as possible from then on. I was collecting tons of raw inspirational material to take back with me to Radio Birdman. In all the shows I went to, that was always foremost in my mind. There had been no mentors .. not even peers … for a long time. No one to gain knowledge from. No one to inspire my muse.

 
Radio Birdman was completely and utterly isolated in the first months of 1976. Staying on that island without contact for too long could have caused the inspiration to fade, dry up, blow away. The vision could lose clarity, dissipate.


My band had not yet achieved full power, and I knew I needed new influences to help it go to the next level. For me, Sonics Rendezvous made the difference. It was like finding a clear cold mountain spring in a trackless desert.

By around February (1976) it was time to return from the Michigan snow to the blast furnace heat of Sydney. In those days the transpacific routes were mostly flown by DC-10s or early model 747s which had to make one refueling stop between LA and Sydney. Continental stopped in Samoa, Qantas stopped in Fiji, and United stopped in Honolulu.


I flew on all these routes, whatever ticket was the cheapest at the time. I was able usually to write material for songs on these long tedious flights, so as to make some productive use of the time. Sometimes I'd get off for a couple of days in these places and look around. I had a friend in Honolulu, John Berger, and sometimes we would go into town and see bands in between these flights.


Once I stopped in Fiji and hitchhiked into the countryside, wandered off the road into the jungle and enjoyed generous hospitality in a small village. Guys spent evenings listening to the radio, playing cards and drinking raw grey muddy kava juice ... the chief was all too happy for this skinny white guy with a guitar to join in the circle and share some laughs as the kava bowl got passed around.

epilogue
Arriving in Sydney I went straight over to Radio Birdman manager George Kringas' house in Blues Point. I wanted to get back into rehearsals and get ready to record. I got a shock when I went to the bathroom. There was a dead lamb in the bathtub that seemed to be staring at me. Band sidekick Mark Sisto had bought it. It was waiting in the bath because of drainage, later to be roasted on a spit, for my homecoming party that night.

READ PART ONE DENIZ TEK SEES SRB 

★Deniz Tek, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a prolific guitarist, singer and songwriter currently based in Sydney, Australia. His career in music, grounded in late-60's Detroit, extends through several decades and across continents. He is best known as a founding member of the influential Australian independent rock band Radio Birdman.

In 2007, Deniz was inducted into the Australian Music Hall of Fame, and in 2012 was voted number 7 in the top 100 Australian guitarists of all time.★




2.23.2014

DENIZ TEK: SONICS RENDEZVOUS BAND, 1976 PART ONE

copyright photography Robert Matheu - robertmatheu.com
SONICS RENDEZVOUS BAND, 1976
AUTHOR: DENIZ TEK
PHOTOS: ROBERT MATHEU
            JOE RUFFNER

I was visiting home in Ann Arbor, taking a break from working with my own group, Radio Birdman, in Sydney. My brother Kurt and I were having drinks in an awful student bar on Maynard, and we were talking about the pathetic state of music now compared to the "good old days". We walked out into the bitterly cold street where I noticed a handbill sized gig poster. It was advertising a gig by a band called "Sonics Rendezvous Band", and there was a photo of these guys...

copyright photography Robert Matheu - robertmatheu.com

Rock Action,from the Stooges; Fred Smith, from the MC5; Scott Morgan, from the Rationals; Gary Rasmussen, from the Up. I knew all about them from the old days...what Michigan had been to rock and roll music six or seven years earlier, which I had thought was totally lost now. This would be worth checking out. Some of the old fire might still be alive.

The gig was at the "Roadhouse", a blue collar Michigan bar and restaurant about 10 miles north of town off US23 (Whitmore Lake). It was on for that night and the gig had already started. I knew these guys had all been great in the past, and could be great now. We got in my brother's green '72 Olds Cutlass "S", and he gunned the big block V8.

Deniz Tek with Fred's former Epiphone Crestwood Deluxe guitar

We headed up snowy North Main St, over the river bridge leaving town, on to 23 and north a couple of exits, across North Territorial, off at the top of the hill, across old Whitmore Lake Rd. and pulled up in the parking lot. We went in. The place held about 40 or fifty people, mostly sitting around at tables. There was a small empty dance floor and dim lighting.


The band was playing. Immediately, it held a great fascination for me. They were better than I had hoped. As players, they were technically solid. As a unit, they had fused into something magical. There was Fred, playing his 12 string Rick (strung with six), through an old Fender Twin through a Marshall 4x12 cab. Set against and within the bedrock rhythm background of the band, his solos were the most fluid and original I had heard since Hendrix.


His playing had progressed beyond his time in the MC5. In those days he had already started work on transcribing legendary jazz sax solos to guitar, and adapting them to rock music. He had come much closer now to perfecting this idea...starting with Coltrane, Shepp and Lester Bowie but ending up with something entirely of his own. Scott Morgan with his old Telecaster, was the perfect sixties rhythm and blues foil to Freds' experimentalist approach.

copyright photography Robert Matheu - robertmatheu.com

Morgan had the great white R&B shout, as good but more subtle than Mitch Ryder. He could hit all the notes, with incredible timing and sense of cool. For my money, the three greatest white R&B singers were all from the Detroit area: Rob Tyner, Mitch, and Scott Morgan.


Fred had an element of Bob Dylan in his voice as well. Scotty "Rock Action" Asheton had his simple Ludwig kit, beating it and the locality to submission, shaking the building with sheer brute force, but with split-atom accuracy. Every member was totally focused and were simultaneously deep in the moment while lost in nothingness.

They had achieved "loose tightness"...a term Ron Asheton used to describe the impossibly elusive balance of freedom and spontaneity yet being in the pocket. I could feel it instinctively....I abandoned myself to the sound and the look of it. I danced. I laughed. I absorbed every beat of it.


During a break between sets I talked to them a little. Fred was very polite and reserved, preferring to just sit there, bourbon and cigarette in hand, observing, thinking, but saying only an occasional word or two here and there.

 Scott,Gary, Fred and Rock  
copyright photography Robert Matheu - robertmatheu.com

Scott Asheton was Rock Action. The world famous tattoo was there. His persona initially seems intimidating. I found out later this fearsome initial impression shields a rather shy spirit with a quiet, intelligent sense of humor. Gary Rasmussen sat casually smoking, was friendly and seemed to find everything amusing. Morgan was the most approachable and happy to hold a conversation.

I left them to their break after a few minutes and went to the bar to get a drink. Coming back to find my brother, I recognized Ron Asheton at a table by himself, a Seagrams Seven and soda in front of him, smoking a Lucky through an aquafilter cigarette holder. Like something in a movie rather than real. He had on those trademark aviator glasses, and sported a full length black leather SS officers greatcoat.

 
I had seen him in the band in 1969 and on the album covers ... he was a little bit heavier now, but instantly recognizable. I went right over to him and said hi, and became an autograph hound, asking him to sign one of the Roadhouse drink menus for me. I was going to give it to Rob Younger as a gift when I got back to Sydney.  STAY TUNED FOR PART 2

Deniz Tek photo: Anne Laurent

★Deniz Tek, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a prolific guitarist, singer and songwriter currently based in Sydney, Australia. His career in music, grounded in late-60's Detroit, extends through several decades and across continents. He is best known as a founding member of the influential Australian independent rock band Radio Birdman.

In 2007, Deniz was inducted into the Australian Music Hall of Fame, and in 2012 was voted number 7 in the top 100 Australian guitarists of all time.★



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