Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic

Discoveries of a Pop Music Archaeologist

Month: December 2015

"Back to Tennessee"
Zeroto180

(Inter) Galactic Twist Queens

One of my mom’s neighbors and good friends was present at the founding of Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen and served as part of an accompanying group of renegade (redundant?) performance artists — agents of history who helped to generate the band’s initial buzz.  Yet, their story remains

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"One (Love)"
Zeroto180

Early 90s Pop Dub (Plus Sax)

Post-Fern (and pre-Zero to 180), Chris Richardson would pursue a teaching degree at (pre-“The”) Ohio State University, while enjoying the process of multi-track recording on a roommate’s Fostex 4-track “mini studio.”  Future Fern manager and musician-in-training, Tom Newbold, would attend the same university and once arrange for a group of

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"No Reaction"
Zeroto180

Bachelors of Art: Married to Music

The dissolution of Cincinnati’s The Ferns by 1985 would find Rick Mosher in common cause with keyboardist Tim Miller (ex-Dog Pound).  Rick & Tim’s new musical unit would play out live around town – but eventually grow weary of Cincinnati’s fairly provincial views with regard to modern sounds in popular

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"Every"
Zeroto180

6/9 Chords, Maj 7ths, and Tritones

With the departure of founding members, Michael Andrew Frank & Keith Bortz, and the arrival of the two Ricks — Mosher & Haller — plus new drummer, Bob Mitchell, who was (get this) from a different high school, The Max had evolved into The Ferns.by 1983, most historians would agree,

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"Unnamed Instrumental"
Zeroto180

Maximum Schlock & Roll

Drummer Keith Bortz of The Max – formerly Max and the Bluegills – was instrumental (so to speak) in getting permission to stage a concert in the group’s high school auditorium on a Friday afternoon in April, 1981.  Students were gouged at the door — one-dollar admission!  Cannot recall whether

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"I Think I Love You"
Zeroto180

Early 80s Cincinnati Power Ballad

If it’s true that Aerosmith invented the “power ballad” in 1973 with their prom-rock classic, “Dream On,” then let history take note that Cincinnati teen rockers – Max & the Bluegills – would enter a sound studio eight years later to record their own aching power ballad about unrequited love’s

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"Steel Guitar Rag"
Zeroto180

(Please Not) “Steel Guitar Rag”

Just when you thought you couldn’t take another version of “Steel Guitar Rag” — a song that is widely attributed to Leon McAuliffe but is actually an adaptation of Sylvester Weaver‘s “Guitar Rag” from 1927 [as noted by Deke Dickerson in his Merle Travis biography, Sixteen Tons] — this 1959

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"Steel Guitar Rag"
Zeroto180

Alvino Rey & His Talking Steel Guitar Puppet

Sadly, too many people are unaware that, before Les Paul and his electronic wizardry, steel guitarist bandleader, Alvino Rey, had already developed the prototype for the first modern electric guitar and created the “Sono-Vox,” a precursor to Pete Drake‘s “talk box,” as I learned this past August. Check out the

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"Steel Guitar Chimes"
Zeroto180

Leon’s “Steel Guitar Chimes”

Zero to 180 couldn’t take it any more, so it added a new category – steel guitar – and instantly populated a set of 25 pieces from the past three years [40 items as of January 2023] that feature many of the world’s foremost steel guitarists, including today’s post, which

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"Baja Boot"
Zeroto180

Dune Buggy Racing Instrumentals

Interesting to see Kelly Gordon and (especially) Shorty Rogers attempt to muscle in on the hot rod scene with a late 60s concept album — contemporaneously titled, Bug-In! — that pays musical tribute to the hot rod’s off-road counterpart, the dune buggy.  Gordon and Rogers splurge on a gatefold album

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