Thursday, May 04, 2023

Songs I’d Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved: Special “Quick Henry, the Flit!” Edition

From 1986, and their MTV-generated comeback tour, please enjoy Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork (doing business as The Monkees) and their deseved hit single "That was Then, This is Now."

I bring this up for two reasons. A) Because it's a terrific power pop tune by any standard, written by Vance Brescia, of 80s NYC club faves The Mosquitos...

...who just about everybody who is anybody (me too) avers should have been commercially huge but who-knows-why-they-weren't.

And more important, and B) coincidentally enough, because indie record mogul and friend of PowerPop Ray Gianchetti at Kool Kat Musik is now offering a new 2 CD Mosquitos anthology...

...that includes just about every original song they ever played, plus a handful of covers, both live and in the studio, with absolutely fabulous remastered sound.

Obviously, you can, and should, order This Then Are the Mosquitos over at Kool Kat HERE.

And tell 'em PowerPop sent you!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gilligan's Island: Season 2, Episode 12, perhaps?

Anonymous said...

The Mosquitos - Rock is a fickle Muse.
Perfectly performed, great production but does it have that earworm quality ?
rob

Alzo said...

Bingo, Bango, Bongo and Irving!

ChrisE said...

Correct, Alzo. And they don't want to play a double-bill with the Honey Bees.

Marc said...

That's a great song - especially the Mosquitos' version. Although it was right in my wheelhouse then (as it is now), I don't recall ever hearing it. I guess the Mosquitos' music didn't make the journey down I-95 to DC. Maybe someone figured we had enough mosquitos of our own in the swamp, and didn't need to import any more from NY.

Marc

Ray Gianchetti said...

The Mosquitos that appeared on "illigan's Island" wewre actually a group called The Factory that included Lowell George, later of Little Feat fame.

dorethyroad@aol.com said...

Ray, Lowell is in my Hall of Fame.
I grew up when the Monkees were must see TV.
What always surprised me was
Mickys contacts within the rock world
Hendrix, Springfield, Clapton - partying at his home - amazing !!!
rob

Anonymous said...

Ray,

Lowell George was not in the Mosquitos of Gilligan's Island. It was the Wellingtons with Les Brown Jr.

Lowell George and his band, The Factory, were the Bedbugs on F Troop.

Just setting the record straight without even a hint of irony.

BTW, I hated the glossy 80's production on the Monkees' version.

VR

I've got a few stories about Lowell George. One was in Topanga Canyon and involved Christine McVie. This was mid-1979. It was at a benefit concert he was doing with a band that included Fred Tackett, Jerry Jumonville, Lee Thornberg and Eddie Zip. He did two shows and, between them, went to visit Christine (sans Dennis Wilson) at the tables in the Community Center there. I was sitting at Christine's table. Lowell whipped out a vial of blow and laid some rails down for us.

He didn't look too good. He was all puffy from booze. I'd never seen him this fat. He looked very exhausted and sweaty. I teased him about the sweatiness. He said that the poison had to come out somehow.

When he left to do the second show he forgot to grab his vial. I have kept it as a memento all these years. It still has the gram and a half of blow he left in it. That was 44 years ago. This was the second and last time I ran into him. He died less than three weeks later. I bought tickets to see him at the Roxy for his 3-day 4th of July holiday run. He didn't live that long. Saved the unused tix though. More relics.

They say it was heroin but I think it was a fucking speedball.