Saturday, February 7, 2009

The Unattached. Genetically Stupid NOT!



I got this great Metrowave tape from Jaded Jase and I've been looking around to try and find some info on The Unattached and can find very little. How funny is it that I just had to change the spelling on the widget. Unattached only has one N, your queen, not two. I managed to find this little blurb from Chuck Warner on his Hyped to Death site.

Unattached -EP (Bisque-18) The last thing that we released. Jaime Sever had started out in the Jetsons, and helped run the legendary Gulcher collaborative/ cooperative back in Bloomington, Indiana. He moved back to Worcester, MA where the Unattached recorded some demos (Volume insists there was a 19822 Unattached cassette in circulation). Jetsons fans have some idea, perhaps, of how great "Genetically Stupid" was, live. They played Boston on occasion but they were superstars in Wormtown...they just never thought about putting out a record. Oh yeah, and they broke up all the time. I got them to re-form for the Let's Breed! record-release parties (10 bands, two nights at the Rat) and again for the first Chain Link Fence record-release party, I think, but it wasn't til '87 that they stayed together for any length of time. Anyway, the EP is sorta over-polished and over-raw at the same time, and it might have launched a very profitable career, except that Alice Cooper heard one of their demos and loved it --though he wanted to write new lyrics for it. He even invited Jaime and Mark to come and play on "Trash", which was of course a big hit and re-established Alice's career, but Jaime and Mark celebrated this brush with fame by firing their long-suffering rhythm section and that was the end of them. And Throbbing Lobster.



I am further intrigued and decide to do more research. Genetically Stupid
has long been imprinted on my brain. Very catchy stuff and I follow some clues and find a site for The Jetsons, the band who first did the song and have been kind enough to include it on their page. My quest for info on The Unattached continues in my immediate circle of The Coalition of the Fabulous with a call to a dear friend I'll call...oh, let me see...Deep Throat. I'm going to both protect the identity of my source and try to ward off more taunts that I am a name dropper. I admit, that made me wince. In my defense, I am trying to maintain a somewhat historical perspective here and you can't have history without details and names happen to be an important detail. Besides, no one reads this shit anyways and we're all friends here, right? Well, mostly friends. So I ask DT and he tells me I should ask Gerry Lehane. Oddly, the same answer I get to about 37% of my questions. Gerry emailed me back. "Jamie Sever, he's around. I'm not sure how you would get in touch with him though. I believe Simon Ritt was in the band."

Why Simon Ritt is the love of my darling old friend Jan, yet another member of The Co-Fabs, and I write her to find out what she has to say.

"Yes, Simon was the bass player and is on their EP which we have a box of down in the basement! Jamie Sever used to walk around Kenmore with a white rat on his shoulder...Mike Zadroga was the drummer, Mark Frazier was the guitar player. They had the number one local single on BCN for a bit and they were in the Battle of The Bands...I don't think they won..Jamie Sever went on to be in the Fighting Cocks..."

With her encouragement, I wrote to Simon for more and he graciously responded.

"I played bass w/ the Un's for a few years through their Rumble/Throbbing Lobster era or what I prefer to think of as their 'Golden Period'. I do recollect doing a couple of live radio broadcast's w/ 'em....was metrowave on WERS? F.Y.I. Jamie (the singer) Is a stay @ home dad of 2 great little girls. He's NEVER been on a computer but I'll let him know I heard from you via the traditional telephone talking device. I'm also glad to inform you that Mark Frazier the boneheaded guitarist gave up music & left Boston years ago. The drummer Mike Z lives In NYC & Is a T.V. sound Tech. with a great job working Pro-Sporting Events."

I have left out some of the more salacious details of their emails, hysterical as they were. I do TRY to be discreet. Sometimes. Check out The Darlings to see what Simon is up to these days.

Poking around in the internets a little more yielded this nugget of lore from sleazegrinder. This guy's stuff is great. It is like crack to me. Or whatever highly addictive illegal substance the kids are all doing now. Frankly, I can't be bothered to keep up to speed on what the kids are doing these days. I'm going to post a quote and hope that they don't kill me, but really, check out the stuff this guy writes. It's pretty cool.

"So anyway, we're waiting to get in on the guestlist and these two beat-looking tattooed, cowboy junkies are on us like flies on sherbert with the "Yo, Vinnie" Reveah-Beach accents, completely covered in bad tattoos--even worse than mine---glammed-out, to the hilt. Headbands, stretch jeans, pirate hoops, cowboy boots, scarves, Lip Service vests---babbling about Dogs D'Amour and G.G. Allin. They embraced the whole cliche'. Us, too. Immediately, they're talking over one another, telling us how they're, "Like, da only glam dudes in Boston-except for dis one other guy, Simon, from the Unattatched, and uh, the Voodoo Dolls, and
Tony Triggah from da Love Junkies, dis Cats 'N' Boots guy. And uh, Desi and Jimmy from da Touch Me Hookers, and Rafe from da Royal Pimps, who used ta be da Blackjacks, and anotha band called, uh, Jet Black Somethings, and dis hot girl singah from da Seventh Veil. She's gonna go crazy when she sees you, dude!" I can still somehow remember their names were Eric and Rob and I later went to a David Bowie concert with them, but that was pretty much my first conversation with any Boston locals. My initial introduction to Boston.
Not everybody there was like Rob and Eric."

So that was my adventure researching The Unattached. If anyone has any photos or other information or memorabilia on them send it along and I'll put it up.

Many thanks to Jaded Jase for having the wits to tape some of these fantastic Metrowave shows. I have one more from him up my sleeve that I'll put up soon. I know there are issues with the sound on the tapes I've posted from Metrowave and other MBR and ERS shows. I don't mind at all. They sound just like I remember, hell, I only lived 25 miles North of Boston and I could only hear those stations on a clock radio in a house across the street. The tapes I made on fucking Charles Street have rough spots on them and Emerson was just four blocks away and MIT was just over the river. Crazy. These tapes are beyond precious since someone at Emerson dumped boxes and boxes of the originals in the trash when they moved. Feel free to be pissed about that and send me any tapes you might have and would like to share.

5 comments:

Rick said...

My name is Rick Ochsenrider aka Spliff. I moved from Indiana with Jamie to start Unattached in 1981. I left a year later and Marks brother took to bass slot. I have much info should anyone be courious. My typing skills suck but you e-mail me @ raochsenrider@yahoo.com or myspace. Should you prefer to call my number is 812.212.8330.
-Rick

Q Tontileo said...

Crap! I missed this Rick. I will try to get in touch.

Anonymous said...

Original line up and the best one:

Jamie Seaver - vocals
Mark Frazier - guitar / vocals
Daryl Frazier - bass / vocals
Mike Zadroga - drums

Tuesday night house band at the Rat when they first started

Daryl was in the Gizmos, great Indiana band. Mark & Daryl are back in Minnesota. Mike Z is in NYC working for ESPN. Jamie is still around Boston. Best Boston band of the early/mid 80's.

Anonymous said...

My first gig playing live at 13 was opening for Unattached (you on bass) Commandos , Aggression and (Foaming Agents) I think the oldest in the band was Chris at 18 ! I loved it and moved to California in1982 , played in Executioner opened for the Dead Kennedy’s, Circle Jerks, Bad Brains etc etc. and all because I played drums for opening band for Unattached , that got the drummer rolling so to speak.

FJ Kulu said...

I'm pretty sure there was an Unattached cassette. I went to Holy Cross in Worcester Mass in the early 80s, and they used to play it on WCHC, the college radio station. I thought there was a song of theirs called Pignose that used to get some airplay, but I could be mistaken.