All,
Take a tip from the late Johnny Ramone - someone has to keep an (initially) discordant bunch in line with some direction and discipline. Otherwise, you could well end up sounding like the Grateful Dead or some other straight(or doped up) "jam"/noise band. And your material would end up lacking consistency.

Congrats, Ivan, on 20 years. I still like playing your material. 20 years - looks like I've been playing it longer than I realized.
J Mo'

Awesome. Does such a rehearsal tape exist?
Also curious if you recall playing Squad Car at the recorded tempo, or at the usual tempo Eddie would've preferred it? (I recall he's said the recording was somewhat of an anomaly.)

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Badger wrote:

Awesome. Does such a rehearsal tape exist?

No, it does not. I'm sure we weren't very good initially, especially with the first bassist and to some extent the rhythm guitarist. Catherine and Mark were both a big step up once they joined.

Also curious if you recall playing Squad Car at the recorded tempo, or at the usual tempo Eddie would've preferred it? (I recall he's said the recording was somewhat of an anomaly.)

To me, there is only one right tempo for Squad Car - the tempo of the original E&tS recording, no matter what Eddie may have thought about it later. I think the song loses most of its power when played slower, I really don't like it at all (and I've heard Eddie perform it live at that slower tempo). Squad Car was on the first surf comp I ever heard, John Blair's "Legends of Surf Guitar", produced and released by Guitar Player/Rhino Records. Squad Car was a standout even among some of the greatest surf songs ever recorded on that comp exactly because of its tempo. It just shows that quite often artists themselves don't fully understand what makes their art special.

Clarry wrote:

I see you have Wahine at the end. I expect it's the slow Hawaiian-style tune off Hank Marvin's first album.

Yes, indeed! That's exactly right. Funny enough, the early Cossacks setlist was pretty much exactly the setlist above, but we never did get to the last three songs: The Victor (I did that with the Madeira later), The Breeze and I or Wahine. But we did play all the others, and in fact recorded most of them.

Was it to lure people softly into an encore?

Ha! I really don't remember what I was thinking with that. Your explanation seems as good as any.

Thanks, guys!

Ivan
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It always pains me a little to hear about this great period and realize that at the time I was about one hour away from it (and would eventually be going to the college that Larry was then emailing you from) with no knowledge of its existence. I wasn't a hugely troubled teen by most standards, but I think I would've been MUCH happier and productive if I had tapped into the surf music scene at the time. I was still quietly listening to the few odd surf records or compilations I had in between all the punk and 90's alt rock at the time, and quickly gave up trying to play guitar when I was 16 in '96 because I wasn't self-directed or disciplined enough to work at it (my own love of guitar-based rock 'n roll at the time wasn't enough, sadly).

When I joined The Surge in 2005 (?) or so one of the first things that Sticks gave me to take home were his copies of Tsar Wars and Interstellar Stomp, both of which I'd somehow managed to bumble through the world without hearing yet. They remain modern classics and very evocative of that time when I first started playing surf music with a real (and pretty great) band.

The Mystery Men?
El Capitan and The Reluctant Sadists
SSS Agent #31

IvanP wrote:

War of the Worlds
War of the Satellites
Journey to the Stars
Third Star to the Left
Telstar
Penetration
Squad Car
FBI
Hava Nagila
Walk, Don't Run '64
Find Me a Golden Street
The Wedge
Gonzales
Baja
Shark Attack
Diamond Head
Bombora
The Crusher
The Savage
The Victor
The Breeze and I/Wahine

I seem to recall Craig (I think?) had a cassette tape (demo or EP?) that may have had some of these songs on it?

Paul
Atomic Mosquitos
Bug music for bug people is here!
Killers from Space

The Space Cossacks had our first setback 20 years ago when we lost our first bass player less than three weeks after our first practice. Of course, this turned out to be probably one of the very BEST things that ever happened to us since it led to Catherine joining the band! But it stung at the time - here's what I wrote to Colin Hartridge, a Cowabunga friend from Vancouver, Canada, as well as (once again) Larry White AKA Moon Dawg:

Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 00:47:25 -0500 (EST)
From: IVAN PONGRACIC ipongrac@osf1.gmu.edu
To: Colin Hartridge <colinh@wimsey.com>
Subject: Re: Mermen/Space Cossacks knock me out

with this selection. All of 'em are great tunes -- hey, if you manage
to make a rehearsal tape, could you send me a copy?

It may have to wait a bit, since the Space Cossacks are officially back from the orbit and in the hangar once again (sigh). The bass player split earlier today, so we are in search of the fourth Cossack again. When I first met him I introduced him to some musician friends of mine who have an improvisational space-jazz band, and he started playing with them (bass and guitar). Apparently that's exactly what he wanted to do since they're now practicing three times a week, and given that he's also working full time, he just won't have the time to play with us. I can't help feeling a bit stabbed in the back! It takes the steam out of our little venture. However, the drummer (Doug) and the other guitarist (Robb) are still very into it, so I'm hoping that it won't take us long to get back onto the launching pad again. Things have to be shaken up a bit before only the gold remains in the sieve!

From ipongrac@osf1.gmu.edu
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 14:12:08 -0500 (EST)
From: IVAN PONGRACIC ipongrac@osf1.gmu.edu
To: lwhite@rigel.econ.uga.edu
Subject: Re: favor request

The Space Cossacks are back on the ground and in the hangar - though the engines are still on! Our bass player decided that he would rather devote all his energies to a jazz-improvisational band that I introduced him to, so he split while the going was good! So after two practices we are searching for another bass player. However, I don't foresee this slowing us down too much - at most a couple of weeks. The other two are way into it, as am I, so we'll find somebody soon, and launch again. Keep your fingers crossed. Growing pains... See ya.. Strato

Ivan
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Brian wrote:

It's hard to imagine a Space Cossacks without Catherine! Her songwriting contributions and playing are very important.

Completely my thought as well.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

This is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better than anything Geraldo ever dreamt up. ('course this is real...)

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Today is a notable date in the Space Cossacks history - the 20th anniversary of the first time that Doug Hoekstra and I met Catherine Gray! On Tuesday, April 2nd, 1996 we held auditions for a bass player (Robb Monn was still on rhythm guitar at that time). There were several people that auditioned, but Catherine was BY FAR the best of them all. And she was enthusiastic! She later told us that before the audition she asked her friend (the bass player for Bill Kirchen's band) to make her a tape of surf music so she could practice, and at the practice it was obvious she got surf music. I also have a clear memory that as she was saying goodbye she told us "I REALLY want to be in this band." I remember thinking, you just got in! A few days later I sent this in an email to Larry White AKA Moon Dawg:

"In other news, we found a bass player - and she's a girl! Her name is Catherine, she plays great, is very cool, and very talented. I think this one's gonna stay. Oh, she also owns and plays a big standup bass! Cool, eh?"

A BIG day in the Cossacks history! {Our first official band practice with Catherine was on April 18th.)

Ivan
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Catherine's sound and contributions to the band can't be understated. Her bass lines were a crucial part of the 1st 2 cds as well as her songwriting. The Cossacks were lucky enough to find 4 strong individual performers that put the music first and the egos second. I can't thank Catherine, Doug, Ivan and Mark enough for being so influential to me personally in the surf bands I played in and wrote for.

Surf.The most dangerous of genres...

Surfcat

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