The Boston Beat

Part Two of Interview with singer/songwriter of the Psychopaths David Arvedon who had a hit in 1967 with "Til The Stroke Of Dawn" a song about Count Dracula. Since then he's recorded a series of LP's & CD's under the Psychopaths name, including "We Lurk", "The White Album", "It Gets Weirder" & most recently "Crabbey Road". 

Part One of 2 part interview with singer/songwriter of the Psychopaths David Arvedon who had a hit in 1967 with "Til The Stroke Of Dawn" a song about Count Dracula. Since then he's recorded a series of LP's & CD's under the Psychopaths name, including "We Lurk", "The White Album", "It Gets Weirder" & most recently "Crabbey Road". 

Interview with the guitarist and bassist and founding member of Fox Pass.

Macey formed Fox Pass in 1972, while still in high school, when he had switched to bass and singing, and met guitarist Mike Roy. The band’s name was a Zappa influence, as it’s a play on words for “faux pas.” and the band’s sound moved into the realms of power pop. The local hit “I Believed” was released, but no record deal followed.

In the late 1970s, Macey and Mike Roy left for New York to join up with Tom Dickie and The Desires, with Macey back on bass. That resulted in a couple of recordings on Mercury, and opening on tours with Cheap Trick and Humble Pie, but it was Dickie’s band, and Macey was relegated to backup vocals.

These days Macey plays with Hummingbird Syndicate, several recordings have been released, & again heads up the newest lineup of Fox Pass.

Interview with Nick Carstoiu, Lead singer & Guitarist from The Freeborne. 

The Freeborne was organized from the remnants of two local frat rock groups, the Indigos and the Missing Links. The two groups performed covers of Top 40 radio hits, but key players sought to move on from both bands in hopes of penning original material. From the two bands, the lineup of the Freeborne, a name inspired by the film Born Free, consisted of Bob Margolin (lead guitar), Dave Codd (bass guitar, vocals) Nick Carstoiu (lead singer, rhythm guitar, keyboards), Lew Lipson (drums), and Mike Spiros (keyboards, trumpet), In early 1967, the band began playing at music clubs and fraternities before attracting the interest of Barry Richards, a blues musician who, through his connections with the New York-based Monitor Records, had the Freeborne signed to a recording contract.

The album that resulted was titled Peak Impressions. Despite the Freeborne's age range—between ages 17 and 19—the group featured three capable multi-instrumentalists, who played a wide variety of orchestral instruments including piano, harpsichord, cello, trumpet, flute, and recorder. 

The album was released in mid-1967 to moderate success on the East coast. It's now a highly sought after collectors LP.

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Interview with Ted & Kyle from the group which was recorded at the same reunion interview session as the Lost at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge, MA.  Here they talk about forming  Chamaeleon Church & Ted talks about his time later playing with Ultimate Spinach.  There are comments from Willie & Walter from the Lost as well.

The Lost broke up in early 1967, Ted Myers, who had been the leader and main songwriter for the band, moved to New York City, where he was soon signed as a songwriter to the publishing company of producer Alan Lorber. Lorber had an ongoing deal with M-G-M Records and told Myers that, as soon as he formed a band, they could record an album. Anxious to fulfill his dream of making his first full length album (The Lost had only released a few singles, although they had recorded an album’s worth of material for Capitol), Myers recruited Tony Scheuren (his new writing partner) on guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals, Kyle Garrahan (formerly of The Lost) on lead guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals and Chevy Chase (whom Myers had met while visiting Bard College several years earlier and who, of course, went on to comedy stardom on Saturday Night Live and in many films) on drums and keyboards.

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Interview with 4 members of The Lost at a reunion lunch several years ago at the Charles Hotel In Cambridge.  They formed at Goddard College in Plainfield, VT, its members — Willie Alexander (vocals, keyboard, percussion), Ted Myers (guitar, vocals), Kyle Garrahan (lead guitar, vocals), Walter Powers III (bass, organ, vocals) and Lee Mason (drums, percussion) — dropping out out to play professionally in Boston after their first semester playing together. They became one of the top local bands in Boston during 1965 and 1966, playing most of the clubs, like the Rathskeller, Where It’s At and, as their final gig in Boston, inaugurating The Boston Tea Party in early 1967. They also opened for many major artists, including James Brown, Sonny & Cher, the Supremes, the Shirelles and Jr. Walker & The All Stars. They toured the East Coast with the Beach Boys in the spring of 1966. The Lost were signed by Capitol Records in late 1965 and released three singles: “Maybe More Than You”/”Backdoor Blues,” which charted locally and received substantial airplay in New England and upstate New York, and two versions of “Violet Gown,” with two different B-sides. The first release was backed with “Mean Motorcycle” and was recalled by Capitol. The band then re-recorded it with producer Jerry Keller and the second version was released, backed with an instrumental version of “No Reason Why,” about a month later. 

Sadly, Kyle Garrahan passed away January 5, 2019 at age 72. 

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Part 2 of the interview with Dick Weisberg,  the drummer from The Beacon Street Union, one of the 3, along with Orpheus & Ultimate Spinach, known as the main "Bosstown Sound" labeled bands. Formed in the summer of  1966, the band lineup was Keyboardist Bob (Rhodes) Rosenblatt, Wayne Ulaky on  bass,  John Lincoln Wright  on vocals, Paul Tartachny on guitar, and Dick Weisberg on drums. They played many gigs throughout the country featuring  some originals & British blues covers of American blues classics. The band was also  initially heavily influenced by The Yardbirds’ Little Games album and the exploration of “psychedelic” sounds. This episode features songs from their two critically acclaimed LP's "The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union" & "The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens".   

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Boston Tea Party Dedication Ceremony hosted by Gary Sohmers featuring speeches & interviews with Peter Wolf, Tim Jackson, Dinky Dawson & others. 

MMONE celebrated the 40th anniversary of The Boston Tea Party, the legendary 1960s rock ballroom, with a gathering of 100 Boston-area music people on 1/24/17. At that event The Bostonian Society unveiled an historical marker to be placed on the building at 53 Berkeley Street (at the corner of Appleton Street in the South End) which was the original home of the Tea Party. Since 1907 the Society has placed over 140 markers at historic sites, and this was the first time a music venue was so honored. To read what the marker says, click on the green image below.

The event was held next door at 41 Berkeley Street, in the lobby of the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology. In addition to the marker, highlights of the ceremony included Don Law’s tales of the Tea Party; a statement by Peter Wolf, and the presentation of a generous donation to MMONE by concert memorabilia collector and archivist David Swartz. The “good vibes” evident that day reminded everyone of the atmosphere that made the Tea Party such a special place.

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Interview with Dave Kinsman, drummer for ILL Wind. Boston-based ILL Wind was a familiar band on the college and teen dance circuit in New England and New York during the sixties and early seventies.  The first incarnation featured Ken Frankel on lead guitar, Richard Griggs on guitar, Carey Mann on bass, local folksinger, Judy Bradbury, on lead vocals and Dave Kinsman on drums. The band originally mixed folk/rock and bluegrass. As the band evolved into psychedelia and blues, Judy left the band and was replaced by Conny Devanney who had been singing in New York City and Jersey Shore clubs. The band had three lead singers, three songwriters and their songs started to feature complex three part harmonies and long instrumental jams.

Interview features clips from their classic 1968 ABC LP release "Flashes". 

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 Part Two of an interview with singer, guitarist, writer of Orpheus. Between 1967 and 1969 this Boston-based soft-rock quartet recorded three well-received albums for MGM, but rose above the label’s hype of the so-called “Bosstown Sound,” a promotion conceived by producer Alan Lorber. The Orpheus lineup included singer/guitarists Bruce Arnold and Jack McKennes, originally a folk duo from Worcester called The Villagers, plus bassist Eric “The Snake” Gulliksen and drummer Harry Sandler. Episode credits: