More about Trios
Morphine was not the first sax/bass/drum trio. Anyone knows who read Sub Pop fanzine, or went to clubs in the early 80's in Milwaukee, Madison, or Chicago: the Oil Tasters were first. I moved from Wisconsin to Georgia when I was 17, and I only got to see the Oil Tasters live once. They were on PBS in Milwaukee once too; I wonder if anyone has the footage of them performing "My Girlfriend's Ghost". The Oil Tasters also covered Hot Chocolate's "Emma" years before Urge Overkill.Dave Lang righted a wrong in 2005 when his Lexicon Devil label reissued the Oil Tasters LP (first released on San Francisco’s Thermidor label in 1982). Apparently Henry Rollins was going to release the CD on his label before it went under.
Bassist/singer Richard LaValliere was originally a member of Milwaukee band the Haskells, who get a lot of attention from Killed by Death and Collector Scum types. After the Oil Tasters, Richard moved to NY and started a band (called the Brooklyn Cowboys, I think). Sax player Caleb Alexander assisted in the CD reissue, but I don’t know what he’s up to musically. The Oil Tasters’ drummer, Guy Hoffman, joined the BoDeans, around the same time that the Embarrassment’s drummer joined the similarly inferior Del Fuegos. Hoffman went on to play with the Violent Femmes.
This track isn’t on the Lexicon Devil CD. It was originally on a compilation cassette released through my fanzine. You should buy the Oil Tasters’ CD (from Midheaven or Forced Exposure). If you were a fan of the Milwaukee music scene, check out the compilation History in Three Chords. There you can hear Kevn Kinney’s first band, the Prosecutors, plus lots of other good stuff.
Oil Tasters: Chinese Vacation
3 Comments:
Hey Jon - Cool blog - I like the concept. Anyway: even better, an Oil Tasters song I haven't heard of.
Thanks for visiting! I wish someone would do an AMA-Dots compilation. I bet Bill Stace has some good tapes...
If you want to hear and see the Oil Tasters & The Ama-dots go to Milwaukeerockposters.com.
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