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Inspired by
the Beatles, like a half of million other
boys during that time, and influenced by
his older brother Mike's band (The Luv Me
Nots), classmate and friend Kevin Moore
came and asked me to help him start his
own rock group. He was looking for a
drummer to back his guitar playing. Even
though I had very little experience at the
time, I jumped at the idea of a chance to
make some music. I had an early interest
in drums and had been trying some basic
riffs using just a pair of drumsticks on a
practice pad to some radio tunes like
Hanky Panky and Pretty Woman and got to be
pretty good at keeping a beat.
Thus, the
Sound Society was born in 1966. Needing a
bass player to complete the band, we
enlisted another classmate, Ted Brewer.
He didn't stay long due to lack of
interest and was soon replaced by Jeff
Workman. I'm not sure why he didn't
stick around either, maybe because we
stunk at first, but we then settled on my
cousin Ron. He couldn't play either, but
my uncle was a lawyer and could afford
buying Ron a Gibson bass with a huge amp,
so he automatically was our third and
final bass player.
Kevin and Ron
were the only ones with their own
equipment while I had to beg-borrow-steal
drums from anyone I knew that had a set.
I borrowed from the Luv Me Nots drummer,
Al Sexton (a monster Rogers set in gold
pearl), until Tom Webb practically gave me
his Slingerland set to use for the next
five years.
So, we'd wait
our turn to share the garage and Al's
drums with the Luv Me Nots during that
first year together. We learned a lot
from Kevin's brothers band and learning
the songs by playing 45 records and LP
albums over and over. And just like
taking baby steps, we moved on by
ourselves and improved with every jam
session.
One day while
practicing in the garage during a
rainstorm, we opened the door to let in
some fresh air and were shocked and amazed
that a group of about 60 kids were
standing out in my dad's front yard
listening to us play. It was that day we
realized we needed to get out of the
garage and start playing at dances, battle
of the bands, and parties not to make
money, but just to have fun and an excuse
to get out on weekends.
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Personnel:
Kevin Moore - Lead Guitar
Rick Howard - Drums, Vocals
Ted Brewer - Bass (replaced)
Jeff Workman - Bass (replaced)
Ron Perone - Bass
Mitch Casoleri - Rythmn Guitar (during our
last year when we changed our band name to
PAZ)
Danny Simms - Vocals (PAZ)
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Influences:
Beatles,
Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Rolling
Stones, Troggs and Kingsmen
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Setlist
Sample:
Taxman (Beatles), Fire, Purple Haze, Manic
Depression (Hendrix), Sunshine of Your
Love, Badge, Toad (Cream), and all of the
rest of those cool sock-hop songs like
Gloria, Psycotic Reaction, Louie Louie and
Satisfaction, etc.
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Equipment:
I'm not sure what model of Fender guitars
Kevin used during those days, but I know I
remember seeing him wail on both
Telecasters and Stratocasters plugged into
a Fender amp. Kevin also got to borrow a
Gretsch Country Gentleman a few times that
was simply the Cadillac of its time. I
know he used a home made fuzz box from
shop class while Ron thumped on a Gibson
bass that went through a Sears knock off
Vox-look alike amp which stood 5-feet tall
and sported 6 speakers. I played whatever
drum kit I could get my hands on at the
time which included Sexton's gold pearl
Rogers set or Webb's red metal flake
Slingerland set. All the microphones were
Electrovoice. Some sessions were recorded
on a 3-inch reel-to-reel recorder, but
those tapes have since
disappeared.
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Rehearsal
Space:
We
practiced in our garages until our parents
couldn't stand it anymore. We'd pack up
and move on to the next garage available.
We were truly a garage band in the
beginning. When Mitch Casoleri joined up
in our last year in 1970(PAZ), we managed
to jam in his parents basement next to the
pool table and washer and dryer.
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Band
Vehicles:
We used
our own cars for transportation of the
equipment, which included a 4-door,
Army-tank-two-tone green colored '57 Chevy
or Kevin would borrow his mom's Vista
Cruiser wagon.
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Fashion
Statement:
Early
years included bell-bottom jeans with
inserts sewn-in down the seams between the
knees and ankles to make a larger flair
along with puffy-sleeved poka-dotted
shirts to attract the girls. Later on, we
just tried to look like Rolling Stones to
impress the other bands in the area.
However, try impressing anyone with a pair
of penny loafers and black horn-rimmed
eyeglasses. Except for Kevin, our hair
would lie across our foreheads and ride on
top of our glasses and we were always
flipping it back out of our eyes. No
wonder the teachers or our parents were
always riding our backs to get a hair cut.
Kevin was ahead of the times. He was the
only kid in school to wear those John
Lennon glasses before it was mod or hip to
have.
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Best
Gig:
Our first
public showing was during a Battle of the
Bands, put on by the Rona Hills Lions Club
in Fairborn, Ohio in 1966. All three of
us were only 14 years old at the time.
Kevin was cool, calm and collected while
my cousin and I were nervous wrecks. I
felt so alone back there with the drums.
Ron had to learn the bass riffs as he went
along and then we saw Kevin walk out
wearing this 10-foot diameter Mexican
sombrero hat just to be different. The
crowd moved in closer to check us out.
The hat hid Kevin's face and started a
rumor that he was someone famous that just
happened to show up to play that night.
Little did the crowd know that it was our
first ever gig. Kevin's mom was a Lions
Club committee member and was tasked to
Emcee the show (with six bands including
the Luv Me Nots and one other band I think
called B.C. and the Cavemen) and I can
remember Mrs. Moore turning around at the
last minute and asking Kevin what's the
deal with the hat and what's the name of
our band. Kevin said, Sin Bad and the Sex
Seekers. She said, No your not. I am not
going to say that. And without waiting for
an answer, she turned back to the
microphone and the crowd and introduced us
as the Sound Society. So, with less then
a weeks worth of practice in the garage
and using borrowed equipment, we managed
to come in fourth place out of 6 local
bands that first time out. The Luv Me
Nots finished first.
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Gig
from
Hell!:
Actually,
there were several gigs from Hell...the
severe rash I got from Angel Hair on a
Christmas tree that was set up on stage
next to the drums...the rickety stage at a
skating rink during another battle of the
bands which found us on top of four picnic
tables covered with thin plywood. I could
feel myself tilting backwards over the
edge whenever I sat back on my stool...the
time we borrowed a member from the band
Wolfegang as our back up singer only to
see him stopping in the middle of a song
or two to replace a coat he had placed
over my bass drum to hide the name of
another band I had put on it earlier and
the fact that he bled all over the stage
from a cut hand because he insisted on
beating a broken tambourine. Those
distractions resulted in a second place
finish in another Battle of the Bands
later on to a very young group (I don't
think any of them were over 12 years old)
called The Mice.
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Last
Gig:
Our last
showing was during the Wrightstock
open-air concert on the campus at the
newly opened Right State University in
1970. It rained just like the real
Woodstock. I guess you could consider
that as another gig from Hell. Lots of
electrical problems with damp ground and
faulty equipment. Its a wonder no one got
electrocuted.
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Comments:
I haven't given
much thought to our old band days until a recent
PBS documentary called Garage Rock USA caught my
attention. That video was right on target and
reminded me of a period of my youth that I had
almost forgotten. I had forgotten about Mr.
McGuire kicking me out of Science class for having
hair too long...I forgot about my long solo drum
riffs when the rest of the members would walk off
stage and leave me hanging forever...I forgot about
that stack of 45 records I have stashed away in
storage. . .I forgot how many times we ran to town
to pick up an extra guitar string, or a new set of
sticks or a new guitar jack. In 1971, our last
year, we changed our name to PAZ (which I was told
meant peace in Latin, but in reality, it meant the
end). Not many fans remember us as PAZ. We will
always be known as the Sound Society.
I haven't seen or heard from Kevin Moore since
1971, a year after graduating from high school. I
heard through the grapevine that he had moved to
Winter Park, Florida in the early '70s. To this
day, I wish I could find him.
Cousin Ron married as a junior in high school,
raised some kids, who had kids of their own and
runs his own bar, but never picked up the bass
again. I got drafted (number 8), did my patriotic
duty and returned home to work for the Dept. of
Defense and haven't sat behind a real set of drums
since 1980 while filling in for Dave Craycraft's
band from Springfield, Ohio. However, just
recently, I sat down behind one of those new
electronic Yamaha drum sets and played with my
younger brother Keith while he adjusted to his
brand new Gretsch guitar, one of 18 that he owns
today. I was a little rusty and managed to drop
the sticks more than once, but the smile on my face
reminded me of a time I almost forgot.
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