The third wave Continued

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Gary Lupico - Keyboard, Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Vocals

Jeff Benick - Drums

Russell Sherman Jr. - Bass

Brian Cox - Lead Guitar, Rythym Guitar, Vocals

Dan Morris - Steel Guitar

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One of the greatest bars I have ever been in was called Otto Mosers. And if you ask anyone from Cle if they agree, you will see a lot of hands. The place was a 100 years old. You went downstairs and pissed in ice filled urinals cause the water didn't flow down there right. The place was full of steam. Steam filled with the aroma of corned beef briskets and steam coming off those pissed on ice cubes. James and Odell and Scotty would carry those briskets by, down the length of the bar, to the meat cutter by the front window. There they would slice out and prepare the best sandwiches this town has known. People out on the street, E.4th St. (a narrow, pedestrian crowded street..maybe 120 feet long....cutting through between two major downtown avenues....alive with wig shops and trash dollar stores before the current version of those existed), would stare in the greasy window at the beautiful meat. It was always loud inside Mosers. Barmaids shouting out orders from the tables, barkeeps calling out names for the telephone. And laughter. Plenty of laughter. Mosers was open only from lunch to about 6pm. There only to serve the downtown workforce. But for a brief moment, they decided to try a few live bands on Saturday nights. Mosers attracted a greatly varied clientel, and a chunk of that was many underground Cleveland musicians. I can't believe that there was more than 3 or 4 shows before the idea was abandoned. I know the Witch Hunters did a gig there and I was fortunate to have played there with the 2 Bobs. But the band that felt the most natural within those walls was California Speedbag. I saw them there twice, and in my mind, the best shows they ever played. I saw them many times elsewhere, but never as magical as they were at Mosers. The 'Bag performed like a heaveyweight prize fighter, returning home to defend his new found title. Sometimes, it all comes together and happily drunken, I was there when it did.

Cheese Borger

Dave Atkins - Vocals (lead)

Tom Fallon - Guitar (lead)

Sam Petrello - Drums

Jim Wilson - Keyboards

Jeff Herwick - Bass

Dave Swanson - Drums

Larry Lewis - Bass

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"If your gonna drink and drive...drink that Jaegermister" There was a time when Dave Atkins drank. Beer. Not that that was necessarily a good or bad thing - just a fact.

I loved the Witch Hunters and when I moved down to Columbus in '86, a guy I knew here and I brought them and D.O.S. to Stache's a coupla times. Both occasions kind of blend, so I'll just pretend it was one long night. 

Now, Staches used to have this long bar and a short wall/counter that ran parallel with it so that people could sit and drink and watch the band. Ledges and Dave were meant for each other. The Witch Hunters were fantastic and, as he is one to do, Dave left the stage during an instrumental break and prowled around, mic chord snaking behind. Vocals started up again and Dave was singing from the top of the bar, walking about 4 feet above the ground. As he approached the end of the bar nearest the stage... WHACK...the ceiling fan slammed into his forehead like a propeller. Of course Dave just got back on stage and continued singing - blood trickling down his face. 

An after show party was happening at my friend's house, so Dave bought what was probably two postal workers' days pay worth of beer and we headed out. (Ironically, the next time I tried to convince the club owner to bring 'em down again he said "We never really sell much beer when they play here.") Approaching the house, somehow, Dave noticed an opossum, dead, "with some green stuff comin' outta its ass". Dave naturally invited the critter into the party, where it had an honored place on a chair. 

I lived south of downtown and a bunch of people were staying the night. Directions were given and everyone arrived except for Dave, who was driving by himself. It got later and later, and people finally found enough floorspace to crash. Still no Atkins. About 7:00 or 8:00 am and there's a knock on the door. Dave comes in and tells us that he somehow ended up in Alton, OH where the only thing there was "a cow patch and a strip joint." For years, I could never find Alton on a map and I'm still a little unsure of its existence.

Val Seeley - Vocal (lead)

Tim Alee - Bass

Lair Lewis - Lead Guitar

Alan McGinty - Drums

Bob Richey - Drums

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Lurid, a punk band from Cleveland, Ohio was formed in 1984. Tim Allee, original bass player and song writer for the Pagans heard Val singing at a friends home studio and suggested they start a band. Val Seeley (former Manager, promoter, and booking agent for The Agora, Pirates Cove, The Pop Shop and others) was all for it. 

Tim wrote the music on an old acoustic guitar and Val the Lyrics. They practiced that way until they had a few songs together. Songs including:“Slice of life”, “Waiting”, & “Don’t Ask” Tim named the band Lurid. It suited the intense songs. At that point Tim got ahold of longtime friend Lair Lewis (Faith Academy) and he became the guitar player. He also wrote the music for a couple of more songs “Mexico” and “Airbag”. They tried out the songs in Lair’s basement at “Aldo Farms” on Cleveland's East Side. 

Needing a drummer Val suggested Alan McGinty. He was the drummer for the Wild Giraffes. More practice sessions in Lair’s basement and they were ready for a gig. Their first gig was in Columbus, Ohio opening up for “Ronald Kole and the Trillionaires”. They thought that they would try it out under the radar before doing a Cleveland show. It didn’t work out that way, a horde of Cleveland friends and fans came down and the place was hopping and drama ensued.

Back in Cleveland they did their first gig at Biggie’s in the flats. The “Idiot Humans” a great Cleveland punk band joined the bill. Thanks to Alan they went on to record at Beat Farm and got a tape together. They got some college radio air play and played WRUW’s live at Studio A. They played around Cleveland and Kent headlining and opening for bands like Flipper and The Replacements. They also did a couple of shows at CBGB’s in New York. Alan left the band a few months in and they tried out a couple of drummers until Bob Richey (guitar player for The Pink Holes) joined the band as the new drummer. After the last CBGB’s show the band “imploded” quote by Tim Allee.

20 years later Bob Richey had moved to California. He plays the Lurid cassette at a party. Frank, owner of SmogVeil Records is there. With much effort by many people especially Alan McGinty and Gary Lupico (California Speedbag) a Lurid CD and digital content comes out on SmogVeil Records. Thanks to all involved! It was a task getting those tracks off of old obsolete tapes. Thanks Frank. SmogVeil got a lot of Cleveland Music out there for posterity.

Tommy Dark - Vocals
Charlie Ditteaux - Bass
Scott Eakin - Lead Guitar
Anthony Petti - Drums 

RJ Perkins - Drums
Randy Primozic - Lead Guitar, Vocal (backing)
Larry Lewis - Rhythm Guitar, Vocal (lead)
Tim Allee - Bass, Vocal (backing)
Tom Fallon - Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Vocal (backing)

Jim Sleath - Vocal (lead)

Rich DeMarco - Drums

Garth - Bass

Alex Strouhal - Lead Guitar

Corky Hamilton - Rhythm Guitar

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This story doesn't have anything to do with the band civilian terrorist per say.....but since we used the name of the band within the framework of this story I thought I'd tell it here. We were 3 punks living in a small double house in Ohio City on Bridge Ave. it was 1987.

Jim "Schaefer" Murphy, "Communist" Dan Lessin and myself, Grimm, We had gotten bored with life in Cleveland and decided to pack all our things into Jimbo's Van and move to California. Our first Stop on this journey was in Chicago Ill. where we stopped to visit with ex-Clevelander Harry Parrish from S.O.P. (sociopaths on parade) we stayed with harry and his girlfriend for a few days and had a good time in Chicago, upon leaving, Harry gave us a name and address of a punk he knew of in Des Moines Iowa, he told us they had a "crash house" where bands on tour often stayed the night and we should look them up and so we continued our Journey, When we got to Des Moines we stopped at the address Harry had given us and asked for the person harry told us about, well a roommate told us that this particular person was at work and he told us how to get there, so we drove on and met with this person (no longer remember their name) at their place of work, we told her we had gotten her name and address from Harry and that he said we might be able to stay a couple of days, we told her we were from Cleveland and all and she asked us if we were in a band, Jimbo spoke up right away Saying Yeah we are in the band "Civilian Terrorists" worried that we might not have a place to stay if we weren't in a band, we elaborated on the story a bit since the Compilation album "Death" had just come out with on of CT's songs on it, well Jim didn't have to stretch the truth all that far (other than the fact we weren't in CT at all) his ex-Girlfriend at the time (her name was Julie) had written the lyrics to that particular song on the Album "Image of you I'm Not".....anyway we got to stay at the house for awhile and met a lot of cool people in the scene from Ill. so a special thanks to the Actual band members of CT for having no say in us using your band name for personal gain.

Grimm 

Doug Gillard - Lead Guitar

Fraser Sims - Vocal

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If you are in possession of the Children's Crusade cassette, it's likely the only version of it that will ever be released. Gillard told me the eight songs on it were recorded in some guy's home made studio that used two four tracks that had to be sync'd to make eight tracks; so the original recording, if it still exists, cannot be easily replayed.

CC didn't play out much. I only recall one show at the Cleveland Underground; the photo on this site appears to be from the Subterranean Underground.

Anonymous