In high school, I went through a few toy drum sets and various coffee can percussion to think I can bullshit somebody into thinking about starting up a band. There were high school bands most notably one that featured Lon Washburn and a bass/guitar player that eventually moved to Arizona and started a hair metal band out there and I can't think of his name. The story went that they were tearing up a couple of Ted Nugent songs and Lonnie was a powerful drummer and you can praise or blame him for lighting a fire under my ass to play music.
Best friends always seem to do things together and Russ Swearingen came up with an idea about forming a band together, he play bass and I handle drums. Problem was we didn't have those instruments, so basically I started saving up to buy a drum set and Russ went into the Marines to earn money to get a bass. In 1980 I brought a Zickos drum set for 300 dollars from the legendary Old Man Keeney at Keeney's Music and Russ got a Music Man Bass. Then Russ found a guitar player in Darren Johnson and we goofed off for about 20 minutes and that became Paraphernalia.
Over the years from 1980 to 1984 were the Paraphernalia years and lineups came and went. Some made the CR music scene (Doug Spinler, Mike Swearingen), most did not. And some were just plain dreamers. The Paraphernalia Years pretty much covers my favorite moments between 1980 and to the final OK Lounge gig in 1984. Only Moving On To Better Things is a solo effort, everything else is band related. Moving On To Better Things shouldn't be in there I guess, but it came from my 1980 Paraphernalia album and thought I try to present that as a band effort. It's a one take rough around the edges, but to me that song would eventually become the sound of The Townedgers although one never told me that making music would take more than one take and tossed off words.
The songs:
Movin On To Better Things (R.Smith/S.Willard) 1980
Come Together (The Beatles) 1981
Lineup: Doug Bonesteel, Mike Swearingen, Russ Swearingen, R.Smith
It's weird to think that our first song attempted was Come Together and even back then it's a bitch to do with the triple beats, but I think we based our arrangement off Aerosmith's though. Even though Doug sold himself as lead guitar player this is the only song he ever did a lead on.
Rock Me Baby/Rocky Mountain Way 1982
Lineup: Dewayne Schminkey, Mike Swearingen, Russ Swearingen, Doug Bonesteel, R.S.
The infamous recording sessions that pretty much sealed my fate as a smash and crash drummer. I don't think I was playing drums rather than trying my frustrations out on them after work. I remember at that time I was living at an apartment three blocks away and walking to work and to home to record. Certainly Mike did his best to rein in that inner Keith Moon in me but things just exploded in the middle of Rock Me Baby leading up to the crazy second version of RMW to which even with the mistake in the song we pulled it off as if it was part of the record. Eventually this version of the band would play at the bar as The Open Highway Band while Russ was serving his country.
Pipeline/Clock Rocking 1982
Lineup: Dewayne Schminkey, Doug Bonesteel, Mike Swearingen, Dennis Lancaster, Randy Hartwig, R.S.
The Open Highway Band in full frontal attack mode. Dewayne was the one that inspired me to go all out, alas the rest of the band during practice sessions would also turn their amps up to 10 and we come home with ringing in the ears and headaches. Dewayne was a underrated guitar player and he could play Chuck Berry as on the NSFW number Rock The Clock with Mike's bawdy lyrical content. He must have done them before, he never missed a note or word. Randy Hartwig, subbed for Russ on bass guitar and Mike's daughter was banging on the tambourine and maybe Luwanna Hawker, (Dewayne's sister) on cowbell. The harmonica player was Dennis Lancaster, a friend of Doug's that managed to sneak into the sessions and got drafted into the band. He would become so much more in days to come. Pipeline, is Dewayne thinking that song up on the spot and he played it with Doug on occasion. Both songs were recorded on Dennis' boombox cassette player, note the wavering sound.
House Of The Rising Sun/Ice Cream Man 1983
Lineup: Dennis Lancaster, Doug Spinler, Russ Swearingen, R.S.
There was an attempt to bring Doug Spinler into the Open Highway Band. Doug is a talented guitar player and could have made a good living in Nashville had he wanted to, but he chose to stay in town. I jammed with Doug and his dad around 1980 when I could barely play and when we did get back together again in 1981 we thought about getting a band going but Doug was strictly country and Russ and me rock and roll. But he was gracious enough to partake in a jam session at the house. Russ was very under the weather and we pretty much stopped after Ice Cream Man. The vocals may not be much but the playing is great. By then Dennis stepped in to become our lead guitar player.
You Were With Me (R.Smith/D.Schminkey) 1983
Lineup: Dennis Lancaster, Dewayne Schminkey, Mike Swearingen, Russ Swearingen, R.S.
There was a contest about about EMI records offering a contract for a band that had the right song, and the best would be on a 7 inch EP. Last year KKRQ had a full album and we wanted to have a song for the world to hear, so we thought up of this little number. Which didn't make the final cut. The winning song was a piece of shit new wave number All His Friends Are Spies. Toni Basil would have been proud.
The Leech (Wurm) 1984
Lineup: Dennis Lancaster, Russ Swearingen, R.S.
Practice sessions at Dennis' place was tedious. But his parents were very supporting enough to let us practice in the basement for about a year, I'm surprised they didn't charge rent since that's where my drums were at most of the time. Most of the time Mike was supporting his other band which were playing more than we were and it was getting to us. I bought the tape recorder over and pushed the on button and this little number came up. It's the ending to Starship Trooper by YES but it shows us improvising quite nicely.
Cocaine Train 1984 (Lyrics R.Smith-Music: D. Lancaster, R.Swearingen)
Lineup: Dennis Lancaster, Dewayne Schminkey, Mike Swearingen, Russ Swearingen, R.S.
From the Legion Hall Tom LeHew wedding reception to which we almost didn't get our instruments back due to Mike telling one too many anti Reagan jokes. Cocaine Train, was originally off Living In The Twlight Zone by Route 66, my alias band at that time and I'm sure Russ picked that one out simply of the C word. Somewhat of a anti drug song in a form of a runaway train but on Twilight Zone it was a throwaway track and bad one at that. However Russ and Dennis came up with a whole new different riff and the bass riff is Russ's own. Out of all the versions that we did, this one from the Legion is the best, I love that funky drum break at the lead, the cymbal on the offbeat. This version is better than the OK lounge version simply of the fact that Mike remembered most of the words of this song. Not that anybody paid much attention to it anyway.
Make It Last/Mean Disposition/Bad Motor Scooter/I Just Want To Make Love To You/Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy/Blue Morning, Blue Day 1984
Lineup: Dennis Lancaster, Mike Swearingen, Russ Swearingen, R.S. (Guest guitarist: Shawn Ster)
This is where the road ends, down on the corner where the OK Lounge used to sit, a place for bar bands to be rock stars for the night and we took that on in grand style. The stuff of legends in our own mind but thanks to me and a handful of others, the December 7th, 1984 show has taken a life of its own and one could only imagine what would happened if we could have kept it going. In reality, we were imploding, Russ was leaving us for a second stint in the Marines (he got married a few days before), Mike was playing regularly with another band (Precious Metal or Rampage) and we hounded Mike to get us to the Ok Lounge to which miracle upon miracles he came through. The catch was to get a guest guitar player to fill out the sound, and that guy was Shawn M. Ster He only showed up to practice with us once, twice maybe but at that time he was Mike's other band so basically he was there by default. The pros was that he can sing songs and let Mike rest his voice. The con was that his idea of lead guitar was plenty of whammy bar and Eddie Van Halen type of metal guitar. And he could kill the mood of song, clearing the dance floor of Cocaine Train by saying it's an original. And then trying to figure out WTH he's playing on Mean Disposition.
Still, Shawn did play a role in shaping the sound once he kept his Van Halenisms down. The guitar lead exchange between him and Dennis on IJWTMLTY introduction is classic and as far as I'm concerned that song remains the best example of the band's high point, originally done as a medley (the opening number Rock Of Ages got omitted and I never liked the song that much anyway) but the whole medley of Rock/Want To Make Love To You and Your love is driving me crazy totaled 17 minutes of non stop rocking. The latter song was sped up to punk rock speed, and I suppose blame the caffeine sugarbuzz for my manic drumming. Being the time keeper, something kept me going on and on during the Don't Want Your Money part and the song actually is longer than the Foghat live version. I suppose it's was youth gone wild but this song showcase my drumming skills to a level that was part Keith Moon and part Jerry Shirley. Poor Russ had to keep that repetitive bass line going and going till he almost got carpel tunnel on the spot but he earned his 35 dollars take home cut of the admission price to get to see us. I always enjoyed hearing Dennis switching pedals from wah wah to overdrive on the jam parts, he came a long way from being simply the harmonica player that came in from the cold. Looking back the Montrose numbers (A little Montrose for ya....we know already) Make It Last was typical Paraphernalia Tyrus improvising all the way to me speeding up the beat toward the end and what about Bad Motor Scooter, so unbelievably wild, I think that may have been Dennis' finest moment as lead guitar player. It's a shame that nobody took videos of that final night. There was a woman that took pictures of the first night, who was a guest of Ster's but we never seen any of them and I think she had other things on her mind anyway. There was talk about the owner of the OK impressed enough to offer us another gig on New Year's Eve, but by then we were all kind of sick of each other, we were losing Russ so we decided to put things on hold....
....and that's the end of the story. The Paraphernalia Years was my version of the band's greatest hits and misses. And what could have been. Irony of it all is that everybody who was part of this band on these recordings are Facebook friends with me, even Ster, although the guy has yet to speak to me at the local jam sessions, he usually plays acoustic and solo. We spun our wheels a lot and it sounds like it, but when we did click on a song, we made it our own, good, bad or otherwise. And with the exception of the guest guitarist, everybody involved are good friends, which most of us got together last year. Don't expect Paraphernalia or Tyrus to get into the rock and roll hall of fame be it Iowa or Cedar Rapids but this album does bring up a valid point that we were a damn good rock and roll band in our own way.
All I'll go to my grave satisfied with that result.
M.I.A. Will Sigsbee
From the archives. The OK Lounge show: http://rscrabb.blogspot.com/2014/12/one-last-go-around-paraphernalia-ok.html
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