Ron Spitzer, Andrew Halbreich, Robert Poss, John Bulcken, Lou Farace, Michael Goglia, Ed Steinberg, Patti Thunder Coppola + a guest studio appearance by James Lo
Influences
Nanker/Phelge, John Graham Mellor, Paul Butterfield, Marion Walter Jacobs, The Nazz, Sky Saxon, Jimmy Osterberg, Graham Parker and the Rumour, McKinley Morganfield, Ellas Otha Bates McDaniel, John Genzale, The Neighborhoods, The Buzzcocks, Mike Bloomfield, The Real Kids, Panic Squad, A7, Ron's Place, Botany Talk House, The Rat, Max's Kansas City....
Tot Rocket was formed in 1979 when Ron Spitzer, Andrew Halbreich and Robert Poss, who had played in various blues/rock bands together as young teenagers in Buffalo, New York incorporating influences like The Blues Project, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, The Byrds, The Standells, The J. Geils Band, The Fabulous Rhinestones, the Rolling Stones, The Nazz, Buffalo Springfield... ended up reuniting after a few years and moving to East Haven, Connecticut to form a new band. An early tentative musical eclecticism caused by the three's disparate musical tastes (ranging from Chicago blues to glam to country rock) was soon galvanized by the burgeoning New Haven punk scene (particularly at Ron's Place) and by seeing live shows by The Clash, The Undertones, The Jam, Iggy Pop, The Neighborhoods, Johnny Thunders and Graham Parker and the Rumour. Tot Rocket and the Twins was a name coined by Robert Poss; he still doesn't know why, but it sounded right at the time, unfortunately. Their first drummer was Patti Coppola; she was followed by Lou Farace, who played on their first single, "Reduced / Fun Fades Fast," released by the infamous Whiplash Records (home of the Corpsegrinders).
The band lived briefly in Jamaica, Queens and then moved into New York's East Village in 1980. Michael Goglia joined as the new drummer and played on their EVICTION EP, released on Trace Elements Records. (Goglia subsequently played in Ritual Tension, The Fuzztones and Of A Mesh.) John Bulcken (Richard Lloyd Group), who replaced him in 1981, played on the band's SECURITY RISK EP, also released on Trace Elements. (This was in the days before digital recording, before music videos, before CDs, before the internet and MP3s, when vinyl still ruled the world.) Tot Rocket played at places like CBGB, the Botany Talk House, Max's Kansas City, Bond's, Exile, The Playroom, The Rat, Ron's Place, Brothers III, A7, and a host of other small clubs and underground spaces whose names are lost to history. In 1983, Tot Rocket became Western Eyes, and enlisted electronic music composer Nicolas Collins to do a radical electronic remix of their recorded material, which included appearances by drummers James Lo (Live Skull, Rhys Chatham) and Ed Steinberg (Finn and The Sharks). The result was the Western Eyes EP, released on Trace Elements in 1984.
In 2005, Rave Up Records (Italy) released "Television Rules," a retrospective LP of the collected Tot Rocket material, including some previously unreleased tracks.
Tot Rocket and Western Eyes's Friend Space (Top 39)
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Thanks for the add! Kentucky's Rufus Huff debut CD now available on ZOHO Roots and Blues Boulevard Records.
Who's Rufus Huff? Named after two obscure Blues men Whistlin' Rufus and Luther Huff, the Glasgow, Kentucky-based Blues Rock quartet is made up of Dean Smith, Chris Hardesty, Jarrod England and Greg Martin, known for his raucous, incendiary electric guitar playing in the South's hardest country rockers, The Kentucky HeadHunters.
Rufus Huff, steeped in the tradition of Cream, Jeff Beck, Free, Led Zeppelin, Mountain, Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsies, Cactus, and ZZ Top!!!!
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