RKZ's Great Obscure Band of the Week: The Wildweeds

RandomKoolzip

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Tue Sep-20-05 09:15 PM
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RKZ's Great Obscure Band of the Week: The Wildweeds

Edited on Tue Sep-20-05 09:21 PM by RandomKoolzip

From the website:

"Let me hip you to something that Wildweeds fans already know. All of the Weeds could sing, but three of them-Al Anderson, Ray Zeiner, and Bobby Dudek-could WAIL. Anderson, the lead guitarist and chief songwriter, idolized Ray Charles and evolved a style mixing full-throated gospel shouting with a sometimes smoother approach, a la Percy Mayfield. Zeiner's vocals were rougher, tortured and more urgent-the perfect foil for his Hammond B-3; think Otis Redding on "These Arms Of Mine." Bassist Dudek, blinded at an early age, was a pop evangelist--always ON, always pleading, like Jackie Wilson at fever pitch. The group was completed by Martin "Skip" Yakaitis, the onstage MC/percussionist who lent wry humor to the proceedings, and drummer Andy Lepak, with a sweet. high voice.

Clearly, all this was miles away from Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger, the reigning "tastes" of the day, and even the Weeds couldn't ignore the prevailing pop sensibility entirely. They mixed masterfully-played Hendrix and Beatles covers into live sets that were often mind-bendingly eclectic. But in the studio, when the group joined forces with producer Doc Cavalier (after he inked them to Chicago's Chess label under its Cadet subsidiary), it was a different story, When "No Good To Cry", a searing mix of jazz-inverted guitar chords, thumping bass and swirling Hammond organ topped off by Anderson's white-hot vocal, hit the airwaves in 1967--the year of the Summer Of Love-it was clear that, like Memphians Alex Chilton and Chips Moman with "The Letter" and Detroit's Mitch Ryder with "Sock It To Me, Baby". The Wildweeds and Cavalier had conjured a performance so soulful it transcended genre and race, in the process giving the Eastern U.S. an AM radio smash for the ages."

The WIldweeds were Al Anderson's band before he joined NRBQ (a great, great fucking band worth about ten threads of their own!), but they were more than just a footnote in NRBQ's history. They had a style tand a presence that was so individual, so vital, so life-affirmingly on, that just about everyone I play their tunes for jumps up and goes, "WHO IS THIS?!?"

They played probably the most soulful music to ever come out of Connecticut. The Wildweeds' best songs, "No Good to Cry," and "Someday Morning," remind me of driving around in a beat-up old Volvo with my dad, who knew them personally, spouting off about how incredible they were....here was a band fronted by a white dude who looked like Fatty Arbuckle but sounded like Otis Redding, with a blind guy on bass (!!!) who could also sing his honky ass off. They were all in their teens, but already they sounded like they'd grown up playing juke joints in Memphis or New Orleans. Legendary stuff.

If Al Anderson had gotten a record deal at the right time and place, he would be mentioned in the same breath as Van Morrison: as possibly the finest white soul singer ever birthed.

Collectors of rare 60's rock have treasured the Wildweeds' singles for years, and finally there's a CD out of most of the important stuff (They put out a country-rock album on Vanguard in 69-I have it, it sucks, frankly). You owe it to yourself to hear what I'm all in a lather about....

Here's a video (!!!!!!) of them playing their "psychedelic" song, "I'm Dreaming," from 1968. Bob Dudek, the blind guy, sings lead. It's not all that representative of their best work (which was in more of a Box Tops vein; the Box Tops even covered "No Good to Cry"), but it's still an amazing piece of footage and a smokin' tune in its own right:

http://www.wildweeds.net/movie/

http://www.wildweeds.net/bio.html

Enjoy.