"It was 20 years ago today, StratoCossack got a band to play... surf music!"

20 years ago, at the dawn of the internet, there existed something called the "Cowabunga email listserv" - an ancient form of a discussion forum (this one all about surf music) where you'd send an email to a particular address and it would be distributed to all the subscribers. I was introduced to Cowabunga by Larry White AKA Moon Dawg, my Obi Wan Kanobi of surf music, and I actually got my first email account in '95 mainly so I could join Cowabunga. I was able to save many of the emails from that time, and here's one from exactly 20 years ago. It marks a very special anniversary - the first practice of what ultimately became The Space Cossacks! Here's what I sent to Cowabunga later that night:

Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 00:48:57 -0500 (EST)
From: IVAN PONGRACIC ipongrac@osf1.gmu.edu
To: Cowabunga listserve cowabunga@UCSD.EDU
Subject: The Space Cossacks in orbit!

This is a public service announcement:

Today, Sunday, February 25th, 1996, Washington, D.C.'s first strictly instro/surf band the Space Cossacks has been officially launched! The mission is to introduce this barren, bureaucrat-filled, mid-Atlantic area to FUN!!

This band has been nothing more but a gleam in my eye for several years. After the demise of my band Razor 18 (which played brooding, noisy alt-rock) last October, I decided that the time has finally come. So, in January I finally got my act together and put some ads in the paper. The result is this four-piece band. The first person to reply was Bill, who is from Pittsburgh and has previously played with the Frampton Brothers - he is the featured bass player on their one cut on "Think Link" (the Link Wray tribute record also featuring MoAM?, Huevos Rancheros, etc.). My classified looking for a "supremely intense hard surf drummer - think Keith Moon playing Wipeout" has brought Doug Hoekstra our way, who fits the ad description to the point of absurdity. This man can play! He was until recently devoting all his time to a local rockabilly band by name of Jumpin' Jupiter, which explains his oversized sideburns and the pompadour! Finally, we've got Robb Monn, from my old band, on rhythm guitar. Robb loves few things more than a good, juicy guitar tone, and once he came to the realization that much of surf guitar is about that very thing, he jumped aboard faster than you can say Dick Dale.

Robb is also a talented jazz sax player, in the style of John Coltrane, so he will probably be playing some sax for us as well. Everyone in the band is into many different kinds of music, and is involved in other projects as well, but we all share the love for the 'verb! Hopefully, our love of other genres will allow us to build our own sound. And I've gotta say that there is an immense amount of talent in this band!

Today's practice yielded tight and way energetic versions of five songs: the Atlantics' "The Crusher", The Shadows' "Find Me a Golden Street", "Penetration", "Baja", and "Walk, Don't Run '64". Next week we'll be working on the Shadows' "FBI" and "Gonzales", the Nocturnes' "Third Star to the Left", the Ventures' "Journey to the Stars", "Squad Car", "Telstar", and "Hava Nagila". Eventually I think we'll be doing a lot of the Atlantics and the Shadows, as well as space-surf like "War of the Satellites" and "The Bat", etc.

If there are any bands out there that will be playing in DC, please let me know, because we will start playing out in March or April, and we would love to be your opening band.

Watch out - the Space Cossacks are in orbit! And a Cossack has no mercy!

StratoCossack

P.S. Sorry about the length and detail of this post - I'm just very excited! Feel free to delete at will!

Back to 2016 - here are a few responses I got to this post:

Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 10:21:56 -0300
To: IVAN PONGRACIC ipongrac@osf1.gmu.edu
From: intmedia@dbtech.net (Integrated Media, Inc.)
Subject: Re: The Space Cossacks in orbit!

Hey Ivan,
Congrats on yer new band! Sounds like you've got all the ingredients for some reverb-kickin' fun. We were supposed to play with Jumpin' Jupiter about three weeks ago but the Great Ground Hog Day Ice Storm of '96 hit, paralyzing the roads and good times for music fans across the south and eastern seaboard as I'm sure you well know. But anyway, knock 'em dead!
Best reverbs,
Rip
The Penetrators

Date 2/26/96
Subject Cossack Surf
From Frank Luft
To StratoCossack Space Cossacks

Dear StratoCossack,
Congrats on taking the plunge...keep me posted directly (Luft.F@diversey.geis.com) on your sojourns into instronautical fame & fortune. Since you have an obvious taste for the Euro sound (Shads & Atlantics), and Ventures, may I suggest "Murphy The Surfie" (Atlantics) & a Shads-like arrangement of Ernesto Lacuona's "The Breeze & I".
Phil Dirt

Date: Mon, 26 Feb 96 17:05:18 CST
From: (Larry White) lwhite@rigel.econ.uga.edu
To: ipongrac@osf1.gmu.edu
Subject: RE:The Space Cossacks in orbit!

StratoCossack,
Congratulations on the band formation! I will expect to receive copies of rehearsal tapes, etc., for my expert critique.
--Moon Dawg

Date: Sun, 25 Feb 1996 22:47:36 -0800 (PST)
From: "D.J. Johnson" <moonbaby@zebu.serv.net>
To: IVAN PONGRACIC ipongrac@osf1.gmu.edu
Subject: Re: The Space Cossacks in orbit!

Congrats on the launching, Ivan! I wish you the best. And, of course, we at Cosmik Debris will be among the first to hear your first release, coooorrect?
Actually, I at Cosmik want to be among the first to hear a live tape, even! I liked the way you described your band. It sounds like it has a hell of a lot of potential.
Talk to ya later. Congrats again, guy.
Deej

We were off to a good start, I'd say! I plan to post more of my old emails as we go through the next several months, telling the story of the early days of the Space Cossacks. Hope you enjoy it!

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Last edited: Mar 07, 2016 14:08:18

That's a pretty awesome little time capsule man. How do you feel looking back on how all that started?

20 years goes by quick!

When it came out, Intersteller Stomp was an album I quickly special ordered numerous copies of on the down low for the uber-corporate music/books/video store where I as working at the time. I remember selling quite a few copies of that album when I'd play it on the department's overhead sound system. Within a song, song and a half, older guys would come up all wide eyed "what's this playing? I haven't heard anything like this since the 60's!". I'd love to reply "naw man.. this is from the future"

So out in the low desert of New Mexico, you pushed some decent numbers with that album!

Pretty sure the only album that consistently sold quicker was the Blue Stingrays Surf-n-Burn... it was like candy to those older guys.

Congrats on a cool milestone man!

From past me to future you

Last edited: Feb 25, 2016 14:40:33

20 Y E A R S ! ! ! ! ! ! Holy Cow!

Fascinating read - very much looking forward to the follow on posts, Ivan!

ps - geek in me couldn't help but notice the listserv ran through UCSD.EDU. I'd forgotten how prominent Universities were in the early days of the "public" interwebz.

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

20 years ago I was searching for surf on the internet with dial up.I wish I had joined cowabunga. I can't remember if I read some posts or didn't even find it. 20 years ago was when I ceased to be a drag racer. It's still 20 years but it has passed like a windstorm. it's amazing how time speeds up with age. Looking forward to more posts, Ivan.

A monster big congrats to you! We are big fans and you have been and continue to be an inspiration! Here's to 30 more - cheers!

Skins for The Delstroyers

How did you come up with the first songs for rehearsals? Dictatorial or Democratic?

20 years ago, wow, our band was barely an idea back then.
Congrats on your success.
The Cossacks were the first modern Surf band I found when searching around to see what people were doing with the genre.
Needless to say - I was not disappointed.

Cheers,
Jeff

http://www.facebook.com/CrazyAcesMusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/crazyacesrock
http://www.reverbnation.com/crazyacesmusic

20 years ?
You guys should play some big shows!!!

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Surf Music's best days lie ahead

p.s. And a huge CONGRATULATIONS on this milestone

Sound of the Surf, the movie
Facebook SOTS

Last edited: Feb 26, 2016 11:30:26

Hey all! Thanks very much again, as always you're very kind! I've been busy with digging us out of 10" of snow yesterday, so have fallen a bit behind here. Let me try to answer a few of the questions above.

That's a pretty awesome little time capsule man. How do you feel looking back on how all that started?
20 years goes by quick!

Actually, that's exactly how I feel about it! It's hard to believe it's been that long ago. Also, my initial ambitions were very modest, despite my Cowabunga announcement above. I honestly don't think I even had writing originals in mind when first starting the band, and pretty sure I wasn't thinking beyond playing in the DC area. I wanted to play this music simply because it just looked like so much FUN! Seeing Laika & the Cosmonauts twice in '94-'95 had a lot to do with it, they just blew me away, and I thought, "I gotta do this!". Anyway, surf music has been an absolutely HUGE part of my life in these past 20 years. I even met my wife through surf music and the Space Cossacks! I've traveled all around the country and even the world, going to Italy and Spain as a result of surf music. I never, ever expected that - nor did I expect to make friends with some of the most amazing people I know today as a result of surf music. It's been a remarkable thing, and I never imagined any of this back 20 years ago, I just wanted to play my Strat through a Fender amp with some reverb!

When it came out, Intersteller Stomp was an album I quickly special ordered numerous copies of on the down low for the uber-corporate music/books/video store where I as working at the time. I remember selling quite a few copies of that album when I'd play it on the department's overhead sound system. Within a song, song and a half, older guys would come up all wide eyed "what's this playing? I haven't heard anything like this since the 60's!". I'd love to reply "naw man.. this is from the future" So out in the low desert of New Mexico, you pushed some decent numbers with that album!

Wow, that's so very cool! Thank you so much for that story, rottenman!

Badger wrote:

Clarry wrote:

How did you come up with the first songs for rehearsals? Dictatorial or Democratic?

Yes, there's a relevant question for anyone who might be thinking about taking their vision to the "do it" stage.

Initially, it was definitely dictatorial - well, let's maybe call it authoritarian! I had been thinking about what kind of surf band I would want to have for many months before that, something to set us apart a bit, and it was that mix of DD, high-energy trad surf, the Atlantics, Ventures In Space and the Shadows that I really wanted to pursue. The band became much more democratic over time, but initially it was definitely the result of my vision (so pretentious!) - also since I really was the only one connected to the surf music scene, mostly through Cowabunga, and had already by then explored a great deal of surf music history. The others were mostly newcomers to it (Doug had the most grounding it.)

PolloGuitar wrote:

IvanP wrote:

P.S. Sorry about the length and detail of this post -

I've been enjoying 20 years of your music, friendship AND lengthy posts!!!

Yep, when it comes to lengthy, ahem, posts, mine are generally the longest! Case in point. (Maybe compensating??? )

Ferenc, our 20 years of friendship (wow) has been one of the very best things that's come of out of my participation in the world of surf music!

Thanks all very VERY much again! I really appreciate your support and glad to hear that you've enjoyed our music through the years.

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Last edited: Feb 26, 2016 14:12:50