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".

HERE IS DENNIS THOMPSON'S DODGE MAIN STORY

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!!!!

LETS ALL VOTE FOR THE MC5 2017 ROCK HALL OF FAME INDUCTION!!!

GREAT News from AP just came in today that the Cleveland Rock Hall of Fame has once again nominated the Mighty MC5!!

The number of punk fans who can ID an MC5 song that doesn't begin with a profanity-laden promise of jam-kicking-out is ever-dwindling, but they still feel Important -- one of the defining names of proto-punk -- and no one would be tremendously surprised to find out they'd been a down-ballot inductee a decade ago without anyone really noticing. The Stooges are already in and the New York Dolls haven't been nominated in 15 years, the MC5 seems like a solid pick here.

VOTE FOR THE MC5 HERE

Legendary Drummer Dennis Thompson feels it is a great honor to be nominated with all the many greats of rock and roll history!

So all of you legions of MC5 fans get on all of your devices and let's share this story world wide... VOTE FOR THE MC5!!!!

AND A BIG SHOUT OUT TO HBO, MICK JAGGER, MARTY SCORSESE, AND TERENCE WINTER FOR USING KICKING OUT THE JAMS ON VINYL!!!
Read MORE

WAYNE KRAMER NEW LP LEXINGTON: JOSH DAUNT WJRT

 

Our pal, Josh Daunt of WJRT Channel 12 sent this in today and it is so good we had to share...

MID-MICHIGAN (WJRT) -

(04/18/14) - "Never had more fun, it was a complete ball," guitarist Wayne Kramer says with a smile as he reflects on the studio experience of recording his new free jazz album Lexington, which is being released on Record Store Day, Saturday, April 19th.

"It all came together really easily and really naturally. This is not the kind of music that I want to tell people what to play. I just kinda want to give them a sketch, an outline and then let them play it how they feel it. This is feeling music, it's natural feeling music."

ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MI

While the legendary guitarist from Detroit band MC5 may have set aside his rock n roll past for this project, he certainly kept his roots close to home when choosing the musicians he worked with. Some of the Detroit musicians Kramer brought in for Lexington include former Motown session trombonist Phil Ranelin, multi-instrumentalist Ralph "Buzzy" Jones, percussionist Brock Avery and bassist Bob Hurst. But his primary support came from an old friend, Dr. Charles Moore, whom Wayne has worked with for decades, since Moore arranged the horn parts on the 1971 MC5 album High Time.

"We've been playing together for a long, long, long time. And it turns out that here we all are living in southern California. Dr. Moore had been out here since the late '70s, and there was a few other great Detroit musicians out here. It was just a natural fit."

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Click the Icon to download Chasing a Fire Engine

THE STORY OF GANG WAR BY RON COOKE!

It was sometime after I had left the Sonic Rendezvous band that I got a call from a local music promoter with and interesting idea. As the conversation grew it became clear to me that this would be and opportunity to experience something tantamount to the big bang theory.

Seems Johnny Thunders was going to be in the metro area for a few show's with the Heartbreakers so I agreed to become witness to this musical black hole. As time passed Johnny had taken a liking to the scene here and decided to hang around for awhile. The promoter had convinced JT that maybe he should try changing his habits and he agreed.

The conversion of Johnny Thunders had begun. In a remote house out side of Ann Arbor Michigan. The plan was hatched to clean JT up and build a new band around his style of rock & roll. The first call went out to Wayne Kramer of the MC5 fame, myself, Scott Morgan's brother Johnny Morgan to play drum's what was to become known as the Gang War Band.

We rehearsed in this remote place and I spent a lot of time with JT. I noticed as time went by that he became healthier looking and added some weight on and his eyes were clearer. So were hanging out one day and JT says Ronnie can you take me to town I haven't seen any concrete in weeks. I laughed out loud that this wylie New York cat was freaking out.

We decided to play a show to see how it would go. I went downtown A2 to a non descriptive bar that was the local watering hole for some of the city's finest drunks you know the kind of place dark smokey and some strange smells. I inquired of the owner who by chance was from my home hood that I hadn't seen in years if we could set up and play the place.

He said we can't pay ya anything. I said fine just get some more table's in here. Come's the day of the show with just a few random call's and word of mouth the bar owner call's and says his phone is ringing off the hook about tonight's gig. This place had never seen live music and it wasn't a place that most would ever enter due to it's extreme funkiness.

Well as the pressure was building up and a galactic shift in the universe is about to pop. The line of people is around the corner and down the block. The noise in the place from the chatter of the crowd was deafening. The band comes up from the cellar and begins to peal the wall paper with a sonic blast. Johnny reached up and caught his guitar neck in the ceiling tile pulling it loose.

He decided to swing from the ceiling support's like something out of a Tarzan movie and bam down come's the whole ceiling in the place all forty foot of it on the crowd, the bartender's and the waitresses. The place goes nuts. Ceiling tiles are flying around as if a hurricane was in progress beautiful I thought complete havoc. We didn't hang around long after that.

The owner was pissed off but here's the real deal... that sh*t hole collected it's insurance money swept the place out build a permanent stage and had a 25 year run as the place to play in Ann Arbor. After that I guess you could say we put the STAR in the Star Bar. And it still shines today even though they bulldozed the place and put up a parking lot.

WR COOKE

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON RETROKIMMER.COM

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".

HERE IS DENNIS THOMPSON'S DODGE MAIN STORY

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

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.★

DENIZ TEK OFFICIAL WEB PAGE

DENIZ TEK FACEBOOK

MC5'S WAYNE KRAMER ON A BAND CALLED DEATH

Written by RetroKimmer

I did some work for the Death Band when they first reunited in 2009. I made their first blog page and taught them a bit about social networking. They took it from there and have done a fantastic job..There is a documentary about them.. A Band Called Death. Death was the first black punk band in Detroit in 1974.

Back in 2009, I played their music for Dennis Thompson and he really liked it but had never heard of them...I often wondered what Wayne thought of them.

Just now I saw a deleted scene from the Death Band documentary and Wayne Kramer says it very well..(as usual!)...

Retrokimmer is a successful writer, show promoter and new media agent. Kimmer’s blog, Retrokimmer.com, is about pop culture and it’s retro evolution into today’s hottest trends. She loves blogging about music, art, scandals, crime, stars, books, history and more...