Paul Marotta: vocals, guitar, piano
UK Rattay: guitar
Al Margolis: bass, vocals
John Keith: drums, vocals
Former band members include:
Jamie Klimek: guitar, vocals
Paul Laurence: drums
Mike Hudson: vocals
Mike Hoffman: drums
Fred Lonberg-Holm: cello
John Morton: guitar
Jim Jones: bass
Anton Fier: drums
Paul Marotta formed The Styrenes in 1975 in Cleveland. Marotta, had been a member of Mirrors, working as their interim bass player at first and then on keyboards and violin while playing guitar in The Electric Eels.
Strange names that never really got around – except that of another Cleveland band, Pere Ubu, Mirrors, The Electric Eels and The Styrenes, plus a few others, are reckoned as germ cells of the Cleveland scene and proto punk, a post-industrial music from years before industrial music and other things that changed the perception of pop music were “discovered”. For listeners who walk those musical territories on a regular basis, these groups are certified legends. Their broken-down, powerful, sometimes hostile, and emotionally shattering music that completely defied technical evaluation has no equivalent in the history of time. A case in point that substance, innovation and authenticity do not necessarily lead to popularity. Especially when the name of the band is steadily in flux.
By the time of the Styrenes’ debut single “Drano In Your Veins” in 1975, the band was operating under the name Poli Styrene Jass Band. Then came The George Money Band, The Styrene-Money Band, the Styrene Band, and finally The Styrenes. The first band consisted of Marotta, guitarist Jamie Klimek who was also leader of Mirrors, bass player Jim Jones (to become Ubu’s guitar player during the Eighties), drummer Anton Fier (subsequently in the Feelies and Golden Palominos mastermind later on) and Michael Antle (later Michael Gene of Buzz and the Flyers). The combo played the Cleveland clubs and released self-produced idiosyncratic punk/new wave. „We were a pretty anti-social band“, Marotta says, „only the Electric Eels were worse. If someone from the audience would jump onto the stage during a show it was more likely for the guitarist to kick him back down again than just let him dance and have a good time. A typical artiste thing.“
In 1980 Marotta and Klimek moved to New York where they set up a new Styrenes line-up working exclusively at their own expense. Not by choice, as Marotta recalls: „Many of the other Cleveland bands had secured recording contracts when the recording industry had found out about the area – but that passed us by. So we recorded our stuff when we happened to have some money to book a studio. We would record two or three things, a few weeks or months later the next two or three and so on, with constantly changing personnel.”
Recordings were released sporadically. Girl Crazy, the debut album, came out in 1982, a now-out-of-print 3-track 7”-EP in 1983, and Marotta’s solo LP Agit-Prop Piano in 1984. The follow-up Styrenes LP came seven years after the first. A Monster And A Devil (re-released in 1998 with additional tracks as All The Wrong People Are Dying), lyrically a downright shattering experience, was a spoken-word-in-rock-record with Mike Hudson, ex-vocalist of the Pagans, another Cleveland legend. 1991 saw the release of It’s Artastic (re-released in 2002 with bonus tracks as It’s Still Artastic), 1994 a new Mirrors album named Another Nail In The Coffin. And again The Styrenes disappeared into obscurity.
When they re-emerged in 1998, they started exactly from where they had stopped. The new record We Care So You Don’t Have To presented a rattling, rough and tumble rock band with punk in it’s veins and art in it’s brains that obviously didn’t have anything in common with today’s cleanly corporate punk. Guitarist Klimek, psychically burnt out, had thrown in the towel and was replaced by UK Rattay.
The next Styrenes record only took 4 years to appear but was so completely different from anything they had done before, that their small but loyal fan base hardly recognized their beloved combo. As a rock band – guitar, bass, drums, piano - The Styrenes had recorded In C, one of the main orchestral works of the twentieth century written by minimalist composer Terry Riley in 1964. The critics were surprised but delighted and the name of the band made the rounds in a very different circle of listeners.
For the new album, City Of Women, released on rent a dog, Marotta moved from piano to rhythm guitar - „I like both instruments equally“, he says laconically and offers only “logistic reasons” for touring as a guitarist. They may look like a squad of old rocker sods but the Styrenes’ world-weary, greasy sound seems uninfected by age. Maybe this will infect the ear lobes of the willing listener. Enjoy!
Discographie:
* The Styrenes/ City Of Women
o rent a dog CD bone 3010-2
* The Styrenes/ It’s Still Artastic
o ROIR 8276 CD
* The Styrenes/ Terry Riley’s In C
o Enja 9435 CD
* The Styrenes/ And Every Year, Christmas
o Atta Disc CD Single
* The Styrenes/ All The Wrong People Are Dying
o Overground Trading (UK) CD Over74
* The Styrenes/ We Care So You Don’t Have To
o Scat Records Scat 63 LP & CD
* The Styrenes/ One Fanzine Reader Writes b/w All The Wrong People Are Dying
o DRAG CITY DC-108 12.."-45
* Mirrors-Electric Eels-Styrenes/ Those Were Different
o Times Scat Records CD and 3-10.."vinyl Box Set
Out of Print:
* 01/89 Hudson-Styrene/ A Monster And The Devil
o LP Tinnitus 191305
* 08/82 Poli Styrene Jass Band/ Drano In Your Veins
o Cassette/Trouser Press Guide to American Underground ROIR 124
* 07/82 The Styrenes/ Jaguar Ride on .."Cleveland Confidential-The LP.."
o 12.." LP Terminal Term 6
* 04/82 The Styrenes/ Jennifer Gymshorts; Exasperation b/w No Deposit No Return
o 7.."-45 Mustard Must 108
* 02/81 Charlotte Pressler w/The Styrenes/ True Confessions b/w True Confessions instrumental
o 12.."-45 Mustard 4002
* 07/80 The Styrenes/ Girl Crazy
o 12.."-LP Mustard MM 4401
* 10/77 Styrene Money Band/ Jaguar Ride; Everything Near Me b/w I Saw You
o 7.."-45 Mustard MM 103
* 02/77 Styrene Money Band/ Just Walking b/w Radial Arm Saws
o 7.."-45 Mustard MM 102
* 11/75 Poli Styrene Jass Band/ Drano in Your Veins b/w Circus Highlights
o 7.."-45 Mustard MM 101
Hello, thanks for accepting the add, keep making that uncompromising rock n roll...have a listen to our sub garage band quality tunes sometime, you never know you may even like it Stiv
